Hostile Forces

Hostile Forces is a no-frills, low-budget action thriller that delivers exactly what it sets out to: suspense, survival, and shootouts in the Australian bush. Written, directed by, and starring George Basha, the film follows a former soldier forced to defend his family when a remote holiday turns into a deadly manhunt.

The plot is familiar and leans on genre staples, but it moves at a good pace and keeps the tension alive. Basha brings gritty energy to the lead role, though some supporting performances are uneven and the dialogue occasionally feels stiff.

While the action isn't flashy, it's competent and grounded-clearly working within budgetary limits, but with enough heart to pull it off. It won't blow you away, but for fans of indie thrillers and homegrown Aussie action, Hostile Forces is a decent watch.

Let's start with the plot. There's not a skerrick of originality in it. If you've ever watched a cheap and nasty 80s blood-and-guts action movie, you don't need to watch this.

Then there's the implausibility. You travel with your family to a house in the remote bush with no telephone, no internet, but a huge TV set for some reason, and the first thing you notice is a horrible smell. "Probably a dead rat" is the explanation offered by one of the characters. Does anyone bother looking for the rat? Matybe you could check under the furnitre or behind the fridge. No, they just settle in and continue to wonder about the horrible smell.

To escape the people who are trying to kill them, they find a rocky shelter, well exposed, not very far from the house, and they light a fire on the first night. Yep, they'll be safe there.

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They say directors should get better withe every film - unfortunately George Basha has NO idea about storytelling. After 4 films you think you would understand how to tell a believable story.

This is by far the lowest budget George has ever had on a film.

There is nothing believable about this story and it starts with the ridiculous title - Hostile forces, is this an ARMY film? NO it's not. It's a about a family who are staying in a bush cabin, and they find a bag of money, the BAD GUYS come to collect it and the main character Mikey refuses (for no valid reason) if you want to protect your family - you give the bad guys the bag. So instead, the bad guys need to enlist like 10 guys to hunt down 1 man - Rambo anyone? This then becomes a terrible rip off of beloved films like First Blood, Predator and Commando all rolled into one. Even with the cheesy one-liners of those 80's film - this will never even be an homage to those film.

They then run around the bush trying to kill Mickey whose ex-army and of course they need 10 guys to kill him, and they all have NO chance.

The acting is terrible, the lead actor George has no gravitas or presence to pull this off. The bad guys are almost cartoon like in their clunky dialogue and look, the music is a bad cheap rip-off of many brilliant film scores and the rest of the cast have no talent whatsoever.

There's a hot teenage daughter who can't act but great to look at.

Maya Stange is wasted here by far the best of the bunch, why she agreed to do this film is baffling. The teenage son can't act, there's nothing interesting or compelling at all.

Some of the fight scenes were good BUT not great, especially Ali Kadim (a guy to watch) - he should have been the lead of the film. After watching the terrible childish and amateurish dialogue you can't take this film seriously and you shouldn't. BUT even these films should have some sort of respect.

The cinematography was mediocre, it was GOOD but not great.

The Combination has been the best film thus far from George, but he didn't direct that one - David Field did, George only wrote it. I'm so disappointed that I didn't like this, I have watched all of George Basha's movies made. Sorry George everything above is an honest and constructive critical review.

You don't understand subtext, or character development, you don't understand truth in an acting performance, you don't understand story or character arcs and you definitely don't understand plot holes. Your film needed the right people in the roles of screenwriter, acting and directing.

Well done for getting another film done but if you choose to continue collaborate with people who have done great things, and they will elevate the film.

I watched this last night after seeing all these reviews offering between 1's and 10's thinking at the least it will be a five: neither good nor bad.

As an Aussie I love watching or discovering home grown gems, especially those on tight budget. Its what we do best! Knowing this my biggest disappointment was the music and editing. It could've been edited tighter esp between transitions to avoid scene sequence awkwardness. And music! What a let down. Totally lacked drama and tension. Had no atmosphere. Dramatic music always started 3 seconds late, then abruptly ends. No music during heartfelt moments, leaving you disconnected and having less empathy with characters.

Besides that, cinematography was good. Script: Adequate to poor. Location was great. Acting was adequate. Maya was the clear standout. Action sequences were adequate. Got a bit monotonous and would have been fine if this was an 80's movie. Character development: for the two protagonists, George and Troy, adequate. The children, poor. They were running from hired mercenaries and conveyed no drama. I blame director for this. The mercs were too stereotypical and cartoonish.

I started off with 5, but minus 2 gives an honest 3 to 4 stars. Definitely not the family/friends votes of 8-10.

Hostile Forces is an alright movie but has some shortfalls that prevent me from giving it a higher rating.

The voice acting is alright but things can feel of from time to time, but overall it's what's expected from a budget film.

The story doesn't really matter, or at least thats what it feels like. The story is simply there to provide an excuse to have a bunch of fighting and shooting sequences.

The action is alright but feels particularly forced in multiple times. This includes multiple instances where the characters would drop their gun either in the midst of the fight or intentionally to go first-to-fist. It feels like the only goal for the movie was to just make a bunch of fighting scenes regardless of if it made any sense.

Overall, if you're looking for a series of barely connected action sequences reusing the same tropes between multiple encounters then this movie is for you.