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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Gary Yates
Gary Busey (Stephen King's Silver Bullet)
Ty Wood
Aaron Hughes
Brittany Scobie (The Plague)
Supplied By : Genius Products
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : January. 15, 2008
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| PLOT In an isolated region of Georgia, the Appalachian community of Mount Raven is presided over by Sheriff Grady. Along with his young sonand devoted wife, Grady lives a happy, idyllic life in one of the most picturesque and peaceful natural settings imaginable. That all changes when a dismembered body is found and Grady begins to investigate a murder. A print found near the scene identifies the predator as the Bengal tiger that has escaped from a traveling carnival. Six hundred pounds, twelve feet from nose to tail, it's one of the most powerful cats on Earth. Now it's loose-and there's no man on the Appalachian Trail with the skill, or the courage, to take it down... |
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| THE REVIEW In MANEATER, when a truck carrying a Bengal tiger crashes, the Tiger takes refuge in some nearby woods, but not before feeding on the truck's driver. Feeding on whatever the woods brings it, the tiger continues to roam these woods, woods that are adjacent to a small town. As predicted, the tiger soon runs out of food and is hungry, so it does what comes natural, it begins to feed upon the locals of the small town that happens to cross it's path. When a few dismembered corpses turn up, it sends the town into a frenzy, and it's Sheriff, Gary Barnes into acton. Barnes is faced with the difficult task of finding the predator and putting an end to it, ensuring his town's safety. When his attempts fail, the town's people begin to doubt his capability, and a 10,00 cash reward offered to anyone to kill the tiger made by Entertainment Weekly, certainly doesn't help his cause. But he does find help soon, in some unlikely people, an English game hunter, with a knack for hunting the species and a young boy who believes he has some kind of connection with the tiger via his imaginative dreams. MANEATER happens to be the 3rd release in the series of the same name(the Maneater Series), and in my opinion it's the best thus far. It also happens to be a Sci-Fi Channel Original, and as you know....those are not always great, so with low expectations I went in to watch this - just hoping that would have something to enjoy. Surprisingly, MANEATER is an ok film, not great, but ok - the one big plus that everyone seems to be pointing out is that the Tiger used in the film is not a CGI one, but a real one, something of rarity when it comes to Sci Fi Channel Originals. However, those that go into MANEATER prepared to see a tiger rip apart a bunch of locals will probably be disappointed as most of the attacks are off screen, and all we she are the dismembered remains of the victims. Instead, any gruesome action takes a back seat to the actual investigation, and then hunt for the tiger. At first it's quite enjoyable, as it is certainly a different approach for a Sci Fi channel movie, as they usually rely on action and very little story. But soon, the whole investigation scenario slowly begins to drag on, and you just wish that there was a little of the action that seems to be missing. There are also plot points that are introduced, yet nothing is provided to establish any relevance to the story at hand - like a festival taking place in the town in the midst of a predator scare? Through out the film a sub plot involving a young boy named Roy plays out, in which he has mysterious dreams involving he and the Bengal tiger, all leading us to believe that any question the viewer has about it would come together in the end - but as you would've probably guessed...it doesn't. Truly, the acting here is not that great, and without Gary Busey, this would've been a lot worse. A lot has been said about Gary Busey due to all of his personal problems, but honestly speaking, I like the guy. Had someone else played the role of Sheriff Grady Barnes, MANEATER would've been just another forgettable Creature Feature in my opinion, as he makes even some of the slowest scenes semi-enjoyable - to me he's a genius character actor(but I can't say the same for his son Jake however). Overall, MANEATER isn't the worst film(it's actually better than most Sci Fi Channel films), but at best it's just mediocre, with a name like MANEATER, you'd expect more action, but the truth is that we get very little. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 As I mentioned, most of the attacks are shown off screen, but we do see the remains which include several severed body parts. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 Very soft score, that seems like just your typical suspense score, in my opinion it was hardly memorable. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Like most Sci Fi Channel Originals(and the other Maneater Series films), with this film I expected a lot of over-the-top action and gore. But instead, MANEATER is long and drawn out, and in the beginning the change was pleasant, but ultimately became dull fast, as not much really happens regarding the actual tiger itself. |
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