(1961) *1/2
Here's one for Octo's subgenre of movie titles that end with an exclamation point. It's also part of a couple other fun subgenres: movies that got reused as fodder for MST3K; cheap B-movies featuring young stars before they became famous (Robert Reed!); and movies based on the story the Most Dangerous Game (seriously, there have been like 20 movies based on the story).
If you're not familiar with that story, it's the one about the big game hunter who has an island mansion where he lures unsuspecting humans to serve as his game. In this iteration, a group of 4 cheery high schoolers get trapped on the island and are forced into playing the role of prey.
One of the fun weaknesses of this one is the weird tone coming from the 4 kids--even after all sorts of weird and (supposedly) scary shit has happened, they're still pretty unfazed and perky like they've just left the set of Beach Blanket Bingo. "Can I just say one more time. I'm scared," one girl says with absolutely no earnestness at all while reflecting on her boyfriend being lost in the jungle, hunted by a guy with a crossbow.
There's some more mockable stuff, but I'm not sure this is quite bad enough to fall into the so-bad-it's-good category. I think you might need the help of the added wit of the MST3K guys to really make this one a worthwhile comedy. Still, for completists of the Robert Reed canon, this is obviously a must!
8 comments:
I forgot to mention the judo-expert perky little blonde, young Mike Brady's girlfriend. I'd hit it.
I love the beach blanket bingo reference, your tearing it up this year!
Ha ha! "Completists of the Robert Reed canon."
I had a coworker when I worked in children's books who had the occasional knack of saying the worst thing possible. One time in a big, multi-department meeting Robert Reed came up, and thinking she was gonna get some laughs on the Brady Bunch Vs. Real Life platform, she said "Robert Reed? You mean that gay man who died of AIDS!?!"
She wasn't homophobic, she really just didn't know when to shut up sometimes.
Did you watch it with the MST3K guys or without?
I LOVE this movie as well as any movie based on A Most Dangerous Game. Crystal and I watched The Hard Target this past weekend and though the first half is weak as hell, John Woo struts his stuff in the climax. I really, really, really want to watch the 1932 Most Dangerous Game movie (which I've never seen) as well as Surviving the Game (for the 10th time) but alas that must wait until November...
I totally almost snagged this when I saw it on Netflix instant view last night mostly because of that exclamation point! Kind of happy I skipped it now...
sounds like an opportunity for a really lopsided thon subgenre -- one whole month of The Most Dangerous Game.
i'd do it, but my obligation towards omnibus completion ended the moment the credits rolled on Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood.
That was six years ago 50P! (Holy crap, that was six freaking years ago...)
i might be willing to take on that subgenre some year. probably a great recipe for burnout, both in terms of movie watching and review writing.
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