This is a rather entertaining and at times quite suspenseful film starring some of the more charismatic actors working today. While one would never expect to see an Oscar winning performer such as Anthony Hopkins fighting man-eating bears in the Alaskan wilderness, he's actually quite believable in the role. Although the character's a bit old for such activities, his mind is still razor sharp, giving him the advantage in this story, and Hopkins pulls off this role with mastery and ease.
Baldwin is good as the smarmy photographer and actually plays down his usual over-the-top masculinity, while MacPherson is really just there as eye candy whose purpose is to supply the background story of the plot.
Fortunately, the film varies its approach in what the men must battle, be it themselves, the elements, or a very persistent killer bear. It's in those latter scenes that the movie takes on a "Jaws on land" feeling. While they are quite suspenseful and well-done, they do seem to stand apart a bit from the main film that is really about man being the most dangerous creature to deal with.
That part is masterfully set up in an opening scene where we've just heard about killer bears and not leaving food out in the kitchen. MacPherson's character then asks Hopkins' to make her a sandwich and by lantern light he finds the outside kitchen door open and a ham sitting out on the table. The scene is quite suspenseful and introduces the element that someone may be trying to kill him which of course leads to the latter confrontational scenes.
Like many other action films before it, however, this one does have its share of continuity and logic problems. Snow appears and disappears within the same scene, and the men often purposefully stand in the ice cold lake or the chilly rain when earlier they seemed like they'd die from such watery encounters.
Many events are also telegraphed at us such as talk of man-eating bears from a lodge owner with huge scars on his face (leaving little doubt about what caused those and whether the characters here will have similar encounters), and a discussion about a painted animal scene on an oar where a rabbit is calm despite the presence of a menacing panther (because the rabbit can outsmart the feline). Guess which characters they represent and who will survive by what means by the end?
Still, despite these obvious indicators of things to come, the film always manages to be interesting and quite thrilling with renowned playwright David Mamet's dialogue being first-rate and Hopkins delivering a performance that's as fun as ever to behold.
As far as the DVD itself, both the audio and video are first-rate, although the supplemental material is rather lacking in anything substantial or particularly noteworthy.
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