Stranded

I wanted to see this, because I wondered if Scott Eastwood was half as good as he's dad.Sadly No.OR at least not yet. The movie centers around a white-trash pot smoking surfing family,and some pothead surfers.

The two guys the movie is suppose to center around comes off as uninteresting,one dimensional and boring. They act like two immature douche bags who never grew up. (They remind me of the kids from high school, who you just knew would never really grow out of the whole life's a party phase.)

You can't really be bothered caring about them,cause there's no everyday life,there's nothing there to identify with. They surf and smoke pot,that's it! That's all they do

What was suppose to be the main plot, seem to be that this really great surfer kid,is getting killed because he mess around with an ex girlfriend,who now is dating a gang banger.

So he's older brother get into a fight for him with said gang- banger,so he's little brother can hook up with he's ex again. Than he go ahead dumps her a few days later on a party,he's mother even helps him. By this part of the movie I'd all ready stopped caring about any of them.

Jeff Fahey is suppose to be some guru, I think.You never see him surf though,only carrying a surf board The problem is there's no forward momentum in the story.You feel its just some random stuff put together.

John (Scott Eastwood) is from a poor surfer family. His parents, Shelia (Rita Wilson) and Trick (Jeff Fahey), run a struggling surfing shop. His brother Ben (Chris Brochu) catches his girlfriend Donna (Kim Matula) with Miguel. Later, John finds Ben shot dead in the head on the beach. At a later time, John is a Marine in a foreign desert held prisoner by an Arab woman. The flashbacks reveal a tale of revenge, deceit, betrayal, guilt, and dread.

The story is a grinding muddle. Scott Eastwood may be more photogenic than his father but lacks his inner intensity. He doesn't have the charisma to take over a movie. It could still work as a harden family crime drama but the future story takes away whatever tension is left. Once the reveal is done, the movie struggles for another half hour. Then there is a final twist which only leaves the story feeling silly.

Let's see, a bunch of unlikable characters doing unlikable things. Throw in an absurd story line, and you have a loser of a film.

There wasn't a single character I cared about or had any sympathy for, including the "hero" of the story.

Even as a "B" movie, this was bad. With so many other movies out there, please, don't waste your time on this one. Why it got made is a mystery. Why it failed so badly at the box office isn't. It got limited release in theaters, and was on disk 5 weeks later. That should tell you something. As does the 0% critic score and 9% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Need I say more?

I have long been a fan of Jeff Fahey so initially sat down to watch it just because Mr Fahey was in it., The story and the characters did hook me though and I am very pleased I watched it. Without giving too much of the plot away, the characters are mostly flawed but also mostly likable as they do what they feel they have to in order to keep their families together......and I can mostly sympathise with them all to a certain extent. Particularly loved the ending too.

The bio is all wrong though. Yes John is held at gunpoint and he tells his story in a series of flashbacks......but it is not set in a distant desert......it's set in California and the sand they are trudging through is a beach near Malibu in California, not a "distant desert" at all.

It started out weak but wound up being really good!