Guy Pearce

The Woman in Cabin 10

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Woman in Cabin 10
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from the novel of the same name, and with more than a passing resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock‘s The Lady Vanishes, Keira Knightly stars as investigative journalist Laura Blacklock who, after a rough assignment, takes a posh assignment covering a group of the uber-rich on a private yacht. Things go wrong when Laura witnesses what she believes is a murder onboard, only for no one found to be missing and none of the crew nor the other guests willing to believe her story.

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Killing Faith

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Killing Faith
  • IMDb: link

Set in the equally bleak surroundings of mid-19th Century Arizona, Killing Faith follows the unlikely group of a freed slave (DeWanda Wise), her passing daughter (Emily Katherine Ford), a drug-abusing doctor (Guy Pearce), and a half-wit (Jack Alcott) on a five day journey from the town they are no longer accepted to a neighboring one which they hope will lead to salvation.

At the center of the film, although without any lines of her own, is the young girl who is a carrier of the plague ravaging the area. Some, including her mother, believe the child has been infected by the Devil leading to the supernatural overtones of the movie (which are more subtle than you would expect, accepting only by the poorly educated and fearful of the Western territory) and the religious conversations between the mother and the doctor (haunted by the loss of his own daughter to the same disease).

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The Last Vermeer

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Last Vermeer
  • IMDb: link

The Last Vermeer movie reviewBased on true events, and adapted from 2008’s The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan Lopez, The Last Vermeer is set in 1945 and centers around Captain Joseph Piller (Claes Bang) of the Allied Forces charged with returning art stolen by the Nazis to its rightful owners. Piller’s latest investigation is of art seller Han van Meegeren (Guy Pearce) who is a suspected Nazi collaborator after tracing a sale of one of Johannes Vermeer‘s paintings back to van Meegeren. Over the course of his investigation, and during van Meegeren’s trial, Piller becomes aware of facts which lead him to doubt the suspect’s guilt.

The film’s biggest problem is how the screenplay by James McGee, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby is framed. We’re given the wrong leading man. As a main character, Pillar is your typical bland police officer. The script isn’t helped by subplots spending time delving into his troubled marriage and his feelings for his assistant leading in large part to the melodramatic air of the tale. The trial’s inevitable big reveal, which takes an amazing amount of Hollywood liberties to show off facts the audience has known for an hour or more, is laughably over-the-top.

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Bloodshot

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  • Title: Bloodshot
  • IMDb: link

Bloodshot DVD reviewBased on the comic of the same name, Bloodshot is a sci-fi action flick starring Vin Diesel as United States Marine Ray Garrison resurrected using nanite technology which can repair his body making him an ideal candidate to join the team of enhanced soldiers (Eiza González, Sam Heughan, and Alex Hernandez). Haunted by fragments of memory, Garrison leaves Rising Spirit Tech to kill the man (Toby Kebbell) responsible for his wife’s (Talulah Riley) death… or so he thinks.

The character seems tailor-made for Diesel with simple motivations (honor, family revenge) and a desire to kick-ass. The basic set-up works fine for an action flick, even if the value of the other soldiers is questionable. Then there’s the twist of the CEO (Guy Pearce) reprogramming and sending the half-cocked Garrison after targets by fabricating memories that never existed. The problem, of course, is once the truth is revealed the movie doesn’t really have anywhere interesting to go as it devolves into a basic shoot ’em up with hacking and science-driven subplots that get increasingly ridiculous as the film slogs its way to the finish line.

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Disturbing the Peace

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Disturbing the Peace
  • IMDb: link

Disturbing the Peace movie reviewI think the story of how Guy Pearce got snookered into making Disturbing the Peace would be far more interesting than the movie itself. The story centers around a biker gang taking over a town (whose populace apparently nearly all took a field trip on the same day, making it easy for the criminals to round-up the leftover dozen or so hostages). Along with hitting the bank, the gang is also targeting an armored car carrying millions in cash… to a town where apparently very few people live? What do they need with the money? Well… that’s just one of many questions the movie has no answer for.

Taking steps to limit response by authorities outside of town, the gang must deal with the local Marshall (Pearce), a former Texas Ranger haunted by his past. The script by Chuck Hustmyre (whose only credits include straight-to-video flicks starring the likes of Steven Seagal and Dave Bautista) offers some astonishing bad writing at times (to go with some questionable acting). There’s an interesting idea buried deep, deep, deep at the heart of of the film but better hands than those of director York Alec Shackleton are called for to find it.

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