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Lunch » Tags » Movies » Reviews » Wounded (1997 movie)

Wounded (1997 movie)

1 rating: 1.0

A movie directed by Richard Martin

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Tags: Movies, Action Movies, Action, Adventure, Adventure Movies

Director: Richard Martin

Release Date: 1997

MPAA Rating: R

1 review about Wounded (1997 movie)

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Wounded - 1997

Oct 1, 2008

by SusiDee34
posted in Movie Hype

Rating:

Pros: beautiful scenery, Madchen Amick

Cons: pass

The Bottom Line:
"It's like walking with the wounded
Carrying that weight way too far
The concrete pulled you down so hard
Out there with the wounded:
~Third Eye Blind

This movie is graphic, gross and tasteless. My kinda flick. It could be enjoyed for its' cinematography alone. I am sorry I missed where the filming took place because the vistas are beautiful. From that point on, I guess by most this would be considered a pretty lame movie, therefore you know I liked it. Admitted, Madchen Amick, as the cross between Demi Moore in G.I.Jane and Janine Turner in Cliffhanger, was probably the main draw to the picture anyway and her boyfriend, Richard J,.Paul, wasn't a bad look either. Enough smut, on to the movie.

Amick and Paul are wildlife conservationists, tagging grizzlies to track their habits in the wild. Suddenly their little guys start showing up legs to Jesus and the Feds drop in to help them chase down the poachers.

The Feds, of course, have an idea who the bad guy is but in typical Fed fashion, they ain't telling. After all, he's one of their own and they trained him. Traipsing through the forest in full gear, they are systematically eliminated by the bad guy, who is Hanaghan (Adrian Pasdar), who traffics the organs from the eviscerated bears to Mr. Lee (Francois Chau), for medicinal use ~ whatever!

Eventually we are left with Amick and Paul in a face-off with Pasdar. Apparently all the ‘professionals' have been properly eliminated, while these two ‘non-professionals' remain alive. Pasdar promises to let them go if Amick will ‘drop her weapon', which she does out of her love for Paul. Lying, two-faced skunk that he is, Pasdar kills Paul anyway and then shoots Amick. Once in the leg to stop her from running and then dead on in the heart.

Wait, did you think that was the end of the movie? Oh no, kiddies, we are in for a treat. Amick has that rare disorder ~ Situs inversus!

Yes indeedy, sweet Amick's heart is on the right side of her body and not the left, so we have a glorious one hour of movie left. And to top it off, the Fed helicopter isn't far away and manages to find her almost immediately, although there is no one left alive to contact them let alone tell them where she is in this great expanse of forest.

Waking in the hospital, she is deluged with questions by the Febbies but of course has nothing to tell them. All the while, you can see her brain (which probably has reversed lobes as well) grinding away, planning her revenge. We cut to a scene between Chau and Pasdar. Chau is generally P.O.'d because people were killed to obtain the cherished bear organs and the purchasers of the organs feel they are now tainted. Chau also informs Pasdar that Amick has managed to survive, much to his astonishment. Pasdar promises to eliminate this threat.

Strolling into town, you get the impression of Stallone in First Blood, Pasdar in his fringed jacket and cowboy hat looks so out of place someone has to notice, but NO. He delivers a cute little stuffed bear to Amick in the hospital, along with a nasty little note, and the hunt is on. This is the point that Amick joins forces with Graham Greene, who plays the part of a cross between Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series and a Barney Fife type FBI agent. He carries a gun but it isn't loaded because he has tried to kill himself and because ‘he started to enjoy killing people too much'.

Ok, I know this is getting wordy, but I know you won't watch it, so I don't want to leave anything really gory out. Greene used to be quite the accomplished agent and has a really good head on his shoulders. Unfortunately, time and circumstances have taken their toll, and he has become fast friends with the bottle. He takes Amick in and gives her a lot of good advice, which she doesn't heed of course, and in the end Pasdar does to Greene what he does to the bears. End of Greene. Amick is REALLY ticked off now. She returns to her beloved forest and to the hunt. This was her intention all along, and I don't believe that Pasdar has any idea what he is really walked into.

Burning down her beautiful cabin in the woods, she dons her Rambo gear and becomes the stalker. Now this is where the movie becomes really bizarre (Bizarrer? More bizarre? Bizarrest?). Hell no, I ain't telling you the ending. On to my observations.

This was a twisted take off of an oldie The Most Dangerous Game released eons ago. Of course this release was better because of the advanced technology. Things can appear even more unbelievable than in the older version. They did kinda of push the limits though showing this diminutive babe stalking the ruthless killer through the woods, looking like something that had stepped out of a Lands End or Eddie Bauer catalogue. Her stalking gear looked better than my work clothes! Well, that was a poor analogy.

Amick is incredibly intense. One minute the sweet loving forest ranger, the next, a primitive and feral stalking killer. Was this comparison to show us just what we will do to protect the species, no matter what the species may be, or was it simply her own hidden instincts finally coming to the front? Are we all basically voracious beasts underneath, or do we turn that way when pushed to the limit?

Her acting abilities are nothing above par, in fact, for the most part, everything seemed just a little bit beyond the scale. Then again, she did look quite fetching in her Rambo gear, so I forgave her less than stellar acting abilities. Paul was just a spineless wimp, but then again, he was barely in the movie at all. You generally only got him tagging the bears, then in the death grip with Pasdar. I guess we would all be spineless wimps under those circumstances, with a knife pressed to our gullet. Pasdar was another story. Not a good actor, but I liked his rugged looks.

Graham Greene is a favorite of mine. I really liked him in this movie, kind of a plodding Columbo character. Underneath that sloppy and gruffy persona you can still see the type of agent he was. He has always been in these character roles, adding more to the movie than it generally deserves. I never really thought he got his just do in Hollywood, as a lot of these character actors seldom do.

The cinematography was outstanding. Beautiful vistas, sweeping mountains, waterfalls, trees, lakes, streams. Sunrises and sunsets. Like I said, this was one of the major stars in the movie itself.

Was it scary? No friggin way. In the beginning you are swept up in the majesty of the place and then the horror of the bear kills. You move into the incredibility of the FBI losing face and march right in to the ridiculous.

It is full of mindless brutality with no rhyme or reason, gory kill scenes and worthless dialogue. God, I loved this flick. I've watched it three times now, it is that bizarre. Would I recommend it? Why not? If you sat through Titanic, you can certainly set through Wounded. The scenery is prettier, the dialogue is just as bad, Madchen Amick is a lot prettier than Kate Capshaw and looks hotter in her clothes ~ bonus, no Leonardo, and this movie is only 1-1/2 hours long and you have no idea how this one ends.

Written by Harry Longstreet & Lindasy Bourne. Directed by Richard Martin. Cinematography by Gregory Middleton.

Thanks,
Susi

Thanks to Millinocket for this database addition

Recommended:
Yes

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