Uncaged (DVD)
Matt Boiselle
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Starring Ben Getz, Gene Jones, Kyle Kirkpatrick
Directed by Daniel Robbins
Rolling back the archival memory regarding werewolf films over the course of the years, they’ve been delineated in a catalog of ways: ultraviolent, comedic, and even romantic in nature. Looking at the cover art of Daniel Robbins’ latest lycanthropic feature, Uncaged, I immediately had somewhat of a reservation, considering that it reminded me of an MTV “Teen Wolf”-like image… however, the proof is in the viewing, and after the final credits rolled, I decided that this is a fun little flick, faults aside. Let’s get to scratchin’.
Ben Getz gets (see what I did there) the top bill as Jack, a late-teen whose life hasn’t been all blue skies and puppy dogs. His younger years were plagued by family tragedy, and he was orphaned, coming up in age with his cousin and best buddy. Travel forward some years later, and good old Jake has developed a bit of a problem: waking up in the morning, half-naked with no recollection of the previous night’s events. Now while this somewhat sounds like my early to mid-twenties time frame, Jake’s quandary is more along the lines of a beastly conjecture. In order to concretely confirm his suspicions, he fixes a Go-Pro upon himself to see what evidence he can collect during one late night set of activities – low and behold, his worries are confirmed. Simply due to the notion that I’m deathly abhorrent towards the first-person POV format, I had to outline a large chalk negative against the movie for just that, although there are some positives that pulled the film’s fat out of the fryer.
Getz’s performance is sturdy enough, but it’s reinforced by the acting around him – Gene Jones (The Sacrament), while in a compact performance, still manages to chew up his scenes, and there is a plentiful measure of laughs that offsets the at-times stagnant pacing. Robbins’s decision (and lack of dough) to use practical effects was a very welcome sight – things don’t always have to be generated on the ol’ compu-tor in order to look passable.
Look, Uncaged is fun, simple, and a refreshing change from some movies that decide to beat your skull into submission in order to convey a story. This is a late Saturday night watch, for sure – give it a look when the moon is right.
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Film
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