Dead Awake (First Look Pictures)
Dead On Arrival
Out of nowhere comes the film Dead Awake. It arrived without any trailers, screenings, etc and plopped on to screens. The films stars Nick Stahl, Rose McGowan and Amy Smart and tells the story of a young man trying to solve the mystery of a fatal accident.
Dylan (Stahl) works at a funeral parlor and grieves for the girl who got away. Her name is Natalie (Smart) and she and Dylan were high school sweethearts. They planned to go to college together and be together forever. Now it is ten years later and Natalie is with someone else and Dylan is just treading water in his life. A car accident in his past seems to be haunting his present day life.
In a hare-brained scheme cooked up with his employer Decko (Bryan Lynner), Dylan decides to fake his own funeral. Only two people show up and they are Natalie and a drugged out girl named Charlie (McGowan). Dylan follows Charlie back to her rat hole of an apartment. When he confronts her she assumes he is dead and is her guardian angel.
It gets worse from that point and spirals downward quickly. Not any of it makes any sense and the motivation to even make this movie is doubtful. It is hard to believe it will make any money even on DVD. But perhaps it will.
The acting is average with McGowan being the best of the three. Stahl looks bad physically and acts worse. Smart is just the girl in the movie not adding anything as far as characterization. Lynner is probably the best actor in the movie and he overplays his role.
The movie is rated R for violence, drug usage and profanity.
If ever there was a movie that was made just to be filler for the multi-screens in a movie theater this is it. The movie has a plot that is difficult to follow, actors who walk through their roles, and nothing important to say. There seems to be some effort made to address living a good life so you wont be stuck in a purgatory on earth, but I may have missed the point altogether.
Dead Awake is another step down on a once bright movie career Nick Stahl had when he starred opposite Mel Gibson in The Man Without A Face. At that time he showed real promise but the promise was never fulfilled.
I scored Dead Awake a drop dead 3 out of 10.
