Driftwood

After the death of his older rocker brother Dean of overdose, the rebel sixteen year-old David Forrester (Raviv Ullman) becomes bitter and obsessed with death, while grieving his brother. His parents decide to send him to Driftwood, a camp leaded by Captain Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) that promises to transform dysfunctional boys in men. David is lodged in the Level 1 and discovers that Captain uses brutality to control and modify the attitudes of the teenagers; further, that he uses the camp with the intention to make money in real state business. When David is haunted by the spirit of the Captain's nephew Jonathan (Connor Ross), who died in the swamp nearby Driftwood, he discovers a dark secret about his mates in Level 1 and the brutal Captain Kennedy.

"Driftwood" has a promising beginning, and the reformatory seems to be a teen version of "Prison Break" with corruption, sadism and brutality. However the plot is so absurd and ridiculous that, associated to the terrible acting, makes this movie completely worthless. Some reviews that give high ratings seem to be fake comments and published only to promote this weak movie and lure the readers. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Driftwood, o Reformatório" ("Driftwood, The Reformatory")

The movie clearly hits home with some people, but for me I'm afraid it missed the mark.

From the outset the acting appeared somewhat B-movie-like. Some characters overacted, the script felt unnatural and some of the lines spouted were just clichés from a phrase book.

The lead guy was OK - his acting was clearly what the producers spent their money on. By no means an Oscar-winning performance, he did grab the spotlight but only really thanks to the quite terrible acting around him.

The story is OK - that's all though, "ok". Not great, not inspiring. Nothing new. I only just made it to the end but constantly wished it could have been forwarded.

Seeing as most people here seemed to enjoy it, I can hardly tell you to stay away but it is in no way shape or form a great movie.

I really don't understand why people bashed this movie. Perhaps it wasn't a huge budget and not a huge amount of special effects. I think over all it was actually a decent movie. Sure it didn't have huge actors that were great but I feel the acting was very good for what they had. Now maybe it could have been better made. Some have criticized it for being unoriginal or formulaic but what is really? Most movies in general are based off another concept that has been done many times before.

Not every movie has to be a blockbuster for it to be a good movie in my opinion. Some moments were a little dull and were unbelievable but it wasn't completely unrealistic or unreasonable to just stretch your imagination some. After all its just a movie.

Not having known Tim's work beforehand, I was stunningly impressed with "Driftwood". Since I like both "Beth" and "Shout It Out Loud", I'm really looking forward to checking out his other work.

"Driftwood" resonated strongly with its message on peoples' reactions to "Columbine" --and it's a fantastic movie. I think that there really has not been a strong response from our communities on what the post-Columbine panic meant for people who were growing up without "mainstream" interests.

I am greatly interested in other works by Tim Sullivan after watching this film.

When I watched "Driftwood" on the chiller channel... I promise you it... actually shocked from the very beginning... 'til the end! It was full of chills and thrills... I trust guys...I know what talking about... it actually scared at times here and there, everywhere... Call me weird(or not) horror films to my best interest...knowledge "DON'T SCARE ME AT ALL!" Anyway, for my own opinion , I thought this movie was pretty good (decent) with all those visual and special effects the crew put up were without a doubt awesome... even though, most of you wouldn't agree more or at all! It runs smooth, pretty fast, at times edgy,like any horror/ horror/thriller does. It also struck or actually shocked me (and/or again not) was towards middle to the end of the film (Driftwood) when David Forrester(Ricky Ullman)learns and find real truth was behind unexplained and "maybe, just maybe incidental" murder and a ghost of Jonathan, that kept haunting David in nightmarish forms of visions and preliminary dreams throughout middle to almost the end of Driftwood and the kid whom Captain Kennedy( Diamond Dallas Page) killed just for pleasure...? Or actually probably for a reason? Evidently and without a doubt or question not. He did it 'cause he wanted to get rid of him...SOMEHOW (AND...HE DID)...and then again he paid for what he's done by seeing the ghost Jonathan in David... Give it a try, take a look, you might like it!

Grade B-, B, or B+ the most is A- STARS 10 out of 10