Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
“An American journalist on assignment in the Australian outback encounters a man-eating crocodile while trapped on a rapidly flooding mud island.“ Director: Greg McLeanWriters: Greg McLeanStaring: Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell, […]
“An American journalist on assignment in the Australian outback encounters a man-eating crocodile while trapped on a rapidly flooding mud island.“
Director: Greg McLean
Writers: Greg McLean
Staring: Michael Vartan, Radha Mitchell, Sam Worthington
Streaming: Vudu
Release Date: November 8, 2007
I am sucker for some indie level monster movies. I am also sucker for eye grabbing movie posters. Rogue checks off both of those boxes. Add in a director that I have heard of before, and this movie checks all my preferences for a random rainy day background movie.
Rogue is about a group of tourists all partaking on a boat tour, which is being captained by Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell). The main voice among the ship-takers is Pete McKell (Michael Vartan), a traveling tourism writer who is down on the dumps about life. All worries for all the travelers are put on hold when a massive crocodile with a scent for man flesh knocks over their boat and starts chomping on them, one-by-one.
The downfall of Rogue comes in its conclusion. A good monster movie needs a strong finale that puts the animal at its apex while giving the humans a solid shot. Ideally, there is a case that either party can win or lose. Come the end of Rogue, everything was too predictable. The fact that Ryan was still alive was cheap. It is just the idea that the strong female character needs to be alive at the end of the movie. Then there are the confines of the final confrontation. The cave is boring as hell and there is no sense of imprisonment. The only memorable quality is the giant rock, which if you are paying attention, becomes the obvious puzzle piece that McKell uses.
I wanted a strong final climax. I wanted to be engrossed. Unfortunately it was boring and dragged down a movie that otherwise, rose above the level.
The aforementioned director is Greg McLean, director of various other movies I have enjoyed. He started with Wolf Creek (2005) and also has Jungle (2017) and The Belko Experiment (2017). Wolf Creek is very much the same premise as Rogue, isolated and on the run from a killer…only difference that Wolf Creek is in an arid expanse and it’s a crazed human on the prowl. I think that fact that McLean went on to make more movies after Rogue is proof that his ability to direct elevates this particular croc movie above D-Movie fanfare.
In summary really…go see Crawl (2019) instead of Rogue, but maybe check Rogue out when falling asleep or cleaning the house.
STANKO RATING: C (2.5/5 Stars)
“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Apple)
“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Spotify)
Stanko Excel Lists | Movies, Books, Podcasts. TV Shows
Stanko Letterdbox Account
I am starting to think that I am the “bye week” in this league. But hey, them the brakes. I had some rough choices in terms of lineup selections over the week and I didn’t adjust my lineup on Sunday because I forgot while I was on the golf course. Played Fairchild Wheeler in Fairfield,…
DISCLAIMER WARNING: I HAVE ONLY SEEN 10 MOVIES FROM THIS YEAR SO FAR. YEAH I KNOW SAD, BUT I HAVE WATCHED 119 MOVIES THIS YEAR AS OF NOW SO I’LL GET TO MORE THIS YEAR.I HAVE SEEN 10 MOVIES THOUGH AND THAT IS ENOUGH TO ROUND OUT BEST PICTURE NOMINEES. THEN I FILL IN THE…
Loved this draft idea from The Big Picture crew. I am not going to be able to do my normal redrafting because there is just enough movies to pick from, but I will have fun going through all of the different categories and determining what my dream lineup would be from the movies i have…
Stanko's Stance 
3 Comments »