Turkey Shoot (2014) User Reviews

Save your time, quit this game

[quincytheodore · 3/10 · 24 June 2015]

Like a parody of Hunger Games parody, or utterly horrendous video game concept, Turkey Shoot is devastatingly unappealing. It doesn't even produce enough basic elements, such as decent editing or consistent plot. Furthermore, it tries to employ heavy core moral aspect with overly enthusiastic way beyond its incapable production. There's a slight gruesome action, though not well made and most likely won't even entertain fans, let alone casual viewers.

Rick Tyler (Dominic Purcell) is falsely convicted and then thrown into survival game for audiences' pleasure. Well, fake on-screen ones, certainly not real life audiences of normal people. There he must fight for his life and prove his innocence.

The movie tries to depict the redundancy of reality show with corny delivery like Hunger Games. However, it becomes actually unappealing. They repeated these faux news stereotype several times, and this is no doubt a torture to watch. It's not an overstatement that surviving this is as dangerous as playing the actual game.

With script and plot suffering with poor presentation, it relies heavily on the action, which will also disappoint. There's barely any continuation for the combat scenes. People would repeat the same motion as though they're lagging or the movie cut awkwardly and forget a few shots. You must have seen poor choreography where hits don't land, this movie takes it farther with random shots of random motion, then glue them together.

Even viewers with fortitude for cheap effect or story will waver. This is one game you would want to quit as soon as possible, or just don't start in the first place.

IT'S LIVE WITH DEATH

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 25 October 2018]

This film is a modest version of the more successful "Running Man." Rick Tyler (Dominic Purcell) is a Navy Seal accused of killing women and children (not from a helicopter) and has an opportunity for freedom by playing the game "Turkey Shoot" by being the prey against killers. I didn't think that Richard Dawson was irreplaceable, but apparently it is so. The game lacked color commentary while it was airing. Then during the second round of the game, it gets weird and the film falls off a cliff while Purcell soars off into the sky.

It seems to me if you are going to copy "Running Man" copy the good aspects as well. They needed more colorful killers with a slight introduction. They spent too much time developing the subplot of the incident and they didn't do that entertainingly.

Guide: F-bomb. Sex. Purcell back nudity. Good scene of head getting blown off. They show it several times.

The producers could never ever pay me enough money to willingly watch this movie again.

[ingsley · 2 December 2014]

The end credits to TURKEY SHOOT had an excellent choice of font. They were, in fact, the only entertaining part of this turkey of a movie.

The producers could never ever pay me enough money to willingly watch this movie again.

Even if you are a fan-boy who enjoys blood-fest gore movies that are over-long, badly-edited, un-scripted, TURKEY SHOOT is still a complete waste of time, and will leave you with ninety minutes of your life, forever lost.

Rick Tyler is the latest target, on a brutal kill or be killed, live reality cable television game show. Dominic Purcell is Rick Tyler. Robert Taylor is Ramrod, and he is one of the many antagonists (a sniper who never ever misses his target). Robert Taylor gives a credible performance with the uninspiring and very wooden dialogue, that failed to mimic the natural cadence of speech, and is the only saving grace of TURKEY SHOOT.

If only the embarrassing screenplay had dialogue that allowed you to suspend disbelief. Performances by the ensemble cast included stilted dialogue, and unwieldy turns of phrase, all delivered by the actors without showing any sign of emotion.

We are supposed to think that this film was shot somewhere in the United States. Memo To continuity: Why during the film do we see cars with Melbourne Victoria number plates?!

At the media screening TURKEY SHOOT did not have a lip-synchronized sound track. Presumably this was an anti film piracy measure. Hopefully this situation will be remedied for the film's commercial release.

Starring: Dominic Purcell (Killer Elite, Prison Break), Viva Bianca (X, Spartacus) and Robert Taylor (Longmire, Focus)

Directed by: Jon Hewitt

Australianl Release Date: December 4th

Run time: 90 minutes

Rating: MA15+

02 December 2014 this is the first published review of TURKEY SHOOT at www.IMDb.com

Oh dear...

[constellationofcygnus · 2/10 · 23 June 2015]

The original Turkey Shoot is a fun Ozploitation film that rattles along at a fair pace and never seems to take itself too seriously. This remake is a po-faced turgid mess that is so badly directed even Uwe Boll would shake his head in disgust. Dominic Purcell can be good in the right role, but in this he looks downright ashamed to be here. And I don't blame him. The guy clearly needs a better agent. Long story short, he plays a wrongly convicted war criminal that is entered into a Running Man style TV show where he has 90 minutes to get to a destination whilst avoiding various assassins. And trust me that sounds far more exciting than it actually is. The film is a mess. The camera work is appalling, the direction is laughable, the script is infantile and there are huge chunks of narrative presumably missing. The action is badly filmed and choreographed, the characters are mere outlines and the acting ranges from poor to middling. Purcell himself seems half asleep. Not even worth a watch for curious fans of the original. Avoid like the plague.

The real turkey "It's live, it's crap"

[videorama-759-859391 · 1/10 · 22 September 2016]

First off the bat, I expected much more from this. Remakes tend to be much more glitzy and exciting, especially as far as horrors go, the remake of Straw Dogs, another example. What we have here is one mess of a film, which has heavily borrowed from The Running Man. The team behind the solid Indie crime flick, Redball, are back, where Hewitt, has just slumped lower after that weak sex flop, X. We even have some of the old players from the original. This does move in much different directions as the original, as the horrible Purcell, once part of the CIA, was framed and made to take the fall for slaughtering innocent civilians, women and children. Now a prisoner, he used in a game show, ala Running Man, minus the suspense and thrills. Surviving two stages, the best player, so far, of course, he's sprung from the show, by a former lover, work colleague (the hot Viva Bianca) which furthers the story. Just with Sound Of Music's recent passing of Liesel, (Hammond) who played Frederich, plays Thatcher, here, but with a different character, to that of G.P's Michael Craig, in the original. It's a fine performance, as with many here, (Bianca, McClory, donning a fantastic and polished American accent) except for our clunk head lead. There are a couple of gruesome bits, a head exploding scene, and a suicide one. It ends somewhat similar to that at the end of that 2001 movie, Series 7, but the whole film spells mess, disappointment, and some real crappy photography. The highlights of the film are our two over enthused hosts of our death survival show. Hopefully Hewitt, can one day, return to the kind of film making he did so wonderfully, with his baby, Redball, where here he's almost B grade, ground level.

Not a thumbs down... I gave it the finger

[bullockrj-83768 · 1/10 · 22 December 2016]

I would have given this movie a 0/10 if I could. This could be, quite possibly, the worst movie I have ever seen. Just awful. The Character development is horrible and you don't feel anything for them. Very formulaic. As soon as I saw the character "Gillian Wilson", I openly said, she's gonna sleep with the main character... Sure enough. No nudity though.

The scenes are cut just horribly, and changes what we just saw... an example, he his running from the police, with no-one chasing him on foot. The next scene it cuts to, there's a cop right behind him. Another example, they talk about getting into a hospital that is guarded to the teeth and impossible to get to the guy he wants in there... do you see him getting past all these obstacles? Nope (not that you'd really want to). The next scene is him in the hospital room that he was trying to get to. Same goes for when he escapes out of that hospital.

Save your money, even if it's in the dollar store. The DVD is good for 1 thing only, a coaster for your cold drink while you watch another movie. It truly is the worst movie I have ever seen, and that includes "Plan 9 from outer space", except this movie takes itself seriously.

I cannot imagine anyone enjoying this movie. If you see a good review, it was written by someone who has shares in the company.

Not as good as the original

[puffydawg · 2/10 · 27 June 2015]

Whilst we are in the season of remakes galore, i stumbled across this remake of the original turkey shoot. Whilst this movie does try to do good and stick to a well known story of person gets caught, person get sent to prison, corrupt officials put person into TV game show for ratings, it just feels well lacking. it does pay homage to some of the originals characters ie thatcher the main antagonist in the original and to actor steve railsback it also is showing the original playing on a TV actually in the movie but no where near as good. go see the original turkey shoot, very controversial and was an R20 when it came out and was extremely violent.

Horrid attempt at being original

[bclough91 · 1/10 · 28 July 2015]

This movie gave me a migraine as you will see every single plot turn coming your way. Filmed with what I assume a low budget; rip off of The Hunger Games, Hostel, Death Race, and MANY more (excellent films comparatively). It is a run of the mill "fight for your life because you're actually innocent" plot. It's a real shame seeing Dominic Purcell go from a great actor in many fabulous films / television shows, to this cruddy script. You can do SO much better as you've proved time and again in the past.

I'm left wishing I had read the reviews prior to watching this, would have saved me a hour of thinking "What the heck were they thinking?"

Do yourself a favor and do not bother with this low- budget inferior boring movie.

It's like two remakes in one.

[Java_Joe · 1/10 · 25 May 2018]

Stop me if you've heard this plot before. A soldier is charged with a crime he didn't commit and is sent to jail. There he's offered his freedom if he plays a game of survival that is also a hit TV show. He must survive, out in an arena of sorts, while being stalked by a group of deadly killers. Meanwhile a woman uncovers the information that he's been framed. He turns the tables on the stalkers one by one and makes it to the end after having proved his innocence.

That's right, it's "The Running Man" or as this movie would like to think something really original.

the original Turkey Shoot was a low budget movie where in a fascist world, a group of prisoners who are beaten and tortured by their guards are given the option of playing a game to regain their freedom. But whereas that was kinda fun in a very low budget way, this just feels derivative in a really low budget way.

Dominic Purcell plays the main character with all the charm and nuance of a side of beef. I don't think there's one point where he shows a genuine emotion unless it's blank rage.

Some of the original cast from the 1982 version show up in cameos like Steve Railsback, the hero of the original, is now one of the killers. It's kinda fun to see them knowing their history but it gets old rather quickly.

There's just no reason for this movie to have been made. It's a remake that steals practically everything from another movie in an attempt to be a little more original than the original one was.

One of the worst unconvincing spectacles ever, even WWE looked more real than this

[jordondave-28085 · 2/10 · 15 April 2023]

(2014) Turkey Shoot ACTION SCIENCE-FICTION

Although it's a remake of the 1981 movie called "Escape 2000" it looks more like a low budget equivalent of "The Running Man" released in 1987 and "The World's Most Dangerous Game" with a splash of the Jason Bourne movies. The movie centers on Navy Seals, Rick Tyler (Dominic Purcell) caught as a scapegoat to start up a war in Africa. That his life would be concocted for others to believe that he senselessly massacred a bunch of women and children. Just so, he can participate in a deadly game show so that selected contestants can hunt him for the entire world to see.

One of the worse looking spectacles ever, both Roger Cormon and Ed Wood would have been proud of them.

War Conspiracy Hunger Games

[in1984 · 7/10 · 26 June 2015]

7.4 of 10. While not equivalent or parallel to the Hunger Games (it's something that could easily be happening now as opposed to sometime in the future), it does involve a reality TV game show with what modern society considers attractive media personalities where the participants are being hunted by each other, aka an "Elimination Game", all in a world where war is being heavily promoted and the show's primary heroes are vets.

The cast works well. Nobody seems obviously out of place. Available technology also is believable for a parallel Earth type of fiction.

Fortunately, it's not a film trying to setup sequels. It functions and wraps up nicely as a single, complete film. Unfortunately, there's a little too much equivalent of pro wrestling bullet dodging and inexhaustible bullet supplies at times.

Elimination Game aka Turkey Shoot

[EverydayIDecay · 7/10 · 1 February 2021]

Have no idea why the rating is so low on this. Maybe there comparing to the original too much. It's mediocre with a classic top plot. It's really between a 5 and a 7 depending on your demand of perfection.

Flaky Parody

[roussou · 6/10 · 24 May 2020]

With so many potholes in the plot, goofs, and flaky action scenes it's hard to imagine this movie takes itself seriously. If you also don't, you will see an almost campy movie, a parody on the genre, with some clear critisism on American culture & imperialism - nothing new under the sun here. Question is, did the makers also intended all this or did they have a different movie in mind?