A Perfect Getaway: Movie Review

The perfect Getaway

Honeymooning couple, Cliff (Steve Zahn) and Cydney (Milla Jovovich), go hiking along an eleven-mile trail in Hawaii when they cross paths will ex-military man Nick (Timothy Olyphant), who earns their trust by helping them navigate a particularly treacherous mountain cliff with all his ex-military “hunt or be hunted” savvey.

Tensions mount as we don’t really trust this newcomer and to make matters worse a few yards later, the trio runs into a group of girls whose parents are begging them to return home, following reports that a honeymooning couple has been murdered on one of the other islands. This gets their imaginations flowing as the suspects in the killings are described as a young white couple.

Cliff and Cydney meet Nick's free-spirited girlfriend, Gina (Kiele Sanchez), and tensions start to rise. The further the foursome walk together, the more delicate the balance of trust and suspicion becomes and fear overtakes their minds. They have their doubts about each other as clues and odd conversations start revealing little loop holes in their stories and all the characters we meet in this Hawaiian Paradise become suspects in this age old game of “Cat and Mouse”.

Paradise becomes a hell-on-earth thrill ride! Oh wait… No it doesn’t.
This film has so many snags it’s laughable! The acting is so wooden, which is very disappointing considering theses guys have been in a few films and gave tolerable performances. Milla is the worst and will no doubt be first in line for a “Golden Razzie” for worst actress, Timothy and Steve following close behind. Newcomer, Kiele Sanchez, gives a worthy performance and her character is quite fun and interesting, mostly due to her acting.

The best thing about the film is by far the magnificent locations. The film made one want to travel to Hawaii, we didn’t care much for a serial killer stalking them. Some shots are outstanding and make use of the awesome scenery (however over saturated), but it can not overshadow poor storylines and confusing scene-by-scene flashbacks, much reminiscing “Murder She Wrote”, where the truth all comes out near the end.

The twist was as predictable as Jessica Fletcher’s analyses of the murderer’s motives, which were filmed in a grainy black and white montage. After this the viewer is let down by the super anti-climax and we couldn’t care less.

Director David Twohy (Chronicles of Riddick, Pitch Black) breaks away from Sci-fi and makes another attempt at thrilling audiences. In 2002 he made the leap into the supernatural with “Below”, the story about a haunted submarine. As I recall this had a few good frights and wasn’t that awful. When you have an ok cast, great location and a clichéd stalker storyline just in time for Halloween, you go all out and make it work. It’s not often you get lucky with these production treats, but poor directing let the actors down and it all fell flat.
Hire “The River Wild” on DVD and enjoy a similar outdoor chase with better actors and a better plot.

Rating **/5
Running time: 98 min

Review by
David Pretorius
On Screen.