the audience applauded

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

There's really no story, just a whacked-out man and his family tussling with lions over and over. People do get hurt making it. It was a vanity project that no one would fund, so they had to scrimp and save for 5 years to raise funds. Most of the cast cannot act. It's like a bad home movie, but with lions and other wild animals. The only interest is to see many of the pets of Tippi Hedren and family, including Melanie Griffith. Also of interest are the many appearances of Togare, the lion once owned as a pet by Satanist Anton LaVey.

Labelled one of the most dangerous film-shoots of all time, with real lion on human attacks still in the film.70 cast and crew members were hurt during filming to several degrees, some were close to death but luckily no one did die.I was amazed by the sheer numbers of lions in the movie, it's well over 50 they have the lions live up close and personal with the lead played by Noah Marshall with seemingly little to no fear for his safety. The numbers of lions decrease slightly when Melanie Griffith and Tippi Hedren etc comes into the movie (probably because of the many attacks) but they are still far from being safe (Melanie Griffith required 50 stitches and plastic surgery and Tippi Hedren required 34 stitches from being bitten by lions in the film).As far as the story goes well, the lions who were untrained improvises a lot to say the least and the cast have to act off of what they do but there is a plot for sure in the film it just get put to the side at times.It's a once in a lifetime movie experience, so it's definitely recommendable for that reason alone but it also helps that it is very entertaining and the lions are beautiful.

Roar (1981) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Hank (Noel Marshall) is living in Africa where everyone thinks he's crazy because he allows lions, tigers, leopards and other wild animals to roam through his house. Soon his wife (Tippi Hedren), daughter (Melanie Griffith) and two sons come to visit but he's not home so the family must try to survive these animals.ROAR was released in 1981 without too much media attention but when it came time to re-release the movie in 2015 it seems everyone wanted to know more about the most dangerous movie ever filmed. You can Google various articles about all the destruction that happened behind-the-scenes during the making of this movie. Countless cast and crew members were severely injured. Several animals were killed in a flood. The film took years to complete, went way over budget and of course didn't make any of its money back.It's really hard to judge this film for many reasons. For starters, if you didn't know anything about the history of this movie and just watched it then you'd probably see it for all the warts. In all honesty there's really no plot to be found and the performances certainly aren't anything great. The direction, well there really isn't any because how to you get a lion to do what you want? It seems like the camera was just set up and they would hope to capture something. Obviously there's just nothing here that scream "great" or "good" movie.With that said, if you do know the history of the movie then there's no question that you'll be biting your nails because you're just waiting for something bad to happen. There are several times throughout the movie where you can tell that the actors are in sheer terror of not knowing what the wild animals are going to do. These scenes do contain some real suspense but it's not from great filmmaking but instead from knowing that these actors are really in danger. Plus you can't help but watch this film and wonder what in the world the filmmakers were thinking by putting their family in harm's way.ROAR is certainly a film that needs to be viewed. There's no doubt that being able to see so many wild animals is quite great. Is the film good? Not really but it's certainly entertaining.

"Roar" is a movie that manages to be nerve-wracking as well as tedious to sit through. Tedious because there's no story to speak of; nerve-wracking because of what the cast and crew reportedly went through to produce it."Roar" is about an American named Hank (Noel Marshall) who has gone to Africa where he can study lions up close - *really* close. To this end, he's constructed a private refuge and house where lions are free to wander about, inside and out. A *lot* of lions. And tigers. And leopards. And cougars. On this particular day, Hank is awaiting a visit from his estranged wife Madelaine (Tippi Hedren) and their grown children, who have traveled all the way from the States. But due to a lack of communications, Hank spends several hours headed to the airfield while his wife, sons and daughter make it to the refuge on their own. Once there, wife and kids are intimidated, when not downright terrified, by their close encounters with Hank's "friends" until they eventually decide the creatures aren't so bad after all. Dad finally shows up - and that's it, really. That's the whole movie, aside from a half-hearted subplot involving a couple of villainous big game poachers. You'd think that once the family settles down, "Roar" would start to tell a real story about something more substantial, but instead we get a cheerful, hopeful song accompanying a montage of the family interacting with the animals, and... the movie ends. (Just as well. At this point, I really didn't want it to keep going.)Said to have been a pet project (you should forgive the term) of Tippi Hedren and her then- husband, Noel Marshall, "Roar" reportedly cost $17 million, much of it their own money, and earned back only a fraction of its cost. It's certainly a sincere and heartfelt plea for wildlife conservation. But as I sat there, the film's opening disclaimer about how only "untrained animals" were used kept rattling in my brain.Untrained animals. It was alarming to see all these lovingly filmed scenes of lions playing (i.e. fighting) with each other. And seeing the actors let themselves be swarmed or pursued by the lions was downright heart-pounding. (I soon lost track of how many times I silently shouted, "Are you crazy?") "Roar" was a true family affair, with Noel Marshall's real-life sons and Tippi Hedren's real-life daughter, Melanie Griffith, playing the kids. (If I ever get to meet Melanie Griffith, who here plays a character named "Melanie," I must ask her about the scene in which she allowed one of the lions to pin her to the floor, face-down.)"Roar" seems to tell you that lions are just a bunch of oversized pussycats with big, sharp claws - treat 'em right, don't let them sense fear, stand up to them when necessary, let them lick and paw you to their hearts' content, and everything will be just fine, the occasional bad scratch notwithstanding. The thing is, just about everyone connected with this production was injured by the animals at one point or another, including the actors. (By unhappy happenstance, I saw this film about a month after the death in South Africa of Hollywood visual effects editor Katherine Chappell, who'd made the awful mistake of rolling down a car window during a visit to a lion park to take a picture, and was attacked and fatally bitten by a lioness.)Perhaps instead of making a "real" movie, Hedren and Marshall would have done better to have made a documentary about the wildlife they obviously admire so much. And speaking of documentary, if they had done a behind-the-scenes film about the making of this movie, that film could very well have been much more interesting than "Roar."By the way, "Roar" was beautifully photographed in Metrocolor. As in MGM. As in... lion? (Coincidence? Of course, but I couldn't resist.)