Boar (2017) Reviews

• I know what you ate last Xmas.....

  s32761692018-08-21

  Yes it had to happen. The Xmas ham has finally returned for revenge, Aussie style. This is an utterly ridiculous horror film about the prince of porkers who has a voracious appetite for outback Australians and the occasional American. I know the premise sounds awful on paper but its executed with such tongue in cheek good humour with an overstated ribald, ocker vibe, that it actually works.If you have lived in Australia as I have you will know this is overdone in a big way. The "boar-ish" humour is a yard wide and ten feet deep but it plays well in the general context of this film. As a horror film there is the predictable blood and gore factor but its not gratuitous or sadistic and this film plays better for it. Its more a little on the silly side as are the giant pig special effects. If you want to have a good laugh with your mates over a few beers and chips or maybe some pork rinds, this is one to watch. 7/10 from me.

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• Cheap, nasty and amateur. Should be called Bored.

  davegfrancis2018-08-15

  This 3.4 million dollar production should be ashamed at such a complete waste of money and supposed great Australian talent. Criminally poor acting, a derivative script with a plot so stupid it is painful to endure. Couple that with creature effects and digital effects that make Lake Placid 2 look like a masterpiece. Avoid at all costs is my recommendation.

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• If you liked JAWS, watch it again instead of this

  jg-624572018-08-17

  Watched Boar because of the reviews and don't know where the high ratings came from. I wanted every character to be killed because they were all so freakin' annoying! Dialogue was vulgar and uninteresting, special effects mediocre at best. If you can watch it for free you'll get you money's worth, any more than that and you overpaid.

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• Boar...ing

  doorsscorpywag2018-08-16

  A truly abysmal creature feature where nothing of interest really happens with special effects Blue Peter would be ashamed of. How this boar gets around without someone noticing is amusing to say the least. It's actually a Boar-ninja as it just appears out of nowhere and kills people then disappears into the bush. It also has the ability to grow in size for close ups and then return to normal for longer shots. The acting is terrible and the story nonsensical. The characters are so dull I was rooting for the Ninja Boar. It seemed to be veering towards comedy as it certainly was not horror or even a thriller. Two points I will make about how stupid this film is. SPOILERS..... 1 At no point does anyone use their mobile phones to get help. In a day and age where people can't be separated from mobiles for more than 60 seconds even kids seem to forget they have them when faced with a very unrealistic large pig with blood and gore on its snout. 2 Big spoiler here so be warned. After having his guts torn out Bernie....don't call him Bern... is able to recover for the final scene and act as if it was just a scratch. Laughableless rubbish. The most horrific thing about this pile of sewage is there may be Boar 2.

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• "There's nothing out there but dust and Roos".

  lost-in-limbo2018-05-24

  The final film of the festival was setup as a mystery film, and it just happened to be a test screening for Chris Sun's "Boar". I knew nothing of it, no expectations, so once the final credits started rolling. I was left hemming and hawing. Enjoyable enough, but there's nothing all that resonating about this generic, abnormal freak-of-nature runs amok feature of a gigantic boar (about the size of an caravan) terrorising people of a small country community. Simple as that. It's certainly no "Razorback". Although, the boar design... Wow! The first half is like a brisk collection of unrelated set-pieces and baseless characters coming face-to-face with the raging boar, which had little to do with the central plot of a family returning to their home town after a tragedy many years ago. These early scenes are held together by the comical lingo being bantered between Aussie stars John Jarratt and Roger Ward. They were like a charming, bickering old couple with a lot of idle chat. So when they encounter the boar, you are truly invested in their well-being. I found the stalking and attack sequences to be better handled here. Mainly because the action, is so intense, and it takes place mostly at night with POV shots and a mechanical beast of a boar. Oh, it's a sight for saw eyes! Damn, some of those deaths are bloodthirsty and nasty, as we see people getting chewed up, flung about or impaled on the boar's tusks. It doesn't hold back! At first I was a little worried, because of the cartoonish graphics used in the opening sequence when we see a bunch of pigs/boars running across the screen. But those worries would resurface again in the second half and stay. This latter half focused on Bill Moseley and the dynamic of his mundane family. Here the formula starts becoming a touch repetitive, and aimless. Nathan (built like a brick house) Jones was one of only a few things keeping me entertained. Well, the plot would always cut back-and-forth to the locals at the town's only pub to recount barroom tales of something strange going on in their neck of the woods and to obviously joke around. Cool to see a bunch of Aussie TV stars like Steve Bisley, Ernie Dingo, Simone Buchanan and Chris Haywood in those moments. As I mentioned earlier, this is where it becomes a noticeable mixture of computer graphics and animatronic FX. The CGI didn't look the greatest, and it was only highlighted during the daytime scenes. It stuck out big time, like something brought over from a scyfy production. Some nighttime scenes in this half shared similar results too. It felt like it favoured using the CGI, unless there were problems or limitations with the mechanical boar? The boar was more on the move, and on camera a lot so I can see why it might've been the case. I just found it very contrasting, because the practical resources were effective when used while the CGI looked less so. Another aspect was the intensity of the first half evaporated, and the attack scenes lost their edge becoming overly silly, and anti-climatic in their impact. That also goes for how the boar is defeated. There's almost a rushed quality to it. I must say, I thought it had a lot guts in who it knocked off, but alas it all comes crashing down in its crowd pleasing, cop-out ending. It's well-made for what it is, a polished looking B-grade creature-feature, but yet it plays out like a bog standard straight-to-dvd outing with a contrived pay-off. So come for the fierce boar attacks and practical FX, but stay for Jarratt and Ward's crackling combination.

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