A Perfect Vacation

Granted "A Perfect Vacation" (aka "Awaken") had scored relatively low here on IMDb and given the ensemble of cast that starred in this movie, I just wasn't sure whether or not I would sit down to watch it. I ended up doing so, solely because it had Daryl Hannah listed on the cast list.

The movie starts out well enough, although the storyline didn't really make all that much sense in terms of being realistic or particularly entertaining. The storyline in "A Perfect Vacation" was weak and vague, and most often seemed like a muddy mess of random ideas thrown out there and put into a not particularly coherent order.

The setting of the movie was quite good, with the jungle and the Island. So there were some nice enough visuals throughout the movie, although this was hardly enough to make up for the many shortcomings of the movie.

There are some familiar names on the cast list, including Edward Furlong, Vinnie Jones, Christa Campbell and Jason London, although these are hardly talents that I am overly impressed with much less fan of these people. Alongside these were Daryl Hannah, Robert Davi and also David Keith, the two selling points for the movie in my opinion.

25 minutes into the movie and I already found my interest in the movie quickly waning and my attention span started to drift elsewhere. But still I decided to stick with the movie and see how it would turn out.

The movie is very predictable, and of course sharks would show up once people were getting off the Island to escape the horrible ordeal that takes place on the Island.

The characters in the movie were adequate, although there was not much of any character development going on. But the characters have enough details and personalities to keep remaining interesting enough to bear witness to as the movie trotted on in a very monotone pace.

"A Perfect Vacation" was just barely entertaining enough for a single viewing, but trust me, it was a hard pressed one. More than once was I tempted to get up and find something else to watch. Should you make it through the entire movie the first time, chances of you returning to it a second time is as likely as snow on the sun.

It is surprising that this was so bad because there were some real actors in it that I actually recognized. But the script was awful and most of the acting was atrocious. The story was an old story that has been told in so many movies it is not even close to interesting. I often wonder how movies this bad get released and what happens to the directors afterwards.

I often wonder what motivates someone to make a movie that is this awful. It can't be money because I can't, in my wildest dreams, envision this straight to video travesty earning enough to even pay the extras salaries let alone the former A-list actors turned C-list losers. Everything about this waste of film is bad. The camera work looks likes it was done by a tweaker with ADHD, he skips from face to face with no rhyme or reason. The fight choreography was obviously done by someone who has never been in an actual fight. And the acting, if you can call it that, is only surpassed in its hideousness by the direction, which reminds me of something from one of those 60's biker exploitation movies. Hannah and Furlong should quit while they are behind. I mean, I still had somewhat fond memories of previous films they played in, like Splash and Detroit Rock City, but those memories are forever tainted by the 90 minutes of stupidity that was Awaken. Pare and Davi have always been second rate actors and this movie confirmed that they have now joined the ranks of 3rd rate actors like Natalie Burn, who by the way, should be deported back to Ukraine before she attempts to act again. Vinnie Jones was the only reason I watched it as long as I did, but even he couldn't save Awaken from being the worst film of the new century.

I can't believe that inattention to common sense detail. Really awful direction. Very poorly crafted fight scenes. Awful tactics. Fingers inside trigger guards. Movements around corners like sleep walkers. Stupid stupid action. Could this movie really make money?

How could people stranded on an island have such good hair? How was it possible that a guy on the island head was perfectly shaved every day for weeks? What is up with those pants on the protagonist ? Are we supposed to believe the pants just got ripped that way? And why was she wearing dog tags? She was never in the military?

HIRE ME!

I would provide the REAL LIFE direction to make this thing believable.

Dear sweet Jesus, please please please, no one ever hire this director or writer again!

What a bad movie. Bad plot, bad script, bad directing, bad acting, bad editing…just bad. Except for Daryl Hannah.

But this movie is one of those movies that is bad, but good. This is one of those movies that can't be taken seriously, yet is interesting enough keep watching. It has all the clichéd moments and plot lines, yet is just far enough away from cliché to be worth watching. There is no nudity, the bathing scene is, in context of other movies of the genre, humorous rather than sexy. There were a couple of moments of Commando, but then Vinnie Jones reappeared on screen and I couldn't take the movie that seriously (and I tend to have a fondness for Vinnie Jones movies for some reason).

Overall, this is one of those movies where details are almost completely unimportant, and evidenced by my texting throughout, and not feeling like I missed anything. Of course, as a fan of the Lost series, I did see a few similarities. And like that show, there were a few major story questions that went unanswered. But they did not take away from the overall entertainment. And as previously mentioned, the entertainment was provided by the just-off-cliché moments and plot twists (though one was clichéd).

This is one of those movies that could be a hidden b-movie extravaganza. It has the cast, and the heroine, Natalie Burn, appears to be on the rise. If you really have nothing better to watch on a Saturday afternoon, this is the movie. But really, wait until Ms. Burn becomes well known to watch it.

(btw - the rating I gave is for execution of apparent intent. Compared to much more serious-intent movies, and this is more of a 3 star.)