Heimlicher Pakt

The bad guys send a kid to a prestigious boys' school to find the student who is in the witness protection program, for the usual reasons. Of course, this kid doesn't fit in,socially or otherwise. He tries to befriend the studens in an effort to eliminate, by "friendly" questioning, the possible students on his list. Don''t want to spoil plot by saying more. The student "infiltrator", taught never to trust anyone, is presented as multi-dimensional, and is affected by the other students. Good suspense, excellent characters,and gives insight into how one's upbringing affects who you are.

The plot hinges upon a college freshman who witnesses his parents being murdered, but since he is wearing swimming goggles at the time, the killers do not get a good look at him, but they know who he is because they were business associates of the parents.

He enters the Witness Protection Program and is concealing his identity by registering with a fake identity at a university in Montreal. His pursuers, one of whom is a classmate, know what college he is attending because they have somehow penetrated the FBI Witness Protection Program, but do not know his fake name or have a picture of his face to put with either the real name or the fake one, so the classmate uses process of elimination to find the son.

But knowing his real name, why not just look through his high school yearbook, where he is on the swim team, to find his picture? Or do a DMV check, which should be no problem for crooks sophisticated enough to penetrate the FBI? And why would he be in Witness Protection before the trial - wouldn't he have to blow his cover to testify? And Polaroid cameras, and student records kept in manila folders in file cabinets instead of computers, in the year 2001?

It would be far more interesting than the film itself was to hear the writers explain how they thought anyone with an IQ higher than 10 could possibly overlook such gigantic holes in the plot. My hunch is that the writers themselves were possessed of no higher acumen than their target audience and were thus incapable of recognizing said holes.

It's tough being a kid sometimes. Especially when you watch a hit-man murder both your parents in front of you in cold blood. So you're put on the Witness Protection Program. You find a friend, and it seems like maybe this world ain't so bad after all. Then it turns out that your new buddy works for your parents' killer. It all adds up to a tragic life for one kid, meaning we get to sit and watch a passable thriller for two hours.

Teenager witnesses both of his parents murdered. He is placed into the witness protection program and given a new life. Things seem to be getting better, but one of his best friends harbors a dark secret. Undistinguishable and unmemorable thriller, but an appealing cast carries it as well as some nice life lessons and values. More entertaining then it ought to be.

Rated R; Violence.

Greg Sherman (Adam Frost) witnesses his parents' murders by gunmen. His corrupt father was cooperating against crime boss Dominic Patton (Nick Mancuso). Jerome Carver (John Heard) puts him into witness protection as Steven Spencer attending a private boys' school in Montreal. Patton tracks down his location. With limited photograph of Greg, the hired gunmen have to narrow down the target. Greg befriends fellow newbie Lenny Dalton (Rider Strong).

Everything screams cheaper Canadian movie. The adults get side scenes. Rider Strong coming off of Boy Meets World is probably the only one of the kids who shows any spark. The perfunctory lead Adam Frost is a bit of a stiff although his character doesn't help. It boils down to Rider Strong and an intriguing twist. It's also intriguing to turn the traditional point of view inside out although this would probably work better to stay with traditional lead character Greg. Just switch the actors playing them. The other way to do this is to keep Greg a mystery. That way, the audience is figuring it out along with Lenny. Either way would be better.