Recap: Ben Keats is the director of small but upcoming company Viztrax (or something like it) that is about to hit it big. His success has not gone unnoticed and soon he gets a call from the executive head hunter Vincent Palmer. Palmer is brutally (literally) ruthless and won't take no for an answer. Palmer's methods are obsessive. Keats first thinks he can just turn him away but Palmer then begins to stalk him and his family. And Keats start to think that Palmer's methods are not so innocent. At the same time he got to handle his family that is starting to crack under the pressure.Comments: A thriller that quickly ran out of promise and got tiresome. The character Palmer is meant to be very obsessive and oppressive, yes, but this felt like over the top. I generally like Slater but this time he mishandled his role, or got the wrong directions from the director. And really, the set up doesn't hold. A homicidal head hunter? Really? But the worst fault was a classic one. One that many second rate thrillers have fallen into before, but this one seemed a need to explore once more. The one were the supposed victim thinks he can do it all himself so much that he is over and far beyond the line of stupidity. He don't communicate with his wife. Not at all. Some of that can be explained as they recently has hit a rough patch. But when Ben get pretty sure that Vincent is seriously dangerous, and threatens his family and Vincent still doesn't have any real hold on him yet, why don't he go to the police? Or at least the security consultant that his company already has hired? Instead he plays along, inevitably getting caught in Vincent's net.The cast is actually rather good, Gillows, Slater are joined by Warren and Clarke Duncan. But they never seem to get something going. And that sums up the entire movie. It never got going. There are many thrillers out there that are a lot better. Watch them instead.3/10
... View MoreI enjoyed the movie, but with some reservations. I've been a Slater fan for years and liked this role for him. My problem with this is the way the main characters (Gil Bellows) had such difficulty in coming to grips with industrial sabotage. This guy is a computer genius and works in electronics but it took almost half the movie to realize that he was bugged. This even after he was given warnings by a corporate surveillance expert. The way he let his wife and child interact with Slater's character was totally out of this world. Maybe I speak only for myself but if someone harasses me and mine, I'm not cordial and I will not allow my family to associate with them either. That's not anti-social, it's logical to protect their own family. The action was OK if anti-climatic and was very predictable. One area I didn't understand was the first CEO that was introduced and the murder of his wife. He was so worried about being arrested that he didn't seem irritated at Slater over the murder. Is this normal behavior or not? It kinda sets the setting for the whole movie. I did like what he told the lead when he confronted him, "sign with him or kill him." I guess it worked out that way. Overall not a bad movie.
... View MoreI like Christian Slater, I'm a fan. And I understand he may want to try out a bad-guy role like his co-star John Travolta in Broken Arrow, but this movie makes Slater annoying. Everywhere you turn - he's there with that grating voice and midwestern accent and pushy personality.The movie is contrived and predictable. Yes, Slater did a good job of acting because his character evoked the desired emotions as the pursuer. But the pursuee scientist Ben Keats is a genius in the lab, but is so dumb outside as to be impossible. Never thinks to call the police. His wife is equally as dumb to believe obvious contrived stories of their chance meetings.So about 1/3 of the way into the movie I stopped caring and just watched to see if the movie really was as predicable as I thought. I am so good, unfortunately, so I wasted 1 hour. Thank you, the movie is only 95 minutes.
... View More"Pursued" is a good mystery\thriller with some silly moments. Christian Slater stars as Vincent Palmer, a headhunter who recruits up-and-comers in the technology business. He does whatever it takes. This is the probably the first time Christian Slater plays a psycho. He plays it convincingly. He does such a excellent job, you root for him. Anytime Vincent is on-screen (which is most of the time)the movie has a lot of energy. The other main character is Ben Keats, played by Gil Bellows. Unfortunately, Ben is a two dimensional character who is a little too laid back. There are a couple of plot missteps like Ben getting a speech about secret cameras that could be in a pen and then the next scene is Ben getting a pen and he doesn't check for a camera. It's like he forgot the whole speech. The climax is exciting but a tad goofy. In the end: It's worth seeing for a great, hyped up performance by Christian Slater and a lot of other tension filled moments.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
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