Two young couples venture into the New Guinea wilderness in search of Michael Rockefeller, the heir to the Rockefeller fortune who disappeared back in 1961. Naturally, our group runs afoul of a hostile cannibal tribe. Writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh crucially fails to generate any essential tension or momentum while the now hackneyed found footage premise covers too familiar territory in a bland and uninspired way. Moreover, the ponderous build-up proves to be a rather tedious chore to endure, with a belated pay-off that doesn't deliver the gruesome goods abundantly enough to be worth all the effort to get to it. Worst of all, the four protagonists are remarkably irritating and unlikable; their constant bickering and idiotic antics get extremely tiresome super fast and make it impossible for the viewer to care about what happens to them. Sandy Gardiner, Callard Harris, Nick Richey, and Veronica Sywak all contribute credible naturalistic performances, but are unable to make their obnoxious characters even remotely interesting or sympathetic. Only some decent gore, the gorgeous tropical scenery, and the effective hand-held cinematography by Hensleigh and John Leonetti prevent this picture from being a total wash-out. A merely passable time-killer, but it could and should have been a lot better.
Review of Welcome to the Jungle
Welcome to the Jungle
(2007 Video)
Abortive attempt at reviving the trekking through the jungle cannibal horror sub-genre
18 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers