Hostile Forces

I am tired of people who obviously push a movie for whatever reason in a review. I have noticed an ongoing trend of seeing these amazing reviews for these average at best movies first up by people.

This movie is not an 8 or a 10 but far from it. It is obviously a low budget film following a tried old storyline of a family in a cabin and things go wrong then they must be killed.

I am not sure what the others were watching but it is far from a good movie or a brilliant 8/10. I think honesty is the best policy and yes, we all have our own opinions, but let's be fair to everyone in a review. In this movie you will not sit on the edge of your seat, the acting is only ok and the action so so at best. The bad guys who are meant to be professionals always miss their shots, the good guys with very little military experience cannot miss, and those professionals cannot track a group who obviously have no formal training in evasion.

Writing a review is meant to be balanced assessment and I assume truthful. I would just say it is a 4-star movie at best and therefore do not expect a lot from the movie. If you go into watching this movie with a balanced view, you have the best chance of enjoying it and not being disappointed + think you wasted your time (in my humble opinion).

Let's start with the plot. There's not a skerrick of originality in it. If you've ever watched a cheap and nasty 80s blood-and-guts action movie, you don't need to watch this.

Then there's the implausibility. You travel with your family to a house in the remote bush with no telephone, no internet, but a huge TV set for some reason, and the first thing you notice is a horrible smell. "Probably a dead rat" is the explanation offered by one of the characters. Does anyone bother looking for the rat? Matybe you could check under the furnitre or behind the fridge. No, they just settle in and continue to wonder about the horrible smell.

To escape the people who are trying to kill them, they find a rocky shelter, well exposed, not very far from the house, and they light a fire on the first night. Yep, they'll be safe there.

Ok so. Most reviews lambasted this flic for not being what they expected. I found this riveting. No bag of stunts. No rediculous.pyrotechnics. This was a well done edge of your seat low budget thriller with a bunch of no big name actors who did their craft very well. Done with very few cliche lines. I really could not predict where this was going in terms of the usual plots Hollywood movies would have taken. Throughout the action I kept trying to predict the next move and only once was I right. As low tech and low production feeling this movie may have been. This movie kept me guessing throughout its unfolding action and development of characters. Quietly, slowly enjoyable is how I would characterize this film!

I watched this last night after seeing all these reviews offering between 1's and 10's thinking at the least it will be a five: neither good nor bad.

As an Aussie I love watching or discovering home grown gems, especially those on tight budget. Its what we do best! Knowing this my biggest disappointment was the music and editing. It could've been edited tighter esp between transitions to avoid scene sequence awkwardness. And music! What a let down. Totally lacked drama and tension. Had no atmosphere. Dramatic music always started 3 seconds late, then abruptly ends. No music during heartfelt moments, leaving you disconnected and having less empathy with characters.

Besides that, cinematography was good. Script: Adequate to poor. Location was great. Acting was adequate. Maya was the clear standout. Action sequences were adequate. Got a bit monotonous and would have been fine if this was an 80's movie. Character development: for the two protagonists, George and Troy, adequate. The children, poor. They were running from hired mercenaries and conveyed no drama. I blame director for this. The mercs were too stereotypical and cartoonish.

I started off with 5, but minus 2 gives an honest 3 to 4 stars. Definitely not the family/friends votes of 8-10.

Gave this chance on the high reviews, I also don't mind a low budget film but sorry this is bad. Not sure how old George is about 50? Did he wake up one morning and think I know let's make a really cheap Rambo film today ? The result a very bad Rambo film made in 24hrs. . . Must try harder. I need 600 characters but not sure what else to say..

Maybe I could be in part 2 and make it a 5 star film, George if you read this I'm available free of charge, I know all the mid 80's action classics to help bring the ratings up to the right level.

How much did this cost to make I wonder ?

Will this review make it ?