Survival Quest

This movie is about a bunch of trainees go for survival training in the woods where they encounter a squad of paramilitary force and their training turns into a real fight for survival.The action is top notch and so is the acting.I give this movie **** out 5*****.

Survival Quest is one of the few Lance Henriksen starrers that happened during the eighties. This time he gives a great unexpected performance as a good guy, who runs a survival school and leads a group of assorted city people through the wilderness. Eventually they cross paths with a military man played by Mark Rolston who leads a survival class of his own. Don Coscarelli pulls out fine performances from everybody and the script is so well done that every character that's supposed to matter does. Aside from the acting, the film relies on such inexpensive things as breathtaking vistas and avoiding clichés (for the most part). The only thing that downplays the whole experience is the music one'd expect from a Hallmark family movie. Definitely the strongest Coscarelli effort outside of Phantasm and Bubba Ho-Tep.

A group of people who have signed up for a wilderness survival course get terrorized by a more militant group. Of all the Coscarelli movies I've seen, I liked this the least. The film had none of the originality of Phantasm, nor the sheer awesomeness of Bubba Ho-tep, not even the dumb fun of Beastmaster. Instead we get a rather pedestrian ho-hum action movie in the cookie cutter mold of a million other 'group stuck in the wilderness against baddies' genre films complete with stock characters that don't really have memorable personalities or any likability. The great Lance Henriksen is the only actor who gets through this one with his dignity intact. Perhaps i'm being a bit too hearse with the film, it's not that bad and makes a merely watchable diversion, I just can't help but hold Don to a higher esteem as the rest of his output is rather marvelous.

My Grade: C-

Eye Candy: Traci Lind goes skinny dipping, but only her top is exposed

DVD Extras: Behind the scenes featurette; 2 U.S. and 1 International trailer for the film; and trailers for "Phantasm" "Phantasm 3", "Kenny & Company", "the Garden" & "Near Dark"

Cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli has brought us such films as the "Phantasm" Tetralogy, "The Beastmaster" and "Bubba Ho-Tep" but a film he did in the last 80s seemed to go by mostly unnoticed… and maybe it was thought to be the usual routine woodland survival outing. In some regards this survival adventurer is, but what makes this one work is the fighting character dynamics, a thoughtful script and the always dependable Lance Henriksen. "Survival Quest" follows a group of strangers (one just happening to be an ex-convict played by Dermont Mulroney) from the city battling the wilderness in the North Rockies Survival Quest School led by their resourceful instructor Frank (Henriksen). However nearby is another group (paramilitary), lead by an aggressively hard-nose and demanding instructor (played by Mark Rolston with cynically great ticker). These two schools / groups are at total opposites (extremely so -- one relying on trust while the other sees fit to only look after one's own self) to each other in what they teach (one to embrace your surrounding while the other to dominate in its forceful actions) and from that an encounter occurs where it becomes a struggle to stay alive for Frank's group against an armed, unstable squad (Steve Antin is good as the instigator). The plot slowly hangs off its characters --- building up relationships, developing mindsets (cementing self-confidence) so when it gradually builds up to its explosive confrontations and then the trek becomes a bloody survival course it really pulls you in as you put some much time into the characters that you want to see them get through it. What starts of as a battle against mother nature (what looks beautiful can just be as dangerous), becomes something much more. As their training comes into play, as their team morale to not leave anybody behind which drives them home. Its good to have strength and stamina, but it's nothing without spirit… and that's the difference between the two groups. "… it's a matter of heart. Not hardware." To use and respect the power of your surroundings/the wilderness to adapt. Writer / director Coscarelli's resiliently tight direction commendably balances out the character developing staples and the excitingly tension-fuelled cat and mouse exchanges. Some witty scenes are a nice cover too. Another striking attraction would be that of the rugged, but eye-catching locations which is always scenically shot. The performances can feel a little awkward, but it's a likable bunch with Catherine Keener, Traci Lind, Dominic Hoffman, Paul Provenza and a special guest appearance by Reggie Bannister. A fine, under-seen terrain adventure caper.

Don Coscarelli should be a little embarrassed, I think. Not of the film altogether, because it's a fun timewaster, but of the really textbook formula characterizations he heaps onto his protagonists. I would've expected more from the creator of PHANTASM, but just the same, I enjoyed this movie. Six city slickers sign on to Survival Quest, which will teach them how to survive in the Great Outdoors for four weeks. A paramilitary group is sharing the woods with them and soon it's THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME.

Lance Henriksen is always cool to watch; he gives any film class. A young Catherine Keener has one of the aforementioned embarrassing roles, going from a pathetic girl to a Ripley-styled woman. Ben Hammer weighs in to let you know geriatrics can do anything you youngsters can do (provided you don't get shot), and Dermot Mulroney makes the most of the bad-boy-from-jail-on-probation shtick. Apparently Mulroney and Keener are married (or so a friend told me-check this fact yourself)so this would explain where they met. Ah, true love. Traci Lin is also in it and let's just say I've always had a thing for Miss CLASS OF 1999. Looks like a gore effect involving a hunting knife was trimmed for the R rating judging by a quick, jarring cut at the right time. As for the direction...truthfully, anybody could've wrote or directed this. It's very pedestrian, but credit Coscarelli for keeping it moving and watchable. I liked it, so sue me.