Kyle Halsted (Dustin Milligan) is being ostracized due to his previous drug use. His younger sister (Alexia Fast) refuses to talk to him. Sonia Logan (Amanda Crew) can't bring herself to visit her dying father in the hospital. Michael Weeks (Richard de Klerk) visits his imprisoned father who hates him. The three young people are struggling in a rehab center run by Bob Simpson. After getting electrocuted by a late night storm, the trio discovers that they are redoing the same day over again.
The repeats lack tension early on. It's only with Kyle and Michael going head to head when the movie finds its purpose and its villain. It needs its villain before over half the movie is gone. They don't need to be friends. The movie should be done with Kyle as the protagonist and Michael as the antagonist. He could discover Sonia doing different things and recruit her to help stop Michael. The Groundhog Day script could be much more intense with the two leads battling it out. That only happens in the second half and Sonia's story has no bite. There is potential in the premise. Some of this works more than others.
Repeaters
2010
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Repeaters
2010
Action / Crime / Drama / Mystery / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Plot summary
In Mission City, Kyle Halsted, Sonia Logan and Michael "Mike" Weeks are interned in a rehabilitation facility run by Bob Simpson. One Wednesday, they have a pass to go outside the site and Kyle visits his sister Charlotte Halsted (Alexia Fast) at the Mission Secondary School but she does not talk to him. Sonia goes to the hospital where her father is terminal, but she does not visit him. Mike visits his father at the Maximum Security Correctional Facility where he is prisoner and the man does not talk to mike. During the night, there is a storm and Kyle, Sonia and Mike have electrical shocks and on the next morning, they awaken on the same day. When they realize that the Wednesday is repeating over and over again, their first reaction is to have fun with dangerous situations. Soon Kyle and Sonia disclose secrets and they decide to use the days to resolve personal issues mending their lives. But Mike decides to route through a criminal life believing that on the next morning, everything would be over.
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gets interesting with a villain
STEP NINE: MAKE AMENDS
Kyle (Dustin Milligan) Sonia (Amanda Crew) and Mike (Richard de Klerk) are in a rehab center for juveniles. After being cooped up for three months they get to go out into the world and make amends. Our trio has difficulty doing it. Kyle's sister refuses to listen to Kyle. Sonia has major league daddy issues and Mike's father who is behind bars because of him is less than a forgiving person.
The next day, our threesome realizes they are in Groundhog Day as the day keeps repeating. Mike wants to behave as a criminal, knowing all his sins will be erased the next day. The other two indulge him at first, but then to Mike's dismay want to seek a path of forgiveness and redemption.
Unfortunately I have seen Groundhog Day so the repeat aspect got old real fast. The story line had barely enough plot to keep me interested. It was too much like a Lifetime drama.
Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.
Not developed enough
This movie tries to take the 'Groundhog Day' idea into darker territory, with three recovering drug-addicts in rehab getting to live a bad day over and over again, until, presumably, they get something right.
Besides the dark edge, this movie also promises interesting developments by having three friends go through it together in different ways. At first, and after the confusion, they have wild fun with it and even hold up a liquor store. But then two of them start introspecting when they have to deal with their families and a suicidal jumper. The third, however, seeing the endless hate his father has for him, decides to give up and give in to the dark side of his insecurities, and turns to a nihilistic life of brutal crime, since there are no consequences to his actions anyways.
So it starts becoming interesting, and in a sense, they become god-like beings that can get away with anything, except that the more conscience-laden duo now also have a 'super-villain' on their hands to deal with, while the regular world suffers the consequences.
But then it stops being interesting, fizzles out, and just ends.
Their attempts at stopping him never become creative (for example, they don't even bother finding out who starts their day first by a few seconds, thus giving that person a slight edge). Their time-loop and personal dramas are solved with only a couple of lazy pop-psychology revelations and confessions. The development of the bad guy is way too fast and extreme - it could have worked if they had to repeat a hundred times or so, but to turn into a suicidal-rapist-murderer within 3-4 days is a bit much. And their 'thoughtful' introspection about consequences for their actions ends abruptly when one guy says: 'I need it to mean something'. Way to go, Schopenhauer.
And so on. It just doesn't develop its ideas in any way. And then there's the ending where the bad guy gets to repeat himself, while the rest move on. If you think about it, since none of them see any meaning in their lives and its only about whether they get caught or feel bad for their family, the ending means that the bad guy gets to live it up without consequences, and the good guys have to live with their consequences and bad decisions. So even the faux-moral ending is a product of muddled and lazy thinking. Lazy movie-making does not produce great movies.