Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

I had to kill some time. But 40mins in and I wanted to see the lions tear apart the 3 stupid fools stranded. Here are 2 stupid scenes that got me to cut my misery before it got the point where I'd offer myself to the lions.* When you get the keys to the car and all you have to do while safe in the vehicle is turn around and go back. But the dumass drives straight through the bushes and trees only to get stuck in a ditch. Apparently, brakes were not provided.* When Lions are outside your vehicle, you don't run around the screaming to get the attention of a helicopter miles away.Honestly, I feel I should quit my day job, repent for my college and post grad education and just make movies. Its evident the qualification to commercialize movies like these is the ability to hold a camera, hit record and do stupid stuff.

A woman and her step-kids trapped in a safari car in the territory of lions who soon make it their business to get at them. The plot sounds similar to Savage Harvest, which, while more over the top, still achieves much better what it sets out to do than Prey.PROS - The cinematography on these lions is on a level that even eclipses The Ghost and the Darkness (the quintessential lion film) at times. The lions' beauty is captured like it rarely is on film, and not once does anything about the lions look fake. If there is a reason to see this film, this is it.Real edge-of-your-seat stuff at times, and the climax is quite unexpected and satisfying.CONS - These characters seem to lack proper reason. When you're short on water and it rains, and you've got bottles, most people would try to fill the bottles with rainwater. Not these people. And the way they get into the mess is also one you can't really help but blame them for.In The Ghost and the Darkness, we really believed there was something about the lions that had them ravage the railroad construction site in Tsavo. In Prey, however, nothing is really preventing these lions from seeking other prey. A smart hungry lion would recognize that to just wait around a jeep is not a good idea.Shaky camera. It works in certain forms of cinema, but not here. The filmwork on the lions often suffers due to the hand-held camera, because it goes all over the place. Thankfully these moments are the exception rather than the rule. No, the foremost problem is...The death scenes are completely unrealistic. Here, The Ghost and the Darkness still wins out. Nothing about the way the lions kill people in Prey looks even remotely believable. As in, splatters of blood splashing up from the ground as if someone popped a balloon full of red liquid. A victim's bloody hands scraping the car window when the lion is attacking him from behind. That kind of non-realistic.This makes Prey a pretty mismatched film. It has some exquisite lion filmwork, and some terribly cheesy scenes when we really need to believe in the lions' menace. 5 out of 10, purely for the cinematography, but if you want a good and thrilling movie about man-eating lions, see The Ghost and the Darkness. If you need an alternative to that, 1981's Savage Harvest is a reasonable choice.

If you are a horror film buff, from the reviews I've read so far, don't watch this as it has no chain saws, or over the top craziness.This is a beautifully shot film, with characters that are portrayed so well, that you will most likely hate them by the end of the movie. To me, one definition of good acting is that it makes you feel something about the character either good or bad.I thought the animal scenes were very well done, without being overly gory to the point where you are no longer disgusted, like most modern horror films--SAW--ahem. I could feel the fear that characters felt and understand that when you are under extreme stress and ignorant of what to do for the most part, you end up doing very stupid things. For example, people whose cars accelerators stick and instead of putting the car in neutral and coasting to the side of the road they panic break and go off the cliff.About the divorced family drama--divorce is very traumatic for kids and many kids don't like their step-parents, initially anyway, so even though this is formulaic it is real and sets the stage for a lot of the decisions that are made.I've watched this film 3 times and I probably will watch it again (with my kids when they're a little older). The ending is probably the only part that I was disappointed with but I can overlook it for the quality of the remainder.

While working in a dam in Africa, the American hydraulic engineer Tom Newman brings his family to spend a couple of days in the Leopard's Rest Lodge. His fourteen year-old daughter Jessica is having friction with her stepmother Amy since she does not accept the divorce of her parents. On the next morning, Amy, Jessica and her brother David go in a game drive with a ranger while Tom goes to the dam. While driving off-road, David asks the ranger to stop the jeep to go to the "toilet", and unexpectedly they are attacked by a group of starving lions that kill and eat the ranger. Amy, Jessica and David are trapped in the jeep and stalked by the wild lions. When Tom returns to the hotel and finds that his family has not returned from the game, he asks for help to the experienced hunter and guide Crawford and together they seek Tom's family. In-Crappy-Credible Thats All I Have To Say. I Was Indredibly Surprised To See This Was Not Darrell Roodt's First Movie. In All The Horror Movies I've Seen I Have Never Seen Something This Ridiculos. Lions Attacking Humans For The Fun Of It. At The End The Car They're In Explodes...Now The Children Were Safe With Their Father But The Mother Was Up & Close To The Car...Now The Last Time I Checked...Car Explosions Killed People...Am I Correct?...Thought I Was...The Stepmother Comes Out Of The Wreckage WITHOUT A SCRATCH OR BRUISE! This Deserves Its Rating Of 4.5 But This Deserves A Little Bottom 100 Treatment. How Can Anybody Call This A Scary Lion Movie? 'The Lion King' Was Scarier Than This. The Little Boy Needs Food Or Water Every 5 Minutes...From What I Remember As A Kid I Never Got That Dehydrated That Quickly. In The Middle Of The Film They Have The Chance To Leave...The Stepmother Does Not Go Up The Mountain Where They Came But She Goes Further Down The Mountain. I Don't Mind Horror Movies Just As Long As They Are Done Good...& This Movie Failed That.