Yet another story of a guy and a girl on the run in a hot car, with a gun. LOVE AND A .45 is perhaps the best of the numerous recent stabs (ouch!) at this genre, though none of the 90s entrants match up to such 70s classics as THE LONERS, JOY RIDE, or BOBBY JO AND THE OUTLAW. College kid, driving from Ohio State to Lancaster, PA (he must be going via Miami; at one point he still has 560 miles to go!), rescues truckstop hooker from assault by trucker. Naturally they become travelling companions. During the trip she attempts to loosen him up with sex and a new wardrobe, but the trucker is in hot pursuit, and there are other complications, and it gets a bit bloody before it gets over.
Kari Wuhrer really chews the scenery as the psycho, man-hating hooker and is quite over her head dramatically. The hero is a bit of a schlumpff, and the story fairly sleazy. Shot in Canada but it recovered long enough to hit pay-cable. Not even a good source of cheap thrills, since the filmmakers carefully keep Kari covered up to about PG-13 level during the 2 or 3 m.o. scenes.
Try THE LONERS (1972) instead, which has career performances by Todd Susman and Alex Dreier, not to mention Dean Stockwell in his hippie biker phase and wonderful Gloria Grahame as a harridan mom.
