He Never Died (2015)

April 16, 2016 8:12 AM

Jack, a social outcast, is thrust out of his comfort zone when the outside world bangs on his door and he can't contain his violent past.
posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

Haven't seen it, but I think I need to. By one of those weird coincidences, I was going through a box of stuff and found a CD of Get in the Van, the audio/spoken-word version of Rollins' tour diaries from his time in Black Flag. I hadn't listened to it yet, and listened to the first disc's worth while on my daily walks. I'd also recently done a rewatch of Heat, the De Niro/Pacino movie in which Rollins has a small but decent role. And I had no idea that he'd ever starred in a movie. So... on the watch list it goes!
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:20 PM on April 16, 2016

I saw this in the theater back in December, and I enjoyed it a lot. It felt like an independent crime film from the '90s, with a nice supernatural streak. Rollins is understated, and doesn't really get ranty nearly at all. He plays Jack tired and with the lack of affect of a severely depressed person, which I suppose he is.
Now that it's on Netflix I think I'll watch it again.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 11:16 PM on April 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

This scratched an itch for me. A certain kind of movie done a certain way.

I thought the scene where he drops the money and bumps into a gang-banger was a nice touch. Looking for badguys and only finding politeness.

Torturing the girl felt unnecessary and a couple of the "I used to kill babies" lines were clunky but otherwise an enjoyable diversion.
posted by M Edward at 11:26 PM on April 16, 2016

His utter muted exhaustion with human interaction--even extremes of kindness and violence--was hilarious. Dark and sad, but totally hilarious. This is the best performance I've ever seen Rollins give.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:28 AM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Actually, this would be a great tv series.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:30 AM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

I saw this a few weeks ago and tried to get everyone I knew to watch it. Not that it's the greatest movie ever, but I really enjoyed it's dark hilarity and it seemed like the kind of thing that wasn't on anyone's radar.
posted by Green With You at 6:16 PM on April 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Actually, this would be a great tv series.

Maybe, but as a Canadian production it would probably turn out another upper-mediocre immortal sad guy series that we apparently specialize in (The Crow: The Series, Highlander: The Series, Robocop: The Series, Vampire Cop colon the series), or at least did in the nineties.

That was pretty good! It's been at the top of my Netflix recommends for a while and I had no idea why since I have like negative interest in vampiresbut- anything these days, I had no idea that Henry Rollins was in it or that it was filmed in Toronto (though neither of those is necessarily always a plus, or even often, though I have affection for both). If it hadn't come up here I probably wouldn't have seen it, but I'm totally glad I did. Fun flick.
posted by rodlymight at 6:25 PM on April 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

The scene of Rollins intensely playing bingo is hilarious.

I found the waitress annoying once she got involved.
posted by miss-lapin at 4:26 AM on April 19, 2016

I have seen this three times now and it only gets better.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:46 PM on October 12, 2021 [1 favorite]