Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
... View MoreThe performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
... View MoreExcellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
... View MoreThere are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
... View MoreCurtis Hanson directed this exciting thriller that stars Meryl Streep and David Strathairn as Gail and Tom Hartman, who are taking their son with them on a white water river rafting trip in the mountains while on vacation. Gail is the real expert rafter, which will come in handy as they are intercepted by two men named Wade and Terry(played by Kevin Bacon and John C. Reilly) who at first pretend to simply be lost and inexperienced rafters. Wade even bonds with their son to an extent, and appears charming to Gail, but they are both really crooks who kidnap them at gunpoint and force Gail to lead them over the rapids, where they will meet up with their accomplices. How can Gail get them out of this mess? Good film with solid direction and performances, especially Streep and Bacon. May not be entirely original, even routine, but so skillfully presented it doesn't matter.
... View MoreCurtis Hanson's box office hit 'The River Wild' is well-shot and even gripping in parts, but what really stands tall in this thriller and balances the film even when it dips, are the performances by it's talented star-cast. The story involves a family on a whitewater rafting trip, who encounter two violent criminals in the wilderness. 'The River Wild', which has been written by Denis O'Neill, offers some gripping moments, that truly manage to hold your attention. The characters, are nicely presented and executed. But, I would like to point out, that, the writing in the latter hour tends to drag a bit. The film surely could've been shorter by at least 10-15 minutes. And I believe if it had been trimmed, it's impact would have only enhanced. Curtis Hanson's direction, like always, is efficient. Cinematography is Striking. Editing is fair. Performance-Wise: Meryl Streep is superb, as expected. She carries the film on her shoulders and delivers with ease in each and every scene. Kevin Bacon makes a really interesting bad guy, and proves his potential as an actor. David Strathaim is first-rate. John C. Reilly is good. Joseph Mazzello supports well. On the whole, A decent one-time watch, that offers strong performances to sail it safe.
... View MoreI'll grant that the last 15 minutes or so of "The River Wild" are a pretty exciting and suspenseful white water rafting adventure. The unfortunate thing about it is that these are only the last 15 minutes or so. Up to that point what we have is a pretty slow moving river journey, with the added complication, of course, being that the troubled family on the trip finds more trouble as they pick up a couple of guys who robbed the local cattle auction. In the end the movie turns out to be pretty formulaic, with movements and plot points that we've definitely seen before - many times, in fact.Meryl Streep was an interesting choice as Gail - mother and white water guide - and while she was interesting (basically because this isn't what you'd think of as a normal Meryl Streep role) I didn't find her convincing in the part, either (which is probably why it's not a normal Meryl Streep role!) Kevin Bacon was somewhat more credible as Wade, the guy apparently in charge of the robbery, who decides to take the family hostage in order to use Gail's rafting expertise to run a particularly deadly river in the hopes of escaping the law. Along for the ride were David Strathairn as Gail's husband, John C. Reilly as Wade's sidekick and Joseph Mazzello as young Roarke, Gail's son.It's a decent enough cast. The story isn't especially original, though, and I just didn't find the movie to be all that exciting. Watching a rafting trip (which is essentially what we do for the bulk of this movie) with a few bits of drama thrown in as we become gradually more suspicious of the two strangers doesn't exactly make for a gripping two hours of viewing. There is, of course, the requisite ending as it seems that all the family's troubles are solved by having gone through this adventure together. (3/10)
... View MoreThis is a pretty good action adventure which is enhanced by the against-type casting of Meryl Streep as the woman who finds herself held hostage by a couple of robbers on the run while on a rafting family with her near-estranged husband and difficult son.Although Streep is good she is matched by David Strathairn as her city-type husband who initially looks so at odds with the outdoor setting simply by the way he moves - and even sits. He doesn't have any emotional scenes but still manages to superbly transmit his awkwardness with both his surroundings and a wife and son who are slipping away from him. And while Strathairn matches Streep, Bacon surpasses her as the initially charismatic Wade, one of a trio of criminals on the run after robbing a cattle market.The robbers, their numbers reduced by one after a spat, smoothly invite themselves to join the Hartman party and it isn't long before Wade is slyly exploiting the cracks he spies in the relationship between Tom (Strathairn) and his son Roarke (Joseph Mazzello). The film focuses as much on the psychological aspect of the interaction of the four main characters (John C. Reilly as Wade's sidekick is a bystander for the most part) as it does on the action scenes, which is probably why it was more enjoyable than the straightforward action pics Hollywood normally produces. Even the finale is as much about psychological cat-and-mouse games as action set-pieces - which isn't a bad thing in my book.
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