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"Rogue"

"Rogue"
By Dan Turpin ( Monday, August 25, 2008 ) - 686 Views - 0 Comments

Here’s a novelty, a JAWS rip-off that’s actually… Good!

To be fair, to call the film a rip-off sounds insulting and that’s not the intent because the film is quite excellent. The killer shark films were done good-once. “JAWS’ is of course one of those untouchable films that deserves every kind word ever written about it. Due to its groundbreaking success it begat tons of bastard children; the flood gates opened with tons of remakes, rehashes and rip-offs. Once the killer shark idea had run it’s course with one good sequel, (“JAWS 2”) and two terrible ones, (“JAWS 3” & “JAWS: The Revenge”) copy cat producers scrambled for other angry water-bound critters on the attack; Whales, (“Orca”) Octopi (“Tentacles”), Piranha (“Piranha” duh!), and Alligators (“Alligator”) were some of the best known. When the water critters dried up, land based beasties went on the hunt in the cheap, but fun, “Grizzly!” and from the same producers came a pissed off animal kingdom in “Day of the Animals.” The genre cannibalized itself well into the 80’s 90’s with even more rotten sequels and lack of ideas. A glimmer of hope was delivered with 1999’s ‘Deep Blue Sea”, but once again the genre sunk to ridiculous depths with the Direct to DVD “Shark Attack” series that barely had any shark attacking at all.

Set in Australia, American actor Michael Vartan plays Pete, a writer on assignment for a travel magazine who heads up north to take in a scenic river tour, led by (Radha Mitchell) Captain Kate. Piling into the boat with the typical eclectic group of tourists, Pete is at first annoyed by his surroundings, but soon rises to the occasion when the group is harassed by some local yokels.

. When things are taken off course by a rescue flare in the sky, Captain Kate informs her crew that they’ve stumbled into the territory of an aggressive crocodile that quickly sinks the boat leaving the panicky tourists to deal with a hungry predator and rising waters on a tiny island.

It’s a real shame this movie was largely forgotten and dumped into only a handful of theaters with nary a promotion. Its plot certainly conjures up Direct-to-DVD cheese, but as we’ve learned long ago, you don’t judge a DVD by its cover.

Thirty plus years later and just as influential, the Beard’s masterpiece, “JAWS” continues to cultivate its legacy.

“Rogue” is genius in it’s simplicity to entertain. A razor-sharp thriller that uses many of the same tricks Spielberg used out of necessity; “here, its done out of reverence to excellent effect.

Old school tactics are employed as we hardly ever see the beastie; beneath the surface shadows, bubbling water and half-eaten victims make up most of the creatures presence, until the last act when we do see it, it’s impressive. CGI was definitely used, but good old fashioned animatronics sell the whole thing, never once does it make you question the creature’s reality.

Writer/Director Greg Mclean continues to shower love on his homeland with one gorgeous shot after another of the Australian landscape. Unlike “WolfCreek”, his previous film, which was at times inspired, but mostly torture trash, “Rogue” proves he has evolved; far more depth has been taken to get the audience to care for the characters and actually feel pity towards the beastie. Besides some absolutely stunning scenery, we get some truly suspenseful moments that would make Alfred Hitchcock smile with pride.

Great care was taken to make the characters behave best as possible in an obvious panic state. They never act like idiots or just do what’s convenient for the screenplay.

Movies like this always tread familiar territory with characters acting honorably, cowardly and downright despicable. We get that, but they all Mclean wrings as much tension as possible by making the situation so dire, we feel these poor souls won’t get out alive. A smart move, as most films like this pour it on so thick, the characters come off as cliches and you beg for the beastie to end their miserable lives.

I dug too how the creature was not demonized and turned into an evil, chomping beastie. It’s stressed several times how the creature is just protecting its territory and posterity.

The performances are all solid, Vartan being the only real recognizable face, has never been a favorite of mine since his days on “Alias,” which he seemed to wear the same facial expression- looking as if he just crapped a load in his pants. Here he's at least given some heroic moments.

The final act is very reminiscent of “JAWS” as it becomes man vs. croc. Although not nearly as flashy, it’s surprisingly restrained and classy, especially for a genre film like this. It’s not nearly as iconic as Quint getting chomped, but it will do.

“Rogue” will definitely jump to the head of the line of all of the JAWS rip-offs/rehashes/retreads…etc and take its place as a wonderful B movie that doesn’t act like one; instead we get to enjoy the carnage instead of run over by it.