just say no

I was very surprised that I was disappointed in this film. It just didn't have the....not sure what but whatever it was missing something. The atmospheric shooting was well done but I think the script let it down. The actors are all decent actors and didn't do a bad job. I am glad others loved it. just wish I had.

I'll add my voice to that. Perhaps not to the superlative, but definitely one of the top few. In several years on IMDB, I have only voted on two movies. Both with 1 star. One was Argo. The other was this one. Well, it wasn't Argo bad, but it was still just about as bad as a movie can be.

I only lasted 45 minutes - largely because I was busy doing chores... but I actually stopped it before the chores were done because it was hurting my brain it was so stupid.

OK, I get the Columbine connection, but right from the very beginning, you knew what was going to happen - and why. You knew immediately that the girl that everything was happening to was going to die - literally 3 seconds after the leads were shown on screen. One was pretty, one was average. The pretty one would be the main character, therefore she would be the one to die.

Now there have been movies I enjoyed where the ending was clear or given away in the beginning because the journey was engaging. This one: not even a little bit. Boring, stupid characters. At their most intriguing, they barely measured a 'nyeh' from me.

Blatantly obvious clues were also liberally dotted around:
The butterfly in the garden. The thunder and lightning after the other girl left. The fact that little miss hottie has sex (movie cliche). The fact that the other one is religious (which points more to the fact that they wouldn't dare kill that one off for fear of vicious backlash). It's like the entire movie was just a bunch of neon signs saying "THIS GIRL IS ABOUT TO DIE" - and not really much else. There wasn't one single engaging, endearing character in the movie. The husband was cardboard. The daughter was cardboard. The friend was nobody in particular. The person I cared most about was the aging teacher who was clearly attracted and from my point of view had decided to do nothing but encourage her to embrace adulthood (perhaps before he made a move).

It reminded me of unwrapping a gift of a pair of cheap socks, wrapped in transparent wrapping paper. Zero surprise factor and just an overall crummy gift.

Then there was the incredibly stupid bathroom scene. Zero tension. Just two girls in the bathroom with a guy with a fake gun waiting for the script to unfold. When he fired off into the wall, neither of them rushed him. Heck they didn't even try talking to him. WTF. Then, when he reloaded his *only* weapon, neither girl rushed him. Yeah, I know there's fear, but in the real events those kids were armed to the *TEETH*. The girls knew that they were most likely both going to die (well if it were reality), and this guy spends almost 10 seconds fiddling with his gun while it is obviously completely empty.

WTF? Couldn't the props department have at least found a couple of plastic guns or a knife handle to duct tape to his legs or something?

The Columbine boys were dangerous, well planned and organized. This guy looked like a loser with a kick me sign on his crotch (remember that the girl had actually done that before, so we know that's how she could react).

Utter garbage.

Want a truly mindblowing tale of a person reacting to rapidly impending death with interesting, realistic characters and truly heart-rending scenes, check out Sarah Polley's My Life Without Me (aka the saddest, most tragic movie ever). Be warned - get some tissues ready, even if you are a tough guy. It's around a billion times better than this tripe.