teslavate Reviews

Whiplash (2014)

the relationship between a sensitive music student who is driven to succeed and his teacher

[9/10 · 27 February 2015]

This movie is a double character study that centers on the relationship between a sensitive, self doubting and introverted music student who is driven to succeed by a family that does not register music as any form of success. And by his teacher, who is driven to find the next world class jazz musician without any care of the cost to his students. "Andrew", the student, a young man who feels he is putting all he has into his drumming already and "Fletcher",the teacher, who demands ever more and believes that suffering is the only way to become a world class jazz musician feels his job is to obtain the impossible from his students. The student is willing to give up everything he has to become worthy in the eyes of this teacher, even dropping his girlfriend so that he can devote more effort to his playing. The teacher on the other hand does not ever believe that anyone is giving enough, to the point of regaling the students under him with public character ridicule and personal insults. And the teacher is willing to do anything to achieve what he feels is THE goal of finding that next world class jazz musician, even to the point of driving one former student to suicide. The current student and target is drummer Andrew, who takes the insults personally and drives himself harder and harder to achieve some kind of favor in the eyes of his teacher, who never gives it. Finally the student cracks under the pressure and has to leave the conservatory.

After being convinced by the other dead student's family and his own father to relate the improper teaching techniques used by the teacher Andrew withdraws from college and begins a mundane life. Then that next summer Andrew sees the teacher playing in a small time venue at a jazz bar and stops to watch him play. The teacher approaches him and tells him that some other student told the conservatory stories about his methods and how he was "released" from his position. Then he tells the student about his philosophy on jazz musicians and pain & suffering and that he was only trying to find the next great one and that was why his methods were so harsh. He told the young man he was only trying to drive his students to push beyond what they thought they could do. As they are going to part the teacher invites him to play with his new band at some competition. The student does a lot of thinking and then agrees to play in the band at this competition. Only when he steps up to the drums and thinks he is going to be happy the teacher steps up and tells the student he knows it was him that informed the conservatory about his methods. Then the student is surprised when the teacher tells the large audience that they will be playing a piece that he has not been given any music for. With no music to play from the student has to "wing it" as the teacher gives him a vindictive look and the student realizes he has been set up to fail in public. The student turns the tables on the teacher after the first piece and after the teacher delivers a gloating message "I guess you don't have it", referring to his talent.

The student "takes over" the band by starting before the teacher can do so and gets the band to play with him rather than look bad. The teacher isn't happy but has no choice but to go along or look foolish to the crowd. Only the student is so good he is the one looking great, not the teacher. During the student's continuing subversion of the band the teacher basically has to go along with it until the student steps up and begins playing in a way that even the teacher finds great. Great enough that the teacher begins going along with it and takes his lead from the student. Then at some point the student realizes the teacher has finally started to see what talent he has and he slowly begins taking cues from the teacher until his elongated solo ends. Then there is a dead silence and you are left waiting to see if the teacher now accepts the talent of the student. The teacher, with only a look passes that communication across and the student smiles, knowing he has finally been found worthy by his teacher/mentor and the teacher then slashes the hand signal to the rest of the band and they deliver a rousing end to the piece. With that the movie ends and we are gifted with more great jazz music as the credits roll. Now I know I have not done the movie the credit it deserves because I only spoke on one level and the movie delivers on several. All I can say is that normally I wouldn't like a movie like this but this movie, THIS MOVIE I think was GREAT. If you enjoy music or if you enjoy the fire, the electric struggle between a rising student and a waning teacher and the convoluted symbiotic relationship between them then you should also like this movie. I watched that ending about 10 times. I really loved this movie because as a young teen I was very fortunate to have had a teacher/mentor similar to this character. I still think of him as a pure bastard at times, but oh what he drove me to achieve!

Note: I had made this much more detailed and inclusive but IMDb made me pare it down to under 1000 words (Word commies)

Not for Human Consumption (2013)

A young man has to decide if being rich is worth the guilt of hurting people and losing his best friend

[7/10 · 18 January 2015]

This is a movie that needed to be made and that is was made on a very low budget ($200,000) makes it even more attractive. It's the story of the so called "Synthetic Marijuana" or "Incense" industry that swept the country in the early 2000s to 2013. The writer created the story very loosely around his experiences working in an incense lab packaging the substance as well as his stint in prison for the shooting of a drug dealer. He took his story and then created several characters around it and created a storyline that holds together well. It also holds the audience pretty well too. Basically the story is about this young man's coming of age and his struggle with the ethical and moral side of dealing in something that may be hurting the customers he sold it to. It also deals with the loss of his longest friend as he struggled with the same addictions with drugs that the writer's character dealt with. Nick Thurston did a great job as the key character who decides losing everything is better than being responsible for others losing their lives. The tear jerker ending gives both a feeling of loss and redemption and tied the whole story together in a believable package. However, don't shed too many tears as even though it is written to make it appear that Jay's friend Adam dies in real life it's actually just part of the story that was made up. In fact the two key players did not own the company at all but were just employed by a lab that packaged "Incense." So don't worry over it too much. Do, however, worry about the "incense" business as the statements at the end of the film in that regard are true.

---- At the end of the credit message about drugs there is a memoriam that reads: In loving memory of Adam Erdman 1985 - 2011. I did a little research and this is from a site about the movie being made in South Florida:

"While in recovery, Louis (The writer of this movie) said he befriended and mentored a man named Adam Erdman, who also worked at the synthetic marijuana operation for a short time, at Louis' invitation. Eventually, Erdman relapsed and, in January 2011, he was killed on the streets of Miami, according to Louis and Erdman's girlfriend, Hayley Snyder." That from a Sun Sentinel article from Nov 27 2013 about the movie production in that area. IMDb wouldn't allow the URL to be shown.

My Dog the Champion (2013)

A Very Good Movie for Young Adolescent Girls

[8/10 · 26 October 2014]

This is what a family movie should be, a family movie aimed at the girls in the family. I watched this movie simply because it was just arriving at our video store and I try to watch all the movies that come in.

--- I was pleasantly surprised by the movie in that I saw one of the actors name being a boy my niece was very much into in her younger years. Apparently he is all grown up and he did a pretty good job acting in the movie. He has lost that goofy kid image he had and is crossing into that honest young man image. That and then seeing Lance Henriksen's name in there also added to attraction of it. The movie is clearly aimed at the young female audience and it does very well there. It's just a plain old good family movie with a good, basic yet strong storyline. No gimmicks, no special tricks or plot twists. Just a good straight up story that you can let your girls watch without worrying about language or sexual content being hidden inside.

--- A some what shallow city girl gets sent back to her family's roots back on a cattle ranch where her electronics won't communicate outward because of the isolated area. There, on the ranch, she connects with her Grandfather, learns about the ranch and learns how to live without texting. She also connects with a hurting dog that lost its companion and soon they become partners around the cattle ranch. Then the girl meets the boy of her dreams (played by Cody Linley) and they begin a chaste, innocent relationship centered around the ailing dog and her Grandfather's ailing ranch and their apparent first real relationship with someone of the opposite sex. The girl and the boy work together to train the dog and slowly start to discover the 2 way attraction for each other. It all eventually leads to their entering the dog into a youth obedience competition in which the first prize will be enough money to help save the family's ailing ranch. And the boy's willingness to give it all over to help his neighbor and his new girlfriend's family ranch only strengthens the bond between the two youths.

--- The girl (played by Dora Madison Burge)does a very good job playing the lead role. She makes an excellent city girl lost in the country, yet versatile enough to adapt to her Grandfather's ranch country life. Soon she is feeding the chickens and doing chores and eventually meeting the boy who instantly magnetizes her. After meeting him, her at first less than enthusiastic meeting with country life takes a big 180 degree turn. As I said before, you won't find any hidden secrets in this movie, no sexual scenes, no bad language, just a straight up girl meets boy movie that parents can trust. The most that will happen is that the two will have their first honest kiss with someone from the other sex and they will spend more time together, working the dogs as a good excuse for doing so. But also with all the best intentions and actions.

---Parents should find nothing to scare them away from this movie that anyone of any age could watch. The movie portrays females in a positive light, even showing her one parent mother going off to serve her tour of duty over seas. There isn't much of a down side here, maybe just a tiny bit of stiffness at points from the kids, but that may just be them trying to show shyness. Other than that I really did not see anything else negative here. The movie story is solid and good, the players are excellent and the filming quality is first rate too. The rest you will have to watch. Just know that this is a very straight up movie for young adolescent girls that can only be described as wholesome and honest. It has a male interest that also has an acting history that appears to also fit that mold.

--- As I always point out I am not a professional reviewer. I just write an honest opinion of what I see. I hope it will help some people in how they see this movie.

The rest you will have to watch. Just know that this is a very straight up movie for young adolescent girls that can only be described as wholesome and honest. It has a male interest that also has an acting history that appears to also fit that mold.

One Hit from Home (2012)

Bad Writing, Bad acting, Bad actors, and preachy

[4/10 · 25 October 2014]

Well lets see, Bad writing, bad acting, bad actors, preachy, stiff unnatural delivery. What more can be said about how bad this movie is. If it was between this movie and church service I would go to church. But I won't have to since I got the sermon already in this movie. Look I don't have anything against religion or religion in movies, but when you do have religion in movies you at least have to give it some camouflage or back it up with some excellent acting and this movie does neither. Very basically this movie is Pro ball player who coulda been somebody, who coulda been a contender but an accident steals it all away with an injury. Ex-pro player climbs into a bottle and does the bar circuit for a while having flash backs of his Dad consoling his boyhood losses by saying "Lets Pray." Soon Pastor Godfather shows up to offer a college coaching job that ex-pro doesn't want. Ex-pro gets busted for fighting in a bar and Pastor Godfather bails him out in collusion with the local judge who commits a felony by making ex-pro take the coaching job or go to jail (Its called collusion and Extortion). Ex-pro plays slacker coach and gets Pastor Godfather fired, feels guilty and shazaam! Ex-pro now cares and turns local team into winners, connects with old girlfriend and of course talks a lot about anything can be done through God. Suddenly ex-pro's old injury starts to disappear, team starts winning, ex-pro develops good attitude. Ex-pro takes bad attitude player under his wing and turns him into a winner with religious song and help from God. Ex-pro leads college team to championships. Big championship game ensues while ex-pro gets another pro offer, conflict, resolution, every wins through religion! If you are that kind of person who prays 20 times a day you will probably like this movie even with all its terrible flaws, but I think most people will find it a mediocre movie at VERY best. There are some EXCELLENT religious movies out there, God's Not Dead is an excellent example, but this movie is not in that category I am sorry to say.

Mystery Road (2013)

Slow developing movie but worth watching. Very realistic scenes

[7/10 · 20 October 2014]

-- I will say right from the out set that if you need a fast pace story running very quickly and smoothly from front to back this is likely not to be a movie you will enjoy. It starts out very slowly and seems to leave an awful lot to the viewer's mind to fill in. -- The movie starts out like it's going to be about racial bigotry, a native detective in a 99% white power structure working as a newly promoted detective returning home from a long absence at training and school. While he has been gone things have changed in the relatively small desert town, cocaine and methamphetamines have moved into the very rural area, as well as the labs that create it and the criminals who will do anything to anyone to protect it and the twisted pass times of the people in that trade. -- Even though it is slow moving it is very realistic in the form of a police investigation. In the USA we are used to directors spoon feeding us everything and running a very chronological story, but in real life investigative police work is often very slow and ponderous. I think maybe that is what this director was trying to express in his movie, but he comes very close to making the movie untenable for the average viewer in the USA. Maybe in Australia they are into this kind of movie. At any rate the movie IS very realistic in how a police investigation slowly progresses toward its goal. -- As you move along you start to realize that the murder in the start of the movie maybe part of it but the story is more about the depraved minds of these criminals and how the drug trade moves in and infects all levels of society and brings in levels of depravity never scene before by most citizens. Not only is there a drug trade going on but also a sick trade in underage kids and a serial killer that likes to use dogs and knives on his young female victims. -- And if you like true realism you will find the big shootout very satisfying. Having worked as a criminal investigator for +20 years and having been involved in a number of shooting I found the shoot out to be very realistic, to the point of running my adrenaline right up as I tried to shout advice. Now some will say the rifle shooting drug cop is unrealistic in that he simply sits in the open and has a long range sniper shoot out with a determined sniper, however you have to understand, and catch the clues in the movie, that this drug cop is either VERY deep under cover or on the take. In any case he is using drugs and that explains why he would sit in the open and duke it out with big bore rifles. -- However, after a very satisfying shoot out with the lowest form of criminals the movie does this weird thing I have seen in a lot of early movie making. It leaves you hanging and thinking, "What the..." because the director assumes that you see the same things he envisions but apparently doesn't bother to ask anyone else about to see if they agree. Or, the director is trying to leave a dramatic twist at the end that doesn't really do that well. -- Also, the ramification and results of this epic gun battle are left to us to try and fathom. All we see is the detective look at the bad guys faces and then he drives away from a scene in which, by my count, approximately 7 bad guys are killed by police gunfire, 1 officer is dead and 1 officer is wounded. And the survivor just drives away. Of course, or at least I hope that the director is just leaving the after effects to our imagination. If not then I really was lost and misunderstood everything. -- If you have watched the movie closely you may catch enough to sort of understand what he's aiming for in the last scene but it is not obvious. I had to watch the movie twice to catch some of the little details that didn't seem pertinent to movie the first time around. Then I finally understood that the detective is going home to his estranged ex-wife and teen daughter. -- So basically the movie starts out with a crime scene and slowly rolls toward the inevitable confrontation between good and bad. The whole movie appears to be pointed towards that goal, the confrontation, the shoot out at the OK corral so to speak. However after the great confrontation, after watching and waiting for this inevitable clash and watching it happen, the director turns the movie about and tries to make a dramatic family ending, but I don't think he laid a sufficient foundation for this to work well. There only a couple scenes about the family aspect and they weren't very detailed. -- It possibly sounds like I am trying to tear this movie apart but I really am not. As a cop who was disabled in such a confrontation as this movie I found it very interesting and I enjoyed trying to better understand it through the social differences. The actors are true professionals and the movie appears to have been made by professionals also. I would recommend it to anyone who likes who dunnits or cop movies. But it's not a family movie and it would be better going into it with open eyes.

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Crosstown (2013)

An Anti-America, Pro-Immigrant Propaganda Movie. Don't waste your time & money

[3/10 · 28 August 2014]

I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie. I was hoping it would be an honest attempt at describing the plight of some of the good immigrant families living here. The honest people who want to work and create a better life for their family. --- Unfortunately what I got was about 80% liberal left propaganda. This movie typifies the lies that are propagated and sent along to people as the truth. Right off in the beginning they have military recruiters going into the high school and pressuring underage Juniors to join the Army. Then they find that underage boy in the restroom and threaten him, saying "we know who you are and we know where you live, who you hang around with, we know everything about you and we can send you right back to El Salvador." Now that is just plain pure B.S. That is the kind of liberal left propaganda that is spread around these days to apparently make the illegal immigrants look like sympathetic victims. --- The problem with that is the movie didn't need to do that to accomplish that goal, most liberals already see them as sympathetic without attacking our military, police and adults. --- Then the father makes the underage kid join the Army and of course he dies in combat. Then of course they blame the military for all their woes. The younger brother joins the gang the dead brother belonged to, even though it's made clear he's a "nice" boy who isn't violent. --- Then the father wants to be closer to his surviving son and they go for a walk, but of course the terrible police stop them for no reason and abuse them for no reason other than walking. The boy runs, with an officer threatening to shoot and the father pushes the 2nd officer who falls against the car, hits his head and dies. --- Now dad is on the run and they have the police going door to door, knocking down the doors without warrants and searching the homes just because they can. They are also demanding everyone produce ID for no reason, stopping every person they see on the street and making them strip off their shirts and photo imaging their tattoos. ALL of this is just plain propaganda. Can you imagine the civil rights lawyers fighting to get in on the lawsuits generated from that activity??? --- And thru all this the boy shaves his head, goes back to the black girlfriend he has been forbidden to see and supposedly has innocent first time sex with her, made to look like young misunderstood Romeo with poor innocent Juliet. To me 2 14yr old kids having unprotected sex is anything but innocent and sweet. It's the reason we end up with barrios, but hey our leaders these days say its just good clean fun for little kids I guess. --- And on top of this, these people who say they want to be here now are saying "I don't want your god damned flag!" when its offered to them at their son's funeral. OH, and I forgot, the kid's girlfriend's father is a cop and hates Angel for no reason at all. The cop father is now pressuring the girlfriend too, to stay away from the kid, Angel. --- I haven't even finished watching the movie and I can see where this is going. And sure enough the girlfriend joins the gang to be with the boy, angel and she has to "pull a train" made up of the whole gang. And Angel doesn't know. Angel's father has to flee south because he killed a cop. Angel's girlfriend has moved out of state without telling him and Angel's mother opens a letter saying her son's service and death in the military is not enough for a green card. Angel is now a gang banger and his mom is now depressed and alone. The movie ends. The movie ENDS! This movie was poorly written, not extremely well acted and basically full of propaganda aimed at hating the American establishment that keeps immigrants from just doing anything they want, anything they apparently feel they are entitled to after listening to our president and the California Governor. --- I am sorry but I had to give that narrative to give an idea of how bad this movie is. Rather than telling the true story of the troubles immigrants face this movie is just a propaganda film about how we should all feel extra sympathetic towards illegal immigrants who flaunt our laws and insult the honest immigrants who obeyed our laws. I give it a sympathy vote of 3

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Need for Speed (2014)

A So-So Race Car Action Flick

[5/10 · 9 August 2014]

. At the very beginning I was really impressed with this movie. I mean what was not to like, HOT cars, hot chicks, bro-friends sticking together, high speed and high octane fumes! All the way up to the point where it takes, what seems the inevitable move in action movies these days, a turn to the unrealistic. In this movie that happened when the Michigan State Police started chasing the Mustang after the side by side chat with the trooper. The bro-friend in the stolen helicopter tells him he has to do a "two lane Grasshopper" to get away from the cops which turns into a jump using an invisible ramp and shows the Mustang about 22ft in the air and crossing 2 lanes of traffic diagonally to land in the side median lawn to drive away seemingly undamaged. First off an unassisted no ramp jump like that would be physically impossible to do and secondly even if there was a secret invisible ramp, when the car landed no one would be driving it away. That car would have been totaled, likely with a frame bent in an upward V. At that point I thought to myself, "There goes all chance of a realistic movie and any chance of great movie." I noted this because I read other people's reviews and opinions and they all noted the movie was great with real cars and totally realistic action and driving! This is something I am seeing in more and more movies and it just plain ruins the movie for me. Cars cannot jump off 2 story parking ramps, jump double lane streets & highways, slide through brush in the median and simply drive away with little or no damage. In this movie there isn't even a scratch on the car until they start shooting at it. At least it wasn't bullet proof. Despite this unrealistic car action in parts of it the movie still makes its bones satisfactorily. The story line was at least somewhat believable and the action was OK for the most part. One thing I liked was the lack of the typical macho fist fight that many movie makers seem to think is necessary, the adrenaline was saved up for the neato cars on exhibit in the racing scenes. 'All in all I think the movie was satisfactory, better than some movies and worse than others. It could have been a much better movie had they kept the unrealistic car action out of it and buffed up the story line. Some additional pressure to win, maybe some more concentrated race action or both. Keeping it real would have really done this movie a good deed. I just dislike the impossible jumps and crash landing that in real life would not only totally destroy the car and very likely kill the passengers too and yet the car drives away and the people don't even have a scratch. That tends to ruin the movie for me or movie it down in my appreciation anyway. This movie had good points too though. As I said there were some REALLY hot cars that we get to see in action and that's cool, but more of it would have been better. The bro-friend action was sort of OK, though I have to add here that it amazes me that they are supposedly hard up for cash, yet they own a Super Duty Truck that is a prototype for the military and has been re-equipped with a computer system and display that not only would leave the military salivating, but also be the envy of the NSA. It's all very cool but that truck in its military variant would go for about a $million bucks. With all the electronics now on it and the advanced communications that was providing flawless voice and aerial imagery, even in down town urban settings that truck would surely be worth a couple million. Where is all their money coming from? Very cool indeed, but alas not real or even near to realistic. I gave it, the movie, a 5 and that's about what it really rates in my book.

Ironclad: Battle for Blood (2014)

Castle Combat and a good, basic entertainment movie

[8/10 · 7 August 2014]

-- I am no professional reviewer by any definition, but I don't understand the low ratings this movie is getting. Of course this movie is no modern epic with a $100 million dollar budget, however for what it did cost I think they did a VERY good job. -- They did an excellent job of recreating a medieval village with the castle behind it to retreat into when attacked by Picts, Celts, Woads, or Brigands. They created a most believable little pocket of medieval times and I don't know about these other reviewers but I was able to thoroughly be fooled and fall into the story. I read some review that discredited the language used but this wasn't a history channel special, it's an escapist window into another world for entertainment and I think this movie does this very well. And if it forces the viewers to actually exercise their imagination a tiny bit so much the better. -- I think the movie allows us to suspend reality for a little while and go back into a more violent time and that is exactly what it is supposed to do. The costumes and make up are real looking and professionally done which adds to the success of the movie. The only thing I saw in this movie that wasn't totally realistic to the mind is some portions of the story where they had to perhaps not show in great detail for the sake of time. An example of this was the young Hubert's travel to find his cousin which is accomplished mainly by scenes of him riding a horse across ridge lines to the left and then when they return they go across the same country only to the right. This is acceptable because the movie would have to be 2 hours or longer if you fill every detail. -- However the story itself was believable to me. The young squire has matured into an experienced heavy combat specialist and in the process is now become deadened to life without the adrenaline rush of combat. Now living the life of a young man returned to his homeland and suffering from post combat stress reaction. He lives to get drunk, fight and wench. He is followed by his former combat partner, whose life he saved and who now follows him to pay this debt of honor. -- When he returns to the castle he finds it under siege by one or more Picti clans. I assume the castle is a real one and I was impressed that they showed one of the major weapons being used from the castle was dropping large rocks on the enemy and that when they began running short it was ordered that an unused old battlement be taken apart for more ammunition (realistic). Though the Picts using a piece of roman torsion artillery I am not sure about. It appeared to be an over sized Ballista and was throwing high velocity logs at the castles stone walls. I know the Romans had these and they fought the Picts along Hadrian's Wall so I suppose they could have acquired one or the plans for one. I was just a bit surprised by the hit power being attributed to the weapon in the movie and why it was not directed at the Castle gate. However those are minor issues and I only noted them because I work with weapons. -- As a whole I find that I liked this movie and I was disappointed by those who have given it such a low rating. I think this was a very good basic entertainment movie, being well worth the cost of rental, though had I watched it at theater prices I might not have been so impressed. I might even watch this movie again time permitting. I hope they make another sequel and get enough of a budget to do a complete and higher quality job. -- I gave the movie a rating of 8 just to off set these ridiculously low rating by what I can only imagine are overly picky reviewers or people who paid theater prices to see it. -- My first blush rating was a 5.5 to 6.0

Magic Magic (2013)

Disappointment

[4/10 · 11 July 2014]

I gave this movie a 4 and I think that was a gift. I rented the movie based on what I read on the box along with the images shown, which to me said there were some friends experiencing a trek across Chile and that some kind of horrible events would occur. However, to be frank, I saw nothing horrible, I didn't see much of anything that was very interesting or shocking at all. And to be honest this movie lost me after the first 20 minutes. It looked and sounded more like a girl on an island having a mental breakdown or maybe unfolding into a bout of schizophrenia. Other than some behavior that I didn't understand on the part of Cera, Silva, Browning, etc. I didn't see much of anything in the way of shockingly scary behavior. The only shocking behavior that I can even think of was Cera trying to hump the girls leg like a dog and I found that simply crude. In fact that is all I saw from the male characters at all. Just crude behavior and not scary, horrid or shocking. I tried to follow the story but I just couldn't find it. Basically it goes like this; Girl goes on first out of America experience to Chile with supposed friend who abandons her for some mysterious clandestine reason that I never heard an explanation for after such a build up about it. The friend leaves for a couple of days while idiotic males make crude sexual advances and hypnotic suggestions. Girlfriend returns and main character continues with schizophrenic behavior. Other characters, apparently blind, fail to see a mental decomp or any trouble significant enough to act upon. Whereas in America the 911 line would have been burning hot. Girl goes over the edge and now village voodoo is attempted rather than getting real help. Boys, girlfriend, host and main character are now in slow boat to mainland from the island with old, slow motor chugging away and tearful eyes all around as main character is wrapped in blanket and appears DOA. Fade to black, The End. And thank the stars for it. If you get the idea I didn't like this movie you are right. Poor directing, poor acting, poor story line equal a poor movie.

However there was one good thing, the motto of this movie, which should be: --- You have no idea how good you have it in the USA until you leave it and if you are smart you won't ever do that before you study the facts that inform you that once out of the USA you no longer have any rights. You can't just dial 911 for help anymore, you will be excluded from most conversations if you only speak English and many people in this world do not like Americans. And, it seems all the rage these days for young people who leave the USA to travel to actually agree with people that the USA is a bad place when actually it is THE best country in the world. If you doubt that statement then just count how many other countries people actually fight to get into.

Survival Code (2013 TV Movie)

Good story, good technical movie making, no proper ending and too many unanswered questions

[5/10 · 9 May 2014]

I am afraid I either missed something or my copy of the movie was incomplete as the ending made no sense to me. It was more like this was a pilot designed to have the story line carried on in a series that never got off the ground. I gave it a 5 because I found the ending like finishing a huge meal and still being starved when you finish it. I really enjoyed the story line and the acting as well as the background and idea but I don't think it ever all came together to effect a proper ending, at least on the rental copy I had. I was waiting for the whole think to come together to see who was pulling whose strings, who was the League of nations lady working for and why, Who was actually bringing in the new purple pills and why, who were the other concerns operating in the area besides Russians, Norwegians and Canadians and what were they after. Did the Canadian soldier (Lieutenant)ever figure out what side he was on and what was the League lady and her soldiers really after? There were so many unanswered questions that I felt cheated in the end. Perhaps there was a series to go with this movie but I am not aware of it and it surely does not answer that question either. All and all I give it a 7 for the acting, technical movie making and story line but the lack of a coherent ending and many questions left unanswered sadly brought it down to a 5 in my book. If they ever made or make a series or 2nd half I would definitely watch it though as the movie had a lot of potential that was never used.