We open with Jim Cummings as a knives salesman stopping for gas at an isolated station adjoining a diner in the middle of the desert. He is told that the pumps are temporarily out of gas but that a fuel truck should be on the way, so if he’d like, he can head next door to the diner to wait on the gas truck to get there. With no other gas station within 100 miles, there’s little else he can do but head next door and get some coffee and wait. Meanwhile at least he can attempt to sell some of his knives to the waitress. Soon after, a lime green Pinto pulls up also needing gas. The guys in in the car are told the same thing. So they also decide to head next door. Seems fine, right? Except that particular lime green Pinto has been identified as the getaway car in a recent bank robbery, and our intrepid knife salesman recognizes it. It isn’t long before the bank robbers get paranoid about the furtive glances that Cummings and the waitress keep giving them and decide to hold everyone in the diner hostage until the fuel tanker shows up. As both the temperature and temperaments begin to overheat, it’s only a matter of time before shots are fired.

Do you remember that time in the mid-to-late ’90s when video store shelves were flooded with Tarantino ripoffs in the wake of Pulp Fiction? Films that mixed nihilistic crime elements with attempts at snappy dialogue, twists and turns of the plot and copious needle drops? Truth or Consequences N.M., The Big Hit, Suicide Kings, 2 Days in the Valley, etc… Some might have a knee jerk reaction to Last Stop in Yuma County as an attempt to lump it in with those mostly mediocre films. But what writer/director Francis Galluppi has delivered here is more than just a Tarantino ripoff. While it definitely owes a lot to Tarantino and particularly Reservoir Dogs, the film is more than just a ripoff. The script is actually very clever with a genuine sense of unpredictability to it at times. There’s a point roughly 2/3 of the way through the film where I thought it was going to end, but then I checked the run time and saw it still had nearly 30 minutes left. Where could this be going? Where it wanted to go, I was on board. In addition to the smart screenplay, Last Stop in Yuma County is full of great character actors that sell the tense potboiler situation really well. In addition to Cummings as the fidgety coward, we get Jocelin Donahue as the spitfire waitress, Richard Brake as the ice cold brains of the bank robbers and Nicholas Logan as the dumbass brawn plus several other great supporting turns. If there’s any part of the film that just doesn’t quite work for me, it’s a plot turn involving a couple with a baby that just doesn’t really land very well. Also the film’s lighter comedic touches belie the darker nihilistic streak it shows at times, giving the audience a bit of tonal whiplash occasionally. Regardless, on the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching this groovy drive-in throwback.

Typical of newer Well Go USA releases, Last Stop in Yuma County has a very nice, clean digital transfer. The image is so clear that you can really feel the sweat trickling down people’s necks. On the audio front, we get both a DTS Master Audio 5.1 and a 2.0 stereo track, and both sound very crisp with no noticeable distortion or damage to the sound. Also while this 5.1 surround track isn’t going to give your set a workout, it still has a nice separation that adds a sense of immersion. For extras, the biggest chunk is comprised of three audio commentaries: one with the director and actors Jim Cummings and Jocelin Donahue, one with the director and executive producer James Claeys, and one with cinematographer Mac Fisken. We also get an 8-minute ‘making of’ featurette. Between the audio commentaries and the featurette, it’s clear that this was a very low budget labor of love, and it really shows.

If you like your crime flicks with a little humor and lot of bite, Last Stop in Yuma County is a hell of a good time, and Well Go USA has given a disc release worthy of the film.