a5c7b9f00b In this action thriller, Billie Kope, searching for her sister who disappeared in Mexico, awakens on a remote island with no memory of her abduction. She teams up with a group of survivors, where her skills in Russian Special Forces combat help them resist sinister black operations soldiers who hunt them down and abduct them for reasons unknown. For Billie, the mystery of the island is ultimately connected to the fate of her missing sister and one which when uncovered, will bring violence down on not only the island but the perpetrators of this bizarre and diabolical scheme in continual need of fresh victims to awaken.
A random group of people wake up on an Island where they are being hunted down.
This film takes its original title from the first action of its central characters, in particular they awaken on a tropical beach with a recollection of being in a fight or some such. The last arrival is our heroine, who is certainly no damsel. <br/><br/>The first question is who or what is behind this bizarre set up? If you have seen films of this kind before - "Kingdom Come" or the classic TV series "The Prisoner" - you will know there are two broad explanations: supernatural or human artifice. It doesn't take long for it to become clear there is nothing supernatural about "A Perfect Vacation", although not everyone is who he appears to be.<br/><br/>The bottom line is that an organisation - small but evil - is offering life-saving transplant operations to the rich and powerful. And guess who are the donors? They have been dumped here in the wilds so their bodies will be purified, purged of all the toxins us city dwellers have in every cell. That is about it, although the heroine has a hidden agenda, the search for her lost sister. The latest recipient is a young, desperately ill girl who is brought there by her mother. Suffice it to say, things don't go to plan. A few years from now, 3D printing will eliminate the need for transplant surgery as we know it, but we can still have a gorefest in the meantime.<br/><br/>There is quite a bit of action, and although the plot is minimal, the film still manages to be a little confusing, but if you like films of this nature, you'll probably like this one.
For a small, independent, real-life horror film, Awaken has a lot of pieces to it's story, there really is a lot going on, in what initially seemed like a cut and dry story. If this film had been done a bit differently, and if it's impressive cast had been used for more than simple cameos, this may have been a much better film. The story begins with Billie (Natalie Burn) waking up on an island, being chased by strangers, and rescued by another group of strangers. She comes to learn that everyone in her group of rescuers woke up as she did, and appear to be hunted for sport. Billie wants to escape to one of the nearby cluster of islands, but learns that attempts have been made, and no one has ever come back, but Billie is a military brat and refuses to accept that. The story here is very well written, especially for this type of film, but everything is so anti-climatic. Just about every scene turns into a fight scene or a shoot out and there is nothing original about that. Honestly, what is the point of having this great story idea if ever scene is going to end up the same way? There is also the fact that the casting is a complete mystery. This film managed to get Darryl Hannah, Edward Furlong, David Keith, and Robert Davi and they simply make cameo appearances in ancillary roles? If that's the case, why even waste the money to bring them in? Awaken had the story, it had the cast, it had the looks, it even had a premium location, but poor dialogue, predictable outcomes, a misused cast, and a painfully horrendous ending absolutely destroyed what could have otherwise been a rather entertaining film.