Tuesday, November 27, 2012

One Hell of a Guy, Pearce

Guy Pearce is one of my favorite actors. Pearce has unquestionable acting talent. But he has made some interesting career choices. Pearce's career can be divided into good stuff, great stuff, and bad stuff done strictly for the money. When Pearce's career took off after LA Confidential, he accepted nearly every role offered to him. Here we examine some of his better choices.


The Great
LA Confidential, The Proposition, Lawless, The Road, The Hurt Locker, Memento
So many Oscar nominations! He did not receive any of them but Pearce has been in some great stuff. The Proposition is a movie I recommend to everyone who likes Westerns and the subtle animalism of Danny Huston. Pearce was amazing earlier this year as a cruel and effeminate Federal Agent in Lawless. Pearce was given memorable cameos in Hurt Locker and The Road.

The Good
The King's Speech, Ravenous, Animal Kingdom, Count of Monte Cristo, Iron Man 3 (just guessing)
Ravenous is one of my favorite bad movies from the mid-90's. It is also my favorite period cannibal action-comedy. Guy plays a disgraced soldier stationed in Northern California. The soldiers of his fort are taken and eaten one by one by a flesh and scenery chewing Robert Carlyle. It is a great movie to pull up on Netflix when you have 2 hours to kill.

Strictly For the Cash
Time Machine, Bedtime Stories, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Lockout
Time Machine was utter crap. Bedtime Stories was somehow worse and Pearce should never have been subjected to being humiliated by Adam Sandler. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is about little demons who steal people's teeth. The demons are too little to be scary.
Lockout is an entirely different story. Picture Escape From New York and then blow all of the characters into outer space. It is a bad movie but Pearce tries to put on an 80's-era smile and toss out a few puns to keep the audience interested. Pearce plays a former secret agent named Snow who tries to save the President's daughter from a maximum-security space prison. Pearce kills a lot of people an tells jokes. It is a perfect bad movie.

I like an actor who tries to fill every waking hour with acting work. Most actors try to do one or two movies a year and Guy tries to work 24/7. Not all of his work is great. Not all of it can be described as "pretty good". But even the bad stuff is entertaining. Now go rent Lawless, follow it up with The Proposition, and wash it all down with Lockout. You won't be disappointed.

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