Quartile rating: 5.5/10 · 1 rating
Air Force One is shot down by terrorists, leaving the President of the United States stranded in the wilderness of Finland. 13-year-old Oskari is on a hunting mission to prove his maturity to his kinsfolk by tracking down a deer, but instead discovers the President in an escape pod. With the terrorists closing in to capture their prize, the unlikely duo team up to escape their hunters.
Big Game is a breezy, knowingly silly action-adventure that leans into its high concept—a Finnish boy and the US President surviving the wilderness together—with enough charm to be entertaining. The plot is thin and predictable, hitting every expected beat of the buddy-survival formula without much surprise. Acting is variable; Samuel L. Jackson plays it relatively straight while the young lead Onni Tommila is serviceable but uneven. Cinematography benefits from the genuinely striking Finnish landscapes, giving the film more visual appeal than its budget might suggest. The concept itself is refreshingly offbeat for a mainstream action film, blending European sensibility with Hollywood cheese, which earns it some novelty points even if the execution is derivative. The ending is perfunctory and wraps up too neatly, failing to capitalize on the goodwill built earlier.