Well, here is yet another movie that is so obscure that there is little to no information about it. River's End is a 2005 film starring Sam Huntington who has starred in a few movies here and there. Everyone else that stars in this movie I have no clue who they are with the exception of Clint Howard (who has appeared in movies such as Leprechaun 2, Ice Cream Man, and Silent Night, Deadly Night 4). This film was directed by William Katt who also appeared in this film and is known for appearing in films like the original Carrie and all of that.
The film follows Clay, a troubled teenager who lost his father at a very young age. He gets apparantly gets into trouble and when he does, he takes up on an offer by his grandfather to go on a canoe trip down the river in hopes that Clay will learn some lessons.
This movie is not great. Film's like these are the types of films that have lessons to be told, but there are bigger and better films that I as the viewer could easily watch. Hell, I can watch Survivor (my favorite reality TV series of all time) and get more out of seeing people's lives change. This film starts off with same eerie transitions that signal a flashback and it does not help that this takes place in Texas if you know what I mean. It is sooooooo 2000's editing. This whole film in the beginning feels like a really dated 2000's film. From how our main character Clay dresses, to playing GameBoy, listening to CD's in the biggest CD player imaginable, to even the high school bully. But the thing is, that is only in the first half and none of this is in the last half of the film. Perhaps it is a clever way to show the difference between Clay's life then and his life afterwards. It kind of makes sense I suppose. Our main character Clay is introduced to us via him playing in a high school basketball game and he seems nice enough and I genuinely feel bad for him. Until we see how much of a jerk he is. I mean, the film did warn us which is something the film does sometimes where it tells us about something and then it happens which leaves us with no surprises at all. The characters overall are not very likeable with the only really likeable character being the grandfather who is the Sherrif. The story is a story that has some promise but there is also this other plot that involves drug dealers who kidnap a girl in Clay's grade and who just so happens to be the bully's girlfriend. Another thing that bothers me is at one point in the film, the bully decides to cause problems by going to his girlfriend's parents nd tell them that Clay kidnapped her (which is obviously false and just goes to show how much this bully is really a major jerk). The reason why I tell you this is because it adds up to nothing. Yes, the parents believe him, but nothing about it is ever mentioned again. Had the police been told it would have been a little better but even if they were told, the Sheriff would have known Clay wouldn't have done it. I do think that the lessons trying to be told in this film are important, but they are literally no brainers like holding open a door for people and all of that. Let's just say this, this is one of those teenage reformation films that the ending is literally obvious. So would it be called spoiling the film if I said that Clay reformed? Even with what could be called "tense scenes" I did not feel any bit of suspense whatsoever. Whether it was something going wrong with the canoe or the drug dealers. Nothing.
River's End was a bad film. I did not get anything out of this film. This is a type of family film that a parent would purposely show to their misbehaving kid to see if they get anything out of it and to be honest, I would rather go canoeing for miles and miles by myself and having to rescue a girl from drug dealers than watch this film because actually doing those things would be loads more fun than anything else in this film. Granted, it is not the worst film I have ever watched nor will this film be the worst film that I have or will ever review. It was just not my film. Even if I got something out of the lessons in this film, it would still be bad due to the mediocre acting and datedness and unlikeable characters.
