Beyond the Reach (2015) [Blu-ray]
Thriller

Tagline: What began as an accident has become a deadly game.

A high-rolling corporate shark and his impoverished young guide play the most dangerous game during a hunting trip in the Mojave Desert.

Storyline: Occasionally we all get needy. So Ben, a young hunting guide, may perhaps be forgiven for taking a large bribe from an arrogant, ridiculously wealthy and fearless client. The two descend into the Mojave Desert wilderness in order to hunt bighorn out of season. There are many red flags to this, yet Ben's girlfriend just left for college and he is left considering if solitude and poverty are in his future. Deep into the desert it is not long before an incident occurs that sets Ben and Madec, a C.E.O. with a sport utility vehicle that costs over half a million dollars, at odds with each other. It is the old-school-young versus the new-technology-old in a delicious thriller. Michael Douglas, starring as Madec, returns to his stock and trade as a depraved and greedy man who lets no one get in the way of himself and his obsessions. Douglas gives a fine performance, yet he can't carry the film on his own. It is far-fetched, shallow and disjointed at times. The film is, however, compelling and fulfilling in its story and the possibilities it presents. It gives truth to Melville's saying that "an utterly fearless companion is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward."

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, June 18, 2015 -- In the commentary attending this new Blu-ray release of Beyond the Reach as a supplement, star and co-producer Michael Douglas talks about how his character John Madec is a throwback to some of his earlier portrayals of (as he puts it) "corporate villains." There's little question that Douglas is of course referring (at least in part) to the inimitable Gordon Gekko of Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps fame (infamy?). There's also little doubt that Gordon Gekko's surname was no mere accident— there was a lizard like, reptilian quality to the character, one far removed from the "kinder, gentler" gekko that has become an advertising icon for a certain insurance agency. If anything, Madec is even more dependent upon his so-called "lizard brain" than Gekko was, especially after a hunting trip goes awry and Madec seeks to cover up an unintended killing. It's a patently silly premise from the get go, but Douglas' performance acumen manages to carry this film further than it has any real right to go, at least that is until one of the silliest final few minutes in putative thriller history.

Beyond the Reach's advertising tag line (included on both the slipcover and keepcase insert) states "What began as an accident has become a deadly game," a none too subtle reference to 1932's iconic The Most Dangerous Game, wherein a big game hunter finds himself the unexpected prey of a madman. The basic trope of a villain hunting other humans for sport has been utilized repeatedly through the years, and so Beyond the Reach has to struggle at times to overcome a perhaps inescapable feeling of déjà vu, something it attempts to distract from by providing a probably unnecessary back story for the film's ostensible victim, a young hunting guide named Ben (Jeremy Irvine).

An almost ridiculously serious undertone undercuts that very back story as the film opens with Ben saying goodbye to his girlfriend Laina (Hanna Mangan-Lawrence), a lass who is leaving Ben to (wait for it) go to college. The way the scene is played, though, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Laina has in fact contracted some terminal disease, a la Love Story, and that these star-crossed lovers are being forced to say goodbye for the last time before one of them shuffles off this mortal coil. Even this silly artifice is jettisoned almost immediately, as directly after Laina tools off across the New Mexican wilderness, Ben receives a job offer to escort a well heeled out of towner on a big game hunt out in the desert (is there much big game in the New Mexico desert?). When Ben goes into town to meet the guy, he first sees the guy's insanely huge SUV (a six wheeled Mercedes which Douglas in the commentary says goes for around half a million). Obviously, Madec has bucks (if not a ten point buck).

Out in the countryside, Madec seems to be trying to forge a bond with Ben, sharing anecdotes about himself and encouraging the younger man to do the same. There's a reticence on the part of Ben, though, as if he senses Madec is not someone to fully trust. On an impossibly bright, sunlit day, that instinct turns out to be correct when Madec inadvertently shoots and kills an old guy named Charlie (Martin Palmer), a kind of hermit prospector type who was a friend of Ben's. Ben of course wants to go to the authorities immediately, since it was after all an accident, but Madec, for reasons which are only haphazardly detailed, prefers to keep it all quiet. Madec attempts both halting mind games as well as outright bribes to sway Ben's inherently moral tendencies, but the young man is insistent that the "right thing" needs to be done. Madec, obviously used to getting his own way, aims a rifle at the kid, tells him to strip to his skivvies (providing Irvine the opportunity to show off his perfectly chiseled abs) and head off across the barren wilderness with Madec in pursuit. It's a patently ridiculous premise, one that no amount of back story could probably effectively set into motion.

Beyond the Reach then spends the rest of its running time documenting the cat and mouse game between Madec and Ben, with Ben not having to contend only with Madec's sharpshooting skills but the ravages of the elements, an aspect which soon wreaks havoc with Ben's skin (and especially his feet). Perhaps predictably, Ben, no stranger to this environment, is ultimately able to hole up in an abandoned mineshaft which was once Charlie's domain, but he is never able to completely outwit, outlast and outplay Madec. A number of skirmishes ensue until the film takes an unlikely page from a certain story involving a kid named David and a giant named Goliath.

Despite its unabashed contrivances, Beyond the Reach is often quite tense and exciting for the bulk of this extended chase sequence. But once the film moves into its endgame, all bets are off as not one but two patently ridiculous codas come into play (minor spoilers to follow, so stop reading now if you want to be ostensibly "surprised"). The first involves Madec simply "leaving," despite having ostensibly been brought to justice. The second, even more ridiculous, element has Madec simply returning, if for no other reason than to give Beyond the Reach a formulaic shootout to cap its running time. Incredibly, the commentary suggests there was an even longer showdown that was filmed. Luckily that fell prey to the kind of hunting which often attends the assembly of a feature film, namely the nimble fingers of an astute editor.

As hackneyed and downright illogical as Beyond the Reach is, it actually works, more or less anyway, at least until a disastrous one two punch in the final few minutes of the film which just tips everything over into near self-parody. Douglas is a lot of fun as a ruthless financier, and Irvine will probably make a lot of hearts flutter traipsing around the desert in his underwear. Technical merits are generally top notch for those considering a purchase.

[CSW] -2.3- Entertaining, though too improbable. Bad acting by everyone except the young guy being hunted, & the young guy doesnt have any lines. The dumbest thing is Michael Douglas shot a guy from 300 yards without taking any time to aim, yet later when he has a tripod & a standing jogging young guy clearly in his scope on crosshairs, he kept missing his target. Any plot of hunting a human is worthwhile to watch though. A really interesting thing is that this film is almost an infomercial for the Mercedes Benz company.
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.


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