Painkillers (2015)

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.

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.

Not bad but it feels like an overlong episode of the new Outer Limits. Not surprising as the latter was filmed in Canada often with Canadian actors in Canadian settings - as was this movie. It's not one of those amazing Outer Limits episodes that stay with you but one that's not bad. Enough twists to keep you interested. The actors have been doing their craft for years so they're good at it. Penikett and Feore both act as they do in most things. The two female leads were more animated and their roles were actually better than the star. Durance was Durance in a very small role. I did like the outdoor winter shots as they weren't faked and filmed in the Badlands around Drumheller, AB. Studio shots were dull, dark and limited. Again the feel of a TV show and not a movie. In fact I wonder if this wasn't anticipated as a pilot for a TV show. It plays it safe aiming for a TV audience. The ending (spoiler) has a voice over of 6 more spheres and they want the Penikett character. So not a sequel for one movie but a series - but more TV than movie. So if you watch it as you would a TV episode then you likely will enjoy it.

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.