Pretty Good

Awesome Movie

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Hiking through the Pennsylvania wilderness, a group of friends find a find a mythical town gripped in fear of a terrible ogre demanding a sacrifice in exchange for eternal youth and must find a way of stopping it before they succumb the creature's wrath.This here was quite a decent enough creature feature. One of the better feature here is the admittedly fun story throughout, which starts not only with the story of the plague that's at the root of the villagers' trouble here with some great bit of folklore in this to go along with the witchcraft featured here. Not only does the rules of their pact make up a large part of this, as the covenant of featuring the sacrifice in exchange for never aging being quite enjoyable but the ties to the mythical creature and the spells necessary to ward it off at the end bring a lot of fun into play here and gives this a really nice foundation to work with. This makes for some good times here when they get to the village and encounter the townspeople where it gets spelled out in several rather fun action scenes here with the sacrificial offering that gets interrupted when they free him, the resulting chase into the woods and finally battling the creature there which gives this some really enjoyable moments as it ties into the legend and mythology started here. The finale, which brings about the utter fun rampage through the village using the spells and witchcraft as protection, is the film's highlight where some of the protection spells work and some don't which is all capped off by the trap to finally ensnare the beast developing into a great gunfight in the woods followed by witchcraft to finish it off with some nice action as well. Along with the fine gore in the high body-count from the series of encounters out in the woods which gets some more action and suspense here, these give this a lot to like to overcome the few flaws here. The main issue here is the usual amount of problems here from the below- par CGI featured here, as the main creature looks atrocious and features all the usual criticisms associated here with it being too disproportionate for surroundings from time-to-time, the inability to look realistically and all the visual elements featured here. The other flaw here is that it has a tendency to employ one of the most hated traits in a film where the one character who knows what's going on never explaining anything to the outsiders when performing rituals or actions of great importance that are going to save someone, so when they do something logical in a situation, you get a feeling he'll kill them right then and there for messing up the situation when it all could've been done away with had he simply shared his knowledge so they know what's going on and what's happening as they have no experience in the subject matter. These here are the film's real flaws that hold this one down.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

These ultra-low reviews are hilarious. What were these people expecting, "Citizen Kane"? An award-winning film? Look at the DVD cover and the name of the film "Ogre." Why would anyone even waste their time on a flick like this if they didn't at least embrace them as guilty pleasures? Directed by Steven Monroe and written by Chuck Reeves, 2008's "Ogre" is a low-budget TV monster flick in the manner of "It Waits," "Sasquatch Hunters" and countless other Syfy movies. These films are the modern counterpart to the low-budget creature features of decades ago like "Gargoyles" (1972), "Prophecy" (1979) and the Kolchak: The Night Stalker films/TV series. You either enjoy these types of pictures or you don't. I do. As reviewer John Patrick Fischner so perfectly puts it: "Imagination and legend is... about good and evil and the power of selfless courage against impossible odds. There is nothing more heroic than man against monster." THE PLOT: Four youths hike into rural Pennsylvania looking for a legendary lost town and are amazed when they actually find it. The town's inhabitants are still stuck in the 19th century and living in dread of a hideous creature to whom they must sacrifice one of their own once a year. Adventure and horror ensue.Most viewers will note that the story is a mishmash of numerous other films like "The Village (Widescreen Vista Series)," "Bay Cove" (i.e. "Bay Coven"), "The Blair Witch Project" and various other monster-in-the-woods flicks.Although this is essentially a serious story the film naturally pokes fun at the whole notion of an ogre. The youths take it as a joke and so do the cops; my wife and I cracked up numerous times and so will you. It's just really hard to hear or say the word 'ogre' without giggling. Be that as it may, the joke stops when the creature literally starts ripping people's heads, legs, and arms off. Of course, some people may continue laughing, but that's all part of the enjoyment."Ogre" no doubt tried to capitalize on the surge in popularity of ogres with the success of the Shrek: The Whole Story Boxed Set (Shrek / Shrek 2 / Shrek the Third / Shrek Forever After) franchise. In fact, the beast in the film even resembles Shrek, albeit less cartooney and more malevolent-looking. Another comparison would be the cgi Hulk in Ang Lee's notorious 2003 Hulk (Widescreen 2-Disc Special Edition); the ogre here sorta looks like that Hulk's homely brother, if you can imagine that. Interestingly, unlike other monster flicks you'll fully see the creature right from the get-go. Although this destroys suspense it didn't personally bother me (as I don't like it when films play out the same way all the time).Believe it or not, John Schneider of Dukes of Hazzard fame is on hand as one of the main characters and he does a fine job. He also looks great for being nigh 50 years-old. I don't get why people poke fun at him being in the film. So he played Bo Duke, so what? Other cast highlights include Chelan Simmons who plays one of the two female protagonists. Chelan is one of the cutest freckled blonds you'll ever gaze your eyes upon next to Juliana Dever of "Sasquatch Hunters." Chelan also starred in "Chupacabra Terror." She has a very winsome disposition. Also on hand is Katharine Isabelle of "Ginger Snaps" fame. Both of these cuties have significant roles here.Although the story takes place in Pennsylvania the film was shot in the sticks outside of Vancouver, BC. It's a good stand-in for PA except for one shot with a mountain in the background (the mountains of Pennsylvania are roundish ridges and look nothing like the mountains of the Great Northwest). Anyway, it's obvious the film was shot in the late Autumn; it has the cold/dreary Fall vibe throughout.FINAL WORD: My wife and I had a fun time with this monster flick and so will you if it sounds like it'll trip your trigger.GRADE: Borderline B- or C+

I seriously like unusual creatures and this beats watching Shrek any day.The story was something out of Brigadoon or 2001 Maniacs. A village appears every so often and they have to make a sacrifice to the ogre to keep living. That's living? Some college kids are searching for the village and they unleash the ogre.The rest of the film, for those that tuned out halfway, is some serious bloodletting as the ogre rips off heads or just smashes them with his big foot.Chelan Simmons (Final Destination 3) is wasted as there are no tanning beds in this story.

Ogre was not a good, let alone great, movie, but considering the uninspiring title that I was expecting schlock, I was pleasantly surprised. It does have a lot of flaws, starting with the terrible effects, sadly the Ogre is no exception. There is still the lame gore and cheesy dialogue, while the story is thin, predictable and at times tedious. On the other hand, it is one of the more tolerable movies I've seen on the SyFy channel, because while not mind-blowing the acting does look as though they are putting effort into their roles, John Schneider in particular is interesting to watch. Katherine Isaballe does at times overdo it with the shrillness though. The characters are not characters you remember for years, but they are not as irritating as other characters from the likes of the SyFy disaster movies for instance, and they are not as blatantly stereotypical either. Although the effects do cheapen the film, Ogre didn't look too bad to me, the editing was at least not slip-shod and there was attempts at an atmosphere. Again, the music is nothing extraordinary, but it has some haunting themes and it doesn't feel as though it is slowing the film down. All in all, not bad, not good, just scraping the average line. 5/10 Bethany Cox