Painkillers |
Canada • 2015 • 102m •
  • Directed by: Peter Winther. • Starring: Tahmoh Penikett, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Colm Feore, Erica Durance, Julia Voth, Rick Bognar, Tom Carey, Skerivet Daramola, Travis Friesen, Joel Jackshaw, Roger LeBlanc, Caroline Lindy, Rahim Manji. • Music by: Alec Harrison.     Led by Major John Cafferty, a squad of US soldiers are sent on a mission,deep into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan with orders to extract a mysterious top secret package. Now they are back home in a military hospital because they have no memory of what happened to them, or even who they are. In time, they start to recall the strange events that occurred: apparitions that appeared, luring some of them to their deaths and readings of a powerful electromagnetic energy from a strange unearthly power source. But there is no time to dwell on the past, they need to face the bitter truth about how they ended up in Afghanistan to begin with and the betrayals that wiped out their minds and nearly destroyed their lives.
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Review:
Playing out more like a sci-fi channel film than an action war film as it's DVD packaging suggested, it's immediately evident that Tour of Duty's screenplay is better than average, maintaining an impressive juggling act of military industrial complex conspiracies, paranoia thriller tropes and well rounded characters to sugar it all on top.
The plot twists are skillfully executed and the lore built up around them is both accessible and believable. It's a TV movie for sure with it's basic lighting and camera work which make no attempt to hide the fact that most of this was shot on a studio set, but what these kind of low budget sci-fi tv shows lack in aesthetic quality, they make up for in plot density. Also. some dialogue was inaudible, but I was never confused by any series of events. The story just keeps going and I found myself never too bored for long. For a B movie such as this, that is high praise indeed and it is deserved.
This is a conspiracy thriller done right. It has self-awareness, it cares for it's characters, the cast is game and the plot is engaging. I had fun. This is the kind of the normy, middle of the road fare i just can't get mad at. It doesn't promote any dangerous ideas, it's never too mean-spirited and it is fast paced throughout. Maybe I don't myself watching it again, but as someone who is well versed in direct to dvd genre films, trust me when I say there are way worse ways you can spend 101 minutes.
Review by daniel-mannouch from the Internet Movie Database.
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