Rogue Movie Review
*repost from 06/09/08
Directed by Greg Mclean
Starring Radha Mitchell and Michael Vartan
This is definitely the best of current trio of recent attack croc movies including Primeval and Black Water. Even though it wasnt groundbreaking I liked the simple gritty approach of his previous movie, Wolf Creek, so I had mildly high expectations for this film. For the most part I was happy with the results. The cinematography was amazing. Once again Greg manages to show a part of Australia that manages to capture the beauty of the landscape but yet also make you feel like you are in a land thats undiscovered and also kind of creepy. Also the epic cinematic score fit the tone and feel of the movie perfectly.
The movie is about a group of tourists that go on crocodile site seeing tour in the Australian outback. While they are on the tour they are approached via boat by a couple of local dickheads that are hunting geese and like to fuck around with the tourists. On the tours way back they notice that a flare has gone off and someone is in trouble. The tour guide (Radha Mitchell) makes a decision to go off course and search for the people in peril. Once they arrive at the scene all they find is an overturned sinking boat. Suddenly they are rammed by something huge and the boat hull cracks open and it starts to sink. Everyone jumps out and swims to a little island for refuge. The only problem is they are on a part of the river where the tide rises every single night and the island will eventually be covered by water, thus making them croc food. The group of tourist plus one of the local dickheads have to figure out a way to make it across the island to land without becoming dinner and before the island is washed out.
One thing I really liked was the interaction of the tourists. Majority of them were normal unknown actors and they all added a realistic feel and tone to the movie. Also I was scared there would be too much cgi croc but overall it was liberally used until the finale at least. The only thing I wish there were a few more tension building and jump scares but that doesnt seem to be his style. There was a great scene when they are trying to decide what to use for bait in a last ditch effort to save themselves. The ending was pretty cliche with the "hero" going to the croc's lair to try and save someone from dying. There were some cool action scenes but the final killing was kinda predictable. Im not sure what else he could have done but I thought this whole "croc lair" scene was too Hollywood for my tastes. Having said that the positives far outweigh the negatives and I can easily recommend this to any "man vs beast" lovers out there. On a scale of 1-10 I give this a "horny old homely sheila" 7.0 out of 10.