PREY : Monday 20th September 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the end of September at least, and as a result all cinema's closed until sometime after this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the German thriller 'PREY' which is Written and Directed by Thomas Sieben. This is Sieben's fourth feature film following 2009's 'Distanz', 2013's 'Staudamm' and 2018's 'Kidnapping Stella' and was released to Netflix on 10th September having generated mostly negative press along the way.

The film opens up with a young couple swimming underwater in the crystal clear ocean, and kissing before rising to the surface. We then cut to two canoe's occupied by five men, as the group idly paddle down a stream surrounded by dense forest, and taking in the sights and sounds of the beautiful woodland around them. They come to an embankment, get out of the canoe's and then all frolic in the stream, as good mates do. It seems that the group of five friends are on a bachelor party for Roman (Davis Kross) who was the man seen swimming in the opening scene, and who is soon to be married. The others in the group are his older brother Albert (Hanno Koffler), Peter (Robert Finster), Vincent (Yung Ngo) and Stefan (Klaus Steinbacher). After getting out of the water Stefan has already set a fire as the men warm themselves and take in the sun. Suddenly the serenity of their surroundings is disturbed as a gunshot rings out, somewhere in the distance but close enough for the men to take heed. Dismissing it as someone on a hunting trip, they continue their idle chatter.

Stefan suggests a hike up to a look out where they can take in the sweeping vistas of the forest for as far as the eye can see. Stefan knows the forest as his father used to take him hiking there when he was much younger, so he knows the lay of the land reasonably well. After taking in the views the group amble back down to where their car was parked and head on to their next destination. 

Stefan arrives at the car opens up the boot, with Vincent trailing behind. A gun shot rings out aimed in their direction and the four men all cower behind the vehicle. Vincent remains standing at the edge of the clearing. He then realises that he has been shot in the upper arm and begins to panic. He is retrieved to the safety of their parked car, and Stefan bandages up his arm. Another shot rings out shattering a car window, and then another taking out a tyre. Left defenceless and exposed and no way of getting the hell outta Dodge, the five men decide to make a dash to the trees from whence they came. 

The men continue running for their lives until such time they decide to rest up and take stock of their situation. Stefan says that they should head for a roadway that is further away than the photograph he took from the lookout earlier would suggest. The group agree. Traipsing through the undergrowth, they eventually come across a woman standing down by the rivers edge with her back turned towards them. Stefan calls out to the woman but she is unresponsive. He calls again, and once more before the woman turns around to face them. She takes two steps forward, reaches down and picks up a rifle from the ground and plugs a bullet right between Stefan's eyes. The other four turn on their heels and run for cover, as more shots are fired in their direction. 

Evading the bullets the group of now four men come across a small general store and information kiosk in the forest. A young woman stands behind the counter as Albert attempts to explain their predicament and asks if there is a phone with which they can call the Police. The connection is ad hoc replies the woman but Albert is successful is dialling the Police and as he begins his conversation the woman is shot in the head from outside the window. Several more shots are fired in their direction, as the men cower for cover. Vincent meanwhile has taken another shot to the neck, and is crawling towards Roman and Albert holding on to his neck that is spurting blood. A final shot to the head finishes him off. The remaining three make a dash for it out of the back door running for cover in the trees once again. In doing so Albert stumbles and badly twists his ankle. 

Resting up momentarily Peter surveys Alberts badly twisted and now swelling ankle. They continue walking eventually finding the road. This leads them down into a long deserted campsite where A-frame cabins and children's playgrounds once bristled with life. They rest up. It turns out that Peter is Albert's business partner in a company that that they formed some years ago, and into which Roman is on the promise of a job subject to Board approval which is expected to come through before the wedding. Peter suggests that Albert remain at the camp because he can hardly walk, to which Albert takes umbrage and a fist fight breaks out between the pair, with Roman having to intervene. Peter walks off choosing to go it alone, leaving Albert sat feeling sorry for himself, and Roman disgusted by his older brothers attitude and behaviour. Roman walks off too, and comes across a long cabin that appears to be open and lived in. He gingerly ventures inside, having seen a makeshift memorial in the garden to an Anna. On a computer screen he sees a video clip of the shooter Eva (Maria Ehrich) down by the waters edge in the same spot as Stefan was killed. Eva is holding her baby. A drunken hunter is seen stumbling towards her carrying a rifle. Eva attempts to intervene and ward off the hunter and in the ensuing fracas a shot is fired which kills her baby. 

Roman returns to Albert and the pair struggle onward with their journey. Meanwhile Peter has reached the road again. Rounding a bend in the road Peter comes face to face with Eva. She shoots him in the leg, sending him backwards. She slowly motions towards him as Peter attempts to crawl away. He turns around as she plugs him with another shot to his other leg. Peter pleads with her saying that he has money, lots of money, if that's what she wants. She fires another round into his left shoulder, then another into his right shoulder, and then a final one between the eyes. From a distance Roman and Albert see Peter's dead body on the ground and Eva standing over him. 

The pair head off in the opposite direction. A short while later they see Eva tracking them but believe that she has not seen them. They stand motionless observing her before gingerly moving on, at which point Eva turns and fires in their direction, landing a bullet wound to Albert's shoulder. Now bleeding, with a badly twisted ankle and semi-conscious Roman and Albert rest up. Albert falls into a slumber, and Roman retrieves Albert's mobile phone from his pocket. There is no signal of course, but using Albert's thumb print to unlock his phone, he scrolls through his images and text messages. There he sees an image of Lisa (Livia Matthes) the woman swimming with Roman in the opening scene, and whom Roman is set to be married to. It turns out that Albert had an affair with Lisa recently as is seen in flashbacks throughout the film of their beachside holiday. When Albert comes round Roman is standoffish with his brother and asks him about Lisa. Albert says it just happened by accident and meant nothing, at which point Roman lands a punch squarely on Albert's jaw, and leaves.

Roman sees Eva in the distance heading off in the opposite direction. He decides to follow, but not before dragging Albert into the relative safety of a rocky overhang and out of sight. He pulls out Albert's pocket knife, cuts a square out of Albert's vest, folds it several times and presses it to his brothers shoulder wound. He returns to where he saw Eva walking towards, and enters a cave, in which is Peter's dead body and the bodies of two other slain victims. He climbs a makeshift ladder which emerges on top of a rocky outcrop at which Eva is standing gun raised looking out over a cliff edge through the sight of her rifle. Roman approaches with knife drawn, and comes within a few metres of Eva who turns with rifle raised. A standoff ensues in which Roman is shot in the leg. He then explains that he has seen the video and he knows what happened to baby Anna. He asks her to stop, and she momentarily lowers the rifle. At which point Roman lashes out with his other leg disarming Eva and the pair fight. Ultimately Roman gains the upper hand and has control of the rifle. He raises it and momentarily considers pulling the trigger but instead tosses the rifle away. Eva slowly backs away, one step, two steps, and then falls backwards over the edge of the cliff to her death some thirty or forty metres below. Roman sits down on the edge of the cliff, relieved that its all over.

Let me tell you that 'Prey' is no 'Deliverance'! I saw this film, which is overdubbed into English, and the one good thing about it, is its short running time at just 87 minutes. Too many questions get left unanswered, such as why is this lone sharpshooting woman picking off random guys in the forest aside from the fact that she's clearly now got it in for every male weekend warrior hiker in her neck of the woods; does Albert and/or Roman get out alive; what's her motivation for playing cat and mouse with these men when she could have popped them off all in one go; and as for a compelling back story that makes these characters relatable - forgeddaboudid! As a survival thriller in the woods you have seen this done hundreds of times before more often than not more effectively, and as such 'Prey' offers up nothing new or original. But, if that's your cup of tea then by all means go for it, and as one of the friends in the movie says to another whilst being stalked by an unknown assailant 'Who says it has to make sense?' . . . . . well he certainly got that right!

'Prey' merits one clap of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

RISING HIGH : Monday 18th May 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Rising High' which went live on the streaming service on 17th April and which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Monday 18th May.

'RISING HIGH' is a German white collar crime drama film overdubbed into English that is Directed and Written by Cuneyt Kaya. The film has generated largely average Reviews, has a run time of 94 minutes, and has been described by one publication as 'The Wolf of Wall Street' for Real Estate Agents.

Our film opens up with a wild party going on well into the night at a very plush upmarket residence somewhere in the well-to-do suburbs of Berlin. There's plenty of hard liquor being downed, cocaine being snorted, scantily clad young women dancing erotically, music thumping and generally a good time being had by all. At the end of the night, the camera pans inside the house, to a sofa where sits a young man alone with a bottle of Scotch having just done a line and in burst four heavily armed Police Officers and force the man to the ground, handcuffing him.

Fast forward, and that same man, Viktor Steiner (David Kross) is sat in an interview room within a prison talking to journalist Luna (Anne Schafer) while a sound recordist and a video camera operator record the conversation. Viktor is spilling his guts on the why's and wherefore's of his rags to riches lifestyle in the Berlin Real Estate Market and how he very successfully managed to scam dozens if not hundreds of clients out of their savings by buying low and selling high in the Berlin property market post GFC by exploiting a loophole in the market, and all the corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and fraudulent activity that goes hand in hand with such schemes.

His story starts off in his younger years when his painter and decorator father Peter (Robert Schupp) owed money to the German tax man - money his father was unable to pay. A few years later and it's time for Viktor to leave home and make his own way in the world. Headed off to Berlin to seek his fame and fortune with nothing more than 200Euros in his pocket, a suit folded up and stuffed into his back pack by his dad, and the clothes on his back, off he trots. Viktor however, soon comes to the realisation that in this town you either need a large stash of cash behind you or an active network of connections or both to survive. So having started off labouring on a building site, he quickly jacks this in and produces himself a forged 'official' document at a local 7/11, that states his monthly earning capacity, his job title and the necessary credentials to land him his first step up on the ladder of success. And that first step comes in the form of a penthouse suite that he rents and in turn rents out to the Bulgarian workers on the building site that he had initially worked at, for 20Euros a night compared to the 35 Euros they have been paying at a local hostel. Pretty soon, Viktor is raking in the cash by the holdall load, which leads to another penthouse and then another all rented out to Bulgarian work crew.

Fairly soon, at a wild party being thrown by his tenants in one of his penthouse suites, Viktor is accidentally introduced to Gerry Falkland (Frederick Lau) who becomes his partner in crime pretty quickly after the pair hit it off over vodka shots. The pair decide to upturn the Berlin property market by buying distressed appartments at a clearance auction house for next to nothing and on-selling them at highly inflated prices so making them both extremely wealthy rather quickly.

But of course there is more to this scam than meets the eye. They need a corrupt mortgage broker, someone who can manipulate the property auctions, and a source for gullible clientele willing and prepared to part company with their savings for a sure bet on the property ladder. And that corrupt mortgage broker comes in the form of the attractive and successful Nicole Kleber (Janina Uhse), who is also a dab hand confidence trickster, and who also knew Gerry from their school days. Before you now it Viktor and Gerry have recruited Nicole and before you know it Viktor and Nicole are an item.

We then fast forward a few months and after numerous other dodgy scams involving fake bank loans given to clients forcing them into bankruptcy and tax loopholes the trio and their immediate associates are basking in their success and their wealth. Nicole gets pregnant, Viktor and her get married much to the chagrin of Gerry who tries to warn Viktor that after their first year it is all likely to turn to shit for the pair and that she will take him to the cleaners, chew him up and spit him out in little pieces. Viktor of course will have none of this, and dismisses his friends best advice almost as soon as it is said. Viktor and Nicole move into the lavish suburban property that we saw at the onset of the film and for the first year everything is great, and they both relish being parents to their young daughter.

Meanwhile, the boys wild lifestyle of heavy drinking, cocaine abuse, and partying hard at an upmarket brothel while buying up various other companies in the real estate and financial planning businesses sees their ever expanding fortunes escalate further while Viktor's marriage starts to crumble. They recruit a new financial controller to navigate Germany's rigid tax regime on the condition that she also does drugs as all the employees at their growing company snort something throughout the day and its an employment pre-requisite it seems. She complies, does a line and is hired on the spot.

Sometime later, she interrupts the boys game play in the office with a notice from the Tax Department demanding payment of back taxes amounting to a few million dollars. Viktor goes into meltdown while Gerry takes this set back in his stride. Viktor of course has not set aside any funds to cover his future tax liabilities and is left totally exposed, whereas Gerry's wife has frittered away a large part of their earnings to cover such unforeseen eventualities. Viktor's only hope of covering this looming debt is in the form of a very expensive diamond and sapphire necklace that he originally purchased for his mother as a surprise gift from his separated father, which backfired on him and which he gave to Nicole for safe keeping but which she says she does not know the whereabouts of. After a one night stand with a prostitute Chantal (Sophia Thomalla) at their favoured brothel hangout, Nicole gets wind of this and kicks husband and father Viktor out on his ear.

Soon afterwards Viktor's life implodes as he doesn't have the means to pay the tax man, his wife has frozen his assets pending divorce proceedings, he doesn't have a prenup much to the disgust of his hired divorce lawyer and what's a man to do, except concoct a Plan B. This involves setting up their own bank in Malta, which involves hiring a couple of ageing Directors who have not worked in the banking sector for over ten years and bribing a Maltese banking official into giving the pair the green light. In so doing they get an instant line of credit in the tens of millions of dollars from the World Bank and all of a sudden they are solvent again.

Back to the party that we saw at the start of the film and the Police Officers bust in and arrest Viktor, meanwhile Gerry has done a quick bolt to some overseas destination to hang low for a while until the dust has settled. Viktor meanwhile has recounted all of his nefarious exploits, his con schemes, his tax evasion and the demise of his marriage because of his greed to the journalist Luna. His is visited in prison by his estranged mother Viktoria (Susan Angelo) who advises her son that his father was killed when the car he was driving span out of control in the countryside. This news hits Viktor like a sledgehammer.

Upon his release from prison sometime later, Viktor is greeted at the gates by his now divorced wife Nicole and their young daughter aged about six or seven it would be safe to assume. Previously Viktor has recorded a secret message for his daughter onto a CD in the hope of rekindling his relationship with whom he hadn't spent anytime with since the separation. That CD was delivered by Luna in with the monthly subscription to some children's magazine. After a largely positive initial meeting Nicole allows Viktor further visitation rights. Now living a very humble lifestyle in a one bedroom apartment, one day Viktor returns to find a note slipped under the door. That note was from Gerry with a cryptic message about the marble lions head that adorned the front entrance to Viktor's former home. Reading between the lines, Viktor goes to the house in the dead of night armed with a hammer and a chisel and starts chipping away at the bust of the lion. Cracking it open, he reveals a pouch which contains the diamond and sapphire necklace that was previously thought lost. Viktor is back in business!

With 'Rising High' there is nothing new here that you haven't seen in countless other movies of a similar ilk before - including the already mentioned 'Wolf of Wall Street' plus 'War Dogs' to name just two, and, which incidentally were far superior films. The film is polished enough and competently crafted, and Kross stands out as the gifted young man with the patter, the smarts, the confidence and the good looks to be able to sell ice to the Eskimos and sand to the Arabs but who is ultimately undone by drugs, alcohol, money, more money and yet more money and all the toys, trinkets and trappings that it can buy. In this respect this is a derivative predictable formulaic offering of which you have to suspend belief as the trio of scammers con their way into and out of such outlandish scenarios that all plausibility goes out the window. All that said, it is watchable and by the time the rather predictable ending comes you do feel a certain connection to Viktor for all his past crimes and misdemeanours - no matter how unsavoury they may have been.

'Rising High' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-