Awake

Having once spent 42 consequetive hours awake, I understand far better than most all reviewers what the premise of the movie leds to. It's not easy to go without sleep, and the things it does to your brain --- the tricks your mind plays on you --- is not quatifiably demonstrable. That said, the movie actually does a far better job of presenting the facts as they would be.

If you had only 4 days to live --- and knew that everyone else was going to die with you --- what information becomes most important to leave forward to your children who might survive?

You can summarize the entire movie in that question. Most of the other reviewers seemingly die on the question "where's the science?" forgetting that this is not a science movie --- it is a science FICTION movie, grappling with odd concepts and grabbing at possiblities that we're often not prepared to consider. So if you were to pass on IMPORTANT knowledge to your children..... what would you give them, in only 3 days time?

Would you tell them to burn all the books?

Books have a way of codifying information that might not always be factual. This point is made clearly in the escaped prisoner's rant.

Would you teach them the dewey decimal system to make finding information easier?

You're assuming that libraries will survive.

What information would you pass along in only 2 days?

Would you teach them how to drive a car? Would that really be important? How are they ever going to keep an internal combustion engine working? So many moving parts, only one of which needs to break.....

If only 1 day remains, what's important?

You can tell your children "I love you" all you want --- but that's not going to help them hunt for food... stay safe in a blizzard.... how to swim....

Most every reviewer myopically focuses in on the action.... or the plotline..... forgetting the actual premise. In actuality, that's where death comes in --- by becoming so myopically focused on particulars that you lose / lost sight of what's really going on. What's really important.

One hour remains..... what do you teach your children? How to open a can with a can opener? How to fire a rifle? What medicine to take for when you've got a fever? How to use a menstrual pad?

I found this movie to be fascinating as well as terrifying. I found this movie to be just as good as "Children of Men" --- another movie talking about the end of all life as we know it. And the questions it raises.... were well worth considering.

A really interesting main and central idea ... what would happen if for some reason we couldn't sleep anymore? And would there be some people who were immune to that? Also would that be mother nature getting rid of us? So many questions, almost none will be answered to most viewers satisfaction I reckon.

The movie is anything but perfect and filled with cliches. Predictable and sort of weird in not a good sense at places. Convenient road interactions aside and the ever reliable bad military trope ... there is fun to be had, if you suspend your disbelief and make it work yourself.

Some people compare Awake with Bird Box (S. Bullock) but whereas I was highly entertained and thrilled by the latter one (my rate: 7), I watched Awake rather drowned in an ocean of indifference. Awake simply lacks of thrill and action and the story told unfolds very slowly and there are just too many scenes and dialogues that are all cliche in. In this sense Awake reminds me a lot of Greenland (2020, Gerard Butler), which also tells us a story that works more or less on auto-pilot: scenes after scenes we watched million times before. In short: the script is (like in so many movies these days) the weakest link (the ending is not only a cheap twist but a joke too), and whereas movies like Bird Box or The Road are top contributions to the genre of post-apocalyptic movies, Awake sails close on the edge of boredom.

Last note: the writer and director should have done some experiments with sleep deprivation: I managed 10 days (back then in my younger years) without the necessity of a visit of a mental institute and/or the notion to run havoc or beat up my fellow humans ;)

Movie couldn't hold my interest much but I finished it hoping for a good climax, but it ended in disappointment.

Sure, "Awake" was watchable, but the movie was just one of those movie that you watch once, because it is adequately entertaining, but then you forget about the movie and never return to it again.

And that is because there were just way too many things in the movie that made so little sense. I especially found it ludicrous that society would break out in anarchy after such a short time. Sure, I get that staying awake for prolonged periods of time starts to affect the brain, but come on, for people to start looting, killing each other and such, nah, that was just a bit too far fetched.

The storyline in "Awake" definitely had some interesting enough aspects. But ultimately, then writers Joseph Raso, Mark Raso and Gregory Poirier just managed to come up with a mediocre storyline.

I will say that the acting performances put on in "Awake" were fair, and while I am not overly familiar with actress Gina Rodriguez, she actually carried the movie quite well with her performance.

I had expected a bit more from director Mark Raso with this 2021 movie. Sure, it made for an adequate enough watch, but it just wasn't a wow-moment.

My rating of "Awake" lands on a bland five out of ten stars.