Brothers Matt (Eric Lively) and John (Oliver Hudson), their girlfriends, Sara (Taryn Manning) and Nicki (Michelle Rodriguez), and pal Noah (Hill Harper) are looking for a little R and R when they jet off for a week's vacation on a deserted island. What they get instead is terror when a pack of crazed canines makes them prey. Outnumbered (and very nearly outwitted), the group must fight off the genetically engineered killers. -netflix
First off, college kids should know that vacationing on a deserted island is going to lead to trouble.... probably any island in fact. More importantly, one that once contained some kind of governmentally sponsored dog training facility. It's the government; do you really think they are using that facility for the betterment of mankind or for some other sinister reason? I don't think I knew any people in college that weren't conspiracy theorists... so what's wrong with these kids?
So now that I have sufficiently pissed off all college kids everywhere, lets move on to pissing off other people. Why did they feel the need to throw a token black friend into the mix? You have two couples and a fifth wheel on vacation together... makes sense right? I know when I think vacation getaway with my women friends, that it wouldn't be the same unless we brought our hip and single black friend along for the ride. Just seemed kind of pointless, and probably was only done to add some sort of hipness to the film. Granted, he added a good deal of the comic relief to the movie and his acting was not too bad... I just wanted to point out that it didn't make sense to me that he was there to begin with.
Now on to actual important points about the movie. This was a pretty decent killer animal flick, and anyone who has read any of my reviews knows that I am a big fan of these. While I dig when they make the creatures overly big and scary, like in Lake Placid... I thought that making the dogs look pretty much normal really worked here. The dogs were mainly doing what dogs do best... they just had their killer instincts genetically enhanced. That is what makes dogs kind of scary anyway... the fact that they are killers at heart, have a pack mentality and can turn on you in a deadly way in an instant. They are efficient killers when they need to be, and smart enough to out-maneuver humans, no matter how intellectually superior we think we are.
The acting was fairly decent given the writing that they had to work with. The script was chock full of cliches and out of place dialogue... but they did a pretty good job at making us care what happened to them (mostly). The girl that was supposed to be the sexy girl was not sexy at all... not even positive it was a girl. Whoever cast her in that role must drink heavily. The shining spot in the cast was Michelle Rodriguez, who is always hot and a pretty good actress when she is kicking butt as a badass chick. However, the dogs really stole the show. I guess that is probably for the best in this type of film, although it might have been better if I felt like I should root for the humans a little more. Some of the plot holes were pretty deep, but the film kept up a decent enough pace that you can overlook most of them. I could have done without the dogs passing along whatever that was to those they had bitten. The sixth sense they seemed to inherit that made them seem to be able to sense the dogs... or whatever was going on there. They also did some pretty stupid things during the movie. For instance, they would roll the windows down in the car, knowing that the dogs were around and could get at them. There was also a scene where some bloody guy came running through the woods and warned them about the dogs... and they seemed pretty nonchalant about it. There was also a surprise abrupt ending that wasn't a surprise to anyone... but that is the formula that must be followed I guess.
While it might sound like I am bashing this film quite a bit, I actually didn't hate it. I enjoyed watching the movie and would certainly recommend this as a rental for those who like this type of thing. It is worth a look.
Brothers Matt (Eric Lively) and John (Oliver Hudson), their girlfriends, Sara (Taryn Manning) and Nicki (Michelle Rodriguez), and pal Noah (Hill Harper) are looking for a little R and R when they jet off for a week's vacation on a deserted island. What they get instead is terror when a pack of crazed canines makes them prey. Outnumbered (and very nearly outwitted), the group must fight off the genetically engineered killers. -netflix
