Written by Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof
Directed by Craig Zobel
Starring Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Ethan Suplee, Wayne Duvall, Emma Roberts, Ike Borinholtz, Amy Madigan, Justin Hartley, Glenn Houserton, Steve Coulter, Teri Wyble and Macon Blair
Plot: 12 strangers with no knowledge of where they are, are hunted by other humans merely for sport
Let’s start off with this fact. Most of what was said about this movie was bullshit.My proof? A ton of the articles and other commentary came before the vast majority of people had even been able to see it. I have listened to and read what many different people thought. A lot of people don’t seem to have watched this movie. Quite a few people seem to have fast forwarded through it or watched it having already made up their mind. I’m sure some people were too busy with other activities to notice aspects of the movie that their reviews or sound bites omit.
The movie absolutely makes a political statement. The problem is that I witnessed the main two sides of American and for that matter global politics deride the movie. If you remove names and one or two specific words, the statements from diametrically opposed people are pretty much identical.
This basically invalidates many opinions of the movie. I know what some of you are thinking, hey opinions can’t be wrong! Correct…sort of. An opinion can’t be wrong, unless you present as fact and yet it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
I watched this without agenda. If you watch it like that, you will most likely enjoy it. Some of the kills are memorable and the dialogue is hilarious at times if not cringe worthy in the same way watching a drunk person embarrass themselves is funny.
The characters may seem over the top but only to people who either don’t talk to enough different people or to the people who act, think and believe the way any of the characters do. I read someone say the characters are 2 dimensional stereotypes. That’s both factually incorrect because stereotypes are usually one dimensional and and incorrect because most of the characters while arguably “one note” are in fact accurate stand ins for a lot of people. One note is not automatically one dimensional because let’s be honest, most people aren’t one dimensional but all of us, at least at times can be one note.
I feel that the movie picks no side, they make fun of extreme thinking, which has no political party requirement. Social issues, sports and entertainment can be and often are just as polarized as politics because everything is run by people. Politics is actually just a word for the structure and system by which something runs.
Many of the jokes are funny, the effects are good. The acting is top notch. It is well written. Has some interesting things to say. A couple curve balls. Not scary in a traditional sense but it’s unnerving if you pay attention to the world.
I don’t yet own this movie but I will soon, just writing this review makes me wanna watch it again right now. I scored it an 82 because I loved it, Tara liked it a lot but a little less than me with a 66.
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