A Perfect Getaway

A B-movie-style throwback that’s consistently diverting and blissfully free of morals and messages, A Perfect Getaway is just the thing for the summertime movie blahs: it’s a genuinely satisfying cheap thrill.

The plot will require some discussion after the film is over. Is it misleading? Yes. Does it cheat? I think not. It only seems to cheat. That’s part of the effect. All’s fair in love and war, and the plots of thrillers.

To Twohy's credit, he does a decent job of keeping you guessing -- and interested -- until almost the very end.

Steve Zahn makes full use of the many varieties of hyper in his acting arsenal, while Timothy Olyphant has a heckuva good time telegraphing macho mania.

A Perfect Getaway may not play fair by the audience but at least it cheats honestly. These days that's something.

It's still a gimmicky, tricked-out tale that is all too self-aware. But the film does keep you guessing and probably guessing wrong.

The result isn't deadly dull, but it does turn what should have been a most dangerous game into a basic scenery-chewing contest.

The first hour of this movie is pretty slow but the second half of this movie is jam packed and very interesting "you have no idea who will live and who will die" kind of movie best I've seen in a while.

An always entertaining cast (Timothy Olyphant, Mila Jovovich, and Steve Zahn) elevates what could have been a mediocre tropical thriller.

This is not a bad movie, however the big twist wasn't such a surprise. It was actually really good and seemed like something different until the the last 45 minutes or so, then it got a bit more clique. Overall, fairly entertaining and worth the time.

I recently had a discussion about Milla Jovovich with several other film fanatics and whether or not she has a place in Hollywood after churning out quite a large volume of bad movies. I argued that her roles in films like The Fifth Element, Stone and even her minuscule part in Zoolander made up for all the bad. Many did not agree. However I find myself reaching the precipice. I understand that Jovovich loves cult material, hence her participation in the horrendous Ultraviolet, and B movie throwbacks but by this point she should at least be able to tell the difference between bad cult movies and good ones. A Perfect Getaway acts as a throwback to the B movie horror films of yesteryear but does so in a way void of both reason and logic. The plot is to put it bluntly, stupid. The film relies on pointing out film cliches like 'the red herring' to hide the fact the films red herring (you will know it when you see it) is incredibly simple minded. The dialogue between the characters however is actually quite good, the relationships built in the film feel real which says a lot in a film that is absent a coherent story. The cast is respectable with a few surprisingly good performances (Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant). However the use of both Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton for such small performances seems like a waste of potential. Milla Jovovich has the best character to work with but she never really takes advantage. The weak link is Steve Zahn who's straight laced screenwriter character grates making him a dreadful lead considering most of the film follows him. The direction (by Pitch Black's David Twohy) is acceptable but never surprising or anything more than what is required. It is a soul crushingly mundane movie that never lives up to the B movies it is trying to emulate.

The plot cheats on the viewer. It is very easy to write a thriller with such a tricky and twisted argument. Kind of a movie for people who is not expecting anything but some cheap fights, suspense music and out of the hat plot answers