Deadliest Prey

It's all here. Wooden acting, terrible plot, cheesy special effects, lots of ridiculous and campy choreography.. And killing everyone. Just, killing everyone all over the dang place.

While I haven't watched the original yet (on my to-do list), the sequel is terrible. It's just hammy and hokey all throughout. I knew beforehand that I was about to watch a solid "B" class movie, but wow man. This one is just sub-par.

Mr. Prior (the writer) is apparently behind on the times, as his portrayals of nearly every facet of the world appear to be built entirely on clichés and stereotypes. The actions undertaken by the bad guys are far removed from typical military procedure. The evil villain was so cruel and vicious to his loyal soldiers that a few good facepalms were in order. Why would anyone sign up for that sort of abuse? Because they needed jobs? Ha ha! That's a good one.

The "hackers" seemed to have given Mr. Prior a particularly nasty writer's headache, as every bit of their dialogue was absolutely just hilariously bad and demonstrated a profound lack of technical computer skills. The audience members were also a great laugh, although I was a little confused about how they were watching a live internet feed on the TV at their favorite watering hole, and apparently doing so for nearly 12 hours.

The acting was either wooden and unbelievable or uproariously excessive. There was no middle ground.

There were some great moments though. As one reviewer mentioned, the villain at one point claims to have killed more people than cancer. Now THAT is a great line. I loved it.

Overall, the film was pretty boring. Even the action parts were handled slowly and cleanly to be point of being hard to watch.

I wanted to enjoy this, but there just really wasn't much to enjoy.

The original film was near perfection. Music, direction, script and casting. That brilliant star visited us all too briefly and many have tried to emulate it and while we were blessed with the Samurai Cops and Miami Connection's, we will never truly have another Deadly Prey.

The winner of multiple Dibrini awards and two coveted Danton crowns, the original was splendid and gaudy in its excellence. It had a genuine schlock which the industry of Nostalgia so desperately attempts to emulate. Duplication and imitation is a hard thing, outside of a specific era and place.

Deadliest Prey attempts to recapture past glories and like many sequels it seeks the safe path of rhyming, as the great Lucas would say. This it does well, covering the tried paths of the past while adding contemporary twists. No doubt a fun movie to have worked on, it still manages to entertain.

While it is nothing like the original, it never could be, it is also nothing like Fantastic Four (2015) or other big budget arrogantly made studio monsters. This is a humble production made for both fun and entertainment, what movies in past generations truly aspired for, especially during the straight to video days.

Enjoy it for what it is. Not because you compare it to better polished, though target missing super films.

63%

Very amateur-like acting. Solders are in a life threatening situation, someone shooting on them and they act like they are just walking in the park! Some actors might be good but the director calling the shots obviously he didn't know what he was doing. The whole movie is filmed in the same location (someone's back yard). The story-line is very of childish too. Funny thing is at the end of the movie, in the last screen, it says: "The beginning". They expect to make another movie like this? Give me a break! So, don't waste your time watching this, we have seen similar movies with about the same story-line but a lot better acting.

Whenever a belated sequel to a "so bad it's good"-classic gets released, I start fearing what I call the "Birdemic"-effect. Directors who have accidentally obtained a cult status by being really terrible often start being really terrible on purpose, completely ruining their magic. I'm glad to say David A. Prior isn't one of those directors. "Deadliest Prey" is 100% serious, 100% genuine and 100% laughable. In many ways it's actually even more entertaining than its original. It definitely looks better, the special effects are upped a notch (not a fan of CGI, but the first one was almost completely bloodless), the dialogues are...slightly better and the fights are...slightly more realistic. Apart from that, this is pretty much the same movie as "Deadly Prey". The plot (so to speak) develops exactly like in the first one, right down to the smallest details. Five minutes in you think oh, almost the same opening scene as the first. That's kinda lazy, bring on the new stuff! Then Danton gets kidnapped while taking out the garbage, and then they tell him to "RUN!", and then he leaves someone alive if he tells him what's going on and then just kills him anyway. Oh what's next, they're going to kidnap his wife and he'll find the female henchman (henchwoman?)in his house? Thornton is ready to kill him but Hogan wants him alive because otherwise the movie's over too soon? Oh, both these things also happen? Well, I'm sure they're not cutting someone's arm off ag...this is a remake, pure and simple. But a nice remake, with a heart and a better pace than the original. It adds nothing, but it's still worth seeing.

Stars: Ted Prior,David Campbell,Fritz Matthews. What would you do if the director of a film offered a pre-release showing of his long awaited sequel ? WATCH IT !!! Do not wanna give away any spoilers at all,But David Campbell,The Villain,Has some catch phrases and a half to enjoy. Ted Prior revisits one of his favorite roles,Danton from Deadly Prey,Ted as we interviewed recently wasn't sure he could still be 'The Prey',But letting his fans make their own opins about results, You Go Dude ! Bringing Fritz Matthews back was a screenwriters nightmare ( NO SPOILERS,REMEMBER) and a gift to David Prior fans. Did we mention David Campbell steals the film scene after scene, And Ted Prior seems to be okay with considering their last filmic dance. Lots of knife work,bullets shot and traps galore. There is ironic comedy too. Would wish DEADLY PREY was promoted as 25th anniversary edition sometime.