Customer Reviews

The River Wild

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Kevin Bacon can so beautifully play a sadist, a charming and vicious creep, a bad guy that it's almost like he's not acting. And Meryle Streep, trying her hand here in an action film, NEVER seems to be acting - she's always stellar, completely immersed in her character. In The River Wild, Streep plays a suburban mom and former white-water rafting guide who is taking her family on a raft trip for summer vacation. She's a bit on the outs with her husband, who is, at the last minute, too busy to go along - so she and her son go it alone - and quickly run afoul of some killers on the lam. Bacon and a buddy, of course. They coerce Streep to take them down a terrifyingly dangerous stretch of river rapids to escape from the pursuing cops.
Marvelous. And Streep did all the river scenes without the use of a stunt double - which, if you've ever been white-water rafting on a Class 4 or 5 river, is utterly amazing.

An entertaining journey down a beautiful whitewater river with an age old theme of good vs evil. This is a good movie to just sit back and enjoy the ride even though as the plot develops you may feel bit uncomfortable.

Meryl Streep is outstanding as usual, however I feel Kevin Bacon is even better as the deceptive, yet charming 'bad guy'. There is also some excellent acting by David Straithairn (who portrays Meryl Streep's husband) even though his character is annoyingly pathetic.

The nature cinematography is spectacular and the high intensity musical score only adds excitement to the journey.

I highly recommend watching this one on a home theater system with wide screen and DTS sound decoding.

Here is an action flix that belongs is everyone's DTD DVD collection. Loaded with action, great acting on all parts, the DTS sound was awe inspiring to say the least. GET IT, YOU"LL LOVE IT!

"The River Wild" was one of my favorite movies of 1994. Gail (Meryl Streep), her husband, and her son decide to take a white-water rafting trip. They already have their problems because Gail's husband pays too much attention to his job and he doesn't pay enough attention to his family. However, before they know it, they'll have more deadly problems to deal with. Gail is an experienced and knowledgeable white-water rafter, and soon she and her family meet two mysterious strangers, one of which is Wade (Kevin Bacon). Wade asks for help to get to a certain place and Gail agrees to help, but little does she know that soon she, her husband, and her son, will be fighting for their lives.

"The River Wild" is a better movie than a lot of critics and other reviewers have said that it is. It has exciting white-water rafting sequences, especially when Gail and the others try to live through 'The Gauntlet,' and it features a great performance by Meryl Streep. If you like exciting movies or anything to do with white-water rafting, I definitely recommend getting "The River Wild."

The opening scenes of THE RIVER WILD show a very buff Meryl Streep rowing in Boston's Charles River accompanied by stirring theme music by Jerry Goldsmith. This promise of quality is fulfilled throughout the suspenseful albeit rather predictable movie after the setting switches to the western wilderness. Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon are among Hollywood's most talented and versatile actors and in this outing Streep believably plays a mom who meets extreme physical and emotional challenges (while piloting a white river raft no less) after she encounters Bacon a cunning criminal psychopath. The river scenes are beautiful and I've read that Streep actually did her own stunts for the most part. There are a couple of surprises along the way to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. A good movie for anyone but especially a family with older kids who want a little bit but not too much edge to their viewing experience.

There's no denying that Meryl Streep is one of her generation's finest actresses (if not the best of all time). So what's she doing an action movie? It's not quite that simple. Directed by L.A. Confidential's Curtis Hanson, River Wild is a tuant and suspenseful thriller that does for rafting...(I'll spare you the cliche). The film's central antagonist is played to melevolent perfection by Kevin Bacon as a theif who when all else fails hijacks a riverraft, it's guide and her family. After the characters are adequently devolped Hanson leads us right into the action, playing to our fears of nature and eachother. Filling the supporting role of Bacon's dim acompliss is John C. Reilly (who made his biggest impression on me as Chest Rockwell in Boogie Nights). Also watch for Ben Bratt as Indian Johnny (a nickname given to his character in a particularly humorous and equally threatening scene with Bacon).

Meryl Streep is certainly an amazing performer. Few actresses can enliven such a formulaic movie as "The River Wild." And yet, Streep's portrayal of Gail is as always brilliant. Meryl uses her exquisite face, and exhibits her continued range of performances in her first (and probably only) "action" role. She is truly the best of our generation's many fine actresses. Kevin Bacon is effectively chilling; Joseph Massello shows a good range for such a young actor; David Straitharn is at first too wooden, but as his character grows, so does his performance; John C. Reilly, as always, is efficiently supportive.
The vistas are beautiful and the final rafting scenes breathtaking. A good if not great film.

I like that Tina Turner song. Anyway...
This is a great movie. It's one of the few movies that I've seen more than once in the theater. Meryl is great and I have to say, Kevin Bacon is a true creep in this movie. The action is realistic and the cinematography is wonderful.

I had high expectations for this movie--and they were fulfilled! Meryl Streep (as normal) brings her character to life! And this time, her character is no softie at all, like you may guess the first few minutes into the movie. Streep plays a suburban wife named Gail with two young children; when the family takes a vacation to a river area where Gail was once a guide, they expect nothing but a good time. What they get is kidnapped, by some rotten creeps who need Gail to guide them and some stolen stuff down the river to get away from the cops. When Gail trys to save her family and ditch the bad-guys, the audience is rewarded with tons of amazing visuals, excellent acting, and non-stop action! Definately reccomended.

Entertaining, yet stretching the boundaries of credibility, yarn puts Meryl Streep into G.I Jane action mode and places her character on a river rafting expedition with her emotionally distant husband and loving child. Trying to utilize the river as a basis for brining the family closer together again, that is all rapidly sped up when two escaped convicts join the raft as their means of escape. Meryl is convincingly good as usual and Kevin Bacon, as one of the escaped thugs, gives an alarmingly icy performance. The scenery is picture perfect postcard material and the direction under the oft under used Curtis Hanson is subtle and raw in all the right places.