Review: I must admit, I was expecting this movie to be worse than it was, mainly because it's a low budget Vinnie Jones film but I did stick with it until the end because I was intrigued with the storyline. Don't get me wrong, it isn't anything amazing and I doubt that I would watch it again but it still had a couple of decent action scenes and the wilderness backdrop wasn't too bad. Its about a group of people who wake up in the middle of Island, being chased by some mercenaries, led by Vinnie Jones (Sarge). There main goal is to harvest organs and sell them to an exclusive group of rich people, so when Mao (Daryl Hannah) finds out that her child is dying and needs organs to survive, she turns to Rich (Jason London), who is in charge of the organ harvesting group. When the perfect organs become available for Mao's daughter, the surgeon goes ahead with the operation, which fails and kills her. Meanwhile, Billie Kope (Natalie Burn) and two of the stranded individuals, fight to escape the island and come toe to toe with Rich's henchmen. Billie then finds out that her sister, has been working for Rich and they rekindle there relationship and try to escape together. It sounds quite interesting but it's cheaply made with some dodgy actors. The overall concept wasn't too bad but the script was awful and there wasn't any depth to the characters. Anyway, the movie isn't that great but I have definitely seen worse, with Vinnie Jones in the cast. Passable!

Round-Up: This movie was written and directed by Mark Atkins, who is known for making movies that go straight to DVD, like Evil Eyes, Knight of the Dead, Android Cop and Road Wars. This film had low budget written all over it and the, non-heard of actors were pretty poor. Edward Furlong, who became famous after starring in Terminator 2, looked awful and Jason London wasn't the best choice for the villain. Daryl Hannah's career has also gone downhill of late and I haven't seen Robert Davi in a film for some time, so the director didn't really have a cast who are in there prime. Anyway, I doubt that this film will hurt there reputations because there all starring in these mediocre movies to pay bills. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their action/horror/mystery/thrillers starring Edward Furlong, Daryl Hannah Vinnie Jones, Jason London, Natalie Burn, Robert Davi, David Keith and Michael Pare. 2/10

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: Billie wakes up on a beach, battered and covered with sand. Her short term memory is shot, but she remembers to find her dog tags before proceeding inland. She soon joins a chase where one side is armed, and she is among the chased. Erin is separated and killed by Sarge, the leader of the armed uniformed men. Billie escapes with Berto, Chloe, Nick, and Todd, who lead her to Quentin, the de facto leader of the prisoners. Billie swaps kidnapping stories with the others.

Rich seems to be the straw boss of the island. He's disappointed with Sarge that Erin is dead. Mao is coming the next day.

Delineation of conflicts: The gang of kidnappers/murderers would like to keep the human traffic flowing, since there is a lot of money in organ harvesting. The prisoners would like to escape with their lives. If possible, hurting the efforts of the traffickers would be nice. The gang has weapons, transportation, radios, money, and contacts. The prisoners have their good health, for a while, at least. Billie tries to figure out the connections among them.

Resolution: Do the prisoners find a weakness?

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.)