Saturday, August 1, 2009

A Nice Place To Getaway, But It's Not Perfect

Action movies are a real treat for action junkies, it feeds the need, it gets the pulse racing and the heart pounding, a really good action movie can take you for the ride and force you to want more. Unfortunately this type of movie is rare and when it does come along it's like a breath of air, when " A Perfect Getaway" opens you don't sense that your in for that breath of air but that your in for a disappointment, well you don't get the breath of fresh air but you won't be totally disappointed either.

Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich) are an adventurous young couple celebrating their honeymoon by backpacking to one of the most beautiful, and remote, beaches in Hawaii. Hoping from one small island to the next, they find this to be a perfect place of seclusion, until the couple run into Nick (Timothy Olyphant) who joins up with them as they walk the path to a secluded beach. Nick is heading to a small cove where Gina (Kiele Sanchez) is waiting for Nick's return. Along the way to the beach the three come across three girls from Kansas City, (Katie Chonacas), (Natalie Garza) and (Lindsay Halladay) who are talking about a murder that happened on another island, they are scared and wonder if it's safe to continue. Nick and the newlyweds decide to go on. When they get to the cove and find Gina, they become fast friends, Cliff has had a run in with another couple hiking the trails, he at first wanted to give the couple a ride, but Kale (Chris Hemsworth) kind of frightens him. Cleo (Marley Shelton) is Kale's girlfriend and right away you wonder if they can be the killers. When cliff is confronted on the path by Kale and Cleo, he is scared, but is rescued by Nick who it turns out may be special forces, or he may be a killer.

The couple wonders just how far they can trust their new friends, it seems that Nick is able to kill anything, he and Cliff go out into the woods one rainy evening to look for some food, when they are out alone Nick tells Cliff that someone is watching them. Cliff runs into the people in the woods and it is someone from the town they just left, Cliff left behind some permits and they wanted to ensure he wouldn't have any trouble with the patrols. Finding the beach at last the two couples are enjoying themselves when Cliff talks some other beachcombers into letting him borrow two kayaks so he and Nick can go out and explore some caves. Here is where the truth about who is and isn't the killer comes out, a fight for survival ensures for the innocent and the chase is on. The innocent and evil fight it out on the beach, on the cliffs and along the path. One of the women is able to get a phone call off to 911 and then has to fight to stay alive, running away from the killers, the woman runs into a group of men looking for there kayaks. The killer tries to explain what is going on, but is forced to take matters into his own hands, thanks to the never ending supply of ammunition that is common place in most action movies, he is able to dispatch several men and continue to pursue the women. The man who was left for dead shows up and defends her, the two fight but a police helicopter shows up and the women on board who is a partner of the other killer tells the police sniper that the killer is down there.

A standard action ploy is to introduce the red herring, this movie has that, we get the perfect suspect, we get the evidence that supports that, but if you have seen action movies before you know the most obvious suspect is never the bad guys. How this movie will end is clear to see, it is so obvious that you may feel its another ploy, it isn't. The plot is told through flashbacks in black and white, to bad they don't tell us why these people are nuts, just throw in the drug use and suggest that is why they do what they do. Make the bad guys evil but tell us why.

I give A Perfect Getaway a 2 and on my avoidance scale a 1, this movie has nothing that you will miss out on if you wait to see it four months from now, the scenery is beautiful, the cast is strong, the plot, well its just one standard cliche after another.hold off on this movie, there will be plenty of time to enjoy this one, maybe during one of your own perfect getaways.

A Perfect Getaway is rated R for Graphic Violence, Language including a Sexual Reference and some Drug Use
Running time is 1 hr. 35 mins.

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