Clear Cut

Stumbling upon the 2024 thriller "Clear Cut" by random chance here in 2025, I opted to watch it on account of it being a movie that I had never heard about, much less actually seen.

I was rather surprised with the cast ensemble in the movie, and I have to say that when I saw that the movie had Clive Standen in the leading role, I did harbor some expectations to the movie.

The storyline in the movie was enjoyable. I like what writer Joe Perruccio put together for director Brian Skiba to bring to the screen. Sure, you might argue that the storyline is a bit generic for a movie such as this, but it proved to be entertaining and enjoyable, and that is what a movie is supposed to do in my book.

The movie actually has a great cast ensemble, with the likes of Clive Standen, Alec Baldwin, Stephen Dorff, Lochlyn Munro, Jesse Metcalfe, Tom Welling and Mike Dopud on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were good, but that was a given with that cast ensemble.

"Clear Cut" genuinely entertained me throughout the course of the 88 minutes that it ran for. But it is not a movie that actually have enough contents to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of director Brian Skiba's 2024 thriller "Clear Cut" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Why watch a bimbo in a $10 horror movie make terrible decisions when we've got THIS movie? I've never seen so many stupid decisions made by a lead character in my entire lifetime of watching movies. There are no well drawn characters, there's no real tension here at all, not even a good use of the pacific northwest locale. The special effects, especially the fire effects, are an insult to the intelligence. Alec Baldwin is barely in this for three minutes and his exit is as lamely shot as possible. But no other character is is important as the Clive Standen character is, and we never know what the hell he's up to. Nothing he does make any sense. I'd rather watch lost puppies go through the same story because at least there will be some action on the screen that makes some natural sense.

But you won't find any sense in this movie.

This Movie is good I don't know why the other reviewer is going so hard in on Alec Baldwin he is an excellent Actor that has stollen the movie in many a scenes to say that he cannot do this role is idiotic. I can only guess the other reviewers hate for Baldwin has some politics involved in it making his review not relevant and dumb. As I said it is a good movie quite entertaining and all cast do a good Job I am starting to like these smaller movies they seem more authentic that the "big" movies we get today which seem to be mostly CGI and hot muscle men that can't quite act as good as the actirs from previous generations such as deniro Pacino, Defoe Baldwin. Etc.

Sorry to say but this movie deserves maybe 3 stars on a boring, rainy day.

This movie you can skip, you don't miss anything you haven't seen already with better acting and script.

Starting decent it goes shortly after into an incoherent story with stupid and way too much time jumps, overacting of the characters which IMHO is the directors fault, bad CGI and effects plus unplausible events. Jack is a real superman, can hike in the woods miles in minutes and beats the bad guys in their truck, gets beat up real bad and comes back to fight and win against armed gangsters. Everybody in those woods, including the rangers, are part of the same drug operation.

A twist in the plot is nice, but not if it doesn't make any sense.

I did watch id because I think Alec Baldwin deserves some credit after being bashed so harsh. He paid someone to handle and take care of the guns in his movie, because his task was acting, plus live ammo is strictly forbidden on an acting set! That's it!

Clear Cut is a complete waste of talent. The veteran actors deserved better, and it's baffling why they took on such minor roles-perhaps due to personal connections with the writers or producers. Alec's presence is barely felt with just a few minutes of screen time, which feels like a missed opportunity. Stephen delivers a solid performance, but it's overshadowed by the overall mediocrity of the film. Jesse, on the other hand, lacks the skill to carry his role, making him one of the weakest links among the more recognizable actors. Overall, the film fails to capitalize on its cast and ends up feeling like a frustrating waste of potential.