The Jungle (2013)

Good guy movie. You know how you watch a movie and the next day or week you forgot most of it? I saw this movie about six months ago and remember most of it. It grabs you. They did a lot for a low budget movie. If you are looking for an Oscar performance then what the f are you doing watching this movie. Guys will like it. It was made by the same guy who did Black Water and The Reef, both excellent movies. While I would give them a higher rating, this one was almost as good. Give it a shot. Man, I just wanted to write "good guy movie", but IMDb wants at least ten lines. Hope the last two were enough. Nope. Still have to write more about the movie. The wife was nice.

I enjoyed this film. It had a real authenticity and sense of realism about it, it didn't pull any lame punches and when the scares hit they were very effective.Its a slow burn so if you want fast paced gore and lots of blood forget it. I thought the suspense was really well done in that it is very minimal and really relies on sound to do a lot of the work, make sure you have the sound up.I also liked the fact that we never really get to know what the thing is- leaves it up to the imagination which is always more powerful and scary than special effect and animatronics.I also thought the acting was good especially the relationship between Larry the scientist and Adi the tracker.

As soon as I saw the very first frames of camera-work on this movie, I know this was going to be bad. Another one of these horrible 'found footage' movies, mockumentaries, or call them whatever need be.The story in this movie is about conservationist Larry Black and his brother Ben who travel to the lush jungles of Indonesia in search of the endangered leopards. With the help of two native Indonesians, the foursome venture into the thick jungle, hoping to find proof of these endangered great cats. But they come to face the horror of being stalked by something ferocious.Right, well the storyline itself had somewhat of something that resembled the possibility of being interesting, but it was all ruined and shot to pieces (pardon the pun) by some really questionable and horrible camera-work. I am pretty sure that my three year old son could manage to hold a camera more steady than what you see it practically all of these 'found footage' movies.So the audience is to believe that there is some hybrid feline / man running around out there in the Indonesian jungle? And better yet, that these brothers and their Indonesian trackers died to make this documentary. And given the ending to the movie, then just exactly how would this 'found footage' have been recovered from the creatures den? It was just so lame, so horribly, epically lame.The only reason that the movie doesn't get a 1 out of 10 rating is because it is somewhat better than watching a screen of only static. But, mind you, not that much better. This movie gets a 2 out of 10 rating simply because of the lousy camera-work and the whole faked and staged 'found footage' genre is generally a waste of time, space and film.

This movie had a cast of four main characters, and only 4 extras I believe. The movie started off horribly slow, almost to the point of turning it off. But a previous reviewer praised the producer or director who did "The Reef." I enjoyed "The Reef" so I knew what to expect. However for some reason I remember "The Reef" as being a little bit more enjoyable to watch.About 2/3 into the film it really picks up. I'm excited to see the arrogant westerner succumb to the evil forest spirit the native warned about. But instead we aren't rewarded with that, we are just rewarded with 4 quick deaths and a quick glimpse of... Well, I have no idea what that was. Basically it looked like one of those ape-men at the circus who have hair growing all over their faces and body.Basically this film could have been much better with a little bit more time and money. First, condense the intro, or just let us figure it out as we go. No need to show the hometown, the wife, the stupid 'lost footage' filler. Next, develop the local scenery more before entering the jungle. Here you guys are in the beautiful jungles of Indo and you can't even show us a flower, a lizard, or any other signs of the ecoforest there? What a lost opportunity for low budget filler. Show us the natural "Avatar' scenery. Next, give the main westerner protagonist's reason some real grounding. Instead of a ghostly supernatural scary man, just make it a giant beast! A super sized leopard would be ultimately more believable than a 'werewolf.' For a little ending filler, have one of the guys survive to walk out with his life changed forever. A change, a new understanding of the world. This would leave room for a low budget sequel as well.In summary how these guys did it, leaves a sour taste for a second viewing. A cheap thrill, an easy one night stand to be forgotten.