What Keith's Watching: Big Game (2014)

I went into Big Game assuming it would be stupid. Samuel Jackson as the President of the United States is rescued by a small boy when Air Force One is shot down over Finland. From that synopsis alone, it sounds like a ridiculous premise and it is. But damn, it is kind of a fun movie.

There are a lot of scenes in the movie that are only there because someone said, "You know what would look really cool?" Like when the main henchman jumps out of Air Force One and the missiles all shoot right around him for no good reason. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, because it does look cool, but you know it's the whole reason they're doing it. Some of the things the kid does to help the President are this way too -- completely unbelievable, but fun to watch.

Let's talk for a minute about the President. He's a wuss. He is the opposite of Harrison Ford in Air Force One. Can't fight, can't fire a gun, can't even stand up to the kid when the kid refuses to take him out of the woods. Not to mention that at a couple moments the kid seems to have a bigger set than he does. No wonder there's a plot to kill him. Even though none of the reasons are ever really made clear. There are a lot of people doing things, but we never really know why. And the "main villain" if you can call him that, is just a crazy person that seems to have no motive other than shits and giggles. We know he's crazy because he wants to actually have the President stuffed and mounted. Which even the other bad guys think is sick, so we know just how messed up that is.

 He's so evil though, he actually does get justice and dies. But that's about the only justice done in the film. Everyone else that's involved in the plot doesn't quite get what they deserve and one of them seems to get away with it completely. And that guy is even more sadistic than the taxidermy guy. The main henchman is killed by a fluke, leaving me with the same disappointed feeling I had when Catwoman killed Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

It's a fun action movie that I probably would've liked more when I was a kid/tween. It borrows from every action movie, especially Die Hard: villain kills some poor innocent guy to establish just how bad he is, the President is forced to walk around missing a shoe, they use an ejection seat, and the main henchman is the last one alive. It's pretty cookie cutter up until the last three minutes which feel like they were added at the last minute just to fuck with the audience.