Black Rock

This is the story of three women that were once really close friends that decide to get together on a remote island in Maine to reconnect. Very swiftly their idyllic trip falls apart when they run into some men with nefarious intentions. The women must come together like never before to survive and outwit their hunters.

This is not a great movie, but it is definitely good. As other reviewers pointed out, it is formulaic, but aren't 95% of the movies out there? The three lead actresses do a great job and there are some legitimate tense moments.This is a great movie for you to shut down your brain and go on a thrill ride.

Three women around the age of 30 partake of a reunion vacation to a Maine island where they hanged out when they were girls and had a fort. Sarah (Kate Bosworth) masterminds the event with the hope of reconciling the estranged Abby (Katie Aselton) and Lou (Lake Bell). The camping trip starts well enough, but things go awry and it turns into a survival situation.

"Black Rock" (2012) is a life-or-death backwoods drama/adventure/horror in the tradition of "Deliverance" (1972), "The Edge" (1997), "Nightmare at Bittercreek" (1988) and "Backcountry" (2014). While it lacks the budget of the first two, it's at least as good as the latter two.

These types of flicks are about being backed into a corner in the wilderness and finding your instincts to survive at all costs, including your primitive rage to kill if necessary. This one's totally realistic and very well done, not to mention pleasantly streamlined.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot around Milbridge, Maine.

GRADE: B+

This film seems to be a rip-off of the British movie THE HIKE, which came out a year earlier and has pretty much exactly the same storyline (although the unfolding action is different, obviously). This is slim, independent film-making with a small cast and smaller budget. Three girls decide to go out into the wilderness for a camping trip, only to meet a trio of ex-soldiers, and things unfold from there.

I disliked this film from the opening scenes, and that's down to the script. The dialogue given to the main characters is puerile and you end up hating them from the outset. What's with that one girl pretending she had cancer in order to emotionally blackmail the others? It's pretty sick and you lose all respect for that character despite the best efforts of the actress playing her.

The story that unfolds is very predictable, with tons of these "survival horror" type films having been made in recent years. You don't care about the predicament of the leads and everything that happens feels stale and too well telegraphed in advance. I burst out laughing at the gratuitous nude scene and at the artifice of the ending where you can easily guess what happens. Non-existent acting, a horrid script, and unlikeable characters sink this from the outset.

First off, this is a very formulaic set up. That is not a bad thing, when I want an action movie, I want the action movie formula; when I want a horror movie, I want the horror movie formula. Black Rock follows the horror/survival/thriller genre of movie to the tee. Fine.

There are skinny unarmed women, who meet ex military armed soldiers and without giving away any 'twist', things get bloody quickly. The characters are roughly sketched with some solid acting, but we never really get to know or care about the characters. No problem, not what we are here for.

Where the movie falls apart is two fold: First, the best part about the movie should the Black Rock Island, a small (how small?) island with waters too cold to swim in. It is a great idea for a terrifying setting. However, it is rarely used to any effect. What makes the setting worse is the characters can both hid for a day, yet be almost on top of each other at the same time. At points the island seems to be miles long covered with dense forest, and at other points characters are hoping from one side to the other in a couple steps. This is confusing and a missed opportunity.

Second, when good horror/thriller movies set up the conflict, it almost always the strong terrorizing the weak, but the weak figure out some trick to save themselves. We as the audience need to believe that they can succeed, or be able to imagine that we could come up with a plan to survive. Unfortunately, this movie puts Labron James and (pre ankle) Kobe Bryant in a 2 on 2 basketball game with two 12 year old girls in wheel chairs. We as an audience need to believe our two heroines in wheel chairs have a chance, but we can't. The odds are so stacked against them that if they lose we are bored and if they win it is unbelievable. That is true of this movie as well. We are bored seeing boots crush ants and roll our eyes and almost laugh when that tears the booted leg off at the knee.

A long analogy, but the problem is that it is only through total incompetence and baffunery of the antagonists that the heroes don't just die 20 minutes into the movie.

Once you get past these two rather large disappointments there are other hard to overcome plot holes, like the sniper who can take out a moving target in the dark from atop a cliff with a head shot one minute then barley knows which end of his gun the bullets come out of the rest of the movie.

There is also a rather odd nude scene part way through that neither makes sense logically or in the story. The point of this still escapes me, but it was at least the only interesting character progression of the film.

All in all, it is a laboured film. It is too bad, because I looked forward to this film and was excited about the premise. The parts are there, but so much more could have been done with it. Characters flushed out, plot holes filled, more time taken with the mood and setting. Unfortunately, this Black Rock should sit in the bottom of the lake where no one can find it.

"What happened was an accident. Abby is sorry." Three friends set out for a getaway weekend on an island they used to frequent when they were younger. While they are talking they are surprised when three men who have been hunting show up at their camp site. The two groups begin talking and drinking. When a fatal accident happens the girls relaxing weekend turns into a fight for survival. There are movies that are made that you have to really pay attention to and make you think. While this is very entertaining this is not one of those kind of movies. The movie is really nothing that deep but I did enjoy it. Be prepared for it though, some parts are very gory and a little hard to watch. On the other hand this is a "girl power" type movie so it does have that going for it. If you like movies like the Perfect Getaway then you will like this one as well. It was entertaining and a good watch but nothing that will keep you talking or thinking. Overall, fun and exciting but nothing that original. I liked it though. I give it a B.