User Reviews

A woman named Billie Kope (Burn) wakes up on a tropical island and has no memory of how she got there. She eventually meets other people held captive in this mysterious place, including Quentin (Davi), Berto (Furlong), and Stitch (Crawford), among others. While Billie relies on her combat training - by her father, played by Benny The Jet - to stay alive, she does remember she's searching for her missing sister. Unfortunately, the island dwellers are at the mercy of Rich (London), and his goons such as Sarge (Jones) and Xander (Pare) - who are holding them there so they can harvest their organs. When an important client, a woman inexplicably named Mao (Hannah), shows up with her ailing daughter, Rich tells the island doctor, Walsh (Keith) to snap into action. However, by this time Billie and her compatriots are fighting mad and are intending to get off the island by using lethal force against their captors. Much like Gilligan's Island and/or The Prisoner, will our heroes get off the island? Awaken is sort of a modern-day DTV cross between Avenging Force (1986), The Condemned (2007), and Death Ring (1992). We're glad movies like this are still being made, but it seems the only place for them to go are cable channels (some might describe them as "deep cable" channels) such as Showtime Extreme. The solid B-Movie cast goes a long way towards sustaining its entertainment value, and main star Natalie Burn certainly has the potential to go far, in our opinion. Not only did she star in the movie, she has co-story, co-producer, and stunt credits, and even is solely credited with casting. So I guess we have her to thank for getting all these familiar faces together. She even sings the end titles song, "Awaken", and is/was a ballerina, just like Assassins Run's Sofya Skya. Is this becoming the new trend in DTV action? Hopefully Skya and Burn will be co-stars in a movie together soon. They could be ex-ballerinas/cops who bust a lot of heads and fight their way up a drug ring to the evil mastermind. If anyone reading this produces these types of movies, give us a call.  There are also some similarities to Gina Carano's In the Blood (2014) - and even the recent Van Damme movie Pound of Flesh (2015). Maybe it's not just ballerinas turned action stars that are the new trend, evidently organ donation is hot now too. Thankfully, Awaken combines the two. While the movie as a whole looks good, and you can see Burn's fights well, there are some poor editing choices which mar the overall pretty cinematography. These are especially evident when someone gets tasered, the scene with the shark attack, and the Michael Pare-Vinnie Jones fight. Sadly, not only was the latter edited badly, but it should have gone on longer and been more built up in the movie. That's the match-up we've been waiting for, and it's over in a flash.

Fan favorite Robert Davi wears a John Travolta/Nicholas Cage-style wig, Daz Crawford is likable, and Vinnie Jones is his usual head-butting self that we all love and enjoy. Pare isn't in it all that much, nor is Edward Furlong, who...let's just say it's a good thing that people stranded on the island are supposed to look disheveled and tired. Daryl Hannah, fresh off of Death Squad (2014) adds...something, but we're not sure what. It looks like she's finally joined the ranks of us lowly DTV dwellers. But I blame Hollywood for that. Because Hollywood sucks and seemingly only releases remakes, sequels, and superhero movies, there's no place for actresses like Hannah there anymore. And if Hannah's not going to the theater any longer, Furlong et al. certainly aren't either. But they'll always have a home in DTV - surely they can give Natalie Burn a call anytime.

It all ends with a very, very silly shootout, just as the audience's patience is wearing thin. Awaken is by no means a bad movie, but it ultimately fails to capitalize on all the assets it had at its disposal. We're hoping Burn goes up to the next level for her next outing.

Five minutes into the movie, there's a random girl who falls three feet into the ground and breaks her neck. Then Vinnie Jones calls out how silly it is while the girl is literally looking like she's been run over by a truck. At this point you know Awaken doesn't play by any boundary of normal logic, nearly everything about it is either badly written or simply so bizarre, it becomes a legit comedy.

Story follows a group of people stranded on an island like they are in poorly made survival reality show. Eventually they realize that there is an organization that harvests their organs. Now this premise already presents a dilemma in first act. These are supposedly rare individuals, and yet they are tossed into a random island rather than a simple jail.

The mafia gets mad if these people are hurt or try to escape, even though those are the most possible outcomes. There's even a debate to select victim by their chi, since positive outlook on life fundamentally affects the organ. In one occasion a guy engages in gunfight, runs out of bullet, then decides to sprint across the yard and reload in front of the other guy's face.

These are just few of the oddities. If that doesn't deter you, the acting will. Main female lead is looking like she's auditioning for America Next Top Model. She almost exclusively wears one icy expression. It's unsure if she's mad or sad, but damn does she look sternly stoic and ready for camera.

None of the acting or writing is remotely believable. Other characters just seem shoehorned for the most awkward effect. The editing is choppy and creates unintentionally funny scenes, not that the pace is structured in the first place anyway.

I could have listed the plot holes, and the space for reviews wouldn't be enough. If anything, Awaken is so silly, it may just work as an ironic comedy.

This charade starts with strangers waking up on a beach with no recollection of how they arrived and goes rapidly downhill but never recovers. It is a very basic story of bad guys stealing human organs from unwilling donors for the rich.

The acting (and I use the term very loosely) is awful throughout.

The supposed heroin is a skinny armed woman who would likely struggle to knock over a hat stand let alone out-muscle trained mercenaries twice her size and strength, her leadership is unbelievable over the weakly portrayed men of her little group and her tacky saluting of a dead comrade is the icing on the cake of her over-baked character.

The mercenaries are idiots with poor training and absolutely no field craft skills or common sense plus the fight scenes with Vinnie Jones are absolutely terrible and unrealistic.

The bad guy is pathetic and weak as he fails to control even the goonish mercenaries whilst his sidekick (the heroin's sister) could have been played by any spoilt, bitch faced teen.

The double agent in the field portrayed by Robert Davi, a former bond villain (a massive fall from grace) was predictable and tacky but the so-called "SAS" soldier was an insult to the British Army cadets under 6s group, never mind the real SAS. He was unconvincing, weak and pathetic in all aspects from the uniform (which SAS wouldn't be wearing) to the body language and onto the horrendous dialogue.

The crescendo for the bad cast and acting was the introduction of Daryl Hannah as a villainess. She was just, well... awful.

One and a half hours of life wasted watching this tripe.

Luckily I was able to catch this one on cable, for free. I can not imagine having to have paid for this garbage and waste of reel and time. wow.. some 'once upon a time actors' like Daryl Hannah and Ed Furlong have really been desperate for work lately. Both seem to be grasping for any part the can secure. Second movie recently where you see Daryl Hannah play an overweight psychopath (poorly). Yet another movie where the main character (Billie) who was 'home trained' by her dad how to fight, manages to take out high ranking, special forces trained, killing machine military boys with just her fists and kicks that daddy taught her. Right. Pathetically unrealistic. Should have been an animated cartoon, not a movie. Place it at the bottom of your 'to watch' list, because that is where it belongs.

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?

This falls into the category of 'coulda been'. An oft-visited concept, this film had a potentially good plot, location, cast of knowns. But, unfortunately, it suffers from poor editing, acting, and day-for-nightmare.

I agree with other reviewers' criticisms of jumpy cuts, direction, and it definitely has some moments of laughably unrealistic dialog. Also irksome is cinematography comes into play. Characters are in harsh daylight, then suddenly in the murky realm of day-for-dusk.

The theme for this endeavor is 'unevenness'. It's a shame, because, with a solidified cohesive vision, it could have been a decent movie. But, as-is, it is a riff-fest waiting to happen.

LEFT TO DIE is a B-movie that exists under a ton of different titles including AWAKEN and A PERFECT VACATION. Whichever way you look at it, it's a pretty stupid production that benefits from poor direction turning the whole thing into a very cheesy experience. Like THE CONDEMNED and BATTLE ROYALE before it, the story sees a group of strangers being individually kidnapped and released on a jungle island, where they will become unwitting donors for an illegal organ donation scheme.

The story is vapid and clichéd, the script predictable in the extreme. The cheesy fight scenes are about as bad as you'd expect. As the lead actress, Natalie Burn has zero presence on screen. The only reason to watch this is the exemplary supporting cast, which takes some beating in B-movie terms. The triumvirate of Vinnie Jones, Jason London, and Daryl Hannah play the villains, while the protagonists are played by the likes of Robert Davi, Edward Furlong, and Daz Crawford. Even martial arts supremo Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez has a flashback cameo as the protagonist's father. It's not high entertainment, but at least the familiar faces kept me watching.

Billie (Natalie Burn) finds herself stranded on an island dirty, sandy, wearing designer jeans, and full of flashbacks to her marshal arts training and looking for her sister. She meets up with similar people stranded on the island and occasionally a group of bad guys, lead by Vinnie Jones, show up and grab one for....the plot spoiler written in the movie description on the back of the DVD. Robert Davi is the leader of the island group. Daryl Hannah shows up late whose career has stagnated as an evil old woman cameo.

The film is basically formula. I waited for the twist(s) which weren't exciting. Look to see more of the talented Natalie Burn.

Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.