LAST SEEN ALIVE is Gerard Butler’s BREAKDOWN (Review)
I realize this title kind of just makes it seem like Gerard Butler made a movie so terrible he must have been having a nervous breakdown. Thankfully, that’s not the case here at all! Quite the contrary, Last Seen Alive is pretty damn good. No, what I’m referencing is Kurt Russell’s underrated 1997 film Breakdown where his Wife is kidnapped and he has to rescue her in the middle of the desert.
In Last Seen Alive, Will (Gerard Butler) is taking his wife Lisa (Jaimie Alexander) to her parents house because she needs a break. They stop for gas and she goes in the shop but never comes out. Will then has explain to the cops and her parents that his Wife who was considering leaving him suddenly goes missing at THE MOST inconvenient and suspicious time possible. All while trying to find and rescue her.
The plot in the terribly named Last Seen Alive is pretty simple and this serves the film well. It’s very easy to put yourself in Will’s shoes and wonder just how many rules you would be willing to break and how much danger you’d put yourself in if this happened to someone you love. There’s shady characters abound, including yet another great character performance from Ethan Embry (Empire Records, The Devil’s Candy) as that guy in the gas station you don’t make eye contact with (But can maybe smell). Will has to navigate the fact that he is starting his search with literally no clues. At a gas station. Filled with truckers and possible witnesses who saw nothing. What do you do?
One of the beautiful things about the aforementioned Breakdown was Kurt Russell’s ability to be an every-man. He could go from grizzled movie star badass to Dad who wears socks with sandals and forces you to go the museum on your beach vacation with just a dorky pair of glasses. Last Seen Alive doesn’t go quite that dorky with Will but it’s the same interesting dichotomy. He’s just a regular dude who is forced to start beating the shit out of some bad folks. And you can feel that in his performance. Last Seen Alive could have really screwed itself here by turning a Real Estate Developer into Liam Neeson but director Brian Goodman (Black Butterfly) walked the tight rope impressively. There’s fight scenes where Gerard Butler doesn’t suddenly turn into Leonidas from 300 but rather fights awkwardly and desperately. Once again putting the viewer in his shoes of what it would be like if you had to with no warning commit violence to save another human being.
Ultimately, Last Seen Alive is everything you want from a thriller like this. Solid direction (and a weirdly noticeable great job by the sound department), a believable story, a mystery to unravel and some good ole’ fashioned “fuck you, bad guys!” moments. I miss the days movies like this were on the big screen everywhere but none the less, I’m glad we have VOD films to fill that gap. I definitely recommend renting this one if you enjoy films like Breakdown, Unhinged and Nick of Time.
