Rogue Review
Numerous interesting thrillers have been erected from the same building blocks as Rogue. Group of ordinary people involved in ordinary activities encounter mortal danger, get picked off one by one while devising escape plan. It's a highly effective formula -- if done correctly. Unfortunately, Rogue can't boast that level of success in its execution. The Australian horror/thriller conjures an excellent B movie adversary: a crocodile the size of a school bus, scarier for the fact that its presence is more felt than seen. When this massive croc swamps a tour boat and strands the passengers on a rapidly diminishing patch of land, the tension mounts exponentially. But it's here that Rogue starts failing to deliver. Writer-director Greg McLean passes up the best opportunities to kill off his cross-section of tourists and Australian locals, instead selecting the least interesting opportunities, not to mention killing fewer than is usually expected in a film like this. As a result, several smartly conceived set pieces reach strangely unfulfilling denouements. McLean's Wolf Creek had some randomness in its design as well, but that worked because Wolf Creek was a lot less well defined as a genre film, relying more on the sadistic arbitrary nature of a serial killer (see the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies). Here, McLean is clearly making a Hollywood crossover bid with this more mainstream story, featuring previous Aussie crossover Radha Mitchell and future Aussie crossover Sam Worthington, as well as French-born American Michael Vartan. This ambition may have bled over into McLean's story, in an oddly pro-American way that's sure to tweak the national pride of his countrymen: While the efforts of several handy Australians yield no results, it's the nature-phobic American travel writer (Vartan) who gets the best ideas under pressure, and gives them the best chance to avoid becoming croc food. Derek Armstrong, Rovi
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