REVIEW:
Send Help is a very entertaining stranded on an island movie. The setting and situation are hardly original, giving they have been dealt with in everything from Cast Away to Lost. But this time we get director Sam Raimi at the helm, and with Sam Raimi comes Sam Raimi’s unapologetic style of combining grossness with humor. It was perfect for his movie Drag Me To Hell, and it’s also pretty perfect here.
Aside from Raimi’s style, what also makes this movie different from other desert island movies is the workplace dynamic and relationship between our two survivors. The movie is about a boss (Bradley) who is terrible to his employee, (Linda. Then when the plane crash happens, and Bradley get injured, it’s Linda who ends up being the one in charge of their survival. And Bradley isn’t exactly so quick to accept that. Watching his evil attitude and vicious laugh are a lot of fun. The two of these actors really bounce off each other nicely throughout the film.
What definitely makes the movie, though, are the directions it heads in the second half. There are a number of twists or surprises, and one is better than the next. I won’t give them away here, but let’s just say certain characters are not what they seem. Without the twists, this would have been just an okay movie. Sure, the style is cool, but the story still feels familiar. With the twists, however, the movie is pretty great.