Guilty Pleasures #26: Samuel L Jackson Month - Big Game

It’s Samuel L Jackson month

And yes, Guilty Pleasures has been on a bit of a hiatus of late, blame DC and Marvel and all their bloody relaunch titles… Anyway, it was January the last time one of these reviews came out, but we’re back and it’s time to look at Big Game

Produced on a meagre budget of $10million (according to Wikipedia) but I’m yet to find any valid information about how much it made. What I can say is that it’s got a rating of 76% on rotten tomatoes, 53% metacritic and an average 5.5/10 on IMDb.

Let’s dig in and see the glory as it unfolds.

We open with an introduction to Oskari, our main protagonist, this is supposed to be in Finland by the way. They look at a bunch of ancestral photos, and damn there are a lot of them. Oskari asks if his picture will be up there, that’s apparently up to him. Oskari looks at the picture of his father with interest, he’s carrying the head of a bear.

We get our opening credits with a punch of helicopter shots. Looks nice enough. We catch up with our hero as part of a family convoy. Oskari is listening to a tape helping him with deer hunting, he tries to deer call, it’s not very good. He’s given a map to look over, his father says there’s a great hunting spot on the red cross on the map.

Essentially, this is some family ritual where upon reaching the age of 13 the child is sent to hunt in the forest for a day and bring back whatever he can shoot with only a bow and arrow. The head of the family, I guess, brings the meeting to attention with a rifle. Oskari brings his supplies to the front as the head prepares to give his big speech. Oskari picks up a bow, but is kinda inept at it.

Oskari’s father goes to the head, who tells him that Oskari is going home. You know, maybe best to discuss this without being in earshot of the person you’re discussing. The father brings the head around and he gives his speech. Oskari is sent on his way.

Meanwhile, aboard Air Force One, a man with no shirt, Morris on is shaving and observing his scars and taking pills as he dresses himself. He goes to see the President, played by the man of the hour, Samuel L Jackson. Whose looking at a paper which presumably is supposed to be current and he got from… pfft. It’s calling him a ‘lame duck president’ You know, usually a newspaper would draw attention to the whys. “President Declares War”, “President Retreats”, “President cowers before congress” or something, I dunno.

They’re heading to a conference in Helsinki and we get a bit of exposition about how Morris actually took a bullet for him and is being forced to retire. Yeah, Morris is one of the villains of this piece, this movie is not subtle about it, at all.

Oskari begins using that awful dear call and being pretty pathetic with a bow. Eventually, from a very short range, he hits his mark. A kinda deer-shaped tree stump. He mimics the actions of ripping a heart out of a deer and eating it.

Meanwhile a tour helicopter is taking some even more obvious villains (you see how well combed his beard is) to a hunting spot of their own. He lands and lets them out. One of them takes a seat on a deck chair. His henchmen begin preparing a missile launcher whilst the big honcho with the beard loudly exposits his plan to take down a state of the art aircraft with disabled defences. The pilot’s immediate reaction

“Are you terrorists?”

I think I’m gonna hold off on the ‘you really are an idiot’ bit, we’ve still got a lot of movie and I think there’s far more to come. The head honcho tells the pilot to run, since he doesn’t yet have a weapon in his hand, he does so as one of his henchmen hands him the missile, he fires it and texts well you can guess who that the missile test was successful.

Back on Air Force One, Morris checks in on the pilots, they’ve begun their descent. An alert shows up, they’re being targeted and now the drones surrounding them are offline. Morris begins emergency evacuation. The president is forced into an escape shuttle thing, sans one shoe and is ejected from the plane. Several crew members follow after him but it’s noted their parachutes aren’t opening. We get the shocking revelation that Morris is evil

He dives, with a functional parachute as the plane and the drones are taken out. Oskari sees a bright light headed in his direction, it’s the plane, he runs as things explode from behind him, leaving behind his vehicle. The plan somehow skims the forest before actually crashing. Oskari is largely uninjured from the forest debris. The lucky sod!

At the pentagon, the vice president (Victor Garber) is introduced to Fred Herbert (Jim Broadbent), the head of the terrorist intel unit. They fill him in as he eats a sandwich. Herbert concludes that this operation involved 5-10 people (simultaneous firing of all the surface to air missiles) with money (to buy them) and with someone on the inside.

Dawn approaches as Morris is stuck in a tree, he releases himself from his parachute and takes some more pills. He begins calling in for help, checking that no-one is alive before ditching his radio and phoning the terrorists from earlier. Unfortunately for them, Oskari has come across the President’s escape vessel first. He knocks on it and the President writes the unlock code on the steamed up window so that Oskari can open it. That seems like a daft thing to do, he could be anyone. Then again, if he hadn’t he’d probably be dead. Also trivia: the code is my old library number from secondary school.

Oskari opens the pod and runs off as the President comes out. Despite an automated warning not to leave the pod, he gets out anyway, using a flare to see. He wants the boy to come out. A paper cup is fired in his direction. No, seriously, this is happening right now. The President of the United States is talking to Finnish boy via the power of 2 cups and a bit of string. Really don't need to make up my own joke for that.

He asks what planet he comes from and if he comes in peace, his answers allow Oskari to come out, albeit with an arrow there and ready. The President, William Alan Moore, who I’m going to be calling Will from now on because it’s shorter, introduces himself to Oskari, Oskari wants proof and it’s very fortunate that the President just so happens to have his passport on him (I suppose he was in a plane, but it's a private one). You mean to say he has a passport on him before he finishes putting on his shoes?

The passport verifies the truth. Will asks for help but Oskari has little to offer, he has no phone or nearby house to take him to.

Back at the Pentagon they’re receiving a signal from the tracker in the escape pod. 3 helicopters head out to track the signal. In a farmhouse somewhere in Norway (that’s precise) they find the tracker, it’s been detached from the pod. Prepare wa wa music. They report that the pod is not there and they’re told to return to base.

Herbert says he’s heard no chatter about such an action, which leads him to believe that they’re dealing with a small rogue unit, not affiliated with any of the big terrorist organisations (and guaranteed not to offend anyone) this also makes them extremely hard to track and predict. They wonder what the end-game was. The President was not assassinated so maybe they want him captured alive.

Morris and the terrorists encounter the shuttle but as we’ve seen the President is already gone. Oskari makes a formal introduction to Will. He takes him back to his vehicle. Will wants to use it to get to the nearest town but Oskari is here on a mission and er… I think here’s where the clip is due

Seriously kid, you know he’s the president of the United States and you are the only person that can get him out of the woods alive… So f*cking do it! Of course his family are so tied in tradition he’d probably bring shame upon them or some such bullsh*t, pretty sure Finland isn’t stuck in the dark ages, they have cars and tape players.

Having to surrender to the fact that he’d get lost if he travelled alone, he lets Oskari win this one. They drive away, heading towards the X on the map. Meanwhile, Morris discovers a footprint and kills 2 of the head honcho’s 3 henchmen. He reveals his motivation, he’s going to die and for a guy who’s cr*p at his job. Wow… That’s motivation for you. It’ll get more convoluted later.

Hazar, the head honcho is offering money to Morris in exchange for the President. He’s going to use that money to… Buy a yacht, I dunno. Anyway, they have a good head start, the Pentagon won’t be onto them until dawn. 

Meanwhile, Herbert concludes that the perpetrators of the attack are likely foreign, so they check in on tour groups. They find a bunch of hire sights based around hunting, making it easy to smuggle firearms without suspicion. They begin searching for any groups carrying big game tourists (this is the second time the title has been dropped by the way.) They begin to move some satellites so they have eyes on the President.

Oskari and Will reach the big X as night falls upon them, their perfect hunting spot. They set up a fire. Oskari asks what it’s like to be powerful, he replies that power is ephemeral. Oskari says his father, who we find out here is named Tapio is powerful and famous here. He asks Will if he’s familiar with the name, but he isn’t. He shows Will the photo from earlier, Will remarks that they resemble one-another. Oskari explains the premise of his part in the movie, remarking that you have to be tough in Finland.

Will remarks that you don’t necessarily have to be tough if you can act tough, recounting a story where he once got a p*ss stain on his trousers, right before having to make a speech. He made it successfully by keeping cool under pressure. (You know, there are a lot worse things to be remembered for than having a p*ss stain on your trousers - aren't there Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Robert Nixon?) after some more helicopter shots Oskari begins using his awful dear impression and what a f*cking co-incidence he finds Will’s other shoe.

The noise attracts the attention of Hazar and Morris. Oskari hears the sound of a generator, he finds the generator, powering a refrigerator with a deer’s head inside, he finds a happy birthday note from his dad. Your dad is a moron! 

Will finds the bodies of the security team that jumped after him, finding the parachute cords jammed with cable ties. He takes on of their guns and hides behind a rock as Morris and Hazar come across their encampment. They call in the chopper.

Will catches up with Oskari, upset at the fact his dad has no faith in him. If this was his plan he could’ve told Oskari that straight up. Why the secrecy? This was bound to be the reaction. Why choose his birthday to deliberately upset him, at least by telling him in advance it’s out of the way and he can just get on with it. F*ck you Tapio!

Will gives Oskari his American flag and tells Oskari to get as far away from him as possible. But Morris has already caught up. Oskari raises his bow to defend Will but he’s a cr*ppy shot. Will raises the gun but fails to cock the weapon before Morris can disarm him. Will engages Morris, providing him with enough time to escape.

The Pentagon manages to get eyes on them and I’m going to call bullsh*t on how close up they can get shots here. The helicopter lands with Hazar on board for some reason. Herbert describes him as a grade A psychopath. Hazar gets some pictures with the President. He eyes up the fridge and says that if he wants to stuff a human they need to keep the body fresh. Yes, his plan is to stuff the President. I think grade A psychopath might be disingenuous for him, he’s at least a grade A****

They stuff the President in the fridge, well force him to get in at gunpoint, as Oskari watches from behind a rock. Oskari heads to the top of a cliff and ditches his knapsack and makes the impossible jump to the fridge (remember: physics is for squares) he tells the President that he is the gift the forest gave him and will essentially his hunting trophy, except without the stuffing bit. You might’ve thought of that earlier.

Oskari is spotted and they begin to descend to try and shake him off. That’s a damn dangerous move. They manage to shake him off and now begin to shoot at him but fortunately they learned aiming from Stormtroopers so all the bullets miss. Oskari uses a fallen tree to gain enough height to jump back on, with a little help from the President whose arms are now free. Oskari cuts the ropes attaching the fridge to the helicopter allowing them both to make a safe landing with surprisingly few broken bones. Morris orders the helicopter to land. You know you have your money, man… There is a reason, but we’ll get to it.

The helicopter begins to fire, Oskari joins the president inside the fridge and pushes it over the edge of a hill. The fridge roles down the hill, at speed, falls off a cliff into a river. And they are absolutely fine, well, except for a few cuts. Congratulations movie, we haven’t seen something so inherently ridiculous since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You’ve just nuked the fridge

Oh and, what are the odds? They just so happen to stop right by the debris of Air Force One. Herbert makes a suspicious text and co-incidentally Hazar receives a message, the plan is now just to kill him. They helicopter finds them again but they dive in and take cover in the debris of the plane. How Oskari is keeping all his arrows whilst in the water is beyond me.

They head to the upper deck, largely unflooded. They hear someone land on the plane, the blow their way in. Hazar lands and we get the very very strange revelation that his intent rather than actually stuffing him it was to hold him for a week, then make him a martyr, letting people know the war on terror wasn’t over. (OK, I take it back, he’s only a grade D psychopath)

Batman, can tell me what you think of that plan?

Yeah… You’re creating terror, but you’re also creating power vacuums that can delay action, sure the vice president would serve in that case but there’d be a hell of a lot going on. Also, why the pretence about wanting to stuff him? Even if Morris wasn’t entirely in on the plan, why not tell him they want a public execution? Anyway, he sets up a bomb but Morris cuts the rope, leaving Hazar for dead.

He and Will fight for some reason until Oskari knocks him back with a fire hydrant. He prepares to shoot at the pair of them but forgets to cock the weapon and Will steals it and shoots him.

Motherf*ck counter: 1

They are about to swim out but Morris shoots at them from the helicopter. You know, you could’ve set the bomb for say 30 seconds and they’d be dead, why did it need 5 minutes? Moris tells the helicopter to move out but the pilots refuse to move without Hazar. They don’t know his rope has been cut, not very observant, are they? Will and Oskari head to the pilot’s cabin to try one other move, a jet powered escape shuttle. Oskari fires his arrow and no… there’s no way he’s gonna kill Morris/down the chopper with an arrow. He doesn’t but as Morris about to shoot back his bullet wound begins to pain him and he falls from the helicopter, shooting it out of the sky just as the bomb blows up the plane.

Special Forces arrive and force Oskari’s family to surrender. Herbert tells the Vice President that he is to be sworn in as President. Oskari and Will come to land, Oskari and the President stands before them. Tapio escapes his confinement to greet them. Will (I know, they call him Bill at this point but seriously, who the f*ck cares – besides I didn’t want to confuse him with Bill Clinton) says that Oskari is a great hunter.

They report to the Pentagon that the President is secure, causing celebration. The Vice President and Herbert head to the bathroom to commiserate their loss. The Vice President asks if it can get back to them, Herbert trips him up and kills him, then wipes soap on his shoe and on the floor to make it look like he slipped up. He’s the only person alive that knows the whole truth, it’s not getting back to anyone. (ALSO – TO BE CONTINUED IN POSSIBLE BUT RATHER UNLIKELY SEQUEL)

Oskari’s photo is taken and his picture, as part of a newspaper article, is heralded in the lodge with the others.

Well, that was Big Game, and I f*cking love this movie

Man does this movie have problems. Its premise is ridiculous, the bad guys’ plans inexplicable, the bad guys themselves not particularly subtle there are really stupid moments and erm... Yeah, I really f*cking love this movie.

I suppose the big thing is that it truly isn’t reliant on special effects, practical effects and stunt work always look better and although this isn’t heavy on either of those things either it uses them just about enough to keep the pacing nice and consistent and prevent us getting bored.

But what makes this work for me is that it isn’t afraid to be a little goofy and funny, from the scene with the paper cup to the story about the President p*ssing himself and the joke about cocking the gun it has a light-hearted edge that helps make the more ridiculous moments like the fridge rolling down a hill and off a cliff more forgivable.

Both the main leads are likeable. Jackson’s playing a more loser type, he isn’t larger than life unlike some of his other characters so his role is a little more restrained than say, Mace Windu. He holds his own and is probably the best acted character in this movie. I adore Victor Garber as a villain, truly but his role is a little too much in the back seat for him to be appreciated for his talents here, don’t worry. I have a review later to show off his talents.

Onni Tomilla does a frankly brilliant job as Oskari. A boy that’s trying to be tough, trying to be like his father but lacks the physical capabilities and hunting instincts his ancestors had. He makes up for that in street smarts, cunning and to an extent loyalty. He never really gives up on President, even if he has weird sense of priorities.

I’ve already said what I think of the villains of the piece, and anyone else at the Pentagon aren’t really important.

Rage Rating -1000%

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Images/clips used in this review are from Big Game, Ratchet and Clank, Animaniacs, Justice League Unlimited, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Avengers Assemble (The Avengers) and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use