Surviving the Wild (previously known as "Riley's Peak") is essentially a coming of age story. There is humor and emotion, as well as a little bit of language. It's a good movie for families with adolescent children.

It's a low budget movie but the cinematography is spectacular, showcasing terrific views around Kentucky. It was great seeing some of my favorite outdoor places utilized in the movie. Some locations I recognized were Natural Bridge and Cumberland Falls State Parks, the Kentucky River Palisades and the majestic Red River Gorge Geological Area. The state of Kentucky is prominent in the movie and there is even a brief appearance by Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin.

I was excited when I heard about the filming of this movie. I'm a fan of previous roles of Jon Voight and Jamie Kennedy, and I heard that Mr. Voight was very kind to people while in the area for filming.

You should give "Surviving the Wild" a watch!

"Surviving the Wild" is an adventure story with some quirky characters and humor. It doesn't have quite the thrill of Jack London's "White Fang," the novel that the young protagonist is reading during the film. The conceit of the film is that a young boy's deceased grandfather serves as his guide on his journey to scatter the grandfather's ashes in a favorite mountain site.

The boy travels alone withonly his backpack and his faithful dog Riley. But the grandfather is with him in spirit. And, in the case of this film, the grandfather, as played with great gusto by Jon Voigt, is with the boy in presence as well.

Some of the best moments of the film are the wise sayings of the wise guy grandfather. While some of his jokes fall flat, his advice is rich in wisdom. He counsels the boy to remember the "Rule of Threes"--3 minutes without air; 3 hours without regulated body temp; 3 days without water; 3 weeks without food. The boy loses his backpack in the fierce river rapids and is briefly unconscious. No problem. There is always the "Rule of Three" as a guide to survival.

The journey of the boy is filled with almost every conceivable occurrence, including the lost backpack, a near attack from a bear, and the appearance of two scary backwoods guys who act like characters from out of "Deliverance." Again, no problem! One of the sage sayings of Gramps: "When you run into a problem, look up!" In so doing, the grandson recognizes that there is always something bigger. After all, "problems are like clouds in the sky; here in the moment, then gone in the next."

The treatment of the boy's parents was also thoughtful. While they were in the middle of a divorce, it was clear that both the mother and father truly loved their son. Another one of the sayings of the grandfather was, "real fear is not living the right way." By the end of the film, the parents seem to have learned something from that one.

The film was more than a story of survival. Again, the grandfather sums up best the overarching theme: "You always have something."

When 13-year-old Shaun's (Aidan Cullen) grandfather Gus (Jon Voight) dies, to whom he was very close, Shaun wants to spread his ashes on "Delilah's Peak", in the Kentucky hillsides. However, his parents Rachel and Kris (Vail Bloom and Jamie Kennedy) will have none of it.

Encouraged and guided by the spiritual and "physical presence" of Gus, Shaun decides to take the risky trek to "Delilah's Peak" himself, along with Gus's aging dog Riley. He'll lie to each parent, who are divorcing and living separately, that he's going away with the other.

Shaun will encounter all kinds of dangers on this journey as you can imagine. Predictably, the parents will eventually figure out what has happened, and so do you think they might call the police? Let's just say that's one of a number of moronic decisions and plot elements that the viewer is asked to swallow.

I thought this movie, which has some spiritual themes thrown in along the way, has its moments but it just all seems to get more preposterous as it continues. Sorry, I just couldn't buy in to all of this. At least the cinematography was gorgeous.

To note, on my DVD copy obtained at Redbox, there were only Spanish subtitles, but I was able to access English subtitles through my remote closed captions.