Customer Reviews

Awake [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Better than I had expected, but certainly not top-notch entertainment.

"Awake" is not an wholly original idea as Stephen King explored this idea in one of his short stories in which a person is mistakenly believed to be dead and is about to undergo his own autopsy. Here someone undergoes surgery while still awake and learns who his friends really are and aren't. Read the synopsis by Amazon as they did a very good and fair job. I'm going to take the real lazy way out this time and just go to my hits and misses.

Misses:

1. Too slow at points. There is a lot of exposition (with good reason), but it is still a lot of exposition.
2. The acting is not consistent. Some are terrific and others are flat.
3. So many plot twists that one just can't give this film the "willing suspension of disbelief" that it needs.
4. It moves from romance to health crisis, to scientific wonders, to absolute fantasy. It attempts to cover too many genres. That whole out of body sequence is clever, but just way out of place in this film. It's like Brian's Song meets What Dreams May Come.

Hits:

1. While not completely original (Sublime had many elements here), it is in it's own way. It is a very interesting film and it does have a few very good surprises.
2. Jessica Alba is finally in a role that isn't so cutesy. I thought she way quite convincing in her role.
3. Hayden Christensen is better than usual, but that may not be too big of a compliment.
4. Terrance Howard and Arliss Howard are always a pleasure to see, even if they are phoning in their performances for a quick paycheck.
5. This film is a short 84 minutes, so even if it isn't all you wanted or expected, it is short.
6. bloopers are hysterically funny.

I got a mild kick out of this film. I wouldn't recommend anyone to actually go see this in the theaters, but it's a good rental film.

Awake during surgery, feeling every cut, pry, and poke...yet you cant move or call out for help. Sounds like a nightmare right? Well its an actual phenomenon called anesthetic awareness.

I must say I didn't really think this movie would be worth even a rent. I had to give it a try though since I'm always willing to try every movie regardless of critic reviews.

First lets start off with the Blu Ray details:

Picture 3.5/5 Pretty sharp picture, very little grainy-ness, or artifacts, blacks were solid, and whites were clean and bright. The skin tones looked natural and very colorful. Certainly not a Blu Ray to show your friends PQ but acceptable for watching this film.

Sound 3.5/5 Sound is crisp, voices are very clear and loud. Not much action or FX in this film but all the characters are easily heard, and the ambient noises are solid through rear surround. I wasn't disappointed at all.

Extras 3/5 I personally didn't get into the extra features much, just going by what I saw on the back of the case. I usually check out the extras on my second or third viewing. Seems like the "basic" extras included here.

I don't usually do much for reviews on movies, because I don't wanna spoil anything for people that haven't gotten to enjoy the films for themselves yet. I will say however, that this movie is definitely worth a look, Hayden and Jessica do a great job as a couple, and I actually felt his pain on the table in the OR.

The movie is a bit slow, but not in a boring way. It progresses through very well for the type of movie being shown. I was never wondering if it was gonna get better, and as you meet the characters and get more of the story you get pulled in deeper! (Terrence Howard is excellent in my opinion)

This is a perfect weekend movie, if your bf/gf and you are sick of the normal horror, comedy, romantic comedy films. Just beware if you find realistic operating room procedures make you a bit pale in the face...you've been warned.

AWAKE would be better named 'audience wake up' as the minimal novel idea of the story loses credibility so quickly that the development of the subplots become increasingly tedious and silly. Joby Harold both wrote and directed this film and despite the presence of some fine actors, the film remains grounded.

Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) has inherited his dead father's multi-billion dollar fortune and shares the wealth and control of his empire with his domineering mother Lilith (Lena Olin). Clay apparently has a genetically determined cardiac pathology, is medicated, and awaits a heart transplant. The only semblance of honest life Clay has is his love for his mother's secretary Sam (Jessica Alba) who, despite Lilith's objections, marries Clay after disclosing their relationship. Clay's beeper warning that a cardiac donor is available cuts short their night of honeymoon and Clay is rushed to the hospital to his constant friend, Dr. Jack Harper (Terrence Howard), who just happens to be a heart transplant surgeon and who Clay prefers over Dr. Neyer (Arliss Howard), the superior cardiac surgeon friend of his mother who has been the designated surgeon all along. The gimmick of the film is 'anesthetic awareness', a state of anesthesia when the patient is paralyzed but aware of the talk in the OR as well as the pain of the surgery. What Clay hears 'under anesthesia is a ridiculous, convoluted plot involving all the people he thought he could trust and about which he can do nothing: in order to keep the storyline rolling, the script gives him an out of body experience so that Clay can be his own detective in solving the myriad discrepancies of his situation. The ending is very predicable and begs viewer indulgence.

Perhaps the credibility of this story would have been better if the director and actors had paid more attention to OR technique: walking into an OR in street clothes, handling patients without gloves or masks, allowing outsiders to enter the OR during a transplant procedure, beginning surgery without documentation of complete anesthesia or before the donor heart arrives, etc. etc. etc. are such breaches of surgical rules that even the casual viewer of TV medical dramas knows. But the real problem with the script is that we are left caring very little for any of the characters, despite the fact the roles are assigned to some heavy hitters! Sadly, the movie is just silly. Grady Harp, March 08

Predictable. I really can't get too excited about this movie. Now anything with Jessica Alba is a "man treat" but this one really was just
average. All in all interesting and ok to watch but don't expect to be wide awake at the end.

In order to enjoy any movie, one must employ a suspension of disbelief. But this movie expects the viewer to be an idiot. The story is well-intentioned but doesn't play by any of the rules of reality.

Hayden Christensen, in his first starring role, continues to suck at his chosen profession. He is basically the kiss of death to whatever production he's a part of. He was out-acted by C-3PO and R2D2 in the "Star Wars" movies. I really don't understand how he continues to get roles. Keanu Reeves looks like Heath Ledger next to this guy.

Terrence Howard, one of the best actors on the planet (check him out in "Hustle and Flow", "Crash" or "Iron Man") does the best he can with his role, and Jessica Alba gives her best performance to date. But neither can save the movie from its terminally flawed story. I won't give any of it away, but it starts out with a promising premise and descends into incoherence about a third of the way in. It's like a lame Twilight Zone episode that's been drawn out way too long.

Awake, the new thriller by first-time director Joby Harold, takes off from a grisly real-life phenomenon called "anesthetic awareness." This is when patients are unaccountably left fully conscious--and physically paralyzed--during surgery, and Harold (who also wrote the script) has spun a preposterously entertaining yarn from this grisly germ of an idea, and manages to hold us in a vice-like grip for pretty much the entire film. How often can you say of a Hollywood thriller that you don't have a clue what's going to happen next? Awake is brazenly indifferent to plausibility, but you can't help but admire the film's audacity. Along with fantastic plot twists, Harold throws Hitchcockian flourishes and elements of Greek tragedy into the mix like a crazed chef. In lesser hands, Awake would have been a tawdry melodrama, but Harold believes in his material so fervently (in a way a more seasoned professional never could) that the film works on several levels at once. Ingenious as it is, it's not mechanical--it has soul.

Harold brings such energy and focus to the scenes that he transcends the subject matter and gives it an almost surreal intensity, and the performances are strong enough to keep the film's nuttiness from capsizing it. Jessica Alba is suitably luscious and beguiling (her role gives new meaning to the term "heartbreaker"), and Lena Olin and Terence Howard are both in fine form. As the unfortunate victim of anesthetic awareness, Hayden Christensen comes into his own as a performer (having mercifully managed to escape the Mark Hammil curse: that of being horribly miscast by George Lucas). Christensen has an unusually expressive face (the camera takes to him), and he can convey emotion without ever appearing to do much--fortunately, because the film hinges around his internal struggle, and on our feelings of empathy for him.

Awake is a white-knuckle movie experience if ever there was one (it even carries a viewer warning), with some of the most sheerly visceral scenes of horror ever committed to celluloid. Watching someone undergoing open-heart surgery while fully conscious (and able to feel the incision) is enough to frazzle the nerves of the most hardened horror veterans, and this film is certainly not for the squeamish. Too bad the loopy plot (and the melodramatic character revelations, which are really just tired genre conventions) finally stretches our credibility to breaking point. As a result, Awake lacks a strong climax, and as a rollercoaster ride it doesn't have enough emotional depth to be fully satisfying (its shallowness is at odds with its rather contrived attempts at pathos). But for most of its length it's close to a pop classic, and probably the best metaphysical thriller since The Sixth Sense (a film I didn't much care for). In fact, Harold better watch out or he may wind up as the next M. Night Shyamalan. Awake has so many twists it makes you dizzy.

AWAKE was about a young multi-millionaire/industrialist/philanthropist who wakes up during heart surgery but is unable to move or speak and therefore the medical staff don't know that he can hear and feel what is going on. This is pretty horrific stuff by my standards and he feels the agony for - Oh, ten seconds or so. What? They could have just left him asleep on the table and have him dream of the clues so he could actually wake up, knowing what happened. Had he been asleep through the surgery, the outcome would have been exactly the same, so the fact that he woke up despite the anesthetic meant exactly zero to the final result. This was for sure a watchable movie and it was fairly entertaining. I guess if you can forgive the multiple huge plot holes you can enjoy it. I actually did, but it was pretty unsatisfying. I don't believe I will comment on the acting in this one. There was just too much going against it for the actors to really rise above the script. The film is short (85 minutes or so), so go ahead and rent it if you must but don't buy it. This is a film that just forgot what the central idea was or had a great idea and didn't know what to do with it.

I want to start things off by saying that from the viewpoint of someone who just had a surgery where the doctor's put you under for the procedure the phenomenon known as "anesthetic awareness", which served as the focal point for the recent release "Awake" was a somewhat disturbing concept that I didn't want to experience. Prior to my surgery (and it was a very minor one, mind you) I knew the movie "Awake" starring Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba was being released on DVD, and I was wanting to see it; however, I had heard the critics say that this movie did for surgeries what "Jaws" did for swimming in the ocean. So, needless to say, I chose to wait until after the procedure to view this movie, but after I watched it I wished I would have just chosen a different movie to spend my time and money on.

"Awake" is the story of a rich tycoon named Clayton, (Hayden Christensen) who must undergo a heart transplant due to a heart condition. Not one for leaving possible unfinished business in his life behind should the surgery not be successful, Clayton decides to marry his girlfriend (Jessica Alba), attempt to make peace with his mother (Lena Olin), and get all his other affairs in order. While everything leading up to the surgery seems to be going off without a hitch, once in the operating room Clayton quickly discovers things are a disturbingly different story. After the anesthesia renders Clayton unconscious he soon realizes that his body is paralyzed, but his mind is very much awake, and fully aware of all that is occurring to his body during the procedure. As if the intensely horrible pain wasn't enough to contend with, Clayton begins to hear the doctor's discussing the very thing no patient ever wants to hear their wish to purposely cause the procedure to fail therefore killing the young man. As his time draws short, Clayton must desperately struggle to send out any kind of outward sign of his impending doom or all hope is lost.

I had hoped that "Awake" would be a thoroughly engaging medical thriller that would live up to the promise that critic Frank Scheck of the Hollywood Reporter had made stating, "Awake does for operations what Jaws did for the beach", or that it would be "completely absorbing" as Roger Ebert had felt it was. However, to me it was a boring drama that I couldn't wait to finish and it would have had no redeeming factors whatsoever if not for a couple of clever plot twists that made the latter half of the film somewhat more bearable. For first time director and writer Joby Harold it was a nice try, and the subject matter was an intriguing choice, the cast was strong, and the dialogue was mostly well-written; but the execution of the material was less than stellar. Maybe the director's next effort, whatever that may be, will have better luck and pacing.

The talented cast led by Hayden Christensen ("Star Wars - Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith"), Jessica Alba ("Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer"), and Terrence Howard ("Four Brothers") is very good for the most part, but their rather capable talents alone are not enough to keep this movie interesting to me. Out of the cast the only possible weak link was star Hayden Christensen, for the most part he did a very good job, but there were a few points where his dialogue seemed forced, although he made up for those moments with his voicing of his internal thoughts for the audience during the painful surgical procedure. Those moments were not only painful to watch, but also to hear his reactions as he tries in vain to fight through the pain and to think about anything other than what is happening to his body. Jessica Alba and Terrence Howard were very convincing as the caring new wife and the doctor who claims to be Clayton's friend, but hides the sinister secret of plotting his impending murder. But sometimes in movies a strong cast is not enough to overcome other weaknesses that can plague a film.

The story features an interesting subject matter, as I've stated already, but it lacks any feeling of momentum to propel the story onward. For the first half of the movie, I was really bored and tempted to quit watching the movie altogether; then the major turning point in the plot occurs and the movie became a little more interesting. Even with the somewhat more enticing second half of the movie, the momentum still seemed a bit lacking and the mostly solid performances were not adequate in helping the story find its proper pacing. Perhaps some better editing choices could have helped the pacing of the story, or maybe some snappier dialogue earlier on, who knows, but something was sorely lacking in the story department.

"Awake" could have been a gripping thriller that would have left the audience on the edge of their seats, and made them leave the theater dreading hospital visits. However, the mostly strong performances on behalf of the actors, a decent story, and intriguing subject matter were not enough to overcome the incredibly slow pacing and dull points that filled the first half of the film and popped up once in a while in the latter half as well. So to me, any lasting effect the film could have had on me was lost due to boredom and an overall lack of interest in the outcome of the film.

"Awake" is rated R for disturbing images, language, and sexuality.

i had heard so so things about this movie, but i'll tell you, what i heard was wrong. this movie is very exciting. i guess if you are waiting to be impressed, or if you are looking for plot holes, you might find them, but if you are just looking for a friday night movie, this is for you. the twists get twisty-er as the movie goes along. there are some really big moments that i didn't see coming. i thought hayden and jessica made a cute and attractive couple and i loved watching their romantic scenes. lena olin should get some props for this movie--she was incredible!

The twenty-two year old Clay Beresford is a genius of finance secretly in love of his mother's secretary Sam Lockwood. Clay has a complex, expecting recognition from his mother Lilith Beresford that he is as capable as his father was, and he needs heart transplantation. When Clay finds a donor compatible with his rare blood, he requests his friend Dr. Jack Harper operate him under the protest of his mother that wants the famous Dr. Jonathan Neyer responsible for the procedure. On the eve of his heart surgery, Clay marries Sam and during the surgery, he experiences an "anesthetic awareness" that leaves his conscious but paralyzed. Clay witnesses the dialogs in the room and discovers dark secrets about his surgery. This movie is short and yet still does a pretty good job developing the characters. There are several twists and turns in this movie and some easy to see coming, others surprising, and some not necessary. But you should appreciate the attempt whether or not you saw it coming. Terrence Howard is always good, Jessica Alba actually turns in a very decent performance, and Hayden Christensen is Annakin Skywalker as a billionaire. Go into this with an open mind and not trying to figure out every little twist and turn, and you,ve got yourself a very nice little thriller on your hands. Check this out if you can, it is a good thriller and deserves a look. I'm sure some will be disappointed and some will not.