Expected more

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

What a Horrible and disappointing movie...It was so good thru 3/4 of it...It was compelling, and compassionate and then it turned into absolute dog feces...the so called "hero" of the movie got almost an entire family killed, murdered an extinct animal for a futile purpose, and then was considered "good" because he bothered to visit the single surviving orphaned child of the family he got killed, a child he could not adopt because he is a single male.... This was a great movie that turned to absolute dog feces in the last 30 minutes. I don't think I have EVER seen anything so disappointing as this movie. Please DON'T watch it if you have even the semblance of a brain. Disgusting. Disappointing. And Depraved on a Depressed level i cannot even describe....

The Three Acts: The initial tableaux: Martin contracts indirectly with Red Leaf, a biotech firm that is looking for some rare DNA. Unfortunately, the only source of these items is the last remaining Tasmanian tiger. There is restricted intelligence (which will leak) that there have been two confirmed sightings of the rare and elusive beast.The probable site for the hunt is in central Tasmania. Martin has to deal with lack of electricity, decidedly unfriendly locals, children of the owner of the house he stays at, and foul tap water. Jack Mindy gives him some guide services that he did not ask for.Delineation of conflicts: Martin wants to get paid and stay out of jail. Red Leaf wants the organic samples so as to make lots of money.The locals in Tasmania have logging as a main source of income. Other locals (and outsiders) are involved in a campaign to save the trees. The early take on Martin is that as an outsider, he's a tree hugger, a 'greenie', and should be dealt with harshly.Jack Mindy has his own agenda which does not seem to be aligned with Martin's. Martin is by no means alone when he is out hunting in the middle of nowhere.To make matters worse, the tree huggers score a moratorium on logging so that the government can find the Tasmanian tiger. That means no logging and no pay.Resolution: It's a dark tale with a dark ending. Several of the lies get exposed. Will Red Leaf be patient if Martin takes too long?

(57%) A film the promises much, but by the end offers only scraps; although there are things here that make this agreeable, but by the end nothing particularly all that great. Willem Dafoe is perfect as the slightly cold- hearted, obsessive hunter who travels to the breathtaking Tasmanian wilderness to hunt for an animal that may for may not be extinct. The premise was there for an interesting film, so when this trundles along, never truly finding its main course of intrigue in either the hunting aspect or the hippy family that take him in, meaning this grows into an annoyingly disappointing film to watch. Dafoe's character is somewhat interesting, and so is the theme of an almost mythical beast running wild and what the realities of that means is handled well. Overall this is one of those films that appears like it should be a lot higher praised or well known - that is until you actually see it.

I gave it a 5 for scenery and Defoe's performance. But the plot is muddled and the ending not really pleasing. Also, the picture of the rat faced "tiger" in the movie doesn't even seem to be accurate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thylacine The one shown above doesn't look anything like the movie's depiction. But the scenery which actually shows many parts of Tasmania as a truly wonderful looking place. Too bad they didn't have better screenwriters and better publicists. Who ever heard of it? It went almost directly to video, obviously but with Defoe and Neill it should have surfaced. But as it was it just wasn't cohesive enough to entertain a large scale audience.