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Sick Product of a Sick System

It is a performances centric movie

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Not too bad for some fairly easy entertainment and intrigue - if you can tolerate the unnecessarily gratuitous violence and blood which at times is pretty sickening for me. But when the intrigue ends about half way through when the mystery is uncovered, the film degenerates into comedic posturing by a ridiculous number of body guards unnecessarily threatening a couple of defenceless men and a morally bankrupt story line which could so easily have raised the tenor of the film if it had included an ounce of humanity. The only attempt at this, with a contrived reconciliation which flew in the face of all normal sensibilities was promptly snuffed out along with the most of the robotic characters that behaved as though they were supposed to have been in a sci fi movie. Even the attempt at romance was more like a pair of the 'Wooden Tops' getting together. An ill conceived plot that started well but completely failed to deliver.

LEFT TO DIE is a B-movie that exists under a ton of different titles including AWAKEN and A PERFECT VACATION. Whichever way you look at it, it's a pretty stupid production that benefits from poor direction turning the whole thing into a very cheesy experience. Like THE CONDEMNED and BATTLE ROYALE before it, the story sees a group of strangers being individually kidnapped and released on a jungle island, where they will become unwitting donors for an illegal organ donation scheme.The story is vapid and clichéd, the script predictable in the extreme. The cheesy fight scenes are about as bad as you'd expect. As the lead actress, Natalie Burn has zero presence on screen. The only reason to watch this is the exemplary supporting cast, which takes some beating in B-movie terms. The triumvirate of Vinnie Jones, Jason London, and Daryl Hannah play the villains, while the protagonists are played by the likes of Robert Davi, Edward Furlong, and Daz Crawford. Even martial arts supremo Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez has a flashback cameo as the protagonist's father. It's not high entertainment, but at least the familiar faces kept me watching.

I often wonder what motivates someone to make a movie that is this awful. It can't be money because I can't, in my wildest dreams, envision this straight to video travesty earning enough to even pay the extras salaries let alone the former A-list actors turned C-list losers. Everything about this waste of film is bad. The camera work looks likes it was done by a tweaker with ADHD, he skips from face to face with no rhyme or reason. The fight choreography was obviously done by someone who has never been in an actual fight. And the acting, if you can call it that, is only surpassed in its hideousness by the direction, which reminds me of something from one of those 60's biker exploitation movies. Hannah and Furlong should quit while they are behind. I mean, I still had somewhat fond memories of previous films they played in, like Splash and Detroit Rock City, but those memories are forever tainted by the 90 minutes of stupidity that was Awaken. Pare and Davi have always been second rate actors and this movie confirmed that they have now joined the ranks of 3rd rate actors like Natalie Burn, who by the way, should be deported back to Ukraine before she attempts to act again. Vinnie Jones was the only reason I watched it as long as I did, but even he couldn't save Awaken from being the worst film of the new century.

Five minutes into the movie, there's a random girl who falls three feet into the ground and breaks her neck. Then Vinnie Jones calls out how silly it is while the girl is literally looking like she's been run over by a truck. At this point you know Awaken doesn't play by any boundary of normal logic, nearly everything about it is either badly written or simply so bizarre, it becomes a legit comedy.Story follows a group of people stranded on an island like they are in poorly made survival reality show. Eventually they realize that there is an organization that harvests their organs. Now this premise already presents a dilemma in first act. These are supposedly rare individuals, and yet they are tossed into a random island rather than a simple jail.The mafia gets mad if these people are hurt or try to escape, even though those are the most possible outcomes. There's even a debate to select victim by their chi, since positive outlook on life fundamentally affects the organ. In one occasion a guy engages in gunfight, runs out of bullet, then decides to sprint across the yard and reload in front of the other guy's face.These are just few of the oddities. If that doesn't deter you, the acting will. Main female lead is looking like she's auditioning for America Next Top Model. She almost exclusively wears one icy expression. It's unsure if she's mad or sad, but damn does she look sternly stoic and ready for camera.None of the acting or writing is remotely believable. Other characters just seem shoehorned for the most awkward effect. The editing is choppy and creates unintentionally funny scenes, not that the pace is structured in the first place anyway.I could have listed the plot holes, and the space for reviews wouldn't be enough. If anything, Awaken is so silly, it may just work as an ironic comedy.