I wouldn't call it slow. The road trip aspect is necessary not just to get the characters from Spain to the French border but also give time for them to develop. By the climax we know more about them and hopefully have a connection as the story develops. The court scenes counterpoint the Willie we spend the rest of the film with - he has changed and grown from being a criminal yahoo to an introspective, self-taught philosopher. Myron is a wannabe gangster who is really just a hooligan/street thug who is not as hard as the thinks and too dumb to realise that he is very expendable. Agreed, Hurt as Braddock is very good, an almost reptilian killer but not lacking shreds of humanity. The film gives the story and characters room to breathe and develop, which I prefer to more modern films which focus too much on action at the cost of characterization and real storytelling.
"Remember, you have to make it home to get paid" (The Dogs of War)

yeah i pretty much agree
it was slow, and hurt was the best part. really liked stamp's char and kept wondering if he had some trick up his sleeve. it was quite anticlimatic when he just was shot, that's it. and hurt just hikes away? WTF?
i was actually into it for the first hour due to the style of the movie. i kept waiting for there to be twists and turns, down the road. never happened. felt unfulfilled when they stopped short of france.
again, anticlimatic
but i liked the style/mood of the first part. as a filmmaker it was cool to see that style. like a mod 70s crime film, sortof
"Cos f__k's sake, who'd wanna keep trying to shoot a nice guy like me?"
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