The River Wild The River Wild

The vacation is over.

While on a family vacation, Meryl Streep takes on a pair of armed killers (led by Kevin Bacon) while navigating a spectacularly violent river.

Meryl Streep David Strathairn Joseph Mazzello Stephanie Sawyer Kevin Bacon John C. Reilly Benjamin Bratt Elizabeth Hoffman Victor Galloway William Lucking

Universal Pictures

adventure crime thriller action

108 mins   More details at IMDb / TMDb

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  • mijagi

    Review by mijagi ★★★½

    Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon are on good form in this above average thriller about a family who are taken hostage by two fugitives and forced to navigate their way down a treacherous stretch of water. There are enough twists and turns to keep the viewer engaged and while never outstanding in any department The River Wild proves to be very solid entertainment.

  • Sandy

    Review by Sandy

    Vacation's over.

    I love maps. Being pretty spatially oriented, there's nothing better than knowing exactly where I am and what it's going to look like where I'm going. Google Maps is a fantastic invention. And that little yellow man? Forget about it. Okay, that was detour #1. Now for detour #2. One of my favorite books when I was a teenager was Return to Red Castle.

    Please don't ask if it's any good. :D It's this amazing, to me, story about a perilous adventure in the High Unitas and as an added bonus there's a map on the inside cover. I would read the book and follow along with the map so I could try and see where they were…

  • 26hrcharleston

    Review by 26hrcharleston ★★★

    Decent fun. I liked the undercurrent of cuckoldry.

    Lesson learned from my friend's mom who was almost murdered by Ted Bundy: if you sense someone's dangerous, risk being rude. The main characters probably could have been freed sooner if they had been okay with mildly offending Kevin Bacon.

  • ralch

    Review by ralch ★★★½

    Standard story is made compelling by smart direction by Hanson, who wisely relies on his actors' elevated skills (all of them, including wonder kid thesp Joseph Mazzello) to generate the tension the proceedings require. Streep gives one of her very best performances, and Strathairn is just as good with that invisible kind of quality that avoids the scenery chewing so loved at awards ceremonies. Robert Elswit's cinematography is consistently placid, which actually helps to make the protagonists feel all the more isolated. Awesome landscapes, too.

  • Ryan MMc

    Review by Ryan MMc ★★★

    A typically 90s thriller with obligatory dog.
    Entertaining and a very easy watch.
    Played well by all cast, Bacon is a great baddie and you gotta feel for Joseph Mazzello when his new "hero" turns out to be a gun-toting loser.

  • kaila Starr

    Review by kaila Starr ★★★★½

    I remember watching this movie ALL THE TIME with my parents,

    I also remember being in Grants Pass, Oregon and being on a jet boat tour and them telling us we were in parts of the river where they filmed the movie... so I guess this is the first movie I made the connection that I was in the place where they filmed .

    Maryl Streep is awesome and Kevin bacon makes a great bad guy. Oh and how young John C riley looks haha

  • Rian Prittipaul

    Review by Rian Prittipaul ★★½

    Plot : ''While on a family vacation, Meryl Streep takes on a pair of armed killers (led by Kevin Bacon) while navigating a spectacularly violent river.''

    The script is incredulous, which is the downfall of the movie (the second half in particular was so ridiculous that you might find yourself bumping your head against something). The rafting scenes are well shot, and the cinematography is just beautiful. Curtis Hanson does an acceptable job directing. Great cast, but Kevin Bacon has the best performance here as the villain -- although nothing very memorable. This is the first time I've seen Meryl Streep not in blazing form. I even found her quite annoying at times, especially every time she laughed (I read…

  • Daryl

    Review by Daryl ★★★ 2

    Film 21 of The December Project: My Waterloo.

    Predictable, corny, cliched..

    ...yet great.

    I don't make the rules.

    The River Wild manages to turn itself into quite a lean, taut and action packed thriller.

  • Greg

    Review by Greg ★½

    Meryl Streep actually rowed the boat in a number of scenes here, which is cool I guess, but other than Kevin Bacon hamming it up as the coolest psychotic robber ever there's not a lot good about this movie. It has some nice wilderness shots, but overall it's just very boring.