The Reach - Caccia all'uomo

"Beyond this point there will be monsters." Ben (Irvine) is a master tracker and guide who has been hired my Madec (Douglas), a rich businessman. After leading him out to a barren desert wasteland Madec's true colors come out. Now, facing a dangerous situation, Ben must find a way out, alive and in time to warn others. This movie isn't really anything amazing but it is also entertaining and very watchable. I did like the movie but one thing kept bugging me about it the entire time. Michael Douglas is a sharpshooter and ruthless, yet the entire movie revolves around him trying to kill Ben. I would think one shot could do it...on the other hand if that happened there would be no movie. All that out of the way though the movie is tense in some parts, but becomes somewhat repetitive and loses steam toward the end. Again though, I did like this and this is not a bad rent. Overall, nothing amazing, but it is entertaining enough to keep you watching for the entire hour and a half. I give this a B-.

There's an allure of two men engaging in high stake wit battle. Beyond the Reach has simple premise to produce interesting suspense. The desert setting gives a specific barren and demanding background for survival of the fittest. Unfortunately, the movie loses momentum in midway point as the plot holes are mounting against them. These illogical scenes hamper any suspense the movie has built up from the first half, and unless audiences have generous suspension of disbelief, the last act is completely underwhelming.

Story follows two men as they both hunt in the desert. Ben (Jeremy Irvine) is a guide for Madec (Michael Douglas), right from the start they don't mesh together that well. When an accident happens, their interests clash and things escalate out of control. For the role of powerful ambitious man, Michael Douglas can't be a bad cast as he has repeatedly performed well as such character in many other movies. However, the script gives his character several bad decisions which are contradicting his action merely five minutes ago.

Jeremy Irvine is a good actor, he performed admirably in War Horse and also Woman in Black 2. He's a decent cast, and at first half it's easy to relate to his ordinary character as Ben. Problems arise after the two men trade trickery for their own interests. While the battle of old versus young and the gap of technology might produces a few thrilling moments, the rest of the plot suffers from irrational choices. The plot holes culminate in a bizarre last act, which nullifies any buzz it may have produced.

Visual is presentable, the desert carries the sense of desolation and helplessness adequately. The two main characters don't have the best on-screen spark, though their exchanges of verbal and genuine blows are pretty convincing. Their relationships outside their ordeal in the desert aren't well established and as the movie tries to wrap up, these mismatches and irregular plot twists make the ending hard to take it seriously.

Beyond the Reach is at its peak as men fighting each other and the element, unfortunately it doesn't translate well beyond that and it definitely doesn't end on high note.

Ultra wealthy businessman , Madec (Michael Douglas), needs a new trophy, a long horned sheep. He hires Ben (Jeremy Irvine) as a tracker to hunt in the Mojave Desert. He thinks he spots a long horned sheep and fires, and he and Ben see that Madec has killed Charlie (Martin Palmer) who lived and roamed in the desert. Madec makes a deal with Ben to cover this up. The way he does this is quite clever. Ben agrees then changes his mind. Madec makes Ben take off his clothes to walk the desert hoping Ben will die.

As Ben goes off into the hot burning desert (Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!) Madec tracks him in his $500,000 SUV, his rifle, and with binoculars as he needs to see Ben die; and we keep hoping Ben will find something to get out of this predicament.

The rest of the movie shows Ben struggling to get away from Madec and we do see some surprises so it's not as boring as one might suspect.

The acting is good all around.

The ending isn't what I expected, but it'll do. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Soft stuff only.

It starts off seeming a mismatched buddy comedy but soon turns into a tale of blackmail and self-preservation. Ben wants to fess up and take it to the feds. Madec, with his mind on a pending deal with the Chinese, wants to cover the whole thing up, and sets out to silence Ben. So in the end the story evolves like a terrible chase but both the actors give a good performance and the filming locations are charming as well. This cat-and-mouse chase across the desert that follows is fairly entertaining to begin with but unnecessarily drawn out, leaving far too much room for Douglas to plug with cartoonish quips and daft machismo. Overall the story works, though ending up to be predictable, especially in its final part.

An old rich guy who likes to hunt pays a young scout to help him find some big game out in the desert. Something goes wrong and the two start a conflict that can't end well.

Michael Douglas still has a solid presence in the screen and you get to see some wild landscape. But the actual plot after the "thing" that will go wrong seems like ridiculous to me and to the people I know they saw the movie. Lots of hasty decisions without thinking.

Anyway, this isn't going to the Oscars but it is somehow watchable and 90 minutes pass relative quickly if you don't mind the, in my opinion, incoherent plot. As a plus you get to see the new Benz 6X6 before it reaches the production line. Reportedly costs more than half a million.