Butler's Cinema Scene

Guy Pearce

“DISTURBING THE PEACE” My rating: C- 

90 minutes | MPAA rating:

Apparently Aussie star Guy Pearce is the newest member of the don’t-send-the-script-send-the-check club. That’s the only explanation for his presence in the laughably inept “Disturbing the Peace.”

In York Alec Shackleton’s unintentionally goofy actioner, Pearce plays Jim Dillon, who left the Texas Rangers after accidentally shooting and paralyzing his partner in a hostage standoff. Now he’s the law in the tiny burg of Horse Cave. Apparently the place has a very low crime rate, because Jim has for years refused to carry a gun.

This proves problematical when a gang of rogue motorcyclists invade the place, robbing the local bank and hanging around so that they can rip off an armored car bringing big bucks from a nearby casino.

With many of his fellow residents being held captive, Jim must use his wits (we’re talking MacGyver-style booby traps) to foil the baddies; it’s just a matter of time, though, before he picks up a firearm and gets down to serious business.

Chuck Hustmyre’s screenplay is a mashup of ideas from “High Noon” (a more-or-less real-time narrative), Brando’s “The Wild One” (bad boys on bikes) and “Die Hard” (with a small town instead of a high-rise office building).

Hustmyre’s bio claims he’s a retired federal agent who has written several crime books, yet there’s nothing even remotely authentic about “Disturbing the Peace.”  Its depiction of small town life and law enforcement plays like the work of someone whose entire world view has been shaped by watching straight-to-video crime thrillers in his mother’s basement.

Devon Sawa

There is, for starters, a little problem with legal jurisdiction.  Jim Dillon’s badge identifies him as a U.S. marshal, yet we’re told he’s a city employee whose job is being threatened by a dictatorial mayor (so dictatorial that the doofus sports a Hitler mustache). Uh…federal marshals do not serve at the whim of local politicos. (Not to mention the fact that the marshals are not going to keep in their employ an officer who won’t carry a firearm.)

We’re told that the armored car is carrying a $15 million payload from the casino.  Seriously…a podunk casino in the middle of nowhere has that kind of money?

Then there are the ridiculous characterizations.  Devan Sawa is Diablo, the gang leader and a former resident of Horse Cave.  Displaying a world-class vocabulary and semi-Shakespearean delivery, Diablo sounds more like a Rhodes scholar than a crook (perhaps he’s taking his cue from Alan Rickman’s sophisticated baddie in “Die Hard”).

And then there’s Catie (Kelly Greyson), who runs the local diner and dresses like Daisy in “The Dukes of Hazzard.”  We’re talking hip hugger jeans, bare midriff and deep cleavage.  In addition to waiting tables, she knows karate. And get this…she’s also the local preacher. Greyson’s performance suggests that she is the main squeeze of one of the film’s producers.

Holding down the center is Pearce, who looks a bit dyspeptic (no doubt it dawned on him  that he’s trapped in a huge turkey) but still exudes enough charisma to remain modestly watchable. Which is more than can be said for the rest of “Disturbing the Peace.”

| Robert W. Butler