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Apex Review
Image Credit: RJLE Films
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Neal McDonough– Dr. Samuel Rainsford
Bruce Willis– Thomas Malone
Corey Large– Carrion
Alexia Fast– West
Lochlyn Munro– Lyle
Nels Lennarson– Bishop
Megan Peta Hill– Jeza
Trevor Gretzky– Ecka
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Edward Drake
Screenplay by Edward Drake and Corey Large
Distributed by RLJE Films and AMC+
Not Rated
Runtime– 93 minutes
Available on DVD and Blu-ray and Video on Demand starting February 8th, 2022.
Apex, directed and co-written by Edward Drake and available on DVD and Blu-ray starting February 8th, 2022, is a frustrating movie watching experience. Featuring stars Neal McDonough and Brice Willis, not to mention the always reliable and entertaining Lochlyn Munro, a coolish plot where rich people hunt other people (I mean, yeah, it’s been done dozens of times before but when done right it’s usually fun and exciting), and some impressive looking set design and CGI, Apex is a movie that has all of the necessary tools to be successful. Unfortunately, the movie fails on almost every level. It’s interesting to watch as a sort of train wreck, but it isn’t something that you’re going to want to seek out, unless you’re a Bruce Willis or Neal McDonough (or, hell, maybe a Lochlyn Munro) completist. And even then…
Apex stars Neal McDonough as Dr. Samuel Rainsford, a mega rich guy that gets his kicks hunting people for sport. Rainsford, alongside other mega rich people, often heads to the island known as Apex to hunt. Apex is administered by West (Alexia Fast), a woman who typically appears as a kind of hologram/computer voice, but she is a real person. Rainsford is becoming bored with the prey that West is providing him. Rainsford wants a challenge. So West provides him with the chance to hunt the notorious Thomas Malone (Bruce Willis), an ex-cop and prisoner with a reputation for surviving at all costs. Along with his fellow hunters (Carrrion, as played by Corey Large, Lyle, as played by Lochlyn Munro, Bishop, as played by Nels Lennarson, Jeza, as played by Mega Peta Hill, and Ecka, as played by Trevor Gretzky), Rainsford heads out into the Apex island wilderness to hunt down Malone. Now, if Malone survives the hunt, West will somehow get Malone out of prison so he can see the grandkids he didn’t know he had. Malone hasn’t had much to look forward to in life since he was imprisoned, so he takes West’s offer and hopes to find a way to survive.
Now, as soon as the hunters enter the woods they start arguing about who should get to kill Malone, who is a better hunter, and, I guess, who is a better human being. This arguing leads to the hunters hunting themselves. Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they band together to find Malone and kill him? Isn’t that what the hunters usually do when they sign up and pay for one of these Apex Island hunt deals?
I don’t really know. The movie doesn’t make it clear. I think the movie expects the audience to believe/accept that because Malone is such a notorious badass and a high valued prey target that the hunters turn on one another because they want the spoils of the hunt all for themselves. There’s also a moment where Malone, while talking to West, asks about what happens if the hunters turn on one another, which makes you think that Malone is going to be in the woods, using his survival skills to sort of take the fight to the hunters. That doesn’t happen, though. In fact, Malone really doesn’t do much in the movie once he’s let out into the woods except stand behind some bushes, stand behind some trees, and eat some berries that cause him to, like, hallucinate and stuff. He does sort of engage with Ecka, Carrion, and eventually Rainsford, but these confrontations aren’t much to write home about.
So the hunters all turn on one another and kill one another, with Rainsford killing Lyle, Bishop attacking a wounded Ecka, and then Bishop going after the other hunters full force. We then get some painful scenes where Bishop swears a lot, his hunter prey swears back, and we get a burst of action.
So then some stuff happens, Rainsford eventually ends up being the last hunter standing, and he has a final showdown/confrontation with Malone. There’s a quick bit where Rainsford has West bring in sort of lower level hunters (they’re called mongrels) which Malone takes out in a montage of violence that was probably funny on paper but isn’t very exciting. The potential is there, sure, but the end result is just disappointing.
As for the final confrontation between Rainsford and Malone, I’m not even sure that McDonough and Willis were even in the same room during their characters’ confrontation. The movie just sort of ends after that.
So what the hell happened here? I wish I knew. The concept has so much potential. You can tell by the general look of the movie and the future sci-fi world that we see and the characters inhabit that some thought and effort went into setting the whole thing up. And there’s a kernel of a cool story inside of the plot. But none of it really works. The movie just sort of exists.
How could the movie be improved? One, have the Malone character actually engage with the hunters pursuing him. We see him disable Ecka, and then he just sort of disappears from the story for a while. Why isn’t Malone coming up with traps and whatnot to antagonize the hunters? Why isn’t Malone confronting the hunters and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with them? I couldn’t help but think of how a Steven Seagal type persona would have likely directly participated in the story more than Bruce Willis. We certainly would have had a few aikido brawls in the woods. That would have been cool to see.
The second thing the movie needs is more action. More gun play, more cat and mouse, more fighting. The action that we do get is okay as “short burst action,” but there’s so little of it that it doesn’t register the way it should. There are some good gore moments but those, too, are brief. Why have hunters hunting people and not have those hunters engage in brutal, bloody violence that makes you sick? It seems like a wasted opportunity.
The performances are mostly baffling. Bruce Willis spends most of the movie looking like he’s just trying to get through his character’s lines as quickly as possible without actually acting. I can’t say that he spends his time bored out of his mind or that he’s just being a prick and doing the absolute bare minimum. He’s just in the movie. There are two moments in the movie where it appears that Willis is trying to inject some life into Thomas Malone. The first moment is Malone’s computer file photo, where Malone has a hilarious “What the fuck are you looking at?” look on his face. The second moment is when Malone tells one of the hunters that he’s like “Bacon and eggs on a Sunday morning” while pointing a rifle at their head. Other than that, Willis is just in the movie.
Neal McDonough does an okay job with his scenes that appear in the beginning of the movie, as his Dr. Rainsford seems like a true blue evil guy. When he stares at people with that patented Neal McDonough stare and talks about how he’s an elite hunter and an elite human being you get a sense of the dark menace in Rainsford’s heart. But McDonough has to keep doing that over and over again and after the fifth time you see it you’re bored as hell with him. And by the end of the movie it almost seems like McDonough is bored, too, and just wants this goddamn thing to be over. It’s a damn shame.
Lochlyn Munro does a nice job as Lyle. In fact, he gives the movie’s best performance. Munro makes Lyle such a boastful jerk that you want to see him get destroyed by Malone (because you assume that that’s what’s going to happen considering who Malone is and what the plot of the movie is supposed to be at that point in time). Lyle doesn’t get destroyed by Malone, though, and Lyle’s demise is a moment that comes out of nowhere. The movie really could have used more of Munro’s Lyle as opposed to Corey Large’s Carrion, who actually manages to survive until the end of the movie and is easily one of the most boring characters in an action movie I’ve ever seen.
Nels Lennarson is incomprehensible as Bishop. With his thick Irish accent and mumbly line delivery, the only time you understand anything he says is when he swears. His big scene with Megan Peta Hill’s Jeza and the land mines is one of the most excruciating things I’ve ever seen. And Megan Peta Hill had potential as Jeza, but the movie doesn’t seem to want to do anything with her and she, like Bruce Willis, is just sort of in the movie.
Most of the set design and the CGI stuff is impressive looking. It sure seems like director Drake and company spent some time creating the world of the movie. I just wish there was a better story and a better movie taking place in that world. The potential is all there. It just doesn’t work. Apex is a disaster.
Apex is not a must see for anyone beyond the Bruce Willis and or Neal McDonough completists out there. Otherwise, find something else to watch. You’re not missing anything all that important.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: Maybe 15.
Explosions: A few, both big and small.
Nudity?: None.
Doobage: An island, people chasing someone, some sort of laser grenade, a crossbow with a laser sight on it, some sort of beam travel system, some decent looking CGI ships, coffee to the head, a montage of various people finding out that there’s a hunt coming, storage container hooey, a group of hunters hanging out before hunting, multiple “old guy” jokes, a mace, land mines, invisible weapons boxes, bullet to the leg, bullet to the head, heavily armed bad guys shooting up the woods for some reason, arguing, a seriously broken leg, knife through the side of the head, more land mine stuff, two nifty “mine tricks,” exploding woman, a water hole, rifle cleaning, a hand-to-hand brawl, .50 caliber gun hooey, off screen decapitation, speedboat hooey, hatchet attack, a killing montage, rocket launcher hooey, a guy with a flamethrower, a final confrontation, and a slow motion grenade vs. bullet with massive explosion scene.
Kim Richards? None.
Gratuitous: Neal McDonough, Bruce Willis, a Bruce Willis hologram head, an employment contract, Lochlyn Munro, a “calling people” montage, attempted golf, Bruce Willis living in a storage container, a “welcome” video that attempts to explain what Apex island is all about, “enlightenment through blood sport,” Lochlyn Munro wearing a pink alligator shirt, an obvious Bruce Willis stand-in/stunt double that we only see from behind, vaping, Lochlyn Munro hyping himself up, talk of Yelp reviews, Bruce Willis eating berries out in the woods, a handgun with two barrels, Neal McDonough cleaning a rifle, “No Mas,” a guy with a flamethrower, and a slow motion grenade vs. bullet massive explosion scene.
Best lines: “Fuck you, Rainsford!,” “Too fucking slow. What do you mean by that?,” “My enthusiasm for your sport is coming to an end,” “They look like gutter punk brawlers,” “Who the hell is Thomas Malone?,” “Grandkids? I don’t have any grandkids!,” “What if I kill all of the hunters?,” “What is the price for… hunting humans?,” “Buy low, sell high, pretty easy to understand, compadre,” “Let’s begin,” “Can hunters kill other hunters?,” “All right, West! That better not leave a bruise or I’m suing your ass!,” “He certainly didn’t last long,” “Good boy. Now stay,” “What do you think hell is serving for dinner tonight? Because I would love a little piece of Jeza!,” “Where’d she go?,” “I always bet on myself,” “I love a good threesome,” “Who you calling vanilla?,” “Kid, I’m better than good. I’m bacon and eggs on Sunday morning,” “What the fuck is a mongrel?,” “This man is… is perfect,” and “You’re an idiot.”
