“You’re telling me we lost our president like we… lost a set of car keys. This is the most powerful nation in the history of the planet. This is America, and as Vice President of this great nation, I am commanding you to sort this shit out.”

That quote gives you a good indication of what to expect from Big Game, an action-adventure flick straight that jettisons President Samuel L. Jackson in the middle of the Finnish wilderness and expects him to escape with the help of a 13 year-old boy who says things like, “My forest. My rules.”

It’s the kind of movie that was everywhere in the mid-‘80s: more interested in paint-by-numbers character arcs than action setpieces; driven by an unapologetically silly screenplay. I wanted to like it more, but it’s worth remembering that most of these ‘80s movies were, well, pretty average. It’s hard to really dislike this film – if nothing else, reimagining the kill-the-President plot as an extended hunting trip is pretty wonderful – but with Jackson resolutely phoning it in, Big Game lacks the hyperbolic absurdity that could’ve made it as fun as it should’ve been. An entirely respectable film to half-watch on Friday night, though.