Review: 'Big Game' Starring Samuel L. Jackson Isn't The Dumb Fun It Thinks It Is

Early on in "Big Game," someone is spectacularly blown up by a surface-to-air missile. It's a key moment, with Jalmari Helander's ("Rare Exports") exceedingly dumb film seemingly taking the position that for the next (barely) ninety minutes it's going to be a knowingly insipid and campy genre throwback. Unfortunately, that's only the case in fits and starts. Blending a variety of tropes—from Spielberg-ian coming-of-age films, to lunkheaded shoot-me-ups of the '80s and '90s, to the ridiculous loglines of the Cannon Films catalog—"Big Game" attempts to both replicate those styles while also sending them up, but doesn't have assured grasp on tone to make it work.

The film—which surprisingly managed to get a decent cast for this kind of thing—finds Samuel L. Jackson playing the unpopular President of the United States, William Moore. His poll numbers are tanking, and he's earned the resentment of Morris (Ray Stevenson), the Secret Service agent who took...