Don't Look Behind You

Although "the book is always better" this movie was an excellent addition to my class's experience of the novel study. After reading the novel, the movie allowed them to put faces with the characters and feel the drama visually unfold. The movie sticks closely enough to the book's plot that the kids aren't confused and disappointed, but there are also enough differences that they are intrigued. Plus, the twist at the end keeps their interest peaked! They beg me not to turn it off when class is over. They remember the book fondly after seeing the movie. In today's visually stimulated world having novels played out on screen really helps us continue to push literature. I know it sounds crazy, but it works. On that same note, some kids can not fully connect with what they've read, so being able to "really get" what happened in a novel is an awesome thing when they can watch it and catch on. Not enough movies stick to the plot enough to work in the classroom, but this one certainly does.

Although after 40 minutes the movie goes to a common plot, the beginning of the movie is breathtaking with ups and downs all the time, with a lot of tension all over the almost 2 hours. Patrick Duffy seems to be free from "Boby Ewing" character and is good for other dense performances. Although it is a thriller with murders and tension, you don't have unecessary violence in it.

This movie is worthy of MSTK3 (RIP). The only people you can possibly root for are the bad guys who are just trying to help Darwinism along. The main bad guy, played by Dominic Raacke, is good as the villain and so are some of his cohorts. I was in Germany for a vacation and he is a famous actor in a long running TV crime drama called Tatort. In that series he's quite sexy and can act his pants off. That is why I rented the movie, I recognized his name. In this movie the actors just seem to be acting vignettes with no connection to each other. Raacke is almost jolting in that he seems to be one of the few who acts as if this is a movie with a plot. The perpetual whine of the children can be summed up as "We want our privileged lives back - who cares if we are being hunted by vicious killers and innocent others are being killed because of our stupidity". I mean you really hope they bite it by mid-movie. I suggest you use this film for a riff movie and at least have some fun with it.

This movie is pure and utter CRAP. Do not see this if you have read the book of the same name by Lois Duncan. Read the book instead.

The movie is okay for, oh, the first ten minutes or so. And then, you realize the kids are brats, the mother is a brat grown up, and the dad is the only one who has the safety of his family in mind and has a brain bigger than a bird's. And then hell breaks lose.

I couldn't even watch this movie all the way through on TV. I turned it off because it made me wince. I definitely recommend picking up the book by Lois Duncan if you can.

Avoid this movie if you have better things to do. The acting was uncoordinated, mechanized and almost comic like (expression of fear, expression of anger, expression of happiness from the book etc...), the dialog was banal and everything else was clothed in this conflict of self-preservation and freedom: the wife knowingly risks her family's life, just to get some house diagrams uploaded, the teenage daughter terrorizes and endangers the family because her hormones are boiling, the father seems to be living somewhere up in the stars. In fact only the son shows some kind of normal behaviour. In fact the whole film reminded me vaguely of "American Beauty", but just trying pathetically to be an exciting thriller.