Khoht phetchakhaat

The Brutal River (2005)

BOMB (out of 4)

Thailand delivers this creature feature, which is without question the very worst that I've ever seen. In fact, this movie made me so mad that I really wanted to Google its director, find him and punch him right in the face. The story is about as simple as you can get as various fisherman go missing on a Thai river so others go out to kill the giant crocodile. THE BRUTAL RIVER is a downright brutal movie from start to finish. I love creature features and they're one of my favorite sub-genres. Even the junky movies that show up on the SyFy channel are things I watch and I must admit that I get excited about them no matter how bad or silly they are. This film here is just a complete and utter disaster right from the start and the thing just gets worse as it moves on. I've watched quite a few movies in my life and I hate to make strong comments without thinking about them but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this here is one of the worst directed movies I've ever seen. I'm really considering call it the worst but I'll sleep on that part. Just take a look at the "romantic" scenes early on and how embarrassingly shot they are. Just look at the slow motion used and you can't help but cringe. The attack sequences are some of the worst I've ever seen and they're so poorly put together that you can't help but roll your eyes. The CGI croc is one of the worst I've ever seen and I think the guys at The Asylum are even sitting back laughing. The dialogue is downright horrendous, the pop song had me considering suicide and lets not even get started on the acting. I will admit that THE BRUTAL RIVER is so incredibly bad that I did manage to laugh at it a few times but after a while it just became so torturous to sit through that I couldn't laugh.

Based on the introduction, this movie supposedly depicts a true story that happened in the Chumporn Province of Thailand in 1964. At least, that is what is presented as fact at the beginning of this film. In any case, what then transpires is a scene in which a fisherman is thrown from his small boat and consumed by an unknown creature residing in the waters of the Bang Mud Canal which flows through several small villages in that part of Thailand. Needless to say, as the body count continues to rise the local villagers begin to suspect that either an alligator or crocodile is behind it all. They also realize, through trial and error, that they are ill-suited to kill this creature and subsequently bring in outside help to eradicate this menace. But this giant alligator isn't easily subdued. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly interesting horror film in this particular sub-genre. The special effects were adequate enough but what really stood out was the local scenery and the manner in which the director (Anat Yuangngern) managed to personalize the characters to emphasize the drama and make it more realistic. Even so, the style of transitioning from one scene to another seemed rather clumsy after the first time or two and also slowed the movie down in the process. Likewise, for a supposedly true story some of the action scenes were a bit too exaggerated and tended to cast doubt on the historical accuracy to a certain degree. Again though, this wasn't a bad film for this particular type of movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

I just watched this film and it bad a film as far as "creature" films go. It was a bit predictable, had its share of pseudo-science and non-science, but I enjoyed the romantic subplot and I cried more than once. It's a lot better than a lot of films in this genre. I loved the opening scenes of the movie. hat there was any cgi in the film but of course watched it for the suspense, which it provided plenty of and the Thai setting. For me, the scenery, the sentimental subplots - the relationship between Nong and his wife Pikul and with his brother Chuan, the budding romance between the local police officer and Pikul's sister Ked drew me in. It would have been nice if those relationships had been elaborated on.

Well, before i started to watch this movie i knew it didn't gonna be a good film, but i expected something else. I read somewhere that it has some good CGI but the person who say that must not see the film or maybe she/he has a strange concept of what a good CGI are.

Talking about the movie, is very bad but is that kind of bad films that are funny. The worst of the movie (apart from the caiman) is the ridiculous romantic moments shot in slow motion. The direction is terrible, the director seems only knows how to pass from one scene to another by fading out (is like in the simpsons episode where homer does flanders date video). The only good thing about the movie is the photography.

AKA The Brutal River, this is a Thai animal-rampage film that makes for a diverting 90 minutes. A small, riverside village community is thrown into panic when a huge, voracious crocodile begins chomping down on the locals (although the sloppy English subtitles keep referring to it as the 'gator'). A police officer and a soldier are amongst those on the menu, trying to stop what seemingly can't be stopped. Impressive model work and likable performances are hampered by variable CGI and numerous, redundant fade-to-blacks and an over reliance on ham-fisted sentiment. Photography is atmospheric, production values are surprisingly high. Most effective is the community aspect of the picture, although the actual crocodile attacks are handled with considerable panache. Not a patch (or reptilian scale) on Alligator (1980) or Dark Age (1987) but it's been a while since we had a rollicking good croc flick, and this one does quite nicely.