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Hank (Noel Marshall) has spent his last 2 years in Africa, sharing his
house with lions and tigers and other big cats, and despite the occasional
injury, they seem to have accepted him into their midst as he familiarizes
him with more and more with their ways of life. But now he has sent for
his wife (Tippi Hedren) and children (Melanie Griffith, John Marshall,
Jerry Marshall) to come join him, but somehow he messes up picking them up
from the airport and they arrive at his place when he's out ... and
suddenly find themselves facing all these big cats who see Hank's house as
their territory and the new humans as intruders, so they chase them around
the house. But while mum and the kids are terrified, naturally, and think
they're about to be eaten alive, the lions and tigers seem to be more
intent to play with them a little - even if that includes ruining the
entire interior of Hank's house. Eventually, our little family think they
have escaped the lions and tigers and, totally exhausted, fall asleep in
the house's guest house - but the big cats have long known about an
entrance to that house and by and by enter and lie down to sleep with our
heroes - and when our humans wake up and find themselves still alive in a
room with dozens of lions, they figure the cats are their friends
actually. And then Hank returns and all is great!!! Up to a
point, Roar is a movie that spells madness: Born out of an
idealistic (and commedable) idea to show lions and tigers as the great
creatures they are, things got out of hand on the movie pretty quickly,
namely when Noel Marshall found out he can't use trained animals in the
number needed for the movie and thus he and his family (wife Tippi Hedren,
sons John and Jerry Marshall, stepdaughter Melanie Griffith) just raised
the lions and tigers needed in the movie themselves - which ultimately
resulted in the film having some incredible animal footage ... but it also
threw the production into complete chaos as these big, untrained cats were
unpredictable, and while peaceful most of the time, hardly a cast and
crewmember had not been attacked (including Melanie Griffith, whose face
needed plastic surgery, and cinematographer and later filmmaker Jan de
Bont, whose scalp almost came off and who still sticked with the
produciton to the end), with many of the attacks actually making it into
the film. The result is a bit of a two-edged sword: The animal scenes
are breathtaking (and the cats are in almost every shot), and especially
the scenes where Tippi and the children are chased around the house are
truly exciting, also due to the fact that the lions and tigers are very
real, and are in incredible numbers, too. But that said, the story of this
movie is somewhat skeletal and simplistic, in parts due to the
unpredictability of the shoot of course, the dialogue seems somewhat
forced and stilted, and the acting of all of the involved is a bit on the
wooden side - which again might have to do with the big and potentially
dangerous cats around. But all that said, while Roar might not
be the best movie in the world, it's definitely worth a look for its
daring and spectacle, and in it's authenticity it's very unique actually -
so much so that it might actually be better described as a experience than
a movie.
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amazon.co.uk
eThaiCD.com
find Roar at adultvideouniverse.com
