Some movies, like this one, begin really well before sputtering to a weak conclusion.  The crime drama Disturbing the Peace is a prime example, although it’s fall into mediocrity comes quickly and with alacrity.  Once it turns bad, it becomes pretty bad indeed.  And yet at the center of it all is the very solid presence of Guy Pearce, who holds things together as well as he can.  The role of a small-town sheriff fits Pearce like a glove, which goes a long way to make this movie palatable.

York Alec Shackleton’s film occurs in a small American town (I don’t remember the name) where the crime rate is so low the sheriff (Pearce) doesn’t wear a sidearm.  But then a biker gang rolls into town, cuts off cell phone service, robs an armored car and takes a bunch of hostages.  What is the sheriff and his inexperienced deputy (Matthew Sirow) to do?  Well, it takes about an hour but they clean up the town and save the day, of course.

What begins as a genuinely unsettling, suspenseful story of a town under siege turns quickly into an unrealistic adventure of stupid hooligans being outwitted and eliminated by lawmen without guns.  Sadly, the plotting moves from unbelievable to ridiculous pretty quickly, with several questions remaining unanswered (why booby trap the church? is the main one; nothing happens).  I was also turned off by the violence, which is excessive at times, and much too gleeful for my taste.

Then why two full stars?  Guy Pearce is excellent.  He just is, although the rest of the movie is stupid.  Devon Sawa, the leader of the biker gang, is decent as well, slowly revealing his hatred for the town where he grew up.  It is absolutely weird, in a compelling way, that several of the story’s women all resemble each other; I thought that maybe one actress was playing multiple parts.  That isn’t the case, and I don’t know why the filmmakers chose to cast the women as they did.  Finally, it was kind of fun, in a guilty pleasure kind of way.  ☆ ☆.  27 June 2021.