Enter the Wild

**_When the wilderness kicks your nonchalant butt_** Two bests friends, a couple females and a dubious acquaintance take a four-day hike into the barren Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, where they face the challenges of the primitive backwoods, not to mention strained friendships and unrequited love. Can they make it back alive and well? “Enter the Wild” (2018) is a drama/adventure set in the empty sticks of eastern Australia. It comes in the tradition of "Deliverance" (1972), "Nightmare at Bittercreek" (1988), "The Edge" (1997), "Black Rock" (2012) and "Backcountry" (2014), except that it’s more mundane than those. In other words, the merciless sticks are the ‘antagonist,’ not some perverted hillbillies, paramilitary types, an aggressive bear or a boogeyman with a machete. Imagine the set-up of those films with the dramatic approach of "3 Nights in the Desert" (2014) and you’ll have a good idea of this one. Despite some disappointing ambiguities in the last act, the filmmaking is professional, the acting is convincing and the cinematography of the Blue Mountains is awesome from beginning to end. Ella Scott Lynch as Pippa is a plus. If you love nature, hiking and real-life drama, you’ll probably appreciate what this flick has to offer. If you need a contrived threat or an explosion every ten minutes, stay away. I found out after viewing that this is synonymous with "Monkey Puzzle" from ten years prior (2008). Yes, it's the very _same_ flick. How they got away with rereleasing it as a _different_ movie a decade later is a great mystery. The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. GRADE: B-