A Perfect Getaway - Quick Movie Review

Title: A Perfect Getaway

Release Date: 2009-08-07

Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Action & Adventure

High essence:

"Along the way they run into two other couples: Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), who seem friendly enough if a bit trashy and brazen, and Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton), who try to bum a ride in Cliff and Cydney's Jeep but seem way too obviously unhinged."

"Even the Hawaiian Kauai locations are really Puerto Rico."

"Zahn is always great value but it's Olyphant's gleeful resurrection of Billy Zane's character in Dead Calm that wins the day."

"David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway delivers everything you expect attractive performers in paradise, breathtaking landscapes and lush scenery, ominous tensions and plenty of action and something you likely did not suspect: suspense, surprise and sheer fun."

"There's a lot of self-referencing of the action/suspense genre courtesy of Timothy Olyphant's character Nick, an Iraqi war vet badass--he calls himself an American Jedi--vacationing with his would-be bride Gina (Kiele Sanchez)."

"So its basically Turistas with a different plot."

"As they pull out, their tire releases a newspaper trapped beneath, the headline just the sort that tends to pop up in movies about attractive young people in imminent danger: Young Couple Butchered in Honolulu."

Medium essence:

Christy Lemire:

One of the travelers on this supposedly perfect island vacation keeps talking about screenwriting devices like red herrings (though he mistakenly calls them red snappers) and second-act twists.

Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich co-star as blissful newlyweds Cliff and Cydney, a namby-pamby screenwriter and his overeager bride, who spend their honeymoon backpacking to a remote beach in Hawaii.

Along the way they run into two other couples: Nick and Gina (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez), who seem friendly enough if a bit trashy and brazen, and Kale and Cleo (Chris Hemsworth and Marley Shelton), who try to bum a ride in Cliff and Cydney's Jeep but seem way too obviously unhinged.

Laura Clifford:

On the trail itself, they hit a scary patchand meet Nick (Timothy Olyphant, HBO's Deadwood, FX's Damages), who blithelygets them across and who peaks Cydney's interest in seeing a 'secret' waterfallthat he's camping at.

After having heard the news about the gruesome Oahu double murder,Nick and Gina seem to keep getting stranger - he's a special ops guy whohas one nasty knife strapped to his leg.

Even the Hawaiian Kauai locations are really Puerto Rico.

Elliott Noble:

Zahn is always great value but it's Olyphant's gleeful resurrection of Billy Zane's character in Dead Calm that wins the day.

It's as crazy as a crackpipe on a kayak, but the title alone proves that this is a hell of a lot smarter than it looks.

Moving swiftly on, they have just met the helpful Nick (Olyphant) when a bunch of backpacking bimbettes tell them that a newlywed couple has been murdered on neighbouring Oahu.

Sean Axmaker:

David Twohy's A Perfect Getaway delivers everything you expect attractive performers in paradise, breathtaking landscapes and lush scenery, ominous tensions and plenty of action and something you likely did not suspect: suspense, surprise and sheer fun.

Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich are cute as playfully clueless urbanites Cliff and Cydney, honeymooners plodding through the wilds of Kauai.

Especially out here in the jungle, it seems, as Cliff and Cydney hike to a hidden beach accessible only by water or miles of winding hiking trails.

Cole Smithey:

Nick and Gina are the kind of couple that go hiking with hunting bow to kill and clean wild goat for dinner, so it makes sense that perhaps they might pose a physical threat of the serial killer variety.

It would be cheating to go into any of the film's third act surprises that pull the rug out from under everything that has gone on before, but suffice it to say that the revelation of a seriously flawed plot device serves merely to ramp up a predictable series of violent set pieces.

There's a lot of self-referencing of the action/suspense genre courtesy of Timothy Olyphant's character Nick, an Iraqi war vet badass--he calls himself an American Jedi--vacationing with his would-be bride Gina (Kiele Sanchez).

Vic Holtreman:

In one scene shortly after Olyphant appears in the film and we don't know if he might be one of the killers, he mentions to Zahn the introduction of a red snapper (actually red herring) into a film to throw off the audience.

Here he brings us a very different type of movie: The story of a newlywed couple on their honeymoon in Hawaii, trying to figure out if any of the couples around them are murderers.

So its basically Turistas with a different plot.

Cynthia Fuchs:

As they pull out, their tire releases a newspaper trapped beneath, the headline just the sort that tends to pop up in movies about attractive young people in imminent danger: Young Couple Butchered in Honolulu.

You also notice, of course, that Cydney and Cliff are tourists, recently deemed deserving slasher bait (see: Turistas , The Ruins ).

The teeny-frame-image with red REC in the corner, the happy-happy couple rehearsing what's already happened, the fabulous backdrop and the retread dialogue-it's all winky and Scream -like.

Low essence: