Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Absolutely not.
Should you watch this for free? No.
Secret ending? No.
Running time: 90 minutes (1.5 hours)
“Big Game” is an action movie that follows the adventures of a stranded US President and a young boy training to be hunter as they elude terrorists in a forest. It stars Samuel L. Jackson (President of the United States) and Onni Tommila (Oskari).
“Big Game” is billed as an action adventure, when it’s really a dated comedy. Samuel L. Jackson is pretty much the only reason why you’re watching it, but therein lies the problem – he’s not the Samuel L. Jackson you’re used to. It’s a silly title for a silly premise that’s executed in a horribly cheesy fashion. You’ll get some chuckles and laughs from it, but thrills and spills? Don’t count on it.
Letdowns
Oskari is an entitled little wimp
One of the protagonists of the story, Oskari is 13-year-old boy who’s sent out into the forest alone to prove his manhood. The problem is that he’s completely ineffective and incompetent, and his signature weapon is utterly useless. He’s scowling 90% of the time, acting as if the world owes him a living, when he cannot even complete the simplest of tasks – even his father has to step in to secretly help him in his coming-of-age mission. With absolutely no redeeming qualities, you have no compunction to see Oskari succeed. Instead, you’d probably want to see his spoilt little face get whipped into shape.
Samuel L. Jackson plays a weak-willed wuss
Call it typecasting, but whenever Samuel L. Jackson gets into a role, you pretty much expect to see some butts get kicked. Or at the very least, he’s a formidable fighter, whether it be swordplay or gun toting.
Not here. Here, we don’t even get to see the President of the United States do anything remotely impressive. He has no combat ability, and character-wise he’s a spineless but well meaning imbecile. In fact, it’s because of his ineptitude that leads to the inciting incident of the movie, and even at the end he doesn’t get much character growth. He just gets rescued, that’s all.
Cheesy villains
The villain of the story wants to… capture the President, bring him to a taxidermist and stuff him. Did he time travel from the 80s? All that’s lacking is for him to tell everyone his master plan to conquer the planet with some technobabble, and you’ll have a veritable 80s villain starring in a 2010s movie. Did I forget to mention that he’s also from a foreign country with a terribly forced accent as well?
Uninspiring action scenes
Any fight between the protagonists and antagonists ends in a resounding thrashing for the good guys. Perhaps the greatest action set piece of the show is when the protagonists stick themselves in an ice box and roll themselves down the hill.
Yes, that’s the most exciting part of the movie, since the bad guys are firing aimlessly at this surprisingly bulletproof ice box, with absolutely no luck in doing any discernible damage to it. You know how it signals that it’s the most exciting part? With a stirringly epic trumpeting score that is such a gross mismatch of expectations, you’d think they put the score from a real action film into this one by mistake.
An overblown soundtrack
The music is grand and inspiring, evoking heights of emotion that would move grown men to tears. Unfortunately, the actual plot and performances of this film hardly evokes emotion of any degree at all, so you’re forced to listen to an over the top soundtrack even as underwhelming sequences bombard your eyes. Perhaps it would have been better if you closed your eyes and just listened to the movie, since it would have been less of a utter disappointment that way.
Plot twist for the sake of a plot twist
The film closes with a plot twist – that has no set up, no foreshadowing, and makes no sense. Granted, nothing in this movie really makes sense (which parent in their right mind would send a 13-year-old into a forest overnight?!), but in an already nonsensical movie, this is truly a stumper. If you thought the movie couldn’t get any worse, watch it all the way to the end. You’ll be surprised how awful the plot can get.
“Big Game” is a complete waste of time and provides as much action as a pair of tortoises duelling. If it were billed as a comedy, it would have been slightly better, but not very much so. But since a genre switch is the only action you can take to make this less of an eyesore, treat “Big Game” as a comedy and you won’t be as disappointed.
“Big Game” opens in cinemas 7 May, 2015 (Thursday).
This review was also published on Yahoo Singapore.
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