Deadly Sanctuary

This movie is nothing like "Gone Girl", which the cover promised. I've seen the main girl, Kendel, in other movies. She's always great even though I barley recognized her with red hair.I liked the character though. I've watched Rebecca Kocahn in real thrillers...this isn't one of them,sadly. However the dialouge was terrible and this movie was hard to follow...maybe if I had read the book it would make more sense. Some our the character exchanges were even laughable. Oh well. Entertaining enough. I'll probably watch the next one. My husband has a thing for red heads.LOL. I just feel like they used false advertising to get me to buy it. GUess they got me.

Having not read the Kendall O' Dell series prior to seeing the film I was not sure what I was in store for and I was not let down; the story was fantastic. I would have loved to see a slight more focus on the mystery because those scenes were quite captivating, however it was not a drawback for me. The film had some well known names who did not disappoint including a stellar performance by Eric Roberts, and fairly new names such as Marco Dapper, who I am looking forward to seeing more from after seeing this film. The score fell a little flat for my liking but did feature fantastic songs here and there. I loved the scenery, and thought the art direction was great throughout. Overall my only complaint was that I felt as though Kendall's character deserved a better performance. I would love to see another Kendall O' Dell movie be made.

I can't believe somebody spent money making this movie. The plot itself is good, and there are few good actors, but also some really bad ones. The lead actress is absolutely awful. The music, sound and the film editing is terrible. I've tried watching the whole movie, but it unbearable. I have no words to express how bad this movie is.

Really disappointing.

The lead actress cannot act, which puts her a level above everyone else, the director thinks rural Arizonans speak with southern drawls, no one memorized their lines, everything is one take, and the interior sets are all the same. Tack on a plot that makes no sense, makeup by the Addams Family, costumes from a pop up Halloween store, a small town newspaper with a huge staff, and constant embarrassing references to the beauty of the lead actress and you have a laugh a minute.

Reading the reviews you are good to be confused. First, this is no way this movie is a 10. Interesting that the 10-star reviews are all from people that only wrote 1 review (this movie) or rate EVERYTHING a 10, and even then only gave this movie a writeup. That said, there is enough here that it neither rates a 1, by people that have way too many 1-star reviews, unless you have real bad luck picking movies.

OK, reality check. The cinematography and sets are pretty good, so at least the people behind the cameras know their stuff. The actors are hit and miss. Some really know their stuff, other much less so. And finally, my hot button, the script. Yeah, it could use some work, or a lot of work. Each time someone opened their mouth you weren't sure if you were going to get something moving the plot along, or something cringe worthy.

I have to give kudos where due, but be warned that the script prevents this from getting even a 3 star in my book.