Even the Bads from the Guy Pearce Career Re-watch, oh yes. 🙁
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.
Some of these early pictures are simply just too problematic beyond Guy Pearce. However other recent movies are poor departures from what he does best – lacking and/or misusing his dramatic potential thanks to production flaws and weak dramatic choices.
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.
Without Remorse – Overlong, terribly lit action, multiple murky water sequences, and messy, tough to see battles are only the beginning of the problems with this long-gestating, oft delayed 2021 Tom Clancy adaptation starring Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther). Assorted hand to hand combat, prison fights, and vehicular perils add rushed video game style CGI, loud effects, and poor dialogue mixing. It's easy to zone out during the increasingly unbelievable battles and boring, headache inducing shootouts because there's no idea who is who thanks to anonymous suits, random uniforms, and stilted conversations. Everyone's in each other's faces with hollow threats, and the drawn out set ups, uneven cover ups, and cliché vendettas are missing that nineties action thriller rhythm. Killer vignettes and random locales leave no time to care whether the convoluted global intrigue is a Russian or Syrian enemy, and the target audience will balk at the idea of an integrated high ranking female Navy Seal. Unfortunately, the obviously pregnant, miscast Jodie Turner-Smith (Nightflyers) struggles with the military vernacular, and Jamie Bell's (Jane Eyre) CIA agent apparently plays all sides as needed. Jordan is a capable action lead, but the patriotic and preachy story makes him the hero doing what every agency can't whilst also keeping him stupid to the international picture – even though it's no surprise Our Man Pearce's seemingly supportive politician is the villain using Kelly for ulterior means. The nonsensical plotting and noisy set pieces hinge on luck to survive every situation, and it's obvious this is all meant to tie in with Amazon's Jack Ryan series for future Rainbow Six crossovers.
Bedtime Stories – Sun kissed, scene chewing, kiss ass hotelier Guy Pearce could have been even more fun in this 2008 Adam Sandler (50 First Dates) romp. His over the top musical minute is excellent! However be it medieval pomp, Greco-Roman smug, or intergalactic villain, Pearce just doesn't get enough screentime to fully embrace each mustache twirling ham. Likewise, down on his luck handyman Sandler unevenly bounces between the real life family dilemmas, would-be romance, and increasingly preposterous titular fantasies. This picture simply doesn't know who its audience is – kids enjoying the pretend sequences thanks to a possibly magical, bug eyed guinea pig or adults looking for meaningful yet whimsical yarns the likes of Stranger Than Fiction. Lo though the farce and insults try and miss the mark on both. Sandler fans expecting his brand of adult raunchy will also find the tame humor here dull amid an unnecessary, racist cameo from Rob Schneider (The Hot Chick) and trite gags relying on snot and bee stings. The very capable ensemble, including Keri Russell (The Americans), Jonathan Pryce (Tomorrow Never Dies), and more familiar faces, takes a backseat to the misplaced silliness. Unfortunately, the worst part here is the unforgivable, criminally underutilized use of Xena herself Lucy Lawless. Lawless and Pearce as a diabolic dynamic duo, what kismet that could have been!
Hunting and My Forgotten Man – These two early Australian pictures from writer/director/producer Frank Howson (What the Moon Saw) are actually rightfully obscure. Although Guy Pearce sings a questionable song in an iffy music video coinciding with Hunting, his slick henchman has precious little spoken lines compared to mysterious businessman John Savage (The Deer Hunter) who has swept secretary Kerry Armstrong (SeaChange) from her dull marriage and into a dark world of drugs and violence. The candles, fear, and gothic mood would have made better sense had our tycoon been a vampire rather than a crime boss, and I could forgive the low budget cut corners and sex in a dirty abandoned factory montages if the story wasn't so aimless and poorly written. The exploitative, misogynistic abuse degrades into the ultimate assault and the victim's final revenge as if we're supposed to be glad the whole terrible experience forced her to take matters into her own hands. Likewise, the long-gestating and problematic Flynn / My Forgotten Man production probably should have stayed unreleased after all its filming delays, re-shoots, and cast changes. Nonsensical, poorly filmed, disjointed vignettes recount Pearce as the young Errol Flynn stealing, escaping cannibals, wooing ladies, and hustling men before conning his way into a play. The tone wavers between sincerity, humor, and embarrassment, and it's preposterous that anyone thought Flynn's unknown early years would make a more entertaining drama than the rest of his infamous life.
Quality Bonus!
Heaven Tonight – Washed up forty-year-old musician John Waters (Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears) competes with his talented, up with the new sound son Guy Pearce in this 1990 Frank Howson collaboration. The catchy eponymous tune anchors black and white reels chronicling the late sixties/early seventies global rise of The Chosen Ones before the band's eventual mismanagement, drugs, scandals, and downfall. It's the eighties but Johnny still thinks he has music left to make and intends to get a new record deal. His gold hit put a decent roof over his family's head and he isn't willing to mortgage that away to join his wife Rebecca Gilling (The Young Doctors) in a new restaurant venture. She loves her husband but has put up with breakdowns, arguments, and violence while their son Paul grows distant. Paul's band Video Rodney (LOL), however, has that electronic edge the labels are seeking. Johnny's not qualified to do anything or get a basic job, failing terribly at interviews and applications, and it's heartbreaking when the music execs call the house – to offer Paul the record deal, not Johnny. They say his songs are good, but Johnny balks at updating his tunes with a more hip element. Although the debuting Pearce's vocals are very fine and he has on stage charisma, ironically his synthesizer songs are the ones that now sound dated and not as good as Johnny's groovy. An aging musician father and the isolated son coming together or being torn apart by the music unfortunately loses steam once a visiting former band mate arrives. The BFF love turned rock bottom detours with robberies and tragic shootouts that seem like the second half of another picture. There are no criminal ramifications for the action shock finale, yet this drug induced desperation suddenly makes Johnny realize he can let his legacy lie? Now he's happy to let his son cover his tunes? Despite the flawed resolution and shoehorned in bleak competing with the family drama, overall this is the best of the Howson/Pearce films with pleasant ear worms and realistic, compelling performances.
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