Anyway, stunt casting aside, the film is about Ben Keats (Gil Bellows- Ally McBeal), an inventor who has developed a new kind of satellite tracking software. His company, Viztrax, is about to go public and there is all kinds of tension within his scrappy firm about keeping the software and their funder's (Michael Clark Duncan) illness a secret. Then, along comes psycho corporate headhunter Vincent Palmer (Christian Slater), who has been hired to "convince" Ben to join another firm. Lets just say, Vincent doesn't know the meaning of the word "no" and will go to any measure, from planting spycams, spreading rumors, to murder, in order to complete his job. In other words, pretty basic techno thriller stuff with Vincent gradually getting more Fatal Attraction crazy as Ben resists until it all spirals into unenviable territory and a standard warehouse shootout finale.

Overall, the film suffers from an affliction at its roots, it looks cheap and feels uninspired. While I wouldn't say the actors phone it in... they do essentially show up but are clearly just going through the motions. I imagine the editors biggest challenge was snipping out all of the thespians yawns. Christian Slater is an actor I've only really enjoyed in two films, Heathers and True Romance, and he is now a decade older and quite a few rungs lower in the stardom ladder. There are signs he was, at times, trying to have fun with the role, though his improvs don't really work. Bellows pretty much sleepwalks throughout the film.

Pursued director Kristoffer Tabori is the son of legendary director Don Siegal (Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz). His directing credits pale next to his fathers, but he has found steady work, mainly in television, directing episodes of Chicago Hope, Judging Amy, Profiler, and Law & Order, to name a few. With television production becoming slicker over the past decade, the line between televison and film has become blurred, but that doesn't mean stuff like Pursued still exists. It screams low budget, direct to video, or "Made in Canada." In fact, it looks like the kind of film the actors could have agreed to do simultaneously while filming other movies, a quick affair, just another paycheck on the side. And, boy is it telling that one of the films producers (and look for the cameo!) is direct to video, softcore erotic thriller staple Andrew Stevens.

The DVD: Columbia

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Reasonably good. Technically, its main fault is in the anamorphic image being a tad soft. The print appears pretty clean. General details suffer from general low budget film quirks. For instance, everyone looks pretty pale, but really that has more to do with the environment they were filming in. Grain is also fairly heavy; again, more to do with the films low budget and an attempt to create a cold, gritty thriller look.

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Stereo with optional English subtitles. Again a standard affair, slightly marred by some low budget quirks. There is the odd badly recorded/badly overdubbed bit of dialogue here and there. The fx and and score are pretty generic, but get the job done.

Extras: Nuttin', just some Columbia previews.

Conclusion: Now, I try my best not to give films a "skip it." I search for the slightest redeeming quality. I usually reserve "skip it" for something compromised or technically flawed. However, this is one of those films, so dull, barebones, and so destined to show up at 2AM on some Showtime Channel, that I cannot recommend it. There are far better ways for thriller fans to spend an hour and a half.