Painkillers

I tried to make this review "spoiler-free" as I felt this was worth watching. Good start, I agree with the other reviewers it felt a lot like a New Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode. Some interesting twists, some I saw coming but a few caught me off guard. I like the casting choices for such a small cast, they worked well together. Military action scenes in Afghanistan, seemed contrived at best. There were so many inconsistencies when it came to props and the behavior of actual soldiers. (The actual blank plugs in the assault rifles that were painted black were funny) I do not believe this movie was ever intended as an action movie. I believe the focus was meant as a psychological thriller with sci-fi and military-industrial conspiracy elements. Some of the action scenes felt like they were added to attract certain audience types. The movie did slow down at parts but it seemed to be for tension, atmosphere building and building background for sequels or a series. Way too many unanswered questions, some conveniently answered in the voice-over at the end. Deus Ex Machina . . . I have to agree with another reviewer as this felt like it was meant to be a 2 episode series premiere for syfy channel or its like. The movie was 1 hour and 45 minutes which is 30 minutes longer than most movies. There was a natural first episode ending about 42 minutes which reinforces the idea that this was a series premiere. It feels like there was added footage to make it a standalone movie and wrap it up with a nice bow Not great, but had it become a series I would have probably watched at least the first season off my DVR eventually. I liked it, not great but I did like it.

Having read some of the more positive reviews for this movie, I decided to give it a try. I can usually quite enjoy bad B movies, as long as they're entertaining. Unfortunately, this wasn't entertaining at all. Basically everything about the movie was bad. The problem though, is that it wasn't bad enough to actually be amusing, like The Room. On the other hand, it wasn't nearly entertaining enough to be enjoyable on its own for what it is. It's in the uncanny valley of average horribleness - basically, plain bland and boring. My advice: watch the first 5 minutes of the movie; if you're not entertained, then you won't be with the other ~90 minutes, so you'd probably be better off skipping this one. The only reason I'm not giving it 1/10 is because that imply it would be memorable for its awfulness, but sadly this movie isn't even that.

My quick rating - 4,6/10. Contrived, poorly acted low budget sci fi action. I'll let this summarize it so I can move on: Led by Major John Cafferty, a squad of US soldiers are sent on a mission,deep into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan with orders to extract a mysterious top secret package. Now they are back home in a military hospital because they have no memory of what happened to them, or even who they are. In time, they start to recall the strange events that occurred: apparitions that appeared, luring some of them to their deaths and readings of a powerful electromagnetic energy from a strange unearthly power source. But there is no time to dwell on the past, they need to face the bitter truth about how they ended up in Afghanistan to begin with and the betrayals that wiped out their minds and nearly destroyed their lives.

The plot: after a botched mission, a group a marines wake up in a hospital without knowing how they got there.

Maybe it's because I've seen too many of these B movies, but I guessed about half of the plot twists in the first ten minutes. In low-budget B movies, there are only so many reasons that a group of commandos wake up in a hospital with no memory. On the positive side, there were some decent twists that I didn't see. If you're looking for a great plot, though, I'd say that you should skip this movie. It's fairly low budget, and it looks like it was mostly shot in a warehouse.

The acting was occasionally pretty bad. There's one scene early on where the squad is pinned down by enemy fire. One of the soldiers abruptly dies, and the others pretty much just shrug their shoulders and move on. I probably had a stronger reaction to his death than they did, and I really didn't care all that much. At other times, they overacted like hell. Colm Feore didn't have a huge role, but his scenes were pretty good.

It's a bit too long, and there some slow spots, but I didn't find it as boring as some other reviewers. I'm not entirely sure who I'd recommend this film to, but if you're into conspiracy-tinged thrillers, this might be up your alley. Someone said to watch it for ten minutes, then decide if you like it enough to continue. I agree with that.

Could have been good if the screenwriters had finished any of the plotlines or character development. Agree with another reviewer, feels like a low budget pilot to what could have been a good series, but crippled by the format and budget. Writing would need to be a lot tighter to wrap story in a film time frame. Good starting point if anyone wants to write and fund a good version.