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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Wow. Just wow. Saw it an hour ago. Right now I still feel overwhelmed by this movie. Certainly one of the best i've seen in the past few years. Some reviews here have already perfectly outlined what to admire in this film; so i am content with just sharing some of my genuine enthusiasm with you.First off the music is fantastic. When early in the story my mind was still trying to grasp the intent of the movie, it's distinctive music was the first thing that stood out to me. It sparked and fueled my intrigue. The soundtrack showed to be pretty unique and effectively conveys the essence of the different visual moods it accompanies throughout the film. Like others mentioned, this movie is witty, violent, cynical, hopeful and humorous at once, in no specified order. It shocked me and disgusted me, but also made me laugh and think deeper when it presented me it's philosophical questions.I'm already pondering on how to do this movie justice when telling my friends about it. It might be smart to not raise their expectations too high, as not knowing what to expect certainly did not hurt the process of me slowly getting in awe with this movie.

One of the most original movies ever made. Also one of the funniest black comedies of all time. It's funny the same way Fargo is. In fact, if the Coen Brothers ever returned to their thriller roots, or made a straight up horror, this is the type of movie they might end up with.This AV Club blurb does a spot on job of conveying why this movie is so good.It may be hard to believe now, but once upon a time — call it the late Nineties — a major movie studio sunk $12 million into a comedic western about 19th century soldiers who believed eating other humans endow folks with superhuman strength and the ability to recover from life- threatening injuries. When shooting on the film crashed to a halt after three weeks of interference and executive micromanaging, one of the suits at at 20th Century Fox hit upon an idea: fire director Milcho Manchevski — the Macedonian art house sensation whose devastating wartime romance Before the Rain was nominated for an Oscar — and replace him with Raja Gosnell, whose only feature credit to date was Home Alone 3. Shockingly, it didn't work out.The cast, lead by Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle (fresh off his BAFTA-winning performance in The Full Monty), rejected Gosnell like a body denying a transplanted heart, and Ziskin's filmmaker of choice returned to the comforts of his wheelhouse in Los Angeles, where he would promptly get to work on Never Been Kissed. Carlyle eventually pressured Fox into filling the director's chair with his trusted collaborator, Antonia Bird, a veteran of British TV whose best known feature on these shores was Priest, about a closeted man of the cloth. It did not sound like an ideal match- up. Shockingly, it turned out great.Ravenous is a film that, by design, was forced to thread the needle between three different genres, a challenge that few directors have the finesse to overcome under normal circumstances — let alone on a project that had more cooks in the kitchen than it did carnivores on screen. Kicking off with the twang of a banjo that might not have been tuned since 1846, this Mulligan's stew of a movie walks such a fine line between bleak comedy ("He was licking me!"), hyper- violent survival drama, and supernatural creature-feature that the guy narrating the trailer seems to have no idea what he's actually selling. Advertising lies all the time, but seldom is it so confused: "One man must choose between having dinner, and being dinner…" (You wait for him to follow that oddly jokey declaration up with "I guess?") Audiences of the time can hardly be blamed for not being sold.But while many studio boondoggles betray the messiness of their making (Fantastic Four, anyone?), this ragged, unsung 1999 gem was one of the very few that was able to feed off the chaos. An origin story about the American spirit, the film is a lot like America itself: a melting pot of disparate elements, thrown together in a fit of violence, and galvanized by the righteous illusion that this is how God intended it to be.Subtlety is not on the menu here, and it's easy to imagine how the bluntness of the script by Ted Griffin (Ocean's 11) helped it weather the constant assault of studio notes and creative upheaval. The story begins by introducing us to Second Lieutenant John Boyd (Guy Pearce), a Mexican- American War vet who's being promoted to Captain after killing an entire unit of enemy soldiers on their own turf. The problem is that, after playing dead and being stacked in a heap of corpses, our hero was only capable of such battlefield bravery because of an unsettling jolt of strength — which he got from drinking trickling-down blood. Boyd is now nauseated at the sight of raw meat; he pukes behind a tent after a celebratory banquet as the title card flashes on screen. Laughs are usually the first things that get lost when a movie is Frankensteined together, but the film's sick sense of humor remained intact.Surprisingly, a story that rubs our faces in America's ongoing history of cannibalism (cultural, commercial, or otherwise) is always going to be a tough sell in a country that still celebrates Columbus Day. Ravenous bombed at the box office, grossing $10 million less than it cost to make and anticipating a climate where a film like this would be lucky to premiere at Fantastic Fest in advance of a straight-to-VOD release. Perhaps that's for the best. A major studio trying to wrangle something so bloodthirsty and off-kilter is like a child trying to raise a feral hyena — it's too wild to tame, and it's always laughing at you for trying.But maybe this movie isn't quite as bleak as it appeared at the time; maybe this is just a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. For all of its nihilism, this perverse take on the weird, weird West digs so deep into the darkness that it eventually shines a light out through other side. Like Colqhoun, it knows that we have to face the truth — and like Boyd, it knows that doesn't mean we have to live with it. To quote the film's opening title card, it's never too late to say "Eat me."

RAVENOUS is a historical comedy horror set on the American frontier in the 19th century. It's a world of extreme cold, snow, hardship and cannibalism, as those trapped in remote outposts are driven to feast on the flesh of one another in order to survive. It's an interesting film for sure, but also one that's all over the place tonally.I understand that the film's original director quit for whatever reason, so Robert Carlyle suggested Antonia Bird for the role. Bird and Carlyle had previously worked together on the excellent low budget British crime film FACE, so the choice seemed a good one, but I'm not sure that Bird was quite right for this material. Although RAVENOUS is extremely gory, it's never in the least bit horrific, while the attempts at black comedy aren't all that successful.Instead what we have is an action-focused story of survival, loaded with gore effects and general nastiness. RAVENOUS is worth watching thanks to the sterling efforts of a great little cast, headlined by Guy Pearce back when he was just starting out in Hollywood. Robert Carlyle makes for a great psychotic bad guy as always, and the casting director has done a good job for interesting character actors: the creepy Jeffrey Jones, Neal McDonough, and Jeremy Davies. The less said about David Arquette the better, though.

Before watching Ravenous, it probably helps for you to know that the impression of this film given by marketing is inaccurate. It appears to be a horror and a thriller but, while it does contain some guts and suspense, the film is much more than a generic horror. Ravenous has elements of adventure and some black comedy in quirky moments, more so in the first half, and thrills that are more-so concept and emotionally based rather than cheap adrenalin. The point is that it's a bad idea going into this film because you heard it was a picking-off-the-victims "gore-fest".The film begins with events following soon after the Mexican-American War where Second Lieutenant (John) Boyd (Guy Pearce) is struggling after letting his unit down while they are massacred. He stumbled into the Mexican headquarters and, in a bout of bravery, managed to capture enemy command from within. He is haunted by images and flashbacks of the mass of deaths and aggression he has witnessed. Boyd is promoted to Captain for his heroism, but his commanding officer discovers the cowardly truth of this victory. Boyd is exiled to Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada. Boyd settles in with 7 interesting residents of Fort Spencer. Soon they're all introduced to a man who shows up in the night weak and injured. He proceeds to explain to them a disturbing account of his group turning to cannibalism having him flee in fear of his life and the Spencer team setting off with him venturing back in obligation to the cave which he has fled to save a woman he admits he has left alone in danger.Apart from the events that take place in the film, the situation John Boyd finds himself in is a reflection of honest morality with a front focus on temptation and the will power not to give in. It is really a matter of opinion whether this is appealing, which is is for me, but it really doesn't hurt for one to open their mind.Ravenous can get you to think if you let it do so.