By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
While local movie theaters have now been closed, earlier they limited capacity and encouraged social distancing. But the new releases really aren’t worth leaving home for.
Because of political controversy, the initial 2019 release of “The Hunt” was delayed following mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas; now it’s in theaters during a pandemic. Go figure.
Taking its cue from Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game,” it depicts wealthy, heavily armed elites exercising their Second Amendment right against a dozen drugged/kidnapped/gagged victims, stalking them as sport on a private game reserve in Croatia.
As the opening text notes: “Nothing better than going out to the Manor and slaughtering a dozen deplorables.”
Snarling Southerner Crystal May Creesy (Betty Gilpin) is ex-military, having served in combat in Afghanistan. She’s an enigmatic survivalist, determined to wreak revenge on her captors, particularly the group’s leader, Athena (Hilary Swank). In the press notes, their pivotal hand-to-hand confrontation is described as “John Wick in a Nancy Meyers movie.”
Obviously, “Lost”/”Leftovers” screenwriters Nick Cuse and Damon Lindelof, working with director Craig Zobel (“Compliance”), intended to create a provocative social satire/cultural commentary about class conflict and the ruthless abuse of power, but they fail miserably.
Both the predators and prey are sloppy, shallow, stereotyped caricatures, as opposed to subversive characters, dubbing their conspiratorial hunting endeavor as “Manor-gate.”
There’s even a pig named Orwell, referencing George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” and a revision of “The Tortoise and the Hare” fable.
The quickly disposable supporting cast includes Ike Barinholtz, Emma Roberts, Ethan Suplee, Reed Birney, Amy Madigan, Kate Nowlin and Glenn Howerton.
Produced by Jason Blum for about $15 million, it’s filled with graphic, gory, R-rated exploitation, falling into the brutal Blumhouse horror/thriller genre, which includes “The Purge,” “Get Out,” “Us,” and most recently “The Invisible Man.”
FYI: Previous film adaptations of Connell’s 1924 short story include “The Most Dangerous Game” (1932), “Hard Target” (1993), “Surviving the Game” (1994), “The Pest (1997) and “The Eliminator” (2004).
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Hunt” is an angry, insufferable 3, filled with schlock, blood-splattered mayhem. Keep your distance.
Like ABCs hit TV series (1977-84), the nostalgic, big-screen adaptation “Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island” begins with eager guests arriving at a luxurious resort on a mysterious tropical island. Greeted by their white-suited host, Mr. Roarke (Michael Pena), they’re anticipating that their wildest dreams will come true.
Instead of paying $50,000 for the privilege of visiting this paradise, they’re contest-winners whom Mr. Roarke cautions, “Fantasies rarely play out as you would expect.”
What businesswoman Gwen Olsen (Maggie Q), former police officer Patrick Sullivan (Austin Stowell), disturbed Melanie Cole (Lucy Hale) and high-fiving stepbrothers J.D. (Ryan Hansen) and Brax (Jimmy O. Young) Weaver don’t realizes is that Jeff Wadlow’s grisly version is filled with violent, supernatural sci-fi horror.
Lurking in the background as these grisly, nightmarish episodes unfold, breaking every law of nature and reason, there’s Damon (Michael Rooker), a machete-wielding private investigator who’s determined to discover the true intentions behind Fantasy Island.
Directed by Jeff Wadow (“Truth or Dare”), who coscripted with Chris Roach and Jillian Jacobs, the scenario utilizes far too many pop culture references (like “Games of Thrones” and “Call of Duty”) as it skips from one character’s campy fantasy to another’s, resulting in an inevitable lack of tension and any emotional involvement on the part of the viewer.
On TV, Ricardo Montalban was enigmatic Mr. Rourke with Herve Villechaize as his diminutive assistant Tattoo, and cinematographer Toby Oliver sets up several shots that reference the original series.
FYI: Made on a strict budget of $7 million, most of the filming took place on Fiji’s Navodo Bay. And the closing scenes set the stage for sequels.
On the Granger Gauge, “Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island” is a feverishly fragmented 4, once again relying on sinister style over substance.
This week’s BEST CHOICE is “The Serengeti Rules,” streaming on Apple TV.
Exploring some of the most remote and spectacular places on Earth, five pioneering scientists reveal their surprising discoveries that challenge our traditional understanding about nature and offer hope for restoring our world.
In the 1960s, led by visionary ecologist Bob Paine, these curious researchers ventured into the wilderness to discover how balance affects the bionetwork of various areas. What they found was that certain rules govern all life on our planet and could save as many as one million species.
Leukemia-stricken Bob Paine, who was interviewed just before his death in 2016, relates how he focused on tide pools in Washington’s Pacific Northwest, specifically Mukkah Bay Tatoosh Island. When he eliminated voracious starfish, the biodiversity was adversely affected. From this, he deduced that the traditional pyramid structure of the food chain was incorrect, concluding that predators were essential.
Mary Power based her research on largemouth bass who eat the minnows in Oklahoma’s freshwater streams. John Terborgh ventured deep into Venezuela’s Amazon rainforest to find that soaring ant populations cause devastating defoliation.
And John Estes chose the kelp forests on Amchitka Island in Alaska’s Aleutians, where sea otters are a keystone species because, they keep the sea urchins from devouring the kelp that provides food and shelter for fish.
In perhaps the most photogenic sequence, Tony Sinclair went to the Serengeti in Tanzania, where he found that the wildebeest herds control the number of trees, butterflies, elephants and even giraffes on the savanna.
Bottom line: when the keystones are removed, the ecosystems unravel and stability collapses.
Based on the book by Sean B. Carroll, this documentary is written and directed by Nicolas Brown, who combines interviews with significant re-enactments, graphics and stunning cinematography.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Serengeti Rules” is a stunning 7, revealing how various species are essential in the way they interact with one another.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
