Last Seen in Idaho

The movie has an intriguing set up: Woman witnesses crime and in a near death escape ends up in coma only to awaken with special powers. Now this movie mainly stays in the realm of realism. The "special powers" are limited to premonitions that pop up unexpectedly and all relate in some form or other to her upcoming murder. How can she stop it?

I feel like this movie wanted to go deeper with some of the themes that it presented: Can we change our destiny? Are the mistakes of our past destined to haunt us? It dances around those topics, but with so many characters and plotlines in need of development in order to serve the mystery and the suspense, it never fully explores those themes. I wish it would have. That would have elevated the movie to a solid '8' for me.

Good directing. Good writing. Good acting. It's good across the board with suspense, moments that make you jump, tension, and some good action, but it's missing that something that would turn it into a break-out hit. Middle was a touch slow, maybe? Still, I recommend it. It was entertaining.

Fascinating plot. Woman sees her kidnapping - and then her murder - BEFORE it happens. The directing is a classic style that gives us the moments that we want to see - because seriously I get sick of some of these indies staying in these long wide shots for entire scenes - I don't know if that's budget issues or chosen for art, but I want to see someone's eyes when they're having an important moment and this film lets you. This is obviously and independent film without a huge budget, but it's still a good thriller.

Last Seen in Idaho is a fun thriller chock full of twists and turns. Just when you think you have it all figured out, another surprise is thrown into the mix. The premise of the story is that a woman named Summer witnesses a murder and while she's trying to escape the scene, she's pursued by the killers and wrecks her car. Later at the hospital, she can't recall the murder she saw, but now she's having premonitions about her own future murder. So there's a bit of fantastical element to it. Meanwhile, the killers decide that if Summer's memory shows any signs of returning, they will eliminate her.

An indie production, this film seems to have the ambition of larger films. There are some action and suspense scenes throughout the first two acts of the film, but mostly, it relies on tension and mystery that builds through those acts, leading to a massive final act with bigger action and spectacle.

Hallie Shepherd is a believable and relatable as Summer, a heroine who is continually facing down the worst possible news - You're going to be kidnapped... wait no, you're going to die.... Wait no.... She's brave and tough and resourceful. Casper Van Dien is creepy as all get out, as a killer who has no emotions about his murders, just bland curiosity. Wes Ramsey is complex character who uses his charm and good looks to get close to Summer. He shows range in this film, needing to have both likeability and a rough and dark criminal side. Shawn Christian is colorful and eccentric as a cocky bad guy. Alexis Monnie plays Summer's younger sister, a naïve young woman who doesn't seem to have the same street smarts her older sister does. This solid cast also has a variety of supporting characters that add to the overall mystery of "Who is the Big Bad Crime Lord?"

All in all, a really fun thriller! It kept me engaged the entire time, and I didn't see the end coming.

Ugh. Excessive violence (needlessly), thankfully "Last Seen in Idaho" had a happy ending. The lead actress won the Best Lead Actress Award at Gig Harbor Movie Festival and she certainly deserved it. Two most prominent male criminal characters were very convincing as evil dudes. However, I had to mute the audio several times on intense violent scenes and rely on close captions just to be able to continue watch the movie. I only continued watching because I'm very curious and the actors where so good, thus I still had hope there would be a good-decent ending. Directors can learn a lot from watching classic Alfred Hitchcock movies. All this excessive violence is a huge turnoff (it was doubled due to lead actress's gift of foresight), if there was a better script with more subtle violence vs. Overt violence this movie could have been an 8-9 out of ten. Instead it's a barely watchable 5 of ten. This is one of those cases where the book would be ten x better than the movie even for the genre. What on Earth is Hollywood thinking with this much overt violence? We the people want good quality entertainment. ***This movie is NOT suitable for kids in any way, shape or form.****

I really wasn't sure what to think of this movie going into it. The poster looks like a blow-em-up action movie. I watched the trailer and that conveyed a thriller with a female lead more than an action film with guns a blazing. I was intrigued enough by the premise of a woman having visions of her murder that hasn't happened yet, so I gave it a go. I was pleasantly surprised. The suspense was well done with a few highly tense sequences, namely one of the early scenes when Summer (the heroine) sees a murder, as well as a few later scenes that I won't spoil. The way that early aforementioned scene was directed and shot felt eerie and claustrophobic.

The reason I rank the movie as a 7 and not an 8 or 9 is because there are quite a lot of characters jampacked into this story. This is necessary on one hand because there is a mystery element to the story where you can suspect any character, but at the same time, I wanted to stay focused on the main characters and their relationships to each other, namely those of Summer and Franco (love interest/or maybe the death of her) and that of Summer and Lance (ex-boyfriend). I will say that I was very surprised by the reveal at the end, so in that regard, it succeeded in keeping me engaged and preventing me from figuring things out. A tense, interesting thriller with a great cast.