HeadlinesExotic Boring

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

fedor8 This is why certain directors should only direct and leave the writing to others. (Though by others I don't mean JJ Abrams or Stephen King.) I'd seen another movie from this guy just a few days before this one, and it has very similar flaws. "Carnage Park" has a few stylistic things going for it but the premise is badly explored and the plot completely disintegrates in the second half.Similarly, "Pod" starts off OK, then gets stuck in an overlong but solid middle, then becomes so predictable and cliche in its conclusion, almost as if the movie decided to score on its own goal, as if it decided it had to fail, shoot its own foot several times over. The middle section is marred by needlessly long padding in the form of the nutty army vet, who instead of just SHOWING his siblings the alien, decides to TALK about it, and in such an animated way that it makes Brad Pitt's performance in "12 Monkeys" look reserved and shy by comparison.You have almost never seen this level of overacting, not even from Brad Dourrif, John Travolta, Will Shatner or Nick Cage. I can see why he'd overact and it's not uninteresting, but the real issue here isn't that, it's the repetitive nature of that entire segment. Yes, the plot is very thin and the writer/director tried to stretch it quite a bit, going in circles instead of getting on with it.But it's the very dumb ending that completely ruins everything, for several reasons. Firstly, the alien is yet another skinny, naked, elongated, shrieking idiot, as corny as the aliens in a South Park episode. How boring. Secondly, the moment the sister approaches a car we just KNOW that a government agent is in it. Thirdly, the moment we see his face we KNOW that not only is he an agent but won't help her at all. Thirdly, as soon as she says the words "government experiment" we KNOW he will take her as a prisoner or kill her. He kills her. Then, predictably, the agent kills the other brother. Even dumber, the agent gets killed by the alien despite the Will Farrel look-alike actor having smashed his head in thoroughly minutes earlier.And why is an alien referred to as a "pod"? This is almost Ed Wood level of stupid.

thelastblogontheleft This movie starts off like many a winter isolation movie before it — with a freakin' dog getting killed in the woods. This is our brief introduction to Martin (Brian Morvant), a dishonorably discharged veteran who is now suffering from a slew of mental illnesses and has isolated himself at the family's cabin deep in the woods of Maine. He leaves a vague but worrying voicemail for his brother, Ed (Dean Cates), which prompts him and their sister, Lyla (Lauren Ashley Carter), to stage an intervention… though they find something far more disturbing than expected when they arrive.Honestly, I was disappointed by this one. It felt like they tried to cram a bit too much into one movie, and a short one at that (with only a 76-minute run time it'd be hard for much of anything to not feel rushed). We've got the dysfunctional family dynamic (with Ed and Lyla annoying the crap out of me with their constant bickering), the psychiatrist-brother (the apparent justification for him being a condescending prick), the mentally unstable veteran, the government conspiracy theory, the cabin in the snowy woods, and, of course, the monster, whatever it is. I think if it was done better it would almost feel like a lost episode of The X-Files but, as it stands now, I don't want to even insult such a brilliant show by making such a comparison.The acting left much to be desired… from everyone, really, but they went with such a stereotype for Martin's character, with the long, drawn-out stream of consciousness babbling and the pacing and the literal tinfoil on the windows. It just wasn't believable and honestly it was distracting to have him constantly moving around the screen, pacing and doing his very best "crazy guy" act.Their whole confrontation with Martin and revealing that they planned to take him to a doctor — it's implied that it's a doctor that he knows and has some prior issues with — and his violent reaction are, I think, good (albeit extreme) examples of just how wrong interventions can go. It's tragic, in a way, that they went to help Martin and it wound up taking such an extremely dark turn. His suicide was indeed shocking, though, and one of the few interesting twists of the movie.He had previously been trying to tell them about how the military had experimented on him (and many others) — there's a briefly bloody scene of him pulling out some teeth he is convinced have devices embedded in them — and how he has a creature trapped in the basement that he found in a pod in the woods. He was convinced that the government is attempting to create some kind of assassins, and Ed and Lyla are still worried about WHO (or what) he actually has imprisoned in the house. The moment of Ed yelling "hello?" down into this pitch black void of a basement was surprisingly scary… just not knowing what might be ready to answer on the other end was briefly terrifying. He goes down to explore (what!?!?) and, naturally, the power goes out (check the 34872nd stereotype off the list) and he is attacked in the darkness. He narrowly escapes and sends Lyla to go for help, which means we get to hear EVEN MORE of her screaming. Honestly, she spends like 67% of the dang movie screaming her face off (or crying, or just being otherwise hysterical).This is the point where it is confirmed, yet again, that Martin was right, this really IS a conspiracy, as Lyla encounters a mysterious man (Larry Fessenden) in a car who wastes no time shooting her and cramming her body in the trunk. He goes to the house and takes care of Ed as well, and then we hear him phoning in to another mysterious person about the state of things before he himself is killed by the creature. I understand keeping this aspect of the story so brief — the tragedy of knowing how close they were to starting to understand, and knowing that Martin WAS telling the truth after all, is key. But, sadly, this part of the story is wayyyy more interesting than siblings arguing or Lyla screaming or any of the other things that filled a majority of the movie.Again, I think a bit more polished (and with better acting all around), this could have been a real gem. I will definitely keep an eye on this director, though, since I think he's going in a cool direction! I believe this was his third film and I've heard great things about a couple of his others since (Darling and Carnage Park), so we'll see!

jzimmermanuscg This is my first IMDb review; however I'd like to think I'm a film aficionado with good taste in movies. I'm the type of viewer that, if watching from home or online, I will only give a movie a few minutes to catch my interest before turning it off or switching to something else.I thought this film was extremely well-acted, well-shot, and just overall well-done. The scenery and setting of the film was outstanding. The cinematography was great, and the acting was very well done as well- especially from the character Martin. The movie had a unique plot, and the antagonist was very unexpected. If I wanted to dig real deep, I might actually be able to find some sort of political statement being made about the effects of war on our veterans, PTSD, and the harsh methods that are sometimes used to treat them; but that might be digging a bit too deep. My only complaint is with the arrival of the final character. His acting, though brief, was the worst of the bunch; along with his $5 Walmart walkie-talkie, cliché trench coat and fedora, etc. The ending of the movie is definitely a cliffhanger and more than invites a sequel.Overall, I thought this was a pretty good horror/sci-fi film (leaning more toward sci-fi), and most definitely worth a watch.

assistec24 Acting : zero of 10. Script - the same. A less then low budget B-movie, something like the 1 hour of 12 years kids playing Halloween with a camera in a bad day. All the movie are 3 peoples acting not just bad but terrific, a shaking camera, red lights or no light at all, and 2 more peoples with 2 minutes roles each; all common places, no ideas at all, nothing original and just an awful movie. I can say its the worst movie of the year, by far. I give 1 star, but the real value should be 10 negative stars.Save your time and take the kids to a walk on park, or the dog - no matter, anything its better then this 1 hour + of torture.