Beyond the Reach

It starts off seeming a mismatched buddy comedy but soon turns into a tale of blackmail and self-preservation. Ben wants to fess up and take it to the feds. Madec, with his mind on a pending deal with the Chinese, wants to cover the whole thing up, and sets out to silence Ben. So in the end the story evolves like a terrible chase but both the actors give a good performance and the filming locations are charming as well. This cat-and-mouse chase across the desert that follows is fairly entertaining to begin with but unnecessarily drawn out, leaving far too much room for Douglas to plug with cartoonish quips and daft machismo. Overall the story works, though ending up to be predictable, especially in its final part.

Occasionally we all get needy. So Ben, a young hunting guide, may perhaps be forgiven for taking a large bribe from an arrogant, ridiculously wealthy and fearless client. The two descend into the Mojave Desert wilderness in order to hunt bighorn out of season. There are many red flags to this, yet Ben's girlfriend just left for college and he is left considering if solitude and poverty are in his future. Deep into the desert it is not long before an incident occurs that sets Ben and Madec, a C.E.O. with a sport utility vehicle that costs over half a million dollars, at odds with each other. It is the old-school-young versus the new-technology-old in a delicious thriller. Michael Douglas, starring as Madec, returns to his stock and trade as a depraved and greedy man who lets no one get in the way of himself and his obsessions. Douglas gives a fine performance, yet he can't carry the film on his own. It is far-fetched, shallow and disjointed at times. The film is, however, compelling and fulfilling in its story and the possibilities it presents. It gives truth to Melville's saying that "an utterly fearless companion is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward." Seen at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Adapted from the book by Robb White called "Deathwatch"which upon looking at the poster itself the set up is quite long, showcasing on front of a trailer Ben(Jeremy Irving) having some money problems with girlfriend Laina (Hanna Mangan-Lawrence) before he visits sheriff (Ronny Cox) for a gig as a guide for game hunting in the desert for a customer and wealthy business man, Madec played by Michael Douglas who's also credited as one of the producers. Once reaching in the middle of the desert and on foot we learn more and more about the 2 characters as we learn that Madec does not even have a proper license to hunt around the area who then offers Ben some bribe money to look the other way. He reluctantly accepts as he realizes he still has money problems. As soon as both men spot something above the mountains after waiting long hours, trigger happy Madec shoots at it without verifying at what he was shooting at. And it was during then Madec offers Ben a much more prosperous deal involving a possible cover up. Ben then made things much worse for himself once he begins to renege on the deal he had made with Medec as soon as he caught Ben making a single attempt to call authorities who then with his rifle pointed at him to strip down to his shorts before trolling him through the desert. With Ben's desert expertise will he be able to survive this? Particularly with his bare feet through the hot desert without drinking any water? The only thing I am going to say is that without some luck. And his somewhat familiar settings about a certain someone Ben knows about who conveniently also happens to live in the desert the star may not have survived it at all. And although some of the main critics did not like this movie I was still entertained and that to me is good enough.

Greetings from Lithuania.

"Beyond the Reach" (2014) is nice little flick for some boring evening. It has nothing special, nothing original, nothing really great yet it is an enjoyable thriller, but with a bad ending, very bad ending.

Michael Douglas was the first and only reason why i saw this flick in the first place. He does not disappoint, but sadly there is almost absolutely nothing to do in here for THIS caliber actor. Jeremy Irvine is quite good in here, but the role doesn't requires much except for physical suffering.

Overall, "Beyond the Reach" was nice little flick. I enjoyed for what it was, but the ending was terrible. That wouldn't happen in real life not in a million years. Who wrote THAT bad ending?

"Beyond this point there will be monsters." Ben (Irvine) is a master tracker and guide who has been hired my Madec (Douglas), a rich businessman. After leading him out to a barren desert wasteland Madec's true colors come out. Now, facing a dangerous situation, Ben must find a way out, alive and in time to warn others. This movie isn't really anything amazing but it is also entertaining and very watchable. I did like the movie but one thing kept bugging me about it the entire time. Michael Douglas is a sharpshooter and ruthless, yet the entire movie revolves around him trying to kill Ben. I would think one shot could do it...on the other hand if that happened there would be no movie. All that out of the way though the movie is tense in some parts, but becomes somewhat repetitive and loses steam toward the end. Again though, I did like this and this is not a bad rent. Overall, nothing amazing, but it is entertaining enough to keep you watching for the entire hour and a half. I give this a B-.