Hunt for the Wilderpeople

If I were supposed to take care of that fat bastard (sorry, morbidly obese troubled boy), it would definitely be a short film, as he definitely wouldn't survive his attitude in the beginning. The longer I watched, the more obvious it was that it was a typical family film, whose plot, despite its many unlikely adventures, was inevitably marching towards a happy ending, which isn’t exactly my thing. It’s not that I hate happy endings, but the story just wasn’t any good. I’m not sure why the characters repeatedly said there were a million hectares of the Bush around them, when both runaways kept stumbling across people all the time. Lame. (10/03/2018)

Because of Jojo Rabbit, I had to go on a quest to watch more films by Taika Waititi, as I'm increasingly enjoying his unique style. Hunt for the Wilderpeople once again warmed my heart with its humanity. At its core, it’s a very simple story without any innovative plot twists, but the way the film is presented won me over. Sam Neill can definitely be counted among the film’s biggest draws; his dry humor made me laugh several times, and Julian Dennison is the proverbial cherry on top. The absurdity that permeates the film at every turn didn’t bother me at all; on the contrary, I can’t really imagine the film without this huge exaggeration. As I mentioned, the film is infused with humor throughout its runtime, despite the fact that it also features serious moments that are genuinely not funny. And that’s how Waititi won me over, with his flawless ability to mix these two genres together. I give it 79%. (12/02/2020)

I really enjoyed this adventurous journey through the New Zealand bush. It had pace, enough tension and of course there was no lack of emotions. I absolutely loved the style of humor, enhanced by scenes full of absurdities and exaggerations, which fed all the strange characters that appeared in the plot. Even Sam Neill impressed me, even though I don't like him much otherwise. But he played the role of the surly surrogate uncle really well. (85%) (25/03/2023)

As for stylization, it's pretty much unique. However, it's the stylization I’m not happy about, because the individual styles (poetics of children's adventure, more serious tone and absolutely crazy) do not match each other at all. It does not create one cohesive whole, but it goes on like this for a while and then like that, which breaks down the whole concept and therefore the emotional level does not work, that largely determines its success. So no matter how hard it tries to combine "Little Rambo viewed by Wes Anderson's perspective", the effort produced no results, which although is not boring and nice to watch and quickly passes by, but just as quickly (if not faster) gets out of your head. (17/10/2016)

A fairly enjoyable film starring a great Sam Neill and an interesting obese brat who performed more than convincingly. A big upside is the New Zealand scenery, which is literally a treat for the eye, and I also praise the perfect scene with the huge wild pig. There is less humour, but it's nice to watch, still I don't feel like 4*. (08/03/2017)