This is one of those movies that has a big reputation for pushing the envelope.
It's mostly undeserved.
Yes, the animal scenes are real. No, they don't add a lot to the film. They're just kind of there. Aside from that, this is a film that really doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind. There's an emphasis on media violence, desensitization, anti-imperialism, but it breaks this message completely by showing long scenes of violence, cruelty, and stereotyped "cannibal" villagers.
These scenes are graphic, but there's both too much and not enough of them. When the violence comes, it's very graphic, but it actually becomes boring because they go on for longer than they should. At the same time, these scenes just don't show up as often as you might think. You get a long scene, but then you get quite some time of the crew just walking through the jungle.
There's also the entire second half, which is a huge, preachy segment going against the very thing that the entire first half of the film is made up of. So much talking, little of interest.
It's hard to believe you could make a bad gore exploitation film, but this director succeeded, if only in that, and nothing else.
Horror, but not in the way that you'd expect.
This is one of those movies that has a big reputation for pushing the envelope.
It's mostly undeserved.
Yes, the animal scenes are real. No, they don't add a lot to the film. They're just kind of there. Aside from that, this is a film that really doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind. There's an emphasis on media violence, desensitization, anti-imperialism, but it breaks this message completely by showing long scenes of violence, cruelty, and stereotyped "cannibal" villagers.
These scenes are graphic, but there's both too much and not enough of them. When the violence comes, it's very graphic, but it actually becomes boring because they go on for longer than they should. At the same time, these scenes just don't show up as often as you might think. You get a long scene, but then you get quite some time of the crew just walking through the jungle.
There's also the entire second half, which is a huge, preachy segment going against the very thing that the entire first half of the film is made up of. So much talking, little of interest.
It's hard to believe you could make a bad gore exploitation film, but this director succeeded, if only in that, and nothing else.