FilmSnobReviews

Title: Never Leave Alive
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Steven Lamorte
Starring: John Hennigan, Michelle Taylor, Eric Etebari
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins

What It Is: When professional hunter Rick Rainsford (Hennigan) finds himself on a cruise ship, that crashes, he’s now on a deserted island with reporter Anna (Taylor) and another injured crew member from the ship. They happen upon a former foreign military officer named Zaroff (Etebari) who seems to want to play “The Most Dangerous Game”. Now Rick, so used to being the hunter, is in fact the hunted. He’ll need Anna’s help in order to survive this cat and mouse chase.

What We Think: If I’m honest about this film I’d say it struggles to achieve anything close to what one could consider…good. Hennigan has proven before with Boone: The Bounty Hunter that he can act. I think what lets him down here is the uneven direction and even worse script. Overall the tepid production is topped off by unsatisfactory cinematography that looks cheap and was. Let’s NOT discuss character motivations and say we did, much like the approach the script itself took. Maybe Hennigan should focus on better script and projects he’s far more passionate about. This worked for him last time out.

Our Grade: D-, This is a film that I cannot in good conscience recommend. Perhaps the least compelling of all the loose interpretations of Richard Connell’s short story. Perhaps the budget is what got in the way of that. These are things that can be worked around, but you need to have a very skilled director in order to do that. I’m not certain Lamorte can get to that level yet in his career. I’ll be on the lookout for whatever my brand new Twitter follower, whom you guys should all follow back, will do next. Whatever it is it is sure to make an IMPACT, am I right Mr. Hennigan?