Clear Cut: 2024 American Thriller Movie Trailer, Review

Clear Cut – 2024 Thriller Film by Lionsgate release on July 19 starring Alec Baldwin, Stephen Dorff, Clive Standen – about a team of loggers – hunted by drug cartel

Movie Name: Clear Cut
Directed by: Brian Skiba
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Tom Welling, Lochlin Munro, Stephen Dorff, Clive Standen, Jesse Metcalfe, Chelsey Reist, Lucy Martin, Elena Sanchez, Tom Stevens, Sophia Shaw, Fawn Damara Robson
Genre: Thriller
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Release Date: 19 July, 2024
Rating:
Production Companies:
Budget: $- million

A team of loggers discover a meth cook site in the middle of the forest and are forced to fight for their lives while being hunted by a drug cartel.

Clear Cut: Movie Overview

Alec Baldwin and Stephen Dorff dive into the perilous world of logging in the trailer for Clear Cut. Lionsgate will release Brian Skiba’s thriller both theatrically and via digital and on-demand on July 19.

Release Date and Cast:

Lionsgate will release Clear Cut on July 19. The film will be available in theaters and via digital and on-demand platforms. Brian Skiba directed the film, and Joe Perruccio wrote the script. The movie stars Alec Baldwin, Stephen Dorff, Clive Standen, Lucy Martin, Jesse Metcalfe, and Tom Welling.

Plot:

The movie centers on Jack, played by Clive Standen. Jack tries to leave his past behind by starting a new job in logging. However, he soon finds himself in danger as a team of criminals with a score to settle targets him. Baldwin’s character warns Jack about the dangers of the logging profession. He questions Jack’s decision to enter this line of work.

Production:

Skiba directed Clear Cut from a script by Joe Perruccio. The executive producers include Eric Bromberg, Ram Getz, Greg Meyer, Nick Mao, Michael Mortensen, Jordan Wayne Nott, Matthew Helderman, Luke Taylor, Tyler Gould, Kirk Shaw, and Stephanie Rennie.

Baldwin’s Legal Issues:

Baldwin faces an involuntary manslaughter trial next month. This follows the discharge of a firearm on the set of the indie Western Rust in October 2021. The incident resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and the injury of director Joel Souza. Baldwin was both the star and producer of Rust.

Movie Trailer:

In the trailer, Baldwin warns Jack about the risks of logging, calling it the deadliest profession in the world. Baldwin’s character expresses doubt about Jack’s ability to handle the job. He recounts an experience with another novice who failed on the first day.

Movie Review:

A team of loggers discover a meth cook site in the middle of the forest and are forced to fight for their lives while being hunted by a drug cartel.

With a title such as Clear Cut, one might think director Brian Skiba is trying to be cutely vague and intentionally jumbling since his narrative distractingly jumps back and forth in time with no grace. The reality is that what the film is trying to do with its story is fairly obvious after roughly the second flashback, executed with such outright poor editing technique (Skiba also performs those duties) that one sits there in shock at the ineptitude when it cuts back to a scene with Alec Baldwin who was recently killed at the beginning.

Dead characters appearing in flashbacks is inherently fine, but watching it play out here is baffling; you could reconfigure the scenes chronologically, and this already lousy film might play better. Alec Baldwin isn’t a recurring presence after that; the movie is just pointlessly like this. At the very least, the not-so-smooth attempt at (I think?) trying to trick the audience regarding what is happening with its central plot could have been avoided. It’s hard to tell since the editing makes everything come across as more confusing than the story is. Furthermore, the fact that I have so many questions about the filmmaker’s intent mostly already proves whatever he was trying to do with structure didn’t pan out. That’s an understatement.

The story itself concerns Clive Standen’s Jack, taking on logging work en route to a job site with his superior and mentor (Alec Baldwin.) Now, if reading this brings about some interest that there might be some positive and earnest deforestation messaging at the heart of the action, let me remind readers that this is one of those super cheaply made Lionsgate VOD entities that somehow slides its way into a few theaters across America. Jack is seeking revenge on some criminals running a meth operation out here in the woods, which also brings up several questions of logistics that the film never bothers to take a stab at answering.

Unsurprisingly, the one cooking up the meth gives the zaniest performance, which basically means Lochlyn Munro is playing clichéd psychopathic redneck running around with a crossbow, murdering anyone who might throw his shady business out of whack. Bringing an inexplicably large amount of money to a deal where the one cooking up the meth lives in a camper, presumably in the middle of nowhere, the leader of the buyers conveniently leaves the money in the back of a truck for Jack to steal and run off with. Stephen Dorff also plays a Park Ranger who gets involved in the two battling sides. The less said about the women who pop up in this movie is probably for the better.

For as much as Clive Standen gives a passable performance regarding both the emotional toll recent tragic events have taken on him and the close-quarters action, it’s also undermined by the film (written by Joe Perruccio) concocting scenarios that tastelessly ramp up that drama. Regarding the direction, nothing here stands out aside from one or two moments toward the end of Clive Standen letting loose some of that bottled-up anger and sadness. There’s a chance that if you show someone the final 10 minutes of Clear Cut, they will wrongly assume you just watched a decent movie. Fortunately, what is clear-cut is that this is anything but worth checking out.