Prey - La caccia è aperta

While working in a dam in Africa, the American hydraulic engineer Tom Newman (Peter Weller) brings his family to spend a couple of days in the Leopard's Rest Lodge. His fourteen year-old daughter Jessica (Carly Schroeder) is having friction with her stepmother Amy (Bridget Moynahan) since she does not accept the divorce of her parents. On the next morning, Amy, Jessica and her brother David (Connor Dowds) go in a game drive with a ranger while Tom goes to the dam. While driving off-road, David asks the ranger to stop the jeep to go to the "toilet", and unexpectedly they are attacked by a group of starving lions that kill and eat the ranger. Amy, Jessica and David are trapped in the jeep and stalked by the wild lions. When Tom returns to the hotel and finds that his family has not returned from the game, he asks for help to the experienced hunter and guide Crawford (Jamie Bartlett) and together they seek Tom's family.

Fortunately I had not even glanced the IMDb Rating and some reviews in IMDb and I had just followed the suggestion of a friend of mine when I decided to buy this DVD. The tense and underrated "Prey" was a great surprise, with a suspenseful and simple but well acted story. Carly Schroeder perfectly performs the annoying character of a typical American teenager; the gorgeous Bridget Moynahan has also a great performance in the lead role of a young stepmother that tries to resolve the relationship problems with Jessica. But the edition of the impressive sequences with the starving lions is very realistic and well-done. In my opinion, the greatest flaw of the story is the absence of a radio in the safari jeep to communicate with the base in emergency situations. Further, I expected more from the experienced Crawford and the two local hunters, and I liked the open conclusion. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Caçados" ("Hunted")

True story or not (and I'm sure plenty of the facts are manipulated) There is nothing in Prey that we have not seen before. Its generic formula and a certain lack of credibility/scientific accuracy certainly do some damage but they don't make the movie unwatchable.

It certainly could have been worse. For a start, it places a certain value on character, something that many b-movies care little for. There is no obvious reason why we should be rooting against the Newman family, who get screwed while on an African safari.. Their guide is attacked and killed by a lion while escorting the youngest Newman on a pee break. The hapless family is forced to hide and wait in the lousy little tour jeep, until Mr. Newman shows up (he's working construction on a local dam) Meanwhile, three hungry lions are waiting patiently outside.

So the film doesn't have us disregarding the protagonists, that's a start. another advantage is the lions being real. There is no five cent CGI in this picture to distract us. Well, some of the blood is clearly digital, but most of it is make up. The movie does have it's share of gore, yet nothing too unrealistic or severely overdone. Prey is shot in a heavily saturated colour scheme and because blood is the only red in the film, it really stands out. (although it is certainly not the only film to try this). The acting quality is nothing to be proud of, but it suspends disbelief enough. As long as it doesn't sound like the characters are reading off a teleprompter, I'm fine with that.

So where then does the movie go wrong, well in the same way that many of these films have, it has been done before. Prey is one in a million, and the only possible distinction for one to see is its protagonists being a lion, not a common creature feature creature. If lions sound interesting, my recommendation would be the Ghost in the Darkness.

Not bad of a movie! Still, has a lot of common with Cujo, the Stephen King adaption. Attacks of big pussycats (okay, there had to be some kind of difference, wasn't there) on a car (jeep) where a woman (duuuuhhh) is trapped with her child (in this case children)... No way out, no food, no drinks... dehydration near... damn... The lions did their job fantastic! And I must say the stepmother was not bad of an actress... only thing I found a bit exaggerated... three hunters (by all means) are killed... and each time they get to kill at least one lion but still another takes revenge... The Male Lion is the real actor in this movie! The way he blew up in that jeep... great! All by all, not a bad movie, but had no new elements! It's worth a Seven, I won't give it more, but certainly won't give it less either!

Cat version of Cujo If you've seen Stephen King's Cujo, you'll like Prey. Prey is about a step mom and two kids who get stuck in a Range Rover on the African savanna and are stalked by a pride of man eating lions. Dad goes off to work leaving step mom to bond with the kids on a sight seeing trip. The guide gets killed by a lion and the girl bickers to the point where she deserves a good face slap. They make mistake after mistake and you're never quite sure whether they are going to be rescued.

(Ratings: Bad=1; Average=5; One of the best=10); Acting=06; Plot=05; Scenery=08; Character believability=07; Continuity=05; Dialog=05; Directing=07; Casting=07; Special effects=04; Overall Rating=06

Judging from the reviews here, I didn't expect much so I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. In a cold winter evening in Sweden it can be pretty nice to see a movie set in the beautiful South African landscape. The story is not much to say about. It's basically "Cujo" but with lions instead of a St Bernard Dog. By far not a great movie, but a pretty entertaining and exciting 90 minutes. Seen to the budget the movie looks pretty good. The acting is also OK, but it could have been a better movie if the script would have been more believable. But that is often the case with this type of movies and it didn't bother me that much.