mcgregorandrew

I really enjoyed the nuanced characters - especially the bad folks who have sympathetic elements rather than just being 1 dimensional characters. The ending is quite moving too.

The lead actress, Sarah Allen, is strong and believable and the younger actresses are also believable.

The story has decent twists and there are real moral dilemmas which occur.

Sure, the sets and special effects are limited, but it is a lot more interesting than the last 50 Bruce Willis movies (except maybe Looper).

I also enjoyed the suburban Ottawa locations! Sadly there are no ice roads in the movie, but it is very snowy.

I wasn't expecting much but I found this movie well written with none of the clunky lines that make me wince. There is genuine suspense and some interesting inter-cultural parallels.

The CGI and monster logic are not great but the characters are well done. It's not Aliens or Terminator 2 but I'd say it's more memorable than most.

I thought the Afgan characters were interesting with thought provoking stuff about what it's like to be in the middle of a civil war. The tension around the "are they on our side or not" was very effective.

The US army characters were a bit stereotypical but well written and acted.

I really liked the ending but others might find it a bit grim. Thought provoking to me.

I saw the film with my kids (7 and 8) I was really moved. The movie is as much about the fans as it is about Justin Bieber and that was my favourite part. You can see how much he his part of so many people's (well girls' mostly) lives.

There are nice insights into the great pressures of being the centre of an entire organization at the age of 16 and how so many things have to be in place and working for this phenomenon to be pulled off. It's easy to see how a young pop star can end up off the rails so quickly.

P.S. Ignore the rating (1.3/10). It's obviously being gamed by some haters. I saw an NSync concert film some year back and it was stomach turningly horrible. This was very good.