Horror and Science Fiction Fare from the Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch! 😱
Those
who follow my Twitter account @ThereforeReview know that I have spent these pandemic
years perusing through a Guy Pearce Career Re-Watch. I retreated to
this happy place because Pearce can always be depended upon to turn
in a great performance in often exceptional films.
In interviews, Guy Pearce has claimed horror and genre films aren't his forte, yet over his career, Pearce has nonetheless provided audiences with several entertaining, polarizing, and thrilling genre bending performances.
Please
click through to previously written reviews and videos at I Think, Therefore I Review, InSession Film or with the Women InSession Podcast, and Keith Loves Movies for more in depth analysis along with
these quick commentaries and countdowns.
Bad
Bonus: The
Seventh Day
8.
Prometheus
– Looking at this 2012 Alien
prequel
purely
from a Guy Pearce standpoint can be somewhat depressing when you
think of what his superior Ted Talks 2023 short as Peter Weyland
promised compared to the not so secret old man holograms, arrogant
foolishness, and god-complex folly the film gave us. We are ripe for
a Weyland TV show right now, but the less said of Alien:
Covenant,
the
better. I would have watched a movie with Michael Fassbender (Hunger)
and Guy Pearce waxing existential in a white room instead of the
movie we got.
7.
Sunrise
–
Director
Andrew Baird
opens
this 2024 horror drama with warnings of sacrificial appeasement to
The Red Coat as a Chinese American family takes in a drifter asking
for fresh blood. The horror keeps restarting amid reports of dead
animals and rah rah racist speeches, and the narrative is crowded
with multiple immigrant struggles and horror vengeance that each
deserved more time. We inexplicably never really get to know the “you
people” being terrorized by Guy Pearce's pulpit spewing hooligan,
and viewers wonder whether this should have been a straightforward
drama told in order rather than a piecemeal supernatural tale with
flashbacks. Fortunately, Pearce embodies the bloody commentary with
his perceived superiority – oozing demented slurs, vile insults,
and deep seeded ease. Though uneven and not as cohesive as it could
be, Pearce's despicably effortless characterization and the gory
consequences are worth seeing.
6.
The
Time Machine
–
This 2002 H.G. Wells remake starts great with groundbreaking visuals,
Victorian charm, and a steampunk backstory for Pearce's Alexander
Hartdegen. Our desperate traveler asks what if he could go back in
time to save his late fiancee, but halfway thru the narrative,
however, we're thrust into a contrived white savior action hero
movie. The injured professor Alex is suddenly scaling towers and
jungle cliffs for a new cause that has nothing to do with his
original motivation. Though entertaining with choice moments from
Pearce, that what if potential isn't fully achieved. (Just like
writer John Logan's Catriona Hartdegen in Penny
Dreadful
–
but
that is separate ponderance.)
5.
Equals
– Guy Pearce and Jackie Weaver (Animal
Kingdom) aide
forbidden young lovers
Kristen Stewart (Underwater)
and Nicholas Holt (X-Men: First Class) in
director Drake Dormeus' 2015 dystopian, emotionless future. The
austere architecture, nondescript clothing, anonymous SF conformity,
and regimented jobs establish this tranquil world well. However we
learn nothing about how or why this Collective came to be, and the
slow, easy to zone out pacing and often chilly, arms length
storytelling imitate the society herein perhaps too well with an
overlong, numb mood. Simple names like “Switched-on Syndrome”
that would have been cool in the nineties are too bland and
derivative of the superior Equilibrium
despite
up close, intimate filming and improvised scenes. The stolen touches
and secret trysts lead to a desire to escape, and the elder allies
risk their own hidden emotional selves in a well done finale for fans
of the cast – and there is a bonus David Selby (Dark Shadows)!
4.
Zone
414
– The
superficial, first draft, rushed retreads in this 2021 SF thriller
from director Andrew Baird (One
Way)
try to do too much and will disappoint viewers expecting a tighter
sociological examination. Retro futuristic, gritty nineties tech jars
with the modern surveillance camera splices; the supporting ensemble
is underutilized and the missing girl mystery is a MacGuffin
detracting from Matilda Lutz's (Revenge)
emotional
android Jane. Guy Pearce's detective with a shady past coldly shoots
a pleading android and disassembles it's brain core, claiming he's
above the Zone depravity but taking this case solely for the
paycheck. Scheduling issues forced Pearce and Travis Fimmel (Vikings)
to switch their original roles, and although I can see Pearce hamming
it up as our megalomaniac robot creator, his David is older, jaded,
and rolling his eyes. The best moments here are the existential
one-on-ones between David and Jane debating who is the prisoner or
the prison, and their introspective point of view should have been
the film's focus. Fortunately, interesting possibilities on control,
vice, and ubiquitous machines that see and hear our depraved secrets
lead to disturbing culprits, blowtorches, and choice demented
moments. Standard model female robots are recirculated to creeps who
pay not to hurt them...much. Although the sci-fi potential feels
incomplete unless you watch this more than once, I like the
intriguing nuggets here.
3.
Don't
Be Afraid of the Dark
– Writer
Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak)
provides a perfectly freaky old house with lots of spooky trappings
and an ominous basement for snobby architect Guy Pearce alongside
Katie Holmes (Batman
Begins)
and Bailee Madison (Good
Witch)
in this atmospheric 2011 remake. The obnoxious adults don't believe
the depressed child's creepy encounters, leaving wise viewers with
should have done, shout at the TV moments and obviously ignored
evidence. There are some typical, tiresome horror clichés, and pat
explanations, too; showing the malevolent tooth fairies completely
too soon takes away from the monster mystery and otherwise finely
done suspense, darkness, and fear. Fortunately, smart uses of
shadow, flashlights, and good old fashioned if implausible Polaroids
keep up the brooding scares and somber pace as the family dynamics
fracture over the increasing horror violence. The very eerie little
voices accent some disturbing child in peril scenes – leading to a
bone cracking finale.
2.
Ravenous
1.
Brimstone
