A Perfect Getaway: Dead Solid

Writer-director David Twohy keeps carrying the B-movie torch, with movies like Pitch Black, The Arrival, and Below serving as ingenious correctives to blockbuster bloat. A Perfect Getaway, Twohy’s first film since the atypically gigantor The Chronicles of Riddick, is a nasty piece of work—and I mean that in the best possible sense. Taut, propulsive, and supremely confident, it functions as both a far-above-average thriller and a riotous piss take on the conventions of its genre.

Clocking in at a lean 97 minutes, Twohy’s script follows a pair of newlyweds (Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich) celebrating their honeymoon on a remote trail on the island of Kauai. After crossing the path of a pair of dangerously tattooed drifters, they huddle up with a gung-ho ex-military couple (Timothy Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez) for the rest of the hike, only to discover that a pair of murderers may be loose on the island. Somewhere, Alfred Hitchcock is tipping a 40 in approval.

Twohy delivers twists and switchbacks with aplomb (there’s a bit involving walkie-talkies that feels like an instant hall-of-famer), but that’s hardly the only thing on the film’s plate. Specifically, by making Zahn’s character a screenwriter, Twohy adds a layer of metacommentary to the proceedings, with characters pointing out red herrings and unlikely plot developments right before getting thwacked. Without ever devolving into Scream-type wiseass superiority, the alternately playful and savage tone keeps things consistently lively. The actors are solid, particularly the hilarious Olyphant as a self-described Jedi warrior who rattles off a perfect Nic Cage impression without breaking stride. Ultimately, Twohy’s film belongs in the same, rarefied zone as a Raising Cain or eXistenZ—movies that affectionately mock themselves while also effortlessly delivering the goods. This is me waving my lighter in the air.