DaveCooper

(2012-05-01 13:05:07)

Nasty Stuff

Cosimo Alema has crafted a really gritty and dark thriller which pitsit's excellent young cast against some pretty nasty euro villains andwatches in delight as they fight to survive. The idea of city kidsbeing hunted in the wilderness by crazed locals is nothing new and hasbeen done better in Deliverance and Southern Comfort but the old sayingrings true, if it ain't broke.... The film really benefits from it'sstylish burnt out visuals, no doubt thanks to Alema's background as amusic video director. It gives the film a strong identity and makes themost of the awesome back drop in which the film is set. The huntingground itself is a awash with lakes, waterfalls and forests which alllend to some great set pieces. The cast all do a good job to flesh outtheir limited characters, and give us a reason to root for them, whilstthe bad guys all look typically gruff and nasty. Low on scares the filmdoes throw in one or two good shocks and whilst never lingering toolong on the kills as the cast are inevitably whittled down, it doescreate a very tense and believable atmosphere. A scene involving thetwo sisters Lara (Stephanie Chapman Baker) and Monica (Valene Kane) isheartbreaking and truly memorable. Sam Cohan does well as the groups defacto leader Alex who may or may not know more than he is letting on,and Neil Linpow is definitely one to watch as the reluctant hero Riko.A really good example of what I'd call Friday night fluff. An enjoyablewatch that wont set the world on fire, but will keep you entertainedthroughout.

ben-437

(2012-04-30 15:35:28)

Not even wrong

This movie fails at the most basic level of telling a story that makesany kind of sense.The premise (the good guys start off in an air-soft game, but itbecomes a real 'war') sounds like it might be vaguely interesting (ifyou haven't already seen the much better film Severance). But theair-soft element is completely forgotten as soon as the baddies show up- the characters who are supposed to be good at the game behave just asidiotically as the rest.It's not even that they make the understandable mistakes panickingcivilians might make in a deadly situation - they just do whateverrandom, stupid things they need to progress the 'story' to the nextplot point. One character is happy to kill an injured enemy in coldblood, but then hesitates when confronted by an armed enemy coming forher two minutes later. One character who's armed with a real gunnonsensically *puts it down and forgets about it* just to let aparticularly nasty and sadistic scene happen without her preventing it.The cinematographer's main trick is to have the focus wander betweenforeground and background - which looks classy the first time, butloses its appeal when it happens in every other shot.Not at all good.

JC Amie

(2012-04-28 17:47:39)

Solid Thriller

The plot centers around two estranged sisters, Lara and Monica, whoalong with some friends go out to the countryside to play airsoft. Theystumble across the hideout of three ex soldiers who have been using thearea as their own hunting ground. The soldiers then decide to pick themoff, one at a time. So I got this flick on mail order mainly becauseit's about some guys playing airsoft, which is a real hobby of mine andbecause Im a big fan of the stalker slasher genre. I was hoping to seesome cool battle scenes and these kids pitting their skills againstsome hardened soldiers and some good old fashioned slashing. Theairsoft scene at the start is pretty cool, and the director did a greatjob catching the frenetic pace of the game. It was good to see that theactors that were meant to have been really good at the game were wellversed in the proper techniques and gave their characters a sense ofauthenticity. The film is more than just a slasher though. In fact Iwas surprised to find that it was a bit smarter than that, and two ofthe deaths apart, it isn't actually very gory at all. What it is verygood at though is creating a level of tension and unease early on andwracking it up as the film continues. The mood of the film is veryhaunting, which is achieved through the stunning visuals and thebeautiful soundtrack. It's very clever how as the film uses the soft,delicate music is in such stark contrast to the violence on screen. Thehand-held style in which the film is shot pulls you into the story andmakes it feel very believable. This is obviously also helped by somevery strong performances from the largely unknown cast. StephanieChapman Baker and Neil Linpow are especially good as the two maincharacters and it's their slow burning romance set against the horrorsaround them that gives the film some real heart. The soldiers all lookthe part, and do a fantastic job with their limited dialogue. It is infact Michael Lutz who gives the stand out performance as Uncle, theleader of the three. His face is so worn and tells us everything in alook. I am a little disappointed that the back stories of the soldierswere not explored, as I think that it would have added an extradimension to the film had we known more about who these guys were andhow they had become so bitter and twisted. That is one of the mainproblems with the film. The script is at times a bit clunky, and thestory doesn't really take us in any new directions, in fact it's prettygeneric. It would have been nice to see some twists and turns. There isone shock early on when the first character is killed, but after thatit just seems to follow a well beaten path up to it's conclusion. Thatsaid, it does this well, and keeps you entertained and pretty tautthroughout. I think that Cosimo Alema on the back of this will go on tomake better films, but this is a really solid debut.

Marius (Mario) Overgard

(2012-04-28 00:59:25)

This movie was a bad.. really, really bad!

Do not judge the book by the cover! This movie may look awesome andseem awesome, but it's far from good. Basically this movie is in thegenre "Teenagers that goes into the woods and everybody gets killed".Don't get me wrong, this genre is awesome if you can make it lookawesome. Take "Friday the 13th" for example, the best movie ever inthis category. The only thing that interested me about this movie wasthe plot... people playing air-soft and it turns into a real war.Everything else didn't work out at all! There isn't even a reason forthe war to take place. I can point out tons of epic fails in thismovie, not like regular fails that all movies got, but fails that is soobvious. After 15 minutes i could already tell which person that wasgoing to make it the longest and die last.When it comes to the actors.. meh, the actors was fine I guess. It ismore the characters and how the movie was from start to end that ruinedthe whole experience. But I can't say that I'm disappointed. Usuallywhen there is a unknown director and actors it will turn into sh**!