Hors de portée

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.

Occasionally we all get needy. So Ben, a young hunting guide, may perhaps be forgiven for taking a large bribe from an arrogant, ridiculously wealthy and fearless client. The two descend into the Mojave Desert wilderness in order to hunt bighorn out of season. There are many red flags to this, yet Ben's girlfriend just left for college and he is left considering if solitude and poverty are in his future. Deep into the desert it is not long before an incident occurs that sets Ben and Madec, a C.E.O. with a sport utility vehicle that costs over half a million dollars, at odds with each other. It is the old-school-young versus the new-technology-old in a delicious thriller. Michael Douglas, starring as Madec, returns to his stock and trade as a depraved and greedy man who lets no one get in the way of himself and his obsessions. Douglas gives a fine performance, yet he can't carry the film on his own. It is far-fetched, shallow and disjointed at times. The film is, however, compelling and fulfilling in its story and the possibilities it presents. It gives truth to Melville's saying that "an utterly fearless companion is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward." Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

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.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Beyond the Reach" (2014) is nice little flick for some boring evening. It has nothing special, nothing original, nothing really great yet it is an enjoyable thriller, but with a bad ending, very bad ending.

Michael Douglas was the first and only reason why i saw this flick in the first place. He does not disappoint, but sadly there is almost absolutely nothing to do in here for THIS caliber actor. Jeremy Irvine is quite good in here, but the role doesn't requires much except for physical suffering.

Overall, "Beyond the Reach" was nice little flick. I enjoyed for what it was, but the ending was terrible. That wouldn't happen in real life not in a million years. Who wrote THAT bad ending?

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.