Rogue (2020)

Elevator Pitch: Samantha O’Hara (Megan Fox) leads a group of mercenaries whose tsk is to rescue the daughter of a white governor (I think) held as a hostage by an Islamic group in Africa. They succeed in the rescue of the governor’s daughter with two others,  but their helicopter is shot down resulting in them having to escape across country, ending up in a farm, formerly used as a hide-out by poachers who have been dealing illegally in animal parts. Unknown to the mercenaries, and the terrorists who are pursuing them, there has been chaos in the farm. The animals have escaped and these include a lioness who has killed the poachers and is ready to kill again.

Content: No sex or nudity. Almost continuous fire fighting with automatic weapons firstly as the mercenaries escape with the girls and then after their helicopter is shot down. Also a long scene at the poacher’s farm where the initial escape of the rogue lioness is seen and the poaches killed, with quite  lot of blood. The mercenaries have to jump over a cliff into a river at one point.  Later one of the girls is taken by a crocodile. The mercenaries are gradually picked off by the pursuing terrorists and the lioness.

A View: Filmgoers seem to have given this outing a thumbs down but the limited number of critics who have seen it liked it a bit better. For me there was a bit too much shouting, and actually a bit too much gunfire and a lot of the action takes place in the dark. The lioness was not the best CGI I have seen, so these are pretty real negatives for me, but all in all it was a story, it came to a conclusion and had moments of tension in the interim. And somewhere there was a message. So if you like shoot’em ups, give it a chance.

Additional Info: It was filmed in 22 days in the South African outback.