Calibre (2018)

As I was watching Calibre, I found myself growing both impressed with the setup and desperate in my hope that it would not stumble into the same pitfall that most thrillers do, which is the eye-rolling plot convenience of characters making dumb decisions. Thankfully, as you can probably tell by rating, this movie pleasantly surprised me! The characters act realistically, and every single nail-biting moment feels earned within the context of the story. Writer/director Matt Palmer deserves high amounts of praise for his attention to detail and tight storytelling. The thematic content in this movie is pretty heavy, but it doesn't feel excessive or exploitative in any way. In simpler terms, this movie takes an incredibly solid story setup and never once fumbles with the follow-through. My only gripe keeping it from a perfect score is that I didn't necessarily feel anything special in regards to the cinematography or the score (although I will note that the lack of music in certain scenes was an inspired choice). Overall, it's a tense movie with sobering content that will most likely leave you questioning what you might have done differently in such a scenario but wholly satisfied with what you saw.

Looking at it as a cinematic work of art... one could easily find fault. I loved the originality of the story line. I was at the edge of my seat till the end. I felt the emotions of most of the characters. Tragically, as beautiful as Scotland is... I am fully aware of the tribalisms that could lead to this type of outcome....so after this film, I will never go.I wont throw out any spoilers, but what happened to the lead characters in th beginning, has always been my biggest fear. I was ready to vomit through out the film from the tragedy, to the end. It is not a relaxing film, it twists your stomach to the end.

Great acting, great story. The suspense made it difficult to watch till the end. Is a movie that will stick for at least a few days.

Having just watched CALIBRE on Netflix, I'm afraid that I'm not seeing what other reviewers on this site are seeing. For me, this is a typical independent-feeling thriller, lacking thrills, action, and originality, and instead content to go through the motions rather than innovating. The story is about a couple of friends who head into the Scottish wilderness for a spot of hunting but instead find only distrust and eventually open hatred. There's a shocking plot twist early on which plays out effectively, but otherwise this is mundane and overtly familiar, reminiscent of the likes of STRAW DOGS but nowhere near as good. Tony Curran and Ian Pirie are solid in support, but the young actors struggle with their unsympathetic characters and the whole thing is a real slog to watch.