Jonathan Rhys Meyers Action & Sci-Fi

 

Jonathan Rhys Meyers Action and Sci-Fi

by Kristin Battestella

Perhaps understandably given his personal ups and downs or just by nest egg necessity, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has recently made numerous action B pictures and low budget science fiction thrillers. Here's a trio of the good, bad, and ugly.

Decent

The Good Neighbor – This 2022 hit and run remake of the German film from the original writer and director Stephan Rick maximizes its Latvian dialogue and Riga locations. American Luke Kleintank (The Man in the High Castle) accepts a new position at an international news agency complete with a house, car, and eponymous neighbor Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors). Our nurse is so positive compared to bad breakup being left behind, but the neon rave and short trip to hell drinks lead to jealousy and drunken joy rides that kill the girl who's just given them her phone number. The body on the windshield happens fast, they can't undo this murder and should just move on rather than let it ruin “us.” Our reporter struggles at the press conference, throwing up in the bathroom when the sister of the deceased asks questions. It's too late to come clean, and Nurse Johnny is chill with patients and investigators about their alibi. He ditches the car, plans a fishing trip, and the boys almost have a good time thanks to apologies and presents. They must protect each other; they can't rely on anyone else. The obsessive undertones and late deadlines mean bringing dinner to the office like a scorned woman, following the object of affection, spying through the window, and damaging his rental car. They are in this together, and romancing the sister of the woman you killed is dangerous. Johnny invites himself along on their dates – leading to chilling trapped underneath the kayak perils and hesitation in coming to the rescue. Nonchalant violence means some people go away and are never heard from again, but everything he's done has been for them, so how dare he be ungrateful and insist they aren't really friends just neighbors? Although characters ignore or give away information because the plot says so, the twisted slow burn escalates with well paced betrayals, threats, and revelations. We've seen this plot before and there's nothing new, however I miss this kind of simmering mid-tier film and this was better than expected.

Split

Wifelike – Commercials sell the titular high priced robots cooking dinner in lingerie, for widowers never have to be alone again in this muddled 2022 science fiction thriller. Unflinching agent Jonathan Rhys Meyers is trying to catch the ringleader of an AI rights organization protesting their company, and he recovers abducted androids from the so-called terrorists. His payment is a new edition of his late wife Meredith, but her stilted processing and childlike behavior, however, is very weird. She's uncomfortably younger than he is, like a doll, and walks with her butt out like the Rosie maid on The Jetsons. Their relationship is perhaps intentionally unsettling with obvious red flags, and intimacy commands saved for physical and emotional satisfaction are initiated immediately. Though lengthy, the romps are actually well done, but the cop cliché agent scenes are hammy with unnecessary humor when this should be a ninety minute cerebral piece about the companion mystery. The script is a first draft with trite dialogue and redundant wording, sometimes even in the same scene. Pointless self-exploration masturbation mode scenes and repeated moments with laughable techno crescendos heralding quirky characters telling Meredith to remember are superfluous. They inexplicable drop hints to the bigger AI conspiracy when they have a file with the details all along, and we should have seen all the recovery assignments before William received the new Meredith. Otherwise it's frustrating to break the suspicious build and household claustrophobic simmer for outside action. Reprogrammed fears that these controlled women will rise up against their male owners and sentient freedom debates take a backseat to other viewpoints. Overlong deprogramming and file/copy/paste nonsensical leads to a haunted house dream complete with a slutty skeleton costume and spooky mannequins. Silly exposition sort of explains how others can jack into the dangerous dreamscape where you can die for real – or kill someone – but William insists no one will find out how he's going to make everything perfect. A man can rewrite whatever he wants while the robot girls chat on the floor in their robes like its a sleepover. More resets in the final twenty minutes lose steam – confirming the predictable with try hard resistance speeches and twists upon twists thrown at the screen. The uneven focus on too many concepts wastes time with obvious cloak and dagger cryptic when we should have gotten to the warped, abusive love and never letting go SF obsession much sooner.

Skip

The Shadow Effect – Doctor Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sheriff Michael Biehn (The Magnificent Seven) don't have enough to do in this messy 2017 thriller opening with rooftop stealth drawn out for the panoramic cool. Everything restarts with a rustic cabin, morning routine filler, and headaches. Music triggers and spasms using the kitchen knife begat flashes of the previous attack, but where the music is coming from and how our assassin can travel across the country to kill again all in one night make the audience question if there will be any in world logic. Our doctor provides smooth psychological rhetoric amid fake search engine news headlines, black vans, and subway perils, but the nothing burger action is tedious and small scale. Punching walls and screaming at his wife in bland arguments lead to some obligatory sex, and after four trigger episodes, it take half the movie before we get an inkling of the larger conspiracy. Driving to and fro padding transition scenes only lead to more inexplicable action as conveniences drive the repeat killer scenarios. One on one confrontations with the name stars debating the sciences versus the violence should have come much sooner – the puppeteers behind the Bloodshot resetting are where the actual story lies. Science fiction trite and Sons of Liberty code names are tossed in with twenty minutes left, and the right whither to and why for questions are never asked amid nonsensical shootouts, convoluted double talk, silly cliches, and derivative obvious. This is an overlong waste of the better cast and this type of story has been done better already.