Wake Up - Il risveglio

I'm not even 1/2 way in but am distracted by the ever changing facial stitches he has. My god where was editing, makeup, actor, PHOTOS?

The whole "amnesiac finding himself accused of murder and setting off his own personal investigation to prove his innocence" has been done before, but I was willing to sit through it again. However, these filmmakers weren't able to put enough freshness or common sense into this retelling. As other IMDb commenters have stated here, the plot in this retelling has a number of holes. Some things are not properly explained, and other things simply don't make sense if you know how professional police investigators (or even ordinary people) act. But there is a bigger problem with the movie, and that is how slow and dull its story unfolds. There is almost no feeling of struggle or tension in the entire 92 minutes, and as a result the story is so low key that it's hard to give a hoot about the mystery or any of the characters. The problems with the movie may have in part come from the fact that the credits state that two people directed the movie; conflicts in the director's chair may have taken attention away from the fact that the screenplay and its atmosphere needed a lot more care.

It was okay, but it lacked with the acting. The female actress Diana (Francesca Eastwood), and Frank (Malik Yoba), the detective, were both very cheesy actors. The premise itself is good, and does catch you off guard, but it is also like a 1990's thriller movie. It reminds me of the 1993 film Striking Distance. It was almost too similarly portrayed to movies that have already been made and nothing really set it apart other than the main actor having amnesia.

The whole premise of this film revolves around one single question, is he guilty or not. The journey to that destination is hit and miss, some aspects are good, some aren't. The main issue here is the predictability, the narrative is plotted out in such a way that you know what's happening before it even does, there is an inevitability to the story, even the ending.

I feel that people are quick to deem a film such as this with a one or two star simply because they do not like it, there are elements here which are middle of the road, production values are decent, it's nicely made, and the acting is decent, I am a big fan of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, but the Irishman is underused.

Some of the imagery could have been better realised, with some of the flashback scenes looking as though they were made for a school project.

It's semi watchable, approach it with low expectations and you may just enjoy it.

The cop was likeable, and as a fellow caffeine addict I found him pretty entertaining.

It feels like another of those thrillers that could, and should have been fantastic, so often they just lack a little gritty realism, as Awake did. 5/10

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is a really good actor but he has never fulfilled his potential. He was fantastic in the The Tudors and really good in films like Elvis and Bend it Like Beckham but for one reason or another , he has had some serious personal problems and has resorted to making B movies like Awake and I think it's a crying shame .

Rhys Meyers plays a man who wakes up in a hospital bed with no recollection of who he is, and learns that he's wanted by the police for committing a series of murders.

About an hour into this film there is a scene where two cops are talking to each other and one says - "This whole damn thing is starting to spiral out of control . It's a mess." Well I couldn't put it better myself !

The plot to this film is ridiculous. Without giving anything away , it doesn't take a genius to work out who the bad guy is because , as always , it's the one character that gets introduced to the film in the first quarter , for no reason whatsoever other than to give you the heads up and it's so annoying.

This tries to be far too clever for its own good and just ends up being a tangled mess .

It's not terrible. If you are a fan of Rhys Meyer then it's worth watching because he's definitely the best thing about the film and mercifully it's nice and short so the plot won't wind you up for too long and I'm sure within 24 hours I will have completely forgotten about the film , just like the main character.