Watch Wake Up For Free

Good movie but grossly overrated

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Spirituality isn't a topic for debate using facts or statistics. It's based on a key factor that cannot be proved: faith. The very definition of the word faith when used in spirituality means to have trust and belief in something you cannot prove. For me, either you have it or you don't. When you have it, there is nothing anyone can say or do to dissuade you from your beliefs and many who do not have it spend a lot of time trying to make those with faith feel stupid or uninformed.Jonas Elrod moves me in this film because of his honest and brave approach of placing his fears in the open and rolling up his sleeves and getting to the bottom of what is happening to him in his new existence. It's an candid journey over three years following a man desperately trying to figure out why he can all of the sudden access spirits and energy's and what his role is in the world with this new sensitivity. I will say, this documentary is very non-threatening. Many films on this topic, at some point, stray from the underlined purpose and try to drive home an agenda or ideology. Frankly, this was just an honest movie about a scared and insecure man just trying to save his relationship with the woman he loves while trying to figure out why the hell all of the sudden he can experience and see things he'd only read about or seen in movies. My take away form this film is something that hit and stuck with me towards the end. Jonas was at with a Native American family going on a vision quest. There was a baby with the father and the baby was so energetic and full of life- soaking in all that was around him and the father was so quiet and patient. I loved the dynamic because the father knew the baby was experiencing and learning all the new things around him, things the baby has never seen. It reminded me of Jonas and his quest for knowledge. For me- what's the difference between a baby being introduced to a new world full of things he's never seen, smelled, felt, tasted, or heard before and the world for Jonas now, which is full of new senses for him to learn and experience. Who are we to judge someone's journey when we don't have the experiences to relate or compare to his? I also learned that in all the Native American languages, there is no term or word for "goodbye", only "til next time". How lovely. So, with that said, til your next film, Jonas Elrod.

Personally, I am very skeptical of these types of claims and there were a few things that stood out. First off, he claims he can see angels, demons, spirits, etc., and he does give a vague explanation of what he sees, but he doesn't get into enough detail. For example, he does not explain how he can tell the difference between an angel and a demon. Also, are any of these spirits comforting or do they all creep him out? I really would have liked more detail and focus on what he actually experiences but I felt like a lot of it was glossed over because of his discomfort on the subject matter (to which I ask, why bother making a documentary?). During the scene in the psychiatrists office, he claims there is a woman behind the psychiatrist but is unwilling or unable to describe what she looks like. If he can see her, why not try and describe her? If he can not describe her, how does he know it's a woman? So, as a viewer, we are supposed to just believe that a woman is standing there without any elaboration whatsoever. He doesn't even attempt to find a possible connection between the woman and the psychiatrist.After finishing the movie, I have no better understanding of what he experiences and why than the very brief description at the beginning of the movie. I don't see how he (or the viewers) got any answers from what he did/the people he visited. The movie felt like it had more of a focus on religion and/or spirituality than his "gift" and I don't understand why he is uncomfortable using sage in his house yet he fits right in with Buddhist monks and was elated about his vision quest in the woods.All in all, I do not feel this is worth watching. I am interested in watching a documentary about someone who has a "gift" like this however I am not interested in watching some random guy find his religion.

It was interesting reading one of the other reviews on here that hits on how fraudulent Elrod seems in the first half of this documentary. I felt exactly the same way - that Elrod is a guy who either lives in a fantasy prone world or is outright hoaxing to make a quick buck. In fact I felt this way so much that after the first 30 minutes or so I kind of quit watching and started surfing the net on my computer instead while the documentary kept playing to itself in the background.I'm glad I didn't turn it off.Around the hour mark the documentary takes a turn, with Elrod heading out on a sort of spiritual quest, and gradually it caught my attention again. All talk of what he purportedly experiences goes away and instead he's just shown exploring a variety of spiritual groups from a new age mind control retreat, to a Buddhist center and finally a Native American vision quest in the forest.Ultimately the film becomes a message that all spiritual pursuits are probably just stumbling attempts pointing towards a single truth of the human condition. Elrod doesn't purport to comprehend this truth (he just calls it God) but he seems joyful enough to have come to the realization that it can't help but make the viewer feel a little uplifted with him.I should note that I'm agnostic bordering on atheism and I take vehement offense at any film that tries to preach to me. "Wake Up" did not, so even though the Christian concept of God is discussed through the first half of the film as Elrod's primary belief system, this is not a documentary that proselytizes in any way... so all you atheists out there are safe. So if you watch the documentary to the end, the question of whether Elrod is hoaxing or not kind of becomes moot. It becomes apparent that this is a film about human nature, inclusion and interconnectedness instead. It's about a journey away from organized religion and towards personal spirituality. Elrod may be a fictional protagonist heading towards this conclusion or he may legitimately believe in his experiences but it doesn't really matter because it still makes for a fairly engaging quest.

I agree with timmyhollywood's review on this documentary. It was boring and very poorly thrown together. I expected to see more concrete examples of his connections with spirits, like in the movie sixth sense. The only interesting part of the movie was the interview with Roger Nelson on his Global Consciousness Project, which has been collecting data from randomly generated numbers for 12 years. They claim that there is a connection between randomly generated numbers and world events, it is an interesting theory. However, I am skeptical.I'm disappointed that Netflix has a 3 star rating on this film. Skip this film and watch Tom Shadyac's 'I Am' documentary, which is also available on Netflix and much more inspiring.