Painkillers (2015) Reviews

• A low budget B movie that might feel familiar

  krachtm2016-09-30

  The plot: after a botched mission, a group a marines wake up in a hospital without knowing how they got there. Maybe it's because I've seen too many of these B movies, but I guessed about half of the plot twists in the first ten minutes. In low-budget B movies, there are only so many reasons that a group of commandos wake up in a hospital with no memory. On the positive side, there were some decent twists that I didn't see. If you're looking for a great plot, though, I'd say that you should skip this movie. It's fairly low budget, and it looks like it was mostly shot in a warehouse. The acting was occasionally pretty bad. There's one scene early on where the squad is pinned down by enemy fire. One of the soldiers abruptly dies, and the others pretty much just shrug their shoulders and move on. I probably had a stronger reaction to his death than they did, and I really didn't care all that much. At other times, they overacted like hell. Colm Feore didn't have a huge role, but his scenes were pretty good. It's a bit too long, and there some slow spots, but I didn't find it as boring as some other reviewers. I'm not entirely sure who I'd recommend this film to, but if you're into conspiracy-tinged thrillers, this might be up your alley. Someone said to watch it for ten minutes, then decide if you like it enough to continue. I agree with that.

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• Horrible acting, horrible action / don't watch

  JorritM2016-04-23

  Having read some of the more positive reviews for this movie, I decided to give it a try. I can usually quite enjoy bad B movies, as long as they're entertaining. Unfortunately, this wasn't entertaining at all. Basically everything about the movie was bad. The problem though, is that it wasn't bad enough to actually be amusing, like The Room. On the other hand, it wasn't nearly entertaining enough to be enjoyable on its own for what it is. It's in the uncanny valley of average horribleness - basically, plain bland and boring. My advice: watch the first 5 minutes of the movie; if you're not entertained, then you won't be with the other ~90 minutes, so you'd probably be better off skipping this one. The only reason I'm not giving it 1/10 is because that imply it would be memorable for its awfulness, but sadly this movie isn't even that.

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• YOU WILL FEEL A LITTLE PINCH

  nogodnomasters2018-05-21

  The DVD cover pretty much covers the entire plot. Major John Cafferty (Tahmoh Penikett) leads a group of military people on a top secret mission into an Afghanistan cave. They get out minus their memories of the event. Most of the film takes place in a hospital setting with the actual trip being a flashback. If you look at the DVD cover you get to see what the "otherworldly" artifact looks like. The film would have been better if there was less hospital time and more tunnel time. The finding of the object and much of the film was designed to be disjointed which didn't work too well. It ended as if they are going to generate a series...perhaps for SyFy. Mark acting and dialogue as "needs improvement." Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

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• Awesome New Film

  shredvt2016-01-12

  What a great time our family had watching this cool new film. Along with our teen age sons, we were captivated by the twists and turns from the very beginning. Jacob's Ladder and the Truman show meets the Twilight Zone, this film suspended belief completely yet was grounded enough to keep us guessing and intrigued. We had a few questions at the beginning but slowly all was revealed in a poignant and interesting way. Maybe too many gunfire exchanges for mom, but all was redeemed by characters that were well defined and evolved as their motivations were unveiled- along with a very interesting plot twist that kept us on our seat until the end. We had so much fun watching this movie together, can't wait for "Painkillers 2!"

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• Average

  hopeharmer-908612016-01-08

  The acting isn't bad as I've seen some say. The story line is so so & parts don't make much sense. The script is definitely a B flick. Cinematography is also good. Its just too bad they didn't put more of an effort into the script. It's not a complete waste of time but not a movie you're going to talk about expect to try to figure out what really happened. It's not one of the worst I've seen. Only about 50% disappointed. An A for acting, A for cinematography but a C- for storyline & script. A lot of things don't add up & there seem to be some conflicting information about what is what. For example, at one time he says his wife does in a car accident. But yet she's still alive. Daughter died in accident as well but he did it for her? Those 2 pieces of info don't lend very much to the storyline itself.

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