I’m a massive fan of Jalmari Helander’s feature film debut, Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. It’s a fantastical horror adventure that puts a great and unique twist on the Christmas movie genre. The Finnish film is a blast to watch and instantly put the writer/director on the map for bigger studios. When I had read that his next film would be a cross between Home Alone and Rambo, I got incredibly excited. I’ve always wanted to see an R-rated version of Home Alone and this seemed like it might be it. I eventually learned that the film was more Rambo oriented in plot and scaled back my anticipation levels, but when the film signed Samuel L. Jackson on to play the President of the United States I told myself “game on!”
Helander’s new movie, titled Big Game, is set in the Finnish countryside where a 13 year-old boy, Oskari (Onni Tommila) embarks on traditional adventure out into the wilderness where he must prove himself a man. Armed with only a bow and arrow, he must survive on his own for 24 hours and return back to the starting point in one piece, ideally with an impressive animal that he’s hunted and killed, just like his father before him. Shortly after his quest begins, Air Force One crashes in the forest where he’s hunting and he comes upon the US President (Samuel L. Jackson) in his escape pod. When they realize that someone is out to capture the President, Oskari takes it upon himself to protect him until his hunt is over and the American Special Forces arrives to protect them. Simply put, the film is about the US President being hunted by a psychopath terrorist, claiming the President is the big game in the forest, while Oskari is the local who is the prey’s only chance of survival.
I was a bit disappointed in Big Game. It wasn’t the film I was expecting. Rather than being an intense, action oriented spectacle, it ended up being much more kiddish, cheesy and even playful (which isn’t always a bad thing). The style of the film was more Home Alone oriented in terms of accessibility with the addition of weapons and the threat of actual death. I’m not saying there wasn’t a lot of action but within the scope of the film, some of it was ridiculous. I think going the PG-13 route in an attempt to garner widespread appeal really hindered what could have been a pretty bad-ass movie.
Also, normally this isn’t the case but they had too many UK folks playing Americans in the lead roles and it became quite clear that their accents were not that good. I was surprised that both Ray Stevenson and Jim Broadbent couldn’t pull off a convincing accent, it was unfortunate because it took me out of the film almost every time they spoke…or at least when Broadbent spoke.
There were a couple characters, namely Jim Broadbent’s, that I found to be a little ludicrous. That plus a side plot which I won’t describe, ended up being unnecessary and rather stupid in the grand scheme of things. The film could have ended one way but they decided to tack on this additional plot that did nothing to really advance the story except maybe encourage a sequel? I don’t really know.
Before I dive into what I liked about the film, I’d also like to declare that I’ve never seen Samuel L. Jackson be more of a bitch than in this film. It was so weird seeing him in that position of weakness for an entire picture, he usually finds a way to man up at some point, unfortunately Big Game changed all that.
I hate bashing movies but I just had such high hopes for this film. That being said, there were a few things I did enjoy. If I was in high school I would probably love the campiness of this flick so much more than I do now but the film still had some charming moments. While corny bits of dialogue flourished throughout, the dynamic between Oskari and the President was pretty entertaining and the most enjoyable aspect of the film. Oskari was the boss and he made Alan, the President, look like a complete waste of a human being.
There was plenty of action in the film, some good, some bad, some so over the top ridiculous that you just had to laugh cause it made no sense. You take it all with a grain of salt. If you’re an action stickler you’ll probably hate it, if you were trying to have fun, like I was, you’ll just accept it and move on. There’s one scene involving a large cooler rolling down a mountain that I did get a good kick out of watching.
Overall, Big Game isn’t a movie you need to see in theaters, it’s a borderline entertaining VOD title that will probably end up disappointing more people than not. Don’t let the Samuel L. Jackson and airplane exploding key art fool you into thinking that this will be one hell of a bad-ass ride, because you’ll be let down hard. If you go in expecting something that isn’t good you may find yourself actually having fun with this one. It’s all going to depend on the expectations you have going into the flick.
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