Signature Entertainment, out now

Five elite hunters pay to hunt down a man on a deserted island, only to find themselves becoming the prey.

I’ll keep this brief, as there’s little to say about this film that you won’t already have guessed. It’s a woeful straight to video effort that seems to be par for the course now for Bruce Willis. 12 Monkeys and Unbreakable are but distant memories for the actor who is churning out five to six films a year now, presumably on a daily rate?

We’re at some indeterminate point in the future and the wealthy spend their cash on paying to hunt down unfortunate prey on Apex Island (actually some woods in British Columbia) in this loosest adaptation of The Most Dangerous Game. The hunters are all unlikeable idiots, the best of the bunch being Dr Rainsford (Neal McDonough, Star Trek: First Contact). But they hadn’t counted on being up against Malone ‘The Mutilator’ (Willis). Not only is he the worst ever prisoner, he’s an ex-cop kicked off the force for intemperance (is that really a thing?) He always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and the universe just can’t seem to kill him.

Whether or not we’re inclined to think of Malone as being Die Hard’s John McClane under a different name, that’s clearly the action persona that the producers are looking for. But this is the lowest Z-grade nonsense that does not succeed on any level. Bruce doesn’t seem to be there most of the time (literally and figuratively) and this should be a hard swerve for you.

Verdict: Pitiful. Just don’t. 1/10

Nick Joy