‘Hungry’ Movie Review: Hippos Deserve Better Than This Toothless B-Movie
Photo from Aura Entertainment
From Jeremy Kibler
Animal-attack movies can be some of the most fun genre movies, and how long have we all been waiting for a Hungry Hungry Hippos movie? Too damn long! Without giving any credit to Hasbro, Hungry is the closest to it, but this Killer Hippopotamus Movie™ is a bummer. What should have the B-movie spirit of Anaconda or Piranha 3D is pretty toothless instead.
Early-twentysomething besties Sistine (Madison Davenport) and Hannah (Olivia Bernstone) are just trying to have a carefree vacation in New Orleans. Sistine getting fired from her job over the phone puts a damper on things at first, but after a night of booze, Hannah has signed them up for a gator tour the next morning in the bayou, captained by Rodrigo (Michel Curiel). Joining the group is nurse Sally (Samantha Coughlan), her teenage son Mikey (River Codack), and her father Tim (Jim Meskimen), along with uptight, overdressed on-business traveler Dionne (Tracey Bonner). The tour ends when they go off-course into the swamp, only to find a gator ripped to shreds and have their boat capsized by something much more threatening: a protective hippo.
Hungry isn’t very successful even as a silly but straight-faced creature feature. No, we didn’t exactly need the hippo dancing in a tutu, Fantasia-style, but there needed to be more hoot-and-holler thrills. Writer-director James Nunn (whose 2022 shark-centric thriller Shark Bait veered between the right amount of stupid and just plain stupid) at least sets up a menu of generally likable characters. They’re all mostly two-dimensional types, but save for one, you’re able to root for and not against most of the pesky humans. In fact, the hippo takes out the wrong people too early.
An emotionally grounded Madison Davenport makes for a solid-enough heroine, although Justine’s supposed gymnastic skills never quite impress on those tree branches. Joaquim de Almeida is at least ready to chomp as much scenery as his co-star playing grizzled hippo hunter Walker as this Quint-like figure, but he’s no Jon Voight in Anaconda.
Director Nunn has a little fun in teasing us with only glimpses of the hungry, hungry hippo; the film even opens with a turtle on its perch, watching as an alligator gets attacked by something much bigger in the water. Seen in all its glory eventually, the hippo itself is quite the beast, convincing enough as a mixture of practical and digital effects. With that said, some of the actors deserve the utmost credit for making certain character demises feel more impactful, considering many of the deaths take place off-screen or happen so quickly with a splash of swamp water and a little blood.
For all the creature-feature fanatics out there, Hungry most closely resembles 2007’s lean, mean killer-croc pic Rogue, except it didn’t really understand the assignment. Playing everything straight is one thing, but feeling far less fun than it should be is another. A few jump scares land, and there’s some tension when a character must slip into the water and go under the boat that’s surrounded by a ring of fire, but none of it ever fully takes off.
When the summer-movie season is usually saturated with Killer Sharks, the existence of Hungry is an exciting prospect, but the hippos out there deserve something more vicious and less forgettable.
Rating: 2/5
Hungry is currently streaming.
