Saturday At The Movies: Beyond

Question: how many people remember that Jon Voight was famous for acting before he became famous for being Angelina Jolie’s father?

I’m guessing it depends on how old you are, how many times you’ve seen Deliverence and how willing you are to follow the man’s career. While he still turns up in supporting roles, most notably for pop culture fans in the first Transformers film, it’s been a while since Voight headlined a film. However, you can see him in a small, supernatural flick called Beyond. Find out if it’s worth watching after the jump.

In Beyond, Voight plays copy John Koski, nearing retirement but called on to solve one more case – the kidnapping of a colleague’s niece. Along the way, Koski teams up with a town psychic and discovers that there could be a supernatural element to the girls dissapearance.

Along with Voight, other notable names in the film include Teri Polo (Meet The Parents) as the missing girls mother, along with Dermot Mulroney Koski’s colleague. These are fine actors, who for whatever reason put in lacklustre performaces in Beyond. Blame the script, which has its moments but also a fair share of hokey dialogue. Mulroney, normally solid at all times, just doesn’t deliver anything that matches his talent.

There are some glaring plot deficencies in Beyond that there are simply no excuses for. I’ll give you one – at no point in time does the missing girls father seem remotely upset about her disapearance. He goes to work as if nothing has happened at all. No pain, no anguish, no good.

As for Jon Voight, he’s not bad in Beyond, but I just got the feeling while watching it that his heart just wasn’t into it. It was as though he was simply walking right through his performance. There’s no question Voight has done masterful work, and can still shine on the screen when he wants to. He just doesn’t in Beyond.

The one real saving grace for the film and that made the film a decent view is the scenery. Filmed on location in Alaska, Beyond glows with winter. It’s not enough to make the movie a must see, but it did help keep my eyes on the screen.

Ultimately, Beyond isn’t a disaster but it’s absolutely inessential viewing. Instead, if you’re in the mood for some Jon Voight, watch this.