One of the most poorly executed thrillers in the last few decades
Let’s take the case of actor Gerard Butler. One does not expect him to have a very successful career because, let’s face it, he has made a number of poor career moves over the years. He has appeared in films like Geostorm, London Has Fallen, and the Bounty Hunter which are arguably some of his worst films but there follows a list of bad to average film making from his side. However, Last Seen Alive is the worst of the lot, a film which boasts to be a thriller but has as much excitement as one would expect from waiting at a post office.
“Last Seen Alive” has bad acting and poor writing with Bertie’s performance being the low point of the film. In fact, it took him only a few weeks to film the movie which implies something about the plot. However, the images were not particularly good.
In seeing the movie, one would not be able to gather the back stories for the character Will Spann who absolutely baffles his wife Lisa as she disappears stabbing with petrol We are straying too far from Islington Brewery this one is too familiar. Where did she go? Well, turns out the answer is not worth the wait as this film has no real content as generic plots become dull and boring.
Will calls the police out after running all over searching for his spouse. Out of the frustration from their inactivation, he then gets entangled into the criminal world surrounding the area when he takes the law on his hands. After enacting his own version of justice, the circumstances of his wife’s lost emerge. Is she dead? Is she alive? Was Jamie Alexander disappointed with the script and decided to quit the movie half way?
If you want to find out please do tune in but your time would be better spent watching a better ‘missing persons movie’ such as Breakdown, Frantic or Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners. All of them are good movies from the genre which have plot twists that you would want to watch unlike Last Seen Alive which has nothing to redeem itself.
This one doesn’t have any suspense and even though there is a vague promise for some interesting events happening here, there is absolutely nothing that can surprise or shock you. The biggest mystery of them all is why Butler and other co stars in this wreck decided to appear in it as nobody is left unharmed by the devilishly incompetent screenplay which is gifted with some of the most atrocious lines of dialogue in a movie lately.
The direction leaves much to be desired too which is rather surprising in the sense that Brian Goodman, who turned out to be badly misguided in this case, also directed the critically acclaimed crime drama What Doesn’t Kill You about which star Ethan Hawke than Mark Ruffalo.
To his credit, he did not have the luxury of a decent script this time but a competent director does not actually need one to deliver a good product or in this instance to increase the tension. He mismanages the talents of good actors as he doesn’t make any effort to get decent acting out of any of them. It is almost as if he expected this film to be horrible and just took it easy without any effort.
The film could have been redeemed if a few good action sequences were included as fillers so as to relieve the boredom of the trite script. However, Goodman would much rather resort to flashbacks depicting Will‘s unhappy marriage than include anything that could be termed as exciting. It is regrettable, for not only are these moments as fake in their performance as the rest of the scenes in this idiotic film, but they have little relevance as well.
They extend the length of the movie for the sake of extension and if you are counting the minutes until the end credits, then these instances where the narrative halts to depict Will and Lisa’s deteriorating marriage may infuriate you with their frequency.
At the end of the day, this is not so much about Lisa disappearing as it is about the absence of any logic, sense, or imagination in terms of story writing. It shares a lot in common with the latest string of films starring B-list actors Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis in that there is an almost B-movie quality to it with primitive storytelling and for that reason, it is better off tossed into the rubbish and never be watched again. Even with lowered expectations whilst going into this one, disappointment is still inevitable.
In this film, the only thing I was concerned with was trying to impress myself with its aspects so that at least one positive commentary would drown my extreme negativity. Unfortunately, I failed because this is one of the most dreadful films I have watched in a long time. No, not even if you enjoy the lead actor’s work should you bother with this movie.
A similar approach can also be found in Last Seen Alive where filmmakers did not care too much about how the movie was constructed and therefore, you shouldn’t care too much how the movie should be viewed as there are other movies worth your time.
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