Oct 30: A Perfect Getaway

"Two pairs of lovers on a Hawaiian vacation discover that psychopaths are stalking and murdering tourists on the islands."

Directed by: David Twohy, Rated: R, 98 minutes

A Perfect Getaway is a severely underrated thriller. It's a perfect example of how far a great cast and great directing can take a decent script and that the most throw-away ideas can still be suspenseful and entertaining. It's also worth mentioning that even when a movie is sub-par, setting it in a tropical location at least makes the film look nice, and A Perfect Getaway really focuses on the natural elements and actually makes the scenery a part of the story, as opposed to just its backdrop. However, the movie still does suffer at the hands of predictability and the few twists can be seen coming from miles away.

And for the ladies, there's plenty of pre-Thor-but-still-muscular-Thor... if that's what you're into

Newlyweds Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Mila Jovovich) are madly in love. For their honeymoon, they head to Hawaii, hoping to take in the romantic sceneary and get away from their rather boring lives. Far from adventurous, Cliff proves to be the "nerd in the wild" and tries his hardest to keep up with his wife. Then the two run into Nick (Timothy Olyphant) and Gina (Kiele Sanchez), two outdoor daredevils that would put Bear Grylls to shame. Also, enter Kale (Chris Hemsworth) and Cleo (Marley Shelton), two free-loving hippies that meet up with the group in the middle of the jungle. It's a rather unusual happenstance that these three different groups run into each other out in the middle of nowhere and it only makes matters worse that a duo of psychopaths are said to be island hopping themselves, murdering people left and right. The main conflict of the story is each couple questioning the other, wondering who is good and who is bad and if any or all of them are in danger.

As they all stare in the right corner, we're left wondering who/what/where is the killer!

A Perfect Getaway is a little tricky to explain without giving much away or at least hinting at the end result. I can't say that the plot is much more involved than the above paragraph but that matters little when you have such a great cast having fun with it all. Each couple feels like a genuinely reel couple you may know in real life or would run into on a vacation and the chemistry between the cast is just as real. It's surprising that such a scrawny, nerdy looking guy like Zahn could be believable as the counterpart to the gorgeous Jovovich, but it really works. Of course, Timothy Olyphant steals every single scene he is in commands the screen with his ridiculously charismatic presence. He has several scenes where it's just him telling a story (that may or may not be the truth) and these monologues prove to be one of the more memorable parts of the film. A Perfect Getaway is a another perfect example of that man's talent and is proof that he deserves to be one of the top leading men in Hollywood. 

Put The Phant in everything!

Along with the acting, director Twohy manages to capture the beauty and the danger of the tropic and the color he pulls out of the locations give A Perfect Getaway a heightened sense of energy. Even if you can predict the twist early on, the entire product is beautiful to look at and really lets you focus on the scenery. As most movies of this kind are more of a reason to get beautiful people to beautiful places to have fun on "vacation" and just filming the flick to make some money, A Perfect Getaway at least tries to be something more, and for that I highly recommend it. It's worth watching for the acting alone and it's great to see so many underrated and underused actors come together for a good looking flick.

The Good:

a great cast that saves the film from decency 

The Bad:

a very, very predictable story that you see coming well beforehand

The Ugly:

realizing that Olyphant and Zahn may never be the household names they deserve to be

7.1/10

Discussion Question:

What actor do you feel deserves more attention than he/she is receiving?

Trailer: