You wouldn’t know it looking at the mixed reviews, but Chris Pine has actually got one heck of a good action movie out right now called The Contractor. While it’s only got a mediocre 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m telling you this movie is the real deal. I caught it (and reviewed it) earlier this week, and I wasn’t expecting much. That said, I was blown away by this character-driven action flick that, to me, ranks with star Chris Pine’s best work. The actor recently sat for a pretty interesting Q&A with Deadline, in which he discussed not only his take on action as a genre but also the chances of whether we’d be seeing him suit up as Captain Kirk in a new Star Trek movie.
While he admits that he’s yet to see a script, Pine sounds gung-ho about returning to the franchise with him raising a good point about the scale they should be shooting for. Mainly, he takes issue with the fact that the other movies had to aim for this $1 billion goalpost to be considered successful and thinks instead of making the movies universal, they should tailor them to the people who legitimately love the franchise.
“I’ve always thought that Star Trek should operate in the zone that is smaller. You know, it’s not a Marvel appeal. It’s like, let’s make the movie for the people that love this group of people, that love this story, that love Star Trek. Let’s make it for them and then, if people want to come to the party, great. But make it for a price and make it, so that if it makes a half-billion dollars, that’s really good.”
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Indeed, Pine says action movies should be taking their cues from the horror genre, where you can spend less and make something risky for a more niche audience that could potentially pay off.
“I saw a Jack Reacher film that I absolutely love because I love Tom Cruise, and it was just a great throwback vehicle — is there was this great car chase sequence in it. It’s all on camera. It’s all on. It’s all on a rig on the car, and it’s about as exciting as anything I’ve seen in the past 15 years, and they must have made that film for a price. I’m thinking to myself, “Why isn’t the mainstream action film taking a cue from that horror thriller genre?” Make it for a price and then market it really well. It seems to be this great niche market that could be exploited that could be really cool.”
Pine has a point here, and The Contractor seems to operate in that zone, where it’s smaller-scaled but has some talented, creative people involved who aren’t overly concerned about making something big and bombastic. The Contractor is playing in limited release right now, and you can also see it right here. Another Pine thriller, All the Old Knives, hits Amazon Prime April 8th.
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