I agree with everything PrarieCal had to say. What a colossal waste of time and effort. Never before have I witnessed a movie more heavily weighted down with clichés. However, I will, generously mind you, award it one star for the scenery.
As horrible as this movie is my biggest gripe doesn't even stem from how bad of a film it is, it stems from how bad the information about the wilderness and wilderness survival is. If indeed the boy truly was a former Cub Scout he should be stripped of any related badges because he did Nothing right that had to do with the most rudimentary of survival skills.
There was just so much wrong with this movie...but I will limit myself to three examples which ought to give you a pretty good idea of the degree of thought that went into this flick...
1. My favorite moment of the film....the parents are waiting at search and rescue's command central for any word of their kids who have been missing in the wilderness for days...the father bursts into the mothers tent and spouts "Great news hunny!!!" with a massive smile on his face...."Charlie is going to be okay!"...Charlie being the pilot who had crashed the plane stranding the children but who was no longer with them and, weirdly, who had already been found and who they already pretty much knew was going to be okay. Any normal mother would have first punched him in the nose then burst into tears.
2. The kids have matches. Having seen the search and rescue helicopters they know people are looking for them and despite being surrounded by woods and supposedly possessing the training to know how to gut a fish and create a travois never think to light a single signal fire....okay.
3. My third example is possibly the only reason I would recommend anyone check out a moment of this film because you will be treated to, yet another clichéd moment, that features the most obese raccoon I've ever seen, quite possibly weighing 4x what a wild raccoon could ever hope to attain...sadly, I am serious, the poor critter could barely move, same goes for the prerequisite grizzly....But, simply put and to be brutally honest? There is no reason good enough for anyone to watch this movie, not even a 3 year old.
