[Rogue]
Plot:An American journalist on assignment in the Australian outback encounters a man-eating crocodile.

Cast:Radha Mitchell, Michael Vartan, Sam Worthington, Caroline Brazier, Stephen Curry, Celia Ireland, John Jarratt Heather Mitchell, Geoff Morrell, Damien Richardson, Robert Taylor, Mia Wasikowska, Barry Otto.

My Thoughts:Stay out of the water!

Review::"Rogue" is the latest entry into the "pissed off croc" subgenre, which is basically a subgenre where some stupid humans travel into croc territory in some far away place, and end up food for the scaly beast. "Rogue" follows the same pattern, only it's smart enough to make the human victims victims of circumstance, instead of dumb teens looking for a quiet, remote place to screw and smoke dope. The pic which stars Michael Vartan, has the "Alias" star playing a travel reporter...who takes a boat tour in Australia so he can gather up material for his latest article.

The tour, led by Kate (Radha Mitchell), goes smoothly at first. That is until some of the other tour members think they notice an emergency flare coming from a high up mountain. When Kate goes to investigate...she mistakenly leads the tour into crocodile territory, which results in the beast capsizing the boat and stranding the group on a remote island. Now it's a race against time as the hungry crocodile looks for ways to pick them off one by one, while they look for ways to contact help before it can. "Rogue", as an action/horror film does not measure up. It's actually a bit, short...in the tooth.

However, it avoids the typical cliches of this particular subgenre...and does manage to put together a few nicely done and intense attack sequences here and there. That withstanding, it does manage to come out of the pile to be better than the grossly disappointing "Primeval"...but still does not reach that platform of being as good as "Lake Placid". A film which has been the measuring stick for a badass killer croc flick since the late 90's when it was released. Greg Mclean, who directed "Wolf Creek", also directed "Rogue". While he does manage to fill the movie with wonderful sceneries, and a few nice camera shots and angles....he seems to forget that his movie is a "killer gator" film.

And having your antagonist simply chill out for most of the picture is not a good thing. The gator, while vicious, and damn sure hungry...doesn't attack often enough. And without many attacks, you can't feel any fear for the characters...and without that element present...your film just comes out flat. Most of the few attack scenes that there are also take place in the dark, which is another major issue. I think this was mostly done for budgetary reasons...as having to show the croc in it's full form in the daytime scenes would cost more money. As opposed to simply building a croc head, and having it latch onto, and snatch away victims in the pitch dark nighttime.

We hear more snarling, breathing, and growling from the crocodile than we see any real limb ripping, or bloodshed. Certainly not good. Radha Mitchelle and Michael Vartan do manage to keep this would-be-sinker afloat somewhat with their good on-screen chemistry, and decent performances. Which is what sunk "Primeval" pretty much. Lack of croc action, and NO good performances. But anyone who is not interested in Michael Vartan as an actor or never was a fan, and isn't that big on Mitchell either....will not like this movie. If you're coming into this thing looking for croc action at every turn, arms, heads, and bodies being torn asunder, and chase sequences which will give you the chills, then look elsewhere.

Mclean's "Rogue" is the type of crocodile film that takes it's sweet time doing anything, and tries to make the viewing experience methodical...instead of action-packed like it should be. You add a poor supporting cast to the equation, and you have a film which should've been alot better than it turned out to be. "Rogue" doesn't live up to it's title to put it simply. A rogue is defined as someone or something which goes against the grain, who calls his, her, or it's own shots, and in some cases...strieks fear into the hearts of others.

But this crocodile doesn't put any fear into the viewer at all. It comes off more as a pissed off animal, angry at the humans who invaded it's territory...rather than a vicious, hungry hunter which acts as king of it's domain by annihilaitng anyone and anything that enters it, accidentally or not. While "Rogue" does have a few decent kills and a very exciting finale, it's lack of blood, gore, action, and intensity for most of the duration, hurt it immensely.

Positives:Mitchell and Vartan deliver good performances, the final 15 minutes finally deliver some much needed action.

Negatives:Poor supporting cast behind Mitchell and Vartan, not enough daytime kill scenes, the crocodile doesn't make enough appearances nor do enough damage.

Overall:Another disappointing croc tale from the swamps.





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