15 years ago, Emile Hirsch looked like an up-and-coming star with a big future ahead of him. Now he’s stuck in generic direct-to-video thrillers like 2021’s Pursuit. It’s a living, I guess.

Rick Calloway (Hirsch) operates on the shady side of the law in his gig as a computer hacker. Matters take an even darker turn when someone kidnaps his wife Rachael (Shelby Yardley).

This leads Rick on a desperate quest to save his wife. Along the way, he butts heads with NYPD Detective Mike Breslin (Jake Manley) and his own crime boss father Jack (John Cusack).

Given the presence of Hirsch and Cusack, you’ll find actual name talent here. Throw in aging veterans like William Katt and Andrew Stevens – who also produced/co-wrote the film – and Pursuit comes with a moderate pedigree.

None of them help. This turns into an assembly line action flick with more unintentional laughs than true thrills.

A primary flaw stems from the surprisingly awful acting. Actually, Cusack brings a little depth to his role, so he fares better than the rest.

None of the others makes a positive impression. Manley underplays his role to the point of stiff inertia, whereas Hirsch plays his role as a bizarre riff on Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

That’s where we find a lot of the unintentional laughs. Ledger’s iconic turn as Joker worked wonders in the world of Batman, but Hirsch’s uber-quirky, wild-eyed performance here just seems silly and out of nowhere.

Even without the weak performances, Pursuit would flop due to its borderline incoherence. Insanely, four people earned credits for screenwriting here.

I suspect each one wrote isolated pages, they threw these in the air and then collated them into this illogical and meandering “story”. Little ever makes real sense, and scenes connect without logic or purpose.

Director Brian Skiba works constantly, as even during a pandemic, he made four movies in 2021, and he has at least three on the schedule for 2022. With such a heavy load, he must bop from project to project without much down time – or much room to actually put real effort into these projects.

That leaves Pursuit as a flick with no style or flair on display. Basic filmmaking elements feel rudimentary, with flat photography, static editing, bargain basement visual effects and no real verve.

I’m sure I’ve seen worse thrillers than Pursuit, but that doesn’t act as an endorsement. This turns into a borderline amateurish project with no substantial positives I can discern.

And the ending hints at a sequel – kill me now.

Pursuit appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though never great, this became a more than competent presentation.

Sharpness usually seemed positive, though inconsistencies occurred. This meant some mild softness at times, but the movie usually seemed fairly well-defined.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to materialize.

Colors tended toward teal or some amber, though it tossed in some reds at times. The hues felt a little drab, but they remained more than adequate given the design choices.

Blacks looked dark and dense, while shadows displayed nice delineation. This ended up as a satisfactory image.

Similar thoughts greeted the fairly good DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Pursuit. Unsurprisingly, the movie mostly opted for a foreboding sense of atmosphere, so we didn’t get a lot of standout moments.

A few violent moments also used the spectrum in a satisfying manner. None of these turned this into an impressive soundscape, but it worked fine for the material.

Speech seemed natural and concise, without edginess. Music appeared vivid and full as well.

Effects demonstrated quality reproduction, with clean highs and deep lows. Again, this became a more than workable mix for this story.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get a featurette called Behind the Scenes of Pursuit. It runs eight minutes, 13 seconds and brings comments from actor/producer Andrew Stevens, director Brian Skiba, and actors Emile Hirsch and Jake Manley

“Scenes” looks at story/characters as well as cast/crew, stunts and locations. Little of note emerges in this promo piece.

Even by the low low low standards of direct-to-video action flicks, Pursuit stinks. Cheap, incoherent and downright ridiculous, the movie flops in almost all possible ways. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio along with minor bonus materials. Avoid this terrible movie.