Pursued

Vincent Palmer (Christian Slater) is a deranged headhunter preying upon unsuspecting, talented CEOs. Vincent refuses to take "no" for an answer until his victims agree to leave their present jobs and accept multi-million-dollar offers that no one can refuse.

There were two good character profiles locked in conflict in the struggle between the hyperkinetic Vincent and Ben Keats (Gil Bellows). The two characters were so different that the contrast in the rapacious Vincent and the honest Ben made for a good melodrama set in corporate America. The integrity of Ben was a breath of fresh air in today's cutthroat executive world.

Director Kristoffer Tabori provided good pacing throughout the film. There was also a clever idea in the new industry headed by Ben and his boss (Michael Clarke Duncan) called Viztrak. Their invention is a serum intended for children in the ability to use satellite technology to track a lost child anywhere in the world. It was unfortunate that the Viztrak concept was not used more extensively in this action film.

Still, this was an entertaining and suspenseful low-budget film highlighted by the contrast of two men with completely different personality profiles and outlooks on life. Their struggle made for compelling drama.

Ever since Heathers, made when Christian Slater was a bubblegum pop idol, he's specialized in quirky roles. They can be quirky psychotic like Heathers or quirky lovable as Kuffs. In Pursued Slater falls firmly on the psychotic side.

Parts like these allow actors to pull out all the stops and Slater does it with gusto. He's on some kind of anti-psychotic drugs and I'd hate to see him when he's not taking the meds. He's a corporate recruiter who gets hired by companies to find the best executives. Sometimes they're an easy sell and sometimes not. But one thing though, Slater never takes no for an answer.

His latest project Gil Bellows has a stubborn streak of loyalty to the company he works for and its president Michael Clarke Duncan. He does not believe that Slater has resorted to murder in the past to obtain his objective. He then gets good and sufficient reason to believe it. Slater does not like to lose at anything, he sees corporate head hunting as a blood sport and wants his trophy every time.

If you're a fan of Christian Slater this film should not be missed. Director Kristoffer Tabori had a loose rein on Slater throughout this production and he ran with it.

It's overacting to the max, but the part calls for 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.

I 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.

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!