Driftwood

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.

I was a little apprehensive when I first saw the preview for this movie but it turned out to worth watching. David Forrester (Ricky Ullman) becomes obsessed with death after the over dose death of his rock star brother. His parents decide he needs to be a Driftwood a facility that is supposed to keep him out of Jail and straighten him out. In Driftwood He meets the usual cast of Characters The gangsta, the Ladies man, etc. He also meets Johnathan, a ghost who has a secret that could save them all.

The acting is a questionable at times but is due to many characters being one-dimensional stock characters. We learn during the movie David does not have a good relationship with his parent, and has unresolved guilt over his brothers death. We also learn Noah (Jeremy Lelliot) is here for being gay something the camp is supposed to cure you of. We also learn Noah and Jonathan were friends and he also wants his murder solved. It has a complete ending unlike some horror movies.

I wish they had spent more time on the dynamics of the relationships, and fewer 2 one-dimensional character otherwise it is worth watching. I think Ricky Ullman's acting is good, though his innocent look makes it difficult to see him as the brooding troubled teen (Remember this is Phil of the future from Disney). Diamond Dallas Paige gives a good performance as the greedy, sadistic warden of the facility, and Jeremy Lelliot is a bit underutilized as Noah.

Israeli-born actor Raviv Ullman ('Phil of the Future') here plays David Forrester, a morose kid who's been obsessed with death since his older brother, a rock musician, O.D.'d. His concerned parents (Lin Shaye, the "Insidious" series, and Marc McClure, Jimmy Olsen in the Christopher Reeve "Superman" films) send him to the title institution, which looks after troubled youths. However, when he gets there, authority figures such as the swaggering Captain Kennedy (wrestling icon Diamond Dallas Page, "The Devil's Rejects") order him to toe the line...OR ELSE. It turns out, they're VERY rough on their charges. Soon, David develops interest in the story of Jonathan (Connor Ross, "Headgame"), an inmate who'd supposedly perished in an escape attempt.

Granted, all of this is quite familiar stuff. And co-writer / director Tim Sullivan ("2001 Maniacs") doesn't have very many surprises in store for his viewers. "Driftwood" is occasionally atmospheric, but not very creepy *or* scary, as the story starts leaning on supernatural-horror elements. Some of the gore and makeup are good, but the visual effects are unimaginative. The characters - the inmates, anyway - are uninspired types.

All of that said, this was reasonably well made, and paced adequately, wrapping up in just an hour and a half. B flicks like this can't really be measured against mega budget Hollywood product, anyway, and this one proved to be watchable enough. It benefits from Ullman's decent lead performance, some sexy ladies (Baelyn Neff ("Kissing Strangers"), Kim Morgan Greene (a veteran of episodic TV)), and villains who offer the audience great thick slices of ham. Page in particular is an effective heavy. It's nice to see Shaye and McClure, as always. Familiar faces among the supporting cast include David Eigenberg ('Sex and the City') as the henchman Norris, and Cory Hardrict ("Warm Bodies") as Darryl.

At least this little picture shows that Sullivan can handle serious genre fare as well as he can a campier effort like "2001 Maniacs".

Six out of 10.

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.

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.