Apex (2021) User Reviews

Absolutely ridiculous version of "The Most Dangerous Game"

[On_The_Mark · 2/10 · 15 November 2021]

I see people saying this is a remake of "Surviving the Game" or other similar movies but it was "The Most Dangerous Game" that was the original (1932) based on the book that all those movies are trying to copy.

However this is probably the worst version. First, Bruce Willis is supposed to be some super tough guy yet at no point do we see anything that gives us the impression that he's a super tough guy. He does everything stupidly (the red jacket in the forest, walking around in plain site). We do not see him do anything super tough outside a couple quick things that really show us nothing. At no point is he believable as this super tough guy who shows them all up.

The hunters are all morons who you do not believe have the slightest ability to hunt. They also do nothing that shows they have the skill that are implied. It's all a bunch of morons, all stupid and uninteresting. It was a pain to get through this awful movie.

There is no way the whole island can be covered with cameras so there would definitely be spots someone could hide in. It's a giant island, if someone wanted to hide from the few stupid hunters with no actual hunting skill it would not be hard. And the girl that puts it all on who appears in holograms is dreadfully awful on top. I mean can you cast one part with someone believable?

I try to give anything with Willis a try but seriously, he lost it a long time ago. This is one of his worst.

A waste of time, money and effort...

[paul_haakonsen · 2/10 · 23 November 2021]

Wow, who knew that a movie that had both Neal McDonough and Neal McDonough on the cast list could be that bad? Let's not beat around the bush here. "Apex" was an abysmal movie from writers Edward Drake and Corey Large.

The storyline is about a group of hunters that pay to go to a remote island to hunt human prey for sports. Oh wow, how very original. Yeah, it is not like that has been done a hundred times before director Edward Drake got to the helm of "Apex". Right.

Not only was the storyline unoriginal in "Apex", it was also downright boring and bland. And this was by no means up to what you usually expect and get from the likes of Neal McDonough or Bruce Willis. Not even by a long shot.

This movie offered nothing enjoyable or entertaining really throughout the 1 hour and 34 minutes that it trotted on and on for. So making it through to the end, to the insanely predictable and generic end that is, is quite the accomplishment. I managed to do so, but boy was it a struggle.

Even the acting performances in "Apex" were sluggish, and it felt like both Neal McDonough and Bruce Willis were here just to make a quick buck. Their performances were subpar and cringeworthy at times.

You might want to do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "Apex", because it is simply not worth the time, effort or money.

My rating of "Apex" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

It's not even a movie

[carlos-pires · 1/10 · 26 November 2021]

It's a combination of a bored Bruce Willis making easy money, ridiculous characters, terrible acting, terrible special effects and green screen matting from 1970's, trying to tell the stupidest version of the "men hunting men" story. Avoid at all cost.

Its Official!

[mistercates · 1/10 · 13 November 2021]

Bruce Willis had forgotten how to act. Horrible movie. Its almost as if they made this movie as a joke. McDonough is wasted. The rest are no namers that can't act. The song at 49 minutes is wholly misplaced, throws the whole scene off. Skip this!

Another terrible movie

[Gringoen · 1/10 · 12 November 2021]

Yes, this is a another dissapointment. Even if this movie has 2 great lead actors, its still a terrbile movie. Acting, story, camerawork and special effects are the worst. I sure hope Bruce Willis will soon get a blockbuster to set him up for life so he can stop doing these D-movies.

Completely flabbergasted on how they can mess this up.

[Luv2Spooge · 1/10 · 13 November 2021]

I am already aware that Bruce Willis has gone down the road of Nicholas Cage in mass producing bunch of cheap low budget films. However, being a Willis fan, I thought I'll give him some benefit of the doubt. Both Breach and Cosmic Sin was just down right worst film I've ever seen.

However, when I read the synopsis of this film, I thought that it was simple and much easier to accomplish for an action film. How can they mess this up? It is basically rich people hunt humans for fun and instead they have no idea they signed up an "action" hero who will turn the table on them. The idea is similar to "Surviving the Game" with Ice-T, "Running Man" with Arnold, and even the more recent "The Hunt."

You have ONE job, which is to make a fun exciting no brain action film where the action hero waste a lot of snotty bad guys. So HOW can this film fail so badly!?!?

Without giving spoilers, it is BORING BORING BORING. It just talks talks talks, while you wait for something to happen that never really happens. And the snotty bad guys? Well, you expect Willis to be the one wasting them, but instead they wasted themselves and in boring ways. BORING BORING BORING to the last minute. Even in the climax battle, it was just... YAWN.

HOW CAN ANYONE MESS UP SUCH A BASIC FORMULA IS BEYOND ME!

Sorry Willis, this is the 3rd strike. No more. $14.99 on Amazon Prime? Consider that a tip for all the wonderful films you have made in the past which entertained me.

Bruce has lost his marbles

[Xavier_Stone · 1/10 · 16 November 2021]

He has lost an entire generation of fans, young adults will never know that he starred in the Die Hard movies or Moonlighting. After seeing his last 10 years of crap low budget films he will be placed alongside Steven Segal and soon be rendered obsolete.

When people forget your good work you're done. This is the end. Good riddance dude. How can you justify playing a bad ass super human bullet dodging guy in this film and yet show no effort and limp around in every scene wearing a red jacket in a forest? This is almost a parody of itself.

If you take the movie for what it is

[dspanogle · 9/10 · 13 November 2021]

If you've seen The Most Dangerous Game, which is a classic and has been redone multiple times throughout film history, then you know this story.

But this film does do something different with it, and this reviewer thinks that overall, the team did a good job.

First off, want to say it's nice to see Neal McDonough in something (he's an underrated actor). Neal gives a the best performance in this film and is a worthy opponent to Bruce.

That being said.....this is a B movie and a direct to video one. Personally, it was entertaining. Is it Bruce in his prime? No. But it does bring some new, funny, one liners and some fun new deaths to the action film world.

If you're looking for a new action film to watch with friends late night, add this to your list. It's worth the watch and worth the time.

High End of Mediocre B-Moviedom

[craigbenting · 6/10 · 13 November 2021]

After having seen literally over 100,000 movies over the last 40 years, both for professional and personal enjoyment, you can't seriously rate this movie lower than a 4 or higher than a 7. There are so many more movies that just don't give a crap about entertaining you and so many that just outright try to anger you or belittle your intelligence. This movie is not one of them.

In fact, I think the guy's shirt references to "Death Proof" and the extreme gore, along with the fairly obvious B-movie feel make it painfully apparent that this movie was shooting for the mid-range, no higher, no lower. And they did a pretty good job of hitting the mark.

I'm a big, big Bruce Willis fan, going back to the Moonlighting and Blind Date days. This movie, when compared to Willis' other more recent B-movie grindhouse-style movies, reinforces its intent and direction.

What makes this movie sub-par compared to those solid 7 and even 8 star B-movies? Not enough funny or even ludicrous parts and not enough over the top rubbery gory parts. If you've seen them, you know what I'm talking about. This one is a bit too tame.

But for what it is, it's a solid 6. Those who rated it a 1 or 2 just completely missed the point. If you often need other people or the movie itself to explain movies you watch to you, walk away from movies like this that are trying to appeal to a narrow segment of movie fans.

Couldn't watch more than 40 minutes

[jcdamien · 1/10 · 13 November 2021]

This is by far the worst movie I've seen in a while.

How on Earth Bruce Willis entered this is beyond my comprehension. Everything is awful. I mean, everything.

Lmao Elite hunters

[solidabs · 1/10 · 17 November 2021]

God that was so bad. Jean Claude did it so much better back In 1993. Willis can barely bend over to pick up a cigar lmao. We are supposed to believe he's this violent killer lmao. Neil McD is a great Actor but he couldn't save this copycat pile of dung. Elite hunters lmao.

Bruce Willis, the new Nicolas Cage...

[deloudelouvain · 2/10 · 28 November 2021]

What do Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis have in common right now? They both acted in some entertaining movies in the past, where they were okay actors, not great but okay, and now they just sign up for anything. It looks like it doesn't matter to them how bad the script is. If it pays they'll do it. I wonder if they even read the script. No Nicolas Cage in Apex though, he chose to ruin our movie evening with Prisoners of the Ghostland instead. Bruce Willis was the one chosen to ruin our movie evening this time. It looked like he was not to bothered to deliver this time. The rest of the cast tried something but overal it was of the same level. The worst thing about Apex is the plot. Who writes this kind of garbage? And even worse, who decides to make a movie after reading that garbage? I started substracting a point (or a star in IMDb's rating system) every time there was a cringing scene, where you thought it couldn't be dumber. I was already at zero stars left after half an hour so that wasn't the right way to rate this stinker. I'll just give it two stars because there are worse movies, but it was borderline to be honest.

Uwe Boll has a successor, yes it's that bad.

[omniamutantur_brc · 2/10 · 12 November 2021]

What stands out immediately is the potential. It could at least be entertaining, a kill or be killed human hunting sci fi thriller like The Hunt from 2020, which was superb. But no such luck. Bruce Willis walks around the forest doing nothing but quipping one-liners in a bright red jacket while six supposedly skilled (bored) rich people show up to stalk the ultimate prey. The character they "wrote" for Willis is an incarnation of John McClane that seems to have been lobotomized.

No spoilers, but if you're looking for action, you might find five minutes worth in the whole movie, spread out in tiny bits that are never satisfying or even well executed. The majority of the film's "plot" is an incoherent jumble of poorly developed characters and cringeworthy scenery chewing. The master hunter, played by Neal McDonough, is as two dimensional and contrived as any antagonist I've ever seen or read.

There are a few bright spots, which is why I gave it 2/10. Alexia Fast is the one casting success in that she doesn't suck. The cgi and sets are passable, barring a completely stupid (fatal) landmine explosion. The editing is sufficient. That's it.

So don't torture yourself with this steaming pile of wasted opportunities. Watch The Hunt instead, or anything. Paint drying. Grass growing. You get the idea.

Bruce Willis reteams with his Breach and Cosmic Sin collaborators for a brainless and incompetent sci-fi take on The Most Dangerous Game

[IonicBreezeMachine · 2/10 · 8 January 2022]

Former cop Thomas Malone (Bruce Willis) having been given life imprisonment for a his part in a burgulary gone wrong is approach by West Zaroff (Alexia Fast), a representative of a company called Apex which arranges "hunts" for wealthy or powerful clientele where the prey are human. With the promise of a clean slate should he survive Thomas takes the deal and is brought to hunting resort Apex Island where six hunters prepare to chase him with coldblooded Dr. Samuel Rainsford (Neal McDonough) the most driven of them all.

Directed by Edward John Drake and written by Corey William Large and Drake, Apex comes to us from the same team who gave us fellow Willis fronted Sci-Fi dreck Breach (Anti-Life) and Cosmic Sin. Filming during the covid pandemic in British Columbia, the movie has is slightly lower scale than Alien knock-off Breach or would be space battle epic Cosmic Sin, but despite a lower concept approach Apex feels like it's set in the same universe as the other movies complete with poorly integrated holograms, CGI cityscapes, and a general cheapness to the production design. And with Willis technically the main character but still appearing in it mostly through body doubling and limited footage of his character, Apex is pretty much on the same level as Cosmic Sin.

The framework established by Richard Connell's short story The Most Dangerous Game is one of the most copied frameworks for thrillers or action stories because it's simple but effective. One need only look at the likes of The Running Man, Hard Target, Surviving the Game, or even 2020s The Hunt for how reliable a premise this is for genre filmmakers....and Apex bungles it from the get go. Because of Willis' agreement with producers of his direct-to-video schlock the fact that Willis is playing the "hunted" rather than one of the hunters or the game warden is a terrible idea because it forces most of the movie's attention to be on the hunters, and that's not where the tension for this premise comes from. In order for this premise to work you need to focus on the one being hunted by building sympathy for them, creating a sense of desperation, and making the audience wonder "will they get out alive?". With Willis' introduction via exposition dump to the hunters (which no joke has references to OTHER better Willis movies including Unbreakable and 12 Monkeys, seriously) Willis is established as this unstoppable force with multiple scenes dedicated to inflating Willis' ego with how tough he is, but all of them are lies because aside from a 10 minute stretch at the tail end of the movie, most of the on screen killing is done by the hunters amongst themselves! Willis only has TWO major scenes where he does any actual action (technically three, but one of those was a poorly concealed body double so he doesn't deserve it). Most of the hunters are conniving, unstable, psychotic, backstabbing opportunists and do more killing and attempted killing of each other than they do Willis, and Willis is so relaxed in this movie that at one point goofy music plays while he smokes a cigar and eats berries (which are revealed to be hallucinogenic but that's NEVER paid off) and Willis' movement in this movie never goes above a light jog.

Apex maybe even more embarrassing than Cosmic Sin. For all Cosmic Sins faults it at least understood the villains of the movie shouldn't be a bigger threat to themselves than the hero. Apex is one of the dumbest, if not the dumbest takes on the simple formula established by The Most Dangerous Game I've ever seen. There is probably some value in mocking it among friends for it's lackluster production values (including a teleporter that's just three poles stuck in the ground) but aside from that this is brainless junk coasting on the fumes of a once respectable leading man whose just given up.

Utterly terrible

[mr-colin-archer · 1/10 · 12 November 2021]

Not much to say other than truly awful. Willis spends most of the movie walking around the woodlands while the hunters all of a sudden decide to turn on eachother so he has nothing to worry about. 2 great actors, but absolutely worst movie I have watched in 20 years.

McDonough is not a good actor, Willis barely phones it in

[rchevalier-37303 · 2/10 · 22 November 2021]

Typical of anything Willis has been in for the last several years, he doesn't do anything except walk in circles and spout sub adolescent dialog every 20 minutes. The rest of the actors are not capable of acting, McDonough being particularly egregious. Really it's just garbage.

"I am baking eggs on Sunday morning". Yeah!

[imseeg · 2 January 2022]

Bruce Willis churns out 9 movies in 2021. That's alot. Unfortunately some of these arent of the highest quality.

The bad; many of the supporting actors are NOT good. They dont get paid much, so they arent the best. Logical. But still a problem when watching this movie.

Not any good? The opposing bad guy is kinda menacing though. And the story is quite promising as well, at least at the beginning.

Not the best and probably more near the worst than I would like to admit.

BUT...

At an (excrucially) important sidenote, let us not forget WHY we are watching Bruce Willis movies to begin with. We watch Bruce Willis movies because of DIE HARD (1988). THE ONE AND ONLY BIGGEST ACTION AMERICAN ACTION CLASSIC OF THE CENTURY.

This classic is still standing strong after more than 30 years. Millions of people still REwatch it during every Christmas holiday. Recently a petition was launched to rename Nakatomi Plaza into DIE HARD plaza.

A life time achievement award for Bruce Willis is in the making.

DIE HARD (1988) NEVER DIES but is still ALIVE AND KICKING IN 2022. Happy New Year!!!

MORE MORE MORE!

[FrankCronin · 10/10 · 12 November 2021]

YES! Thoroughly enjoyed this movie! Big fan of Bruce, Nels and Neal's work. The big special effects and aerial shots contrasted very well against the rawness of the forest scenes and worked really well together. Gotta get me a red jacket like Thomas Malone!!! Sound track had my heart going hard too! Surround sound baby! More more more!

Worse than bad

[scott677 · 1/10 · 12 November 2021]

The wooden acting goes perfectly with the vanilla plot to whip up one of the worst movies of the year. Bruce couldn't even be bothered acting out his lines, just mumbling through them for the entire movie.

Skip this and do anything else with your time.

The Worst Bruce Willis Movie of All Time

[dasa108 · 2/10 · 28 November 2021]

The first five minutes are decent. The rest are catastrophic. Bruce Willis gives us a performance where he shines for his tiredness. The rest of the cast is bursting into tears. No one is spared, they are all appalling. The idea of the film is not bad if it were not that it is so poorly executed that in the end the result is a punishment for our eyes. The motivations of the characters, their overacting, the plot, everything is frightening.

Complete Trash

[duvernetphotography · 2/10 · 8 December 2021]

When WIllis is smiling at the camera he isn't supposed to be looking' at you know it's trash. Not only is this movie incredibly slow, it plays trash for trash. Bad stereotypes, weak story, lame acting and more. Watch it as a brainless diversion for something else like washing the floor.

Apex of Failing Careers

[jeroduptown · 2/10 · 14 January 2022]

Terrible. Beneath McDonough and Willis. These "hunters" go after humans that earn the right to regain their freedom if they survive. Bruce is the criminal, McDonough the elite killer. Garbage script and editing that didn't even match up times of day.

i went blind

[ertkocak · 1/10 · 8 January 2022]

So far, 392 people have given 10 points. Bruce Willis has a membership of 392 people here. My eyes bled as I watched. Don't watch unless you've been threatened with death.

This was so bad that I kinda loved it

[cheekyfilm · 1/10 · 29 November 2021]

Utterly terrible and irredeemable... except for the unintentional humor.

Instead of a normal review I'm just gonna rattle off some of the ridiculous crap you'll see in this movie: Elderly Bruce Willis clearly filmed all of his scenes in the span of one weekend, he's very rarely in frame with the person he is observing or talking with, and beyond that he clearly doesn't care even 1%. If you watch this, look forward to seeing Bruce lumbering around the forest with a bored look on his face, like Mr. Magoo minus glasses. Also, he's supposed to be an expert survivalist hiding from villians in the forest but chooses to wear an all red jumpsuit and hide behind a single fern only feet from the enemy multiple times. Neal McDonough is hamming it up constantly and, very distractingly, is clearly wearing lipstick throughout. The rest of the actors aren't much better, cheesy cgi bathed overacting psychopathic characters in a very low budget version of the future - the teleportation device is literally 4 poles in the ground. There is an odd comedy scene in the middle of the movie that is completely out of place and has goofy music Bruce Willis quoting Shakespeare to a skull, just minutes after a brutal murder takes place, it made me feel like I was insane. The opening 15 minutes is so bad I was in tears laughing. The ending is also hilariously abrupt and awful, with dubstep blasting and the word 'APEX' in all caps like this mess was something to be proud of.

The story is vaguely interesting (even though it is stolen from several other, better movies), there are some decent practical gore effects, and it is very memorable due to how terrible it is... those are the positives. Only watch this to laugh at the movie's expense. 1/10 as a movie, 10/10 for the schlock factor.

Worse movie ever!

[jpata-53449 · 14 November 2021]

PURE GARBAGE nothing else to say! It was worse than my 7 year olds school play! Do yourself a favor just skip this one or watch it and see for yourself that there was really no way the could make it any worse!