'Big Game' Review: Pretty tame fare

Film: Big Game
Director: Jalmari Helander
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Onni Tommila, Jim Broadbent, Ray Stevenson, Victor Garber 
Rating: **

A young teen hunter with a point to prove to his father sets out to hunt big game in the Finn forests. The President of the United States is forced into the same forests by a traitor in his personal security detail. A murderous psychopath is not too far behind. Who's the hunter and who's the hunted here? 

The first time you see Oskari (Onni), he looks the part. He's young, persistent and is armed with bow and arrow, some juice packets and a sweet ride. For his birthday, he wants to show off his first kill to his father, a known hunter in those parts. He practises. Let's face it, he's a kid and not too good an archer, by the looks of it. But he's all courage and doesn't back down.

The POTUS William Alan Moore (Jackson), on the other hand, is a pain to be around. He has enemies, to be sure. How close to home? He has no idea. Air Force One gets taken down by a surface-to-air missile by Hazar (Mehmet Kurtulus), a ruthless gun-for-hire. But not before the Prez makes it safely to the ground in an escape pod.

Oskari finds President Moore, helps him out of the pod and the two try to get to safety, or not get caught. Clearly, both have to man up in a hurry. There are clearly more things to worry about in the wild than the animals.

If the names Jalmari and Onni sound familiar, you've probably seen Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. And even if you haven't, it's time you do, despite what you come to think of this film. Jalmari is on familiar turf and is ably aided by Mika Orasmaa (cinematography) and Christian Eisele (production design).

Onni might be no Will Poulter (Son Of Rambow, Maze Runner), but give this young actor some time. He's got the chops. The headliner Samuel L Jackson bites down the bile (for once, you miss him swearing as much as he does) and plays a POTUS who really, by all accounts, shouldn't be the leader of the free world. When your attempted assassination turns out to be an inside job (not a spoiler!), you have to wonder why. But as the film wears on, you see Moore as someone as frail and human as the rest of us. His 'game' face works most of the time and it's hard to not smile a bit without getting offended when he shares a piss joke with the kid. 

SLJ and planes have become something of a bad joke (one that usually makes producers laugh all the way to the bank), but air they go again! There's a wafer-thin premise here, the writing is intermittently entertaining and despite also having the likes of Broadbent and Stevenson on board, this really doesn't pull out all the stops.

Boy and man share a crackling chemistry and that greatly helps this film from becoming too blah. Yes, it does perfectly well in the action department. No complaints there, but it had the potential to do so much more with the story.

Brave, bold, loud, flashy and occasionally funny, Big Game is largely pretty tame fare.