It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Thierry Heigold 26.01.2015A cry in the Wild: movie critiqueThe movie "A Cry in the Wild", directed by Mark Griffith is a movie adaptation of the novel Hatchet with some variation. The main plot is that Jared Rushton (playing Brian) crashes in a lake in the Canadian wilderness after his pilot suffers from a heart attack, that kills him leaving Brian alone in the unattended plane. Brian survives the crash and lives through the dangers of nature until he gets rescued from a plane that has picked up his emergency message he sends with the help of the radio transmitter he finds in the emergency box that he rescues from the plane after it get's brought up by a tornado.I like the fact that Brian learns to find grubs by watching the bear. This is realistic and shows that Brian only survives by using common sense, especially because you see that Brian loses a lot when his actions aren't based on common sense. Also the meeting with the wolf is very realistic as well. Also, the fact that he talks with the gut cherries and imaginary people, show the influence of loneliness on on the behavior of the human. Also from what you can see in the movie Brian knows one thing or the other about surviving, which you can clearly see when he smears his face in mud as protection, or when he scares of the bear with fire, and still he isn't an expert which becomes clear while he builds the fire ore when he meets with the bear.Mark Griffith still missed some things, some of these things are that he takes a lot of times to build the shelter which makes him look like a total amateur, even though some other things show greater knowledge about survival. Another thing I dislike about the movie is that a lot of scenes are unrealistic for example the way the 2nd fight with the bear ends and that he finds the bear cubs on the next day. Also, I think that it would have made more sense to build the spear (which was much more elaborate than described in the Book) before the Bow and Arrows and I would think that Brian would have better things to do then keep exact count of his food supplies and that he would use the plane piece he finds for it. Also I would have shown more of the fool bird hunt then the first kill of one. What I really dislike is that Mark Griffith squeezed everything into such a short time as well as well as the fact that Brian is pretty careless when he unpacks the emergency box, which I don't like because I think that after all he's been through he would treasure every thing in the box.In my personal opinion the movie deserves 5 Stars of 10. My suggestion to making it better would be make a little more breathing Space and make unrealistic scenes more realistic.

Mark Griffith turns the well-known classic "Hatchet' into "A Cry in the Wild" in this fantastic movie adaptation of the book by Gary Paulsen. Brian (Jared Rushton) finds himself stranded in Canada's forests after surviving a plane crash. His only weapon is a hatchet, which he finds useless at first, but then discovers it will save his life. As various adventures chase Brian through fire-making, shelter-building, and food-searching, he discovers skills and abilities he never knew he had before. First, let's begin with the praise. I tip my hat to the actor, Jared Rushton. He really steps into Brian's shoes, showing his emotions and feelings. When Brian arrives in the woods, fresh from the city, he isn't part of nature yet. Jared Rushton makes a very good impression of first hacking at the fish with his hatchet, then falling right in. That shows he hasn't had any experience yet. When the movie's Brian encounters the porcupine, his pain seems fairly realistic. When Brian finds the emergency box at the end, the book says he didn't think he liked the experience of holding the rifle. Jared Rushton acts out that scene quite correctly, first aiming at the "fool birds" on the lake, then lowering the rifle again hesitantly. Continuing with the setting and props: In many ways the background and surroundings seem logical to me. The mountains are similar to the inner that I got while reading. (They were a bit rockier, though!) The materials that Jared Rushton had were all very realistic. The plot of the movie was a little different than "Hatchet". The rough story was the same, which made the viewer clearly see that "A Cry in the Wild" was a relative of "Hatchet". In all, the movie was very enjoyable. Even though many things were done very well, several parts of the movie irritated me. For example, Jared Rushton was stronger than any 13-year-old I've ever met. He wrestled with a full grown bear and survived! Next, his clothes weren't tattered like the book described. But the fact that confused me the most about Brian was how easily he managed to kill the "fool bird". It took him more than 20 tries to catch fish, and then suddenly he's a perfect hunter! There weren't too many things to criticize with the setting and props. What was not that great were tiny facts: Jared Rushton uses porcupine quills for his spear, not a sharpened branch, his shelter is a lot lower than the book described, and he uses hay instead of birch bark for his fire. But there were lots of differences in the plot. The movie starts in the store, not already in the plane. Next, Jared Rushton, doesn't look for food or shelter until at least one day after his arrival. The book describes Brian searching for the necessities right away. Adding to that, Jared Rushton finds the berries before he finds his shelter. That was the opposite in "Hatchet". After that, a raccoon plunders his berry supplies. A raccoon never comes in the book. In a similar way, Mark Griffith adds the fact that Jared Rushton eats maggots and worms. That never happened in Gary Paulsen's idea of the story. Afterwards, the movie's Brian encounters the bear several times, not just once at the berry site. For example, the bear destroys his shelter, but then Jared Rushton kills it. Some time later, the tornado occurs, which brings the plane up. Hatchet ends with Brian meeting the pilot that rescues him, with an epilogue. The most frustrating thing of all in "A Cry in the Wild" is that everything is out of order! The berries get found before the shelter, the bear attacks several times; often it's really confusing to follow the story! All the problems with the plot will definitely interfere with all of the "plus-points"... Last of all, we come to the summary of everything and the grading. The main points of my positive feedback would be that Jared Rushton does a good job playing Brian, the set was well designed and the most important scenes of the book were used. The biggest setbacks of "A Cry in the Wild" included that many props, names for things, or events were changed, often very much, and that most of the parts were mixed up. Out of ten stars, I'm giving this movie 6 stars, as it was enjoyable, but confusing. For ten stars, Mark Griffith could have based "A Cry in the Wild" more on "Hatchet" and made it clearer what happens when. Overall, this was O.K. and I'd recommend it to people who don't like exiting movies. All right, Mr. Griffith!

***SPOILERS*** It was just a pain old hatched that his mom June Robason,Pamela Sue Martin, practically forced on him that in the end saved young 13 year old Brain, Jared Ruston, life. You could see that young Brain had his problems at the beginning of the movie in his parents June and Brad Robason, Stephen Meadows, splitting up over an extramarital affair that June had. It was in fact Brian who caught his mom and her boyfriend, Terrence H. Winkless, making out in the woods that had him freak out! That had him go so far, when his dad finally checked out for good, to almost kill himself.Now on a plane trip to the far off Yukon Territory where his dad works at an oil refinery Brian feels that he's getting over the split between his parents. But what's to come is far more serious then him being the son in a one family household. It's that the single engine plane pilot Jack Holcomb, Ned Beatty, who really ended screwing things up for all, him and Brian,involved. Showing off his flying abilities and even forcing Brian,who doesn't have a license, to fly the plane Holcomb in all the excitement suffers a massive heart attack! Thus leaving poor Btrian on his own to both fly and land the aircraft! Miraculously landing the plane in an uncharted lake in the Yukon Brain is now on his own to survive in the vast Canadian wilderness with the now dead as a doornail Holcomb ending up as fish food. It's here where Brain's hatchet comes into play with him using it to start fires, by striking it against a flint rock, as well as build his own tree house and fight off the wild animals in the forest.It was also Brian's hatchet, that he almost lost, that had him break through the half sunken plane fuselage, that submerged from the lake after a storm hit it, that had him get his hands on the survival kit with flares and an electronic sensing device that finally had him rescued. But before that happened Brian had to prove his worth in surviving both bear and wolf attacks as well as him being forced to eat worms and, as he called them, puke berries as well as the cold dark and dangerous nights in the Yukon; Where anything can happen and in Brian's case always did!***SPOILERS*** There was a real happy ending to the movie with Brian not only surviving his unscheduled stop in the wild but his parents, June & Brad, getting back together again. And now, also together with his dog Irving, the once very insecure Brian can start a new life in him knowing that he's got what it takes in making it in the cold hard and unpredictable world that he lives in: Both in civilization as well as in the wild!

Didn't read the book, cannot compare. But! There's isn't that much movies about the topic, at least not good ones, so this one does its job pretty well. Surely better than "The edge" or any similar ones. In fact, I liked it even better than "Cast away"Although protagonist doesn't seem to have any survival instinct whatsoever, makes some horrible decisions throughout the film, and jump from no-clue teenager to kid making best spear for spearfishing is quite unbelievable, it still stands out quite well and entertains throughout those 81 minutes. Only part where you'd want to skip forward are flashbacks from home, which feels too much like a horror movie and is done quite badly. Felt like nightmares, not homesickness.If you like the topic, give it a go.