Big Game (2014)

Samuel L. Jackson is one of those actors who works hard and appears in a lot of movies every year. His recent choices have mostly been solid and he’s an actor I always enjoy watching. When I was at the cinema a while ago I saw large advertising banners for this film which piqued my interest, especially since I had seen little to nothing about this film online. That was already a warning that this might not be good, but as I have one of those unlimited cards for the cinema the only risk I took was losing some time.

My logical assumption was that this was an American movie, but this is not the case. The film has been made in Finland and director Jalmari Helander managed to get Jackson to do the film. He plays the president of America, who is flying to Finland on Air Force One for a meeting. Meanwhile, it is time for the 13-year-old Oskari (Onni Tommila) to prove that he is a man. Tradition dictates that he is has to be on his own in the forest for a few days and when he comes back with game he has shot he can call himself a man. Oskari however, is weak and is not yet strong enough to work his bow, but goes anyway.

Air Force One is attacked by terrorists, and using an escape module the president ends up in the forest. He must try to survive and to stay out of the hands of the men who executed the attack. He then meets Oskari, who knows the area and will try to bring the president to safety.

Unfortunately Big Game really disappoints. It tries to feel like a big action movie, where the danger is great, but it doesn’t succeed in giving you that feeling. The action is sometimes too bizarre (just like in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull with the refrigerator) and the friendship between the President and the boy feels artificial. The result is a film that never becomes exciting and you can often see that time needs to be filled before the next big set piece appears. Despite the big action moments the film unfortunately feels more like a “straight to VOD” release.