Search - Awake [Blu-ray] on Blu-ray

Dennis W. (denwilliams) from SANFORD, FL
Reviewed on 4/17/2011...

A pleasant surprise! I had picked this movie from a closing down BlockBuster really cheap. And finally decided to pop it in this morning. Never seen a preview but did see some pretty bad reviews on IMDB. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and recommend this to anyone that enjoys movies with good story and twists!!

3.5 Stars for a surprisingly interesting film.

Steven Hedge | Somewhere "East of Eden" | 03/10/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Dead on arrival

Morgan P Salvo | Bend Oregon | 02/23/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Some movies aren't very good. Some are bad. Some are absolutely wretched. This movie falls into all these categories. Perhaps a new category needs to be created for dredge like this to fall into, and due to its medical theme, let's call it the Euthanasia Bin.

Awake's premise is that a person undergoing surgery has a symptom called Anesthesia Awareness--staying conscious during the procedure. OK, cool, this sets up a decent concept of dread and terror. But there will be none of said dread or terror, just banal plot and supremely stupid dialogue. We wallow in soap opera city and then revisit it again via flashbacks.

Clayton (Hayden Christensen) is a high-powered CEO who can cut super slick cutthroat corporate deals, but can't tell mommy about his fiancé, hot chick Sam (Jessica Alba). The stereotypical fear of living up to good ol' deceased Dad runs absolutely transparently rampant through this disaster. Clayton has a heart condition, rare blood type and a best friend Jack (Terrence Howard) who's a surgeon he fishes with in the East River. Jack is dying to do the surgery, however, Mom (Lena Olin) enlists family friend, (Arliss Howard--usually cool, but wasted in this) the most skilled surgeon on the planet. Family tension and squabbles ensue, plot twists ensue, hell, everything ensues, proving unavoidably irritating due to the unbelievable predictability of the plot twists and the failure to convey any kind of tension.

Case in point: Clayton gets his anesthetic cocktail, and although paralyzed, can still hear and feel. We get to experience his freak out through--surprise--his narration.

And we only get one good operation pain scene. After they crack his ribs open, he seems not to feel anything. I guess he went all mind over matter. Then, Clayton hears while he's on the table that everyone in the operating room is conspiring to kill him with a botched heart transplant. Upset, he "leaves his body" and follows all the characters to unravel the hideous plot against him. So, we get to revisit the boring scenes we already saw, spelling out nothing new. There are torturously unwatchable scenes with mom and Sam in the waiting room exposing horrendously archaic dialogue. As soon as the major plot twists unfold, the story meanders then gets caught up in the soap opera where it began. Meanwhile, the audience has already solved all their problems for them - it's called leaving...leaving the damn theater!

The following is a spoiler (but then how is that possible?): When mom unravels the scheme after her son is pronounced dead (like three times) she kills herself IN THE CAFETERIA so her surgeon can give her son the correct pulsating organ while he's still on the bypass machine. The ultimate schlock is when mom-phantom and son-phantom have a little, shall I say, "heart-to-heart" talk.

This movie sucked on the highest level, not even worthy of straight-to-video status. It's virtually impossible to bring all the flaws to light. Why was this movie made? Why was it released? I am sorely perplexed. So were the other three people in the theater.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that Awake is "so bad it's good." Some movies are at least laughably bad; this one couldn't even do that. If they insist on making movies this horrid why can't they show Jessica Alba naked?

I call these movies "paycheck movies." One wonders why else all these actors would even consider a role in garbage like this.

Help! I'm in a movie theatre and can't leave! I want to yell at the screen STOP! I must be under some new form of Anesthesia Awareness... paralyzed because I had to write a review--No escape! AHHH! Finally it's over! Excuse me while I pick up my wounded formaldehyde-injected brain from the aisle..."

THIS MOVIE REALLY surprised me!

Janice | Larchmont, NY | 03/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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!"