No Looking Back (1998)
Bon Jovi, stuck with the thankless job of playing decency, does it with such subtle humor and raw feeling that you wonder why Claudia would ever stray. The rocker
turned actor is strikingly good, and his scenes with Burns are the best and most honestly rendered in the film.
Bon Jovi impresses in the nice-guy role that Burns usually plays. Most musicians taking a stab at acting suffer from either typecasting or an extreme case of vanity,
but not Bon Jovi. The singer wisely underplays his role as Michael. His decent, quietly natural performance following a nice supporting turn in 1995's aimess Moonlight
and Valentino, suggests he could yet become an actor of note.
Jon Bon Jovi, once again proving he's more than a capable actor, and Lauren Holly, in her first true role she can chew on, stand out above the rest of the vacuous
cast... Bon Jovi shines with an understated performance that underlines the character's faithfulness in Small Town, USA. It's a very poignant piece of acting, one that
will make Bon Jovi more recognizable.
Bon Jovi gives a nice, unaffected performance in a decent-Joe role.
Jon Bon Jovi shows more acting ability than one might reasonably expect from a singer branching into a different career...
The film wants us to see Michael as a boring, safe, faithful but unexciting choice. But I sort of liked him. Bon Jovi plays the role for its strengths which involve sincerity and a bottom line of integrity.
Rock singer turned actor Jon Bon Jovi proves he's a talent to be reckoned with as he also delivers a good performance. Playing the victim in this love triangle, Bon
Jovi keeps his acting rather low key, perfectly plays the part, and certainly doesn't suffer from looking like a rock star trying to be an actor like so many of his
counterparts have done over the years.
New Jersey rocker Bon Jovi, who'll be a movie star any day he chooses to take on the job full-time, projects inborn sensitivity without hiding Michael's fears, limitations,
and pull toward self-pity.
Rocker Bon Jovi has established himself as a solid actor with just a few carefully chosen film roles, and he delivers a nicely restrained and understated performance of
sincerity and integrity that is probably his best work to date.
I was also mightily impressed with super-rocker Jon Bon Jovi, completely believable as Michael, a sweet and grounded working class hero. As with everyone in this
film, he eschews any hint of glamour as he plays the guy offering Claudia, not just love, but stability, respect, and genuine commitment.
And casting Bon Jovi as his on-screen rival also says a lot about Burn's confidence as a filmmaker and actor. Any other director-star wouldn't have hired someone
who is better-looking than he is or someone who is likely to steal a scene. But Burns is also generous, giving Bon Jovi some golden moments that demonstrate what
a good actor the former rocker has become.
Oddly, the performer who seems most at home here is rocker Jon Bon Jovi, who probably hasn't set foot in this sort of clapboard hell in eons. Bon Jovi is highly effective and moving as Holly's rock-steady live-in boyfriend, a grunt who works long hours at a boring job but never complains, even if he can't ever seem to see his way out of debt.
When Jon Bon Jovi came on screen, my friend swooned and said this was a "really good film." Unfortunately for Bon Jovi, after his highly praised turn in The Leading Man, Michael here seems like a step backward for him. The character is rather colorless, and although he tries hard, it remains uninteresting and staid. This may have something to do with the fact that Burns saves a meaty role for himself.
Bon Jovi is the only sympathetic character in the whole movie. His acting talents are much greater than they might seem, but he is given a mostly bland and ineffective role to work with.
Jon Bon Jovi is disarmingly appealing...
--Paul Fischer, Cinefile Reviews
A tearful moment between Claudia and Michael reveals a great future for the expanding acting career of Bon Jovi, here providing the only three-dimensional performance in the film.
The characters and the actors in the movie were all very believable and interesting to watch, with Jon Bon Jovi beginning to show some real signs of a thespian in the making.
Bon Jovi underplays Michael and even fares surprisingly well when the character takes an unexplicable detour into what could pass for spite.
But perhaps most surprising of all is Bon Jovi, who has an acting career ahead of himself if the music gig ever falls through.
Well acted by all parties, who adapt to working class mannerisms as though these were second nature.
One of the best aspects of the movies is Bon Jovi's portrayal of a hard-working man who just wants to start a family.
Bon Jovi, so good in the recent The Leading Man,is highly effective as the low-key decent guy willing to spend his whole life doing the right, dull thing.
Bon Jovi's understated handling of Michael is interesting and intriguing.
As in the other films, the performances are almost perfect... Bon Jovi accurately conveys the cheerful shallowness of Michael, a nice, thoughtless guy whose horizons are strictly limited.
But perhaps most surprisng of all is Bon Jovi, who has an acting career ahead of him if the music gig ever falls through.
When a rocker-turned-thespian is the best thing in a movie, you know you're in for it. Actually, Bon Jovi isn't bad in this trite tale of a small-town waitress torn between
her fiance (played by Mr. Multiplatinum) and a former boyfriend who drifts back into her life.
In many scenes here, singer Bon Jovi is better than his co-stars. This includes the often lauded (Blythe) Danner as Claudia's mother. Winner of the Week: Jon Bon Jovi: When the hair-metal-has-been took up acting, most sane people thought he was livin' on a prayer. Apparently not: His work in the new movie No Looking Back is garnering glowing reviews. --Entertainment Weekly, 4/17/98
... Michael, played with remarkedly restrained self effacement by Jon Bon Jovi... Burns makes some daring writer\director moves, teasing viewers with out of character
(and gender) role-playing, such as assigning Bon Jovi (who can also be seen luring assorted women in The Leading Man) the part of the kind but passionately
underwhelming boyfriend... Still, it's not easy convincing your own imagination to buy Claudia's excruciating boredom enduring a life with a guy that looks just like
Jon Bon Jovi...
As an actor, Burns plays carefully and well within the limits he sets for his character. His talent as an actor and his acuity as a director never let him dominate scenes.
He chooses his cast well and always shares the scenes with performers as strong or stronger than himself. Jon Bon Jovi, a talented actor (and rocker) whom the
camera loves, is a case in point.
In No Looking Back, singer/musician and hair-styling phenom Jon Bon Jovi returns to the silver screen.... Not that we want to give away the ending, but for an
educated guess at who gets the girl, see Burn's previous films--although anyone who's seen Bon Jovi in Moonlight & Valentino knows he should rightfully score
the fair maiden. (What hot-blooded woman could refuse that dimpled chin, those incredible lips, and ohhh that hair...)
Bon Jovi is as solid and unexciting as he's meant to be.
"The character is such a working-class Joe," he says, "I thought how audiences might react to seeing a rock star in that role. But Jon's acting coach, Harold
Guskin, had been telling me for years what a good actor Jon was. And he just sort of slipped into the character's skin. Unlike a lot of rock stars who've tried to act,
it's not an affected performance," says Mr. Burns. "Jon doesn't feel the need to try and act. It's very still and internal."
It was considered a coup when Burns got Bon Jovi to play his rival. "I wanted Bon Jovi because he grew up in exactly this kind of world. I knew the dialogue would just roll off his tongue. Luckily, I know his acting coach. I got him to get Bon Jovi to meet with me. I was pretty nervous the day we met but he put me at ease right away."
"Jon's from a sort of blue-collar town, like his character, and immediately he had it all down--the cadence of speech, the look, the mannerisms. There was no rock-star nonsense. He'd hang out all day on the set, even helping the crew. He's totally professional, and you couldn't ask for a sweeter, nicer guy."
"He's got a real laid-back approach. He doesn't try to act. Jon's really natural in front of the camera."
"Some singers don't get it. They don't realize it's an art form and people who really love it like I do and studied and take it seriously and take it as a craft and, ya'know, he really did and it was nice to see."
"I think they put stereotpyes on people in this business, God knows, and I'm sure he's had to fight against that, ya'know, they see him as the rock star."
"You meet him and you forget that he's a rock star. I think that's why he's so good in the movie. Ya'know, he's from this little tiny, he's from Sayreville, New Jersey and he's this regular guy. You forget that he's a rock star. Sometimes when you see the Superman tatoo you're reminded of some of those videos, but other than that..."
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Claudia has settled for Mikey, a marriage-minded, nice guy, factory worker played with unexpected sincerity and talent by former feather-haired rocker Jon Bon Jovi....
The film may be Holly's breakthrough performance, but Bon Jovi portrays some of the films most potent emotions when he gets thrown over for Burns. Watch for a long
close-up of Mikey choking back tears that makes Bon Jovi's whole insipid glam metal history melt away.
She's (Claudia) living in sin with boyfriend Michael, played by Jon Bon Jovi in another performance that deserves a much better film.