Pursued

Pursued

Pursued

Pursued

I thought it was funny as hell. I kept thinking "when was the last time a corporate headhunter chased me down offering me a CEO job"? That overall recurring theme was great. You know you have the skills when someone goes to such an extent to offer you a high paying executive job at a major up and coming company. I especially got a laugh at the scene when Christian Slater was smoking a cigarrette next to an oxygen tank while forging a signature on the computer. I'm sure that was a poke at counterfitters (and probably one in particular) and what happens when things come full circle. Great movie.

SPOILERS THROUGH: Christian Slater stars in this movie as Vincent Palmer a corporate recruiter, who has one major problem, that being that he is insane. Gil Bellows plays the hapless guy who Palmer targets as the perfect person to fill a job for his client. The only slight problem Is that this guy has no interest in changing jobs. But that's not a problem for Mr. Palmer. He'll just force the guy to take the job by stalking him, threatening violence and generally making his every moment a nightmare. This movie sounded like it had potential. Not as being a good movie but as being one of those "so bad it's good" movies, the kind one loves to hate, knows is bad, but for some inexplicable reason watches(more then once) and is pretty entertained by anyway. That however was not to be with Pursued. It wasn't "so bad it's good" it was just bad period. Stalker movies have been done and done again and it seems like every kind of situation has been covered but I must say I've not seen this done before so it did sound, at the very least interesting. Only it isn't. Within the movie's first few minutes, the viewer knows Slater's character is insane. The rest of the movie is spent waiting for someone in the movie to realize it. Bellows character kind of gets it but his passivity is really annoying as is the character of the wife who almost defies belief with HER reaction to the won't take no for an answer head hunter. And Slater's performance isn't as campy as I'd have imagined it would be. In fact the whole cast plays it pretty serious and the visual element to the movie is almost non existent. It's very mundane in that department. The technical aspects of the movie are not very interesting and the speech about the corporate executives becoming targets? Good speech but it sure didn't fit in this movie. (for some reason there was a brief moment where I felt a sense of deja vu, like I was watching the movie "Disclsure", a much better movie that has almost nothing in common with this one, but I could see a speech like this in a movie like that more then here.) So, because everyone seems to be taking the movie so seriously there's no camp. There are also no twists and turns. There are also no surprises. There is no character development. (ok-movies like this rarely have character development. But still....) Also It is just not that interesting. Almost everybody is annoying anyway and the few that aren't, are not given enough screen time. Plus many of the performers just mail in their performances anyway, though a few are actually pretty good. It's not unwatchable and isn't as bad as some of the other, more well known movies of this type, but on the whole this was still pretty Disappointing.

I am going to disagree with every other person who seems to have commented on this film. The worst thing about it is Christian Slater, who plays what I like to think of as a "Garden Variety Hollywood Psycho". Think Bettlejuice with a better complexion in an Armani suit or Hannibal Lecter on a diet of espresso rather than Fava beans. Slater's character Vincent chews the scenery shamelessly and seems to have the omniscient information that these psychos always seem to have. I do agree that Gil Bellows is largely an empty cipher in the center of the movie, he's basically playing the same troubled weak guy he played in Ally McBeal. The only time he comes to life is when he's attacking Slater's character. As Bellow's wife Estella Warren does her usual decent job, playing a woman confused by her husband's behavior, although the smart woman she seems to be would have seen through Vincent in about 5 minutes. She also needs to work on that anxious look she perfected in Planet of the Apes and uses as her predominant expression throughout most of this film. Still this movie does establish one thing. If Angelina Jolie has the finest lower lip in Hollywood, Estella warren definitely has the mosy sensuous upper lip. There is one scene where Warren comforts her PlanetOTA co-star Michael Clark Duncan, who plays, of all things, a venture capitalist. Unfortunately all this scene did for me was to think what a great General Thade (another classic Hollywood Psycho) Christian Slater could have been. The continuity in this film seems odd. Key scenes of exposition, especially between the husband and wife, are missing. The wife appears to change her opinions about her husband and what is going on without ever having a scene where she realizes that Vincent is dangerous and her husband isn't crazy. There are also scenes of high tension with no payoffs. I especially would have liked a scene that wraps up how the situation with Vincent was resolved and whether the crooked cop got taken down. All we get is Vincent dies and Billy, er Benji's company becomes a success with no explanation how or why. I suspect that the filmmakers were trying to make the standard 90 minute film and cut out too much in their effort to meet this demand. To conclude, if you like Hollywood Psychos and their near invincibility you will probably enjoy this film. If on the other hand you are bothered by bad editing and odd inexplicable motivations on the part of major characters you should probably save your money. On the other hand this is still a better movie than Stra Wars I or the Fantastic 4.

(Spoiler Alert) Like a hungry leopard totally focused on his pray we see at the beginning of the film "Pursued" corporate recruiter Vincent Plamer, Christian Slater, zero in on his helpless victim business executive John Blakely, Kevin McNulty,and get him to join the firm that he's being employed by. Blakely was forced to quit his family business, and let it go bankrupt, by Plamer blackmailing him in his wife's death whom he murdered. Now working for Seattle high-tech giant Resdat who's CEO William Carey, Andrew Stevens, gives Palmer a million dollars and instructions to tear top executive Ben Keats, Gil Bellows,away from the up and coming chemical company Viztrak. The company is about to release a low-jack-type formula that when ingested can track down lost children missing persons pets or escaped criminals anywhere on earth. Plamer at first tries to get Bellows to quit Viztrak and take over the management of Carey's company by offering millions in salary and stock options. Still Bellows want's nothing to do with Carey or his firm Resdat feeling obligated and being loyal to the owner of Viztrak Franklin, Michael Clark Duncan, who he looks up to as a father figure and well as his good friend and employer. It's when he feels that money can't reel Bellows in that Plamer turns obsessive pestering and harassing not only Ben Bellows but his wife Emily, Estella Warren, and even his young daughter Alison, Conchita Campball, night and day on the phone! I started to wonder just how much Plamer's monthly cell-phone bill was? in the thousands? Plamer also goes as far as trying to split up the workers at the Viztrak firm by planting rumors that Bellows was leaving it for Resdat. Plamer even plants bugs in Bellows home office and even car to get all the info he can on him driving the poor man almost out of his mind. Getting the confidential information, by having a bug planted in his home on Viztark's CEO Franklin's inoperable brain tumor Plamer sneaks into his mansion and shoots him to death leaving a suicide note, and gun in Fanklin's hand, blaming Bellows actions of leaving his company for driving him to kill himself. At Franklin's funeral Plamer shows up inciting Bellows, who instinctively knew that he was behind Franklin's murder not suicide, to attack him. Which put the hysterical Bellows in the county jail and right where Plamer wanted him; to sign on the dotted line and join Carey's company Resdat if Bellows wants him to drop all charges. The ending of the movie "Pursued" is a bit of a let-down with Bellows and his friend and corporate fraud expert Robert Langford, Scott Hyland, tricking Plamer into drinking the Viztrak formula and thus be able to track down his movements in order to trap him in committing a felony. That would put Plamer away from pestering people like Bellows, and is family, once in for all. It was hard to believe that Palmer could have gotten away with his sleazy activities all this time and not once be set up and caught by the local police and those he was victimizing. You also also why Bellows never went to the police to report him in the first place? Plamer himself was so boastful about his underhanded actions, including the murder of John Blakely's wife, that all it would have taken was for the police to check up on his past criminal adventures that he so openly bragged about! Plamer even bragged about his crimes when he was pressuring Bellows in jail, where the walls have ears, in order to get him to join the chemical firm Resdat or end up behind bars himself.

Very cheesy representation of a creep who couldn't let things go when he had an opportunity not accepted. Usually Christian Slater is great just not in this. He's weird, aggressive & the type that requires a restraining order or worse wink wink you'll know what I mean if you manage to sit through this boring movie maybe good for a rainy day or not much else to watch, that's about it otherwise don't watch it!

I 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.

This movie is such a big bore. I failed to understand why would a director drag such a story and pictured a real life drama in the most unrealistic way. From the beginning to start Mr. Slater is apparently attempted to be projected as a terrorizing opponent to the good corporate culture. It is so sick that the sequence of story dragged and ended up with couple of killings (Are the cops gone mute ?) which has no effect to the society. Oh I forgot to remember that the story began with a killing. Sick. A total bore. Please do not pursue to watch this movie. It is sicker than what you expect. Stay away and spend your time somewhat more useful. I am sorry. Have a good one.