It's true I never have been a too big fan of John Boorman but I can still appreciate some of his movie, of which this movie is definitely one.

It's actually a surprisingly great movie really. Surprising, since the movie is a very simple and minimalistic one, with its setup and settings. But that obviously is actually a huge part of its strength and helps to give the movie a great sense of realism.

I would even describe this movie as hyper-realistic, in which none of the events feel forced and everything progresses in a very natural way, even though the story itself in essence is still a pretty far fetched one. There is not even really a buildup to things but the movie simply just allows things to happen, as also would be the case in real life. This doesn't always work out for a movie but in this case it works out extremely well and gives the movie a great sense of tension and constant danger as well. It besides makes the movie an unpredictable one, especially once you start to realize that none of the main characters are ever safe.

It ultimately is a very basic movie about survival, in which men literally goes back to nature. It lets this movie sound like the ultimate guys movie but its approach ensures that this movie remains very watchable and accessible for just about everybody. Everybody should be able to get something out of this movie and should be able to identify themselves with at least one of the movie its main characters and their behavior and reasoning.

It's also still a very violent movie but the movie its violence isn't there to shock or impressive you. It instead is their to add to the movie its realism and helps to let all of its characters come across as real human beings, that can get hurt in an all too real way.

It's a funny thing that this movie has some great actors in it, that are all quite hard to recognize, to be honest. First of all Burt Reynolds without a mustache....it makes him look like a totally different guy! Same story for a still very young looking Jon Voight, with lots of blond hair and Ronny Cox, looking younger and more dorky than you have ever seen him. For the first few minutes I honestly had no idea I was watching Jon Voight and Ronny Cox! But having said all that, all of them are great in this movie of course, as is Ned Beatty, who is more recognizable.

A really great and above all very effective movie!

8/10

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(Review originally written at 15 December 2007)

This movie makes some odd choices. On the one hand it's a good looking and also clearly professionally made movie with lots of talent involved but it just makes some wrong choices in its storytelling.

The movie obviously starts of as a dramatic 'based on true' events movie but soon as the movie starts to progresses it starts taking some obvious 'Hollywood' turns, with its emotions and action and the story becomes more unlikely and clichéd. Of course nothing wrong with this, since it definitely makes the movie an entertaining and bit of adventurous one. But in this case the approach doesn't really work out, since it also obviously is a movie that wants to be taken seriously and has a clear message in it. You know, the kind of message to 'save the rain forest'. It also uses lots of technology vs. nature elements. I'll admit that this movie is a better attempt than all Steven Seagal attempts combined but no, that doesn't mean that this movie is a perfect or truly successful attempt on its own. The movie seems to lack the proper emotions to see this as a completely effective one, though the right intentions are definitely there. I mean for instance, the characters within this movie see each other again for the first time in 10 years but yet they seem hardly affected by it all.

The natives scenes also aren't always among the best or most interesting one's out of the movie. Sure the nature environments are beautiful looking but it slows the movie a bit down in the middle, which also is in big contrast with the serious and dramatic first part of the movie and the action filled final part. The entire movie doesn't always feel like one whole. The parts of it are all too disjointed.

It nevertheless it is a rather good- and also entertaining enough movie to watch, despite its obvious flaws and bad choices in the storytelling. And hey, it's got Powers Booth!

7/10