Rogue

Starring: Megan Fox, Philip Winchester, Greg Kriek, Brandon Auret, Jessica Sutton, Kenneth Fok, Isabel Bassett, Adam Deacon
Directed by: M.J. Bassett
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A group of mercenaries try to escape with hostages they freed, but face deadly African rebels and a killer lion.

Review:

Tim: Rogue isn't a good movie, but the fact that it's not a disaster is a testament to M.J. Bassett. I'm not suggesting we should celebrate much about this movie at all. However, I did go into it, thinking it was going to be a completely awful film and it ended up okay. I have to say, despite this film's many flaws, I left it relieved it wasn't worse. So, not a good movie, but pleasantly surprising in a few ways.

The film's plot is somewhat ambitious- a group of mercenaries is on the run from a group of African rebels who are determined to recapture the hostages that slipped out of their grip. Also, there is a killer lion stalking everyone and picking them off one-by-one. I have to say, it felt like a good deal to put into one film. Bassett was part of writing the screenplay, too, so she contributed some in that aspect, too. The movie offers more than your typical action film, which is surprising and somewhat enjoyable.

Now, I've said some positive things about this movie, but it has pretty deep flaws as well. The first one is somewhat out of the filmmakers' control, but the budget severely limited the film's potential. This really dropped the film about .5 in my rating. So much of the drama here comes from the killer lion and the lion looks pretty awful in this film. Any time we get a clear view of it, it's so obviously poorly computer generated that it takes us completely out of the film. There's a few moments where the visuals are so bad that I just cringed. I feel for Barrett, but this greatly hurts the movie. If you're going to tell a story about a killer lion hunting mercenaries, then you need to make the lion look somewhat believable. The shoddy graphics work desperately hurts this film.

That's a shame because the action is fairly decent throughout. The movie offers a fairly relentless pace. There's definitely a number of quieter, character-driven moments that help the film, but much of the film involves gunfights or preparing for gunfights. It's actually fairly entertaining. The action scenes don't offer us anything we haven't seen before, but they are more engaging than you expect from a lower budget film like this. I was actually pretty entertained throughout the film.

I also have to give Megan Fox credit. I admit, I cringed when I saw her picture on the front of the DVD. You have an action/lion attack movie set in Africa starring Megan Fox... okay.... And yet, here's the thing- Fox is surprisingly good in the lead role. Sure, she has some really bad moments, but those are few and far between. Mostly, she is believable and fun to watch at the leader of this mercenary group. Fox makes this movie better, which is not something I expected to say when I sat down. My preconceived notions were definitely wrong in this case and Fox did well here. I also have to give immense credit to Philip Winchester. I'd never seen him act before (I did read up on him a little for this review) and I was so impressed with him. He steals nearly every scene he's in. It was like he didn't know this movie shouldn't have worked and he almost single-handedly pulls the movie to success. His comedic timing and the dialogue he has was fantastic. Maybe his familiarity with Bassett helped, but this was definitely a shining example of his talent. Unfortunately, most people won't see his strong work here. Still, I hope to see much more of him in the future. Kenneth Fok gave a decent supporting performance, too. He had some legitimately strong moments throughout the film. The rest of the cast was fine, maybe better than I expected, but not exactly noteworthy.

Rogue might be a tad bit long (the climax felt like it took forever to resolve) and even though it's not good, it was better than I expected. With a bigger budget and a realistic lion that didn't take me out of the story, it would have been a decent movie. I know I'm setting a low bar here, but I was far from hating this movie, which I did not expect to say. It was fun seeing Fox do something different (and succeeding at it). I'm hopeful I get to see Philip Winchester more and I'm interested to see what Bassett can do with a bigger budget. This is a deeply flawed movie, but it had more than a few redeeming qualities.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Silent Hill: Revelation