Maneater (2007)

Why so much hype?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

So yes, it's called Maneater, which is dodgy, and yes it looks as if it was shot with a budget of about $12.50, and yes it's clichéd and cheesy, but it was about a million times better than I was expecting it to be.Gary Busey plays Sheriff Grady Barnes, who is the main main character (yeah, double "main", there's a few, they can't decide which to follow). There's a tiger (just a regular tiger, which surprised me, not like, 500 kilo, 10 metre long killing machine, just a Bengal) loose in his hick-town, and they don't take too kindly to tigers 'round these parts. Seriously though, it's an actual tiger, no CG, not even a puppet, it's a genuine freaking tiger. The acting was much better than I thought it'd be, the most terrible was just from the red-shirts, who basically don't even count. The setting was believable and the characters were bearable.That is not however to say, that the movie was good, or even remotely interesting for that matter. I say it was about a million times better than I thought it was, but I had it pegged as bad as it was, then a whole lot worse. At the end of the day it's just another film that seemed to have been made for the sake of being made. Gary Busey's usual wild charisma was noticeable, literally in only a single line. And that's pretty much it.There's an evil Christian mother, but she's not that evil. I mean, compare her to the bitch from Carrie and she's like mother-of-the-year award material, she just doesn't let her son go to school or play make-believe games, they had room to make her big-bad, but didn't. Then there was her son, who has some bizarre connection to the tiger, he sleep walks, he's a traumatised little kid, so of course he must be twisted, right? No wrong, no Michael Myers secreted away here. Ah, and that British hunter, a foreigner! Surely he is the human menace! No? He's not? Oh, just another guy who gets a whole lot of screen time but does nothing? Yeah, figured.So, if someone told me they wanted to watch it, I probably wouldn't go so far as to kill them for even suggesting such a thing, but I'd probably leave the room.-Gimly

Maneater is set in thew small US town of where a truck crashes late one night, the truck happened to be carrying a large Tiger in a wooden box. The box is smashed open & the huge Tiger is set free to roam the woods near the town. The next morning starts like any other for local Sheriff Grady Barnes (Gary Busey) but that soon changes when several missing persons report come in, investigating these reports Sheriff Barnes & his deputies discover several mutilated dead bodies in the woods surrounding . The local coroner says that the victims were killed by a large animal & it's not long before there are sightings of the Tiger as the body-count continues to grow. The national guard is called in but they can't handle the situation so English big game hunter Colonel Graham (Ian D Clark) volunteers his services to track down the Tiger & kill it...Not to be confused with the monster film Maneater (2009) starring Dean Cain this made for television American & Canadian co-production was directed by Gary Yates, yet another in a very long line of killer creature feature flicks from the Sy-Fy Channel this is yet another truly terrible film that almost becomes painful to watch. To be honest there really isn't any sci-fi aspect here, the Tiger is just a normal escaped Tiger that starts to kill & eat the locals rather than some genetic experiment or mutation. In fact little background about the Tiger is given, there's some vague opening sequence as a truck crashes but where the truck came from or where it was going or what it was doing with a live Tiger in a wooden crate strapped to the back is anyone's guess. At almost 90 minutes long Maneater drags badly, the majority of the boring running time is just people wandering through th woods for various reasons (reporters reporting the story, people trying to hunt & kill the Tiger, various victims whose job it is to get killed) & little else, there's some crap about a boy who has some sort of link with the Tiger but is never explained in any great detail or to any satisfaction. Then there's the English hunter with a strange moustache & accent that pushes Maneater into the realms of camp even though it's script is deadly serious. Generally speaking I think I could organise a better hunt for the Tiger, the national guard just randomly walk through the woods looking for it rather than laying a trap with some bait for instance. The character's are awful, the dialogue is awful & the plot is awful. The whole film is awful.Even the attack scenes are awful, we never really see the Tiger attack anyone because they couldn't afford decent special effects & all the attacks happen off-screen with lots of severed body parts & splattered blood left. Actually this was gorier than i thought it was going to be, while most of the gore is after the event mutilated body type stuff at least there's plenty of it here. The real Tiger the makers use during several shots is obviously tame & never bares it's teeth, never acts threatening & is obviously just playing as it rolls around with it's 'victim'.Filmed in Manitoba in Canada this has decent production values but looks bland & lacks any visual style at all, the effects are alright I suppose & it's competently made. The acting is bad, Gary Busey looks really bad in this & can't even be bothered to button his jacket up properly let alone wear a proper uniform. Busey looks like he's slumming it here big time.Maneater is a terrible Sy-Fy Channel creature feature that doesn't actually have any sci-fi or fantasy aspects, it's just a normal Tiger killing people. Boring. If you want to see a decent film about killer Tiger's/Lion's then watch The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) again instead.

.....that was written by the humble hunter of man eating tigers named Jim Corbett from a book called "the man eaters of Kumaon" or "maneaters" from the early 1900's. Except that the Champawatt man eating tiger had killed between 300-400 Indians in Northern India. Corbett also hunted a tiger called the Thak man eater that had so terrified a section of India that one village was almost abandoned.These man eating tigers were also was able to kill and take away one person for food within 10 feet of another person without them realizing it. I found it fantastic that the writers picked an English man named Jim who was born in India as the hunter (like Jim Corbett). Corbett loved nature and spent most of his free time in the jungles and forests of India He was a true hero in the grandest sense of the word. A very realistic film story line that shows what a man eating tiger is capable of.

"Maneater" is really good for those who love the Sci-Fi Channel's Creature Features.**SPOILERS**In the Appalachian Mountains, Sheriff Grady Barnes, (Gary Busey) is inundated with a plethora of calls about missing people, and after finding the remains of one of them, it's decided that a wild animal is responsible. After another attack produces some evidence, they point to a Bengal Tiger as the culprit, and announcing it to the press, Mayor Earl Hunt, (Blake Taylor) is irate over it being leaked. When the National Guard is called in, Sargent Winshiser, (Aleks Paunovic) comes in to take charge of the situation only to have no success with hunting it down either. Esteemed hunter Colonel Graham, (Ian D. Clark) hearing of the rampage, offers his expert help with the animal, and soon makes a remarkable discovery about the creature. Using this to his advantage, he tries to take it down before it kills more townspeople.The Good News: This here was a pretty pleasant surprise. This is especially important in that it's the first time that the Sci-Fi Channel's original films doesn't have a negative mark against it for it's creature. This one's got an actual creature that's not CGI, and that itself is a huge plus, since it eliminates most of their flaws right from the start. That it's seen rarely also works for it as well, as featuring it throughout the film would've lessened it's impact. The fact that it's also a really vicious creature helps, as it's got some really great gore in here. It's all in the mutilation and severing of limbs, half-eaten body parts and finding of devoured parts, as most of it is off-screen and the showing of what it did to them results in all the gore. They all look quite good and messy, with a partially eaten skull, including down to the bone in certain areas, and a lower-half of a body found being the big ones here. There's even some nice action in the film, as it's got some great moments in the second half. The involvement of the armed troops livens it up substantially, as it gets some great stalking going on with the creature in the jungle, and it's certainly suspenseful enough. That also helps to get the film going, as there's some nice kills and stalking, provided by flashback where it goes on the rampage that gets in on-screen kills as well as putting some life into it. That is one of the film's best qualities, and helps to make it really watchable.The Bad News: There really isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. Perhaps the most grievous one is that there's way too much time spent on the subplot with the kid. It's clichéd to start with, having the ignorant kid believe that the outside force is actually friendly despite everyone in town knowing otherwise, yet the fact that it comes to play here and takes up the majority of the second half means that it gets a lot of time. It's incredibly irritating to have to be forced through these scenes since they're quite obviously based on the mentality rather than anything else, and it really makes it a struggle at times. These here make it the hardest part to get through, as well as it's other noticeable flaw. That is the film's annoying habit of cutting away from the gore scenes and instead showing the aftermath. Very rarely is the actual viciousness of the attacks displayed, but rather the attack occurs where it's impossible to determine what happened or just off-screen entirely. That it leaves the others mainly done in flashback at least offers up some, but most is still off camera, and is also something that can harm the film.The Final Verdict: Without a whole lot of real problems, this is a really nice and enjoyable entry for those who go for this kind of film. Recommended to those who have a particular like for the Sci-Fi Channel Creature Features or those in general, while those who aren't won't really find much new with this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language