AJSteele This is one of those films that almost lost me due to it's terrible beginning. A crushingly slow B movie was in full play when a change suddenly took place. The undeserving husband adopted a more believable face towards survival and the wife's portrayals of frustration accurately increased. The viewer now gets to see a man and wife trapped in an unforgiving expanse, leading to some fresh turns. Interesting action along with life lessons made what could have been a run away bomb entertaining. A good, reasonably thought out ending really helped. A nice little tricky survival film that may fit your mood when the video idea well runs dry.

Roland E. Zwick Newlyweds Nick (Eion Bailey) and Lori (Yvonne Strahavski) stumble into the honeymoon-from-hell when they innocently and foolishly allow a grizzled old cowpoke to talk them into taking an unauthorized mule-trip into the heart of the Grand Canyon. When Henry (Will Patton), the guide, is bitten by a rattlesnake, the couple is left to fend for themselves in this unfamiliar and brutally hostile terrain with little or no survival skills to help get them through the experience.Based on a number of recent movie going experiences ("127 Hours," "Gerry" and "Open Water" ) there seems to be a real genre developing here - which, for lack of a better term, we'll call the cocky-outdoorsman-gets-his-ever-lovin'-butt-kicked-by-Mother-Nature scenario. Like those other films, "The Canyon" really makes us empathize with the plight the citified couple is going through, offering cringe-inducing scene after cringe-inducing scene of their often ham-handed attempts at staying alive. Also, like those previous works, this movie explores the themes of how easy it is to find ourselves without warning at the mercy of an uncaring and capricious Fate; of how quickly stupid decisions made in the heat of the moment can lead to long-term, disastrous consequences; of how ill-equipped modern Man is at grappling against the forces of an impersonal Nature; and of how indomitable the human spirit can be in even the most dire and hopeless of circumstances.Replete with an "ironic" ending that will have you throwing things at the screen in frustration and dismay (think of it as the ultimate anti-deus ex machina), "The Canyon," which was written by Steve Allrich and directed by Richard Harrah, makes for gripping and grueling, if not always, edifying or uplifting viewing. It will also make you think twice before ignoring signs posted at national parks. And, oh yes, perhaps the biggest lesson of all is to always give heed to women's intuition.

Tatiana If you're looking for something with the look and feel of an almost-major motion picture and the writing of a really boring b movie, this is definitely the movie for you.The first thing that struck me about this film was that it was shot quite well. It had all the hallmarks of a professionally done, decent-budget piece: good cinematography, subtle and appropriate background music, and believable actors who obviously hadn't just been picked up at the 7 Eleven. Even the writing in the beginning did a good job of setting an interesting tone, albeit one that, as others have said, we have all seen a thousand times before. I personally don't mind that sort of redundancy in itself. There are only a finite number of plots available to any writer, and if the details are different and the film is well done I'll watch it without whining for originality.But then the characters started DOING things. Honestly, I thought about it, and I really don't think these people made a single decision in the entire course of the film that was not completely ridiculous to the point of mental deficiency. I don't want to spoil it, but remember my words as you watch: this is simply not how people would behave (or at least I really, really hope not). Nothing they do makes any sense whatsoever. It is clear that whoever wrote this has absolutely no understanding of human behavior, cause and effect, or the need as a writer to put yourself in the position of your characters so that you can develop a realistic story line.Nor, it seems, does the writer have any concept at all of human relationships. The people in this movie are supposed to be married, but for most of the film they seem more like roommates. Has this writer ever even seen a married couple? It would have been more believable if they had met on the tour bus on the way there! The script gives them no opportunity to show any real emotion toward each other, and almost none about their situation. It is really quite boring.On top of that there are some utterly absurd (and offensive) happenings with wolves, as well as the equally unrealistic ability of the characters to deal with exposure to the desert elements for days on end without food or water with hardly a single complaint. Just ridiculous.Anyway, this movie had a lot of potential that was ruined by a writer who obviously lacks both life experience and the imagination to invent it. The only cure for him may be to stick him out in the desert for a few days in a similar situation so he can see how a real person would react. I for one think we should try it.

MBunge The Canyon is a new version of a very familiar story. It does a relatively effective job of telling that story, but does nothing with it that hasn't been done before. The result is a legitimately entertaining but ultimately forgettable movie.Nick and Lori (Eion Bailey and Yvonne Strahovski) are a young couple that have just eloped and are running away to the Grand Canyon for their honeymoon. Nick wants to take a mule trip into the Canyon while Lori's not that excited about the idea. However, the spur of the moment nature of their marriage means they never had time to get the proper permits and it seems like Nick and Lori will just have to spend the weekend having sex in their motel room (which will probably end up being the porn version of this film). That's when Henry (Will Patton), an old guide who puts the "grizz" in grizzled, offers to help them out. He claims he can get a permit and will lead them into the Canyon himself. Lori is again leery but gives in to Nick's enthusiasm for the whole thing.Though Henry seems a bit sketchy, everything starts out fine when they meet Saturday morning to head into the Canyon. Henry has all the pack mules and supplies and appears to actually know what he's doing. The trip into the Canyon is the wonderful experience Nick thought it would be and Lori even lets herself enjoy it all. In the interest of spoiling as little as possible, particularly since this film doesn't have a lot of original twists and turns, I'll just say that things go very wrong for Lori, Nick and Henry. They wind up lost, isolated, bereft and at the mercy of a Mother Nature who's in a sadistic mood. The Canyon is the old story of Man (and Woman) vs. Nature…and that tale usually doesn't end well for Man.Outside of one complaint, this is a pretty good production. The plot is logically and frighteningly plausible. The scenery is beautiful, though it's Utah and not the real Grand Canyon. The three main characters are all interesting people and the actors in those roles give fine performances. There's a real sense of tension and dread which is broken every so often by flashes of humor and defiance. This movie has all the right pieces and it assembles them in the proper fashion with enough talent and effort to make The Canyon a gripping little tragedy.I do have one complaint and it's a not a tiny one. The tale of Man vs. Nature has been around forever. This variant of people stranded in a hostile wilderness and having to survive has been done in books and movies and television countless times to varying degrees of success. The Canyon is rated R and anyone old enough to be watching it has almost certainly read and seen and heard this story many times before. When a narrative is built on that sort of familiarity, it becomes very important to either add a twist to the proceedings or add a second level of meaning to what's going on. These filmmakers did neither.There is no twist to The Canyon and the story only functions on the surface level of people in peril. I'm sure you know what I mean by twist, but let me give to an example of a story having more than one level. Nick and Lori are facing a conflict, them vs. Nature. That's the first level. A second level would be to establish some sort of conflict between Nick and Lori, a problem that is independent of their hazardous surroundings. As the story goes along, those two separate conflicts would both mirror and diverge from each other. The standard cliché is to have the external conflict exaggerate the internal conflict, such as being stranded in the Grand Canyon making the personal difficulty between Nick and Lori more bitter and divisive at first, with the need to cooperate to survive eventually leading Nick and Lori to resolve the conflict between them.But outside of a single moment of recrimination, there's no conflict between Nick and Lori in this film. It's just Man vs. Nature with nothing else going on. Watching The Canyon is like hearing a funny joke for the third time. It's still amusing but something has definitely been lost in the repetition. I'd still rather hear a funny joke for a third time than a bad joke for the first time, so I'd still recommend this movie as worth watching. Just don't expect much more than a momentary diversion.