A hunting enthusiast takes his teenage son on his first
hunting trip in an attempt to bond, but things go horribly awry. COMEDY/DRAMA
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The Legacy of a Whitetail
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A good dramedy is hard to pull off. It's a delicate balancing act that can go either way. The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter doesn't commit wholly to the drama or the comedy, so it's left in this sort of genre limbo that keeps the film from excising its full potential. And that's a shame, because there's a great movie in here somewhere. Josh Brolin, Danny McBride, and Montana Jordan are all fantastic. I just have no idea what I'm supposed to be feeling here.
Brolin is Buck Ferguson, a professional hunter who sells tapes of him hunting whitetail deer, all of which are filmed by his trust cameraman Don (McBride). Buck is looking forward to taking his twelve-year-old son Jaden (Jordan) on his first hunt and watching him bag his first whitetail. But Jaden doesn't really care about hunting, and he's more preoccupied with girls and cars. Also, Buck finds out his ex-wife is getting married, and the guy asked Jaden to call him "Dad." So, the trip goes off the rails, some emotional moments are had, and ultimately everyone ends up better for it. Except Don, who gets shot in the leg. Like a lot of Netflix's original movies, there's quite a bit of wasted potential. I think Brolin and McBride are doing their best to salvage a mediocre screenplay full of cliches and saccharine moments. But it's not terrible. It's something I'd probably watch again if I had to. |