Force of Nature: The Dry 2

Who doesn't love a good mystery/thriller movie?

Personally I'm a big fan and have watch lists for this very genre on various streaming services to last me till the Zombie Apocalypse is over and we can all crawl out of our bunkers again and drive Mad Max style into the dusty distance.

It's kind of ironic that the sequel to "The Dry" is called "Force Of Nature: The Dry 2" when it's set in a wet forest and the biggest hindrance to a search and recovery operation is a huge storm cell.

As one of the production companies involved in the making of this project "Made Up Stories" likes to say, "Tell Me A Story".

Okay, Five women head out on a remote hiking retreat but only four return, each telling a different story.

The whistle blower/insider is missing and if they don't find her quickly, presumed dead!

There are more suspects than children at a Wiggles concert.

Detective Aaron Falk (Eric Bana: affectionately known as Poida by most Aussies) must find out what really happened before time runs out and the rains come ma.

Eric reprises his role to star alongside fresh characters in "Force of Nature" played by Anna Torv ("Newsreaders"), Deborah-Lee Furness, Jacqueline McKenzie, Richard Roxburgh and others.

Robert Connolly is back in his Director Chair and although this is not truly a sequel with no connection to the original it is the second chapter from a series of books authored by Jane Harper (who must be laughing all the way to the bank) her follow up novel to the original story "The Dry".

Honestly they should have dropped "Dry" from the title, but at least people remember that wonderful film that punched above its weight.

Filming for this movie traveled away from rural Victoria into rugged, dangerous Dandenong Ranges National Park (The Basin) in Australia in 2022, but its release was delayed by 5 months due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Unfortunately this film is not the force of nature I was hoping for after the massive success with both critics and movie goers of "The Dry".

I even burst out laughing during what was meant to be a climatic serious waterfall scene...I know I'm a sick puppy...tell my therapist.

"Force of Nature" is hobbled by a pedestrian, convoluted plot with 3 layers that gets too busy with messy results, but it does get some brownie points for beautiful cinematography, editing & haunting soundtrack.

The acting felt dialled in/paint by numbers with certain people (I'm looking at you McKenzie, who is normally great) and the script/screenplay just got lost in translation and felt wooden and predictable.

Don't even get me started on Falks backstory and history with this mountain range that tried to pull at the heart strings, but lacked the mystery of the original.

As for the "serial killer" subplot it just fizzled and fell flat like a bottle of champagne left uncorked overnight.

"Force Of Nature: The Dry 2" tried to be all "Picnic At Hanging Rock" in a 21st century woke women's retreat way and missed the mark to get lost in the forest for the trees.

Not as good as the first film ...I think , mainly because the missing lady , was annoying and unpleasant , just couldn't feel anything for her ... Otherwise , not bad ...Kind of satisfied the urge I have lately to return to the old fashioned style of cinematography , when films were more about character development and acting than special effects and non stop action . This film ,definitely , achieves that : there was almost no violence or fights or car chases, or , for that matter -casual nudity or sex . That's why for me it was a pleasant reminder of the days once and for all gone ... I mean , I love some crazy action , but sometimes just want to sit quietly and enjoy a bit of a cerebral thriller )

I rather liked The Dry, although I didn't rate it (or the book on which it was based) as much as most Australians, so I had quite high hopes for this one.

Alas, they were dashed almost as soon as the film began. The overblown, portentous music was set my Dud Alert quivering, and it was all downhill from there. Ridiculously over complicated plot with about four separate strand running at once, none of which were really resolved satisfactorily, and a couple of them not at all. I pitied the actors who had to deliver what must be some of the clunkiest lines of dialogue ever written, and perhaps the poor quality of the screenplay explains why the performances were so uniformly poor; even Eric Bana, who's an excellent actor, is terrible in this.

Just don't bother. There are far better ways to spend your time.

You'd think that after a fairly decent thriller of a previous film, that the producers would follow it up with a more gripping and twisting script. Unfortunately there are none in this film. No major surprises that you would hope can redeem the slow pace of the movie. Eric Bana's character battles some of his childhood demons while trying to solve a case of a missing woman, but Bana isn't given adequate screen time to take charge of the movie. If there's a sequel to this one it better have a whole new direction in terms of script, otherwise it won't be worth spending any time on. It doesn't even come close to matching the slow burning yes satisfying pace of the first movie

In the final scene, Bana stares into the wilderness. That pretty much sums up my thoughts on how this movie progressed too.

5 women embark on a company team building exercise, backpacking for 3 days into the forest. However only 4 return and a search is quickly launched for the 5th, Alice, played by the excellent Anna Torv. Enter detective Falk (Eric Bana) who needs to find Alice as she has been working undercover in the company for Falk in an attempt to expose fraud by bad guy Daniel Bailey (Richard Roxburgh).

Sequel to 'The Dry', which whilst not as good as the original is still an enjoyable watch. What director Robert Connolly does is to almost seamlessly intertwine Falk's investigation with flashbacks to what the group did. In most films this is done in large chunks, but here it moves more quickly, neatly shifting from one timeline to the other merging them into one. The 5 women make for a good team playing nicely off each other, mixing truth and lies to Falk and us, with Bana solid and sincere, thinking back to backpacking in his youth which lead to a tragedy and Roxburgh, ideal as the cocky slime ball. Worth catching.