Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Orla Zuniga It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

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.

The_Dead_See It was interesting reading one of the other reviews on here that hits on how fraudulent Elrod seems in the first half of this documentary. I felt exactly the same way - that Elrod is a guy who either lives in a fantasy prone world or is outright hoaxing to make a quick buck. In fact I felt this way so much that after the first 30 minutes or so I kind of quit watching and started surfing the net on my computer instead while the documentary kept playing to itself in the background.I'm glad I didn't turn it off.Around the hour mark the documentary takes a turn, with Elrod heading out on a sort of spiritual quest, and gradually it caught my attention again. All talk of what he purportedly experiences goes away and instead he's just shown exploring a variety of spiritual groups from a new age mind control retreat, to a Buddhist center and finally a Native American vision quest in the forest.Ultimately the film becomes a message that all spiritual pursuits are probably just stumbling attempts pointing towards a single truth of the human condition. Elrod doesn't purport to comprehend this truth (he just calls it God) but he seems joyful enough to have come to the realization that it can't help but make the viewer feel a little uplifted with him.I should note that I'm agnostic bordering on atheism and I take vehement offense at any film that tries to preach to me. "Wake Up" did not, so even though the Christian concept of God is discussed through the first half of the film as Elrod's primary belief system, this is not a documentary that proselytizes in any way... so all you atheists out there are safe. So if you watch the documentary to the end, the question of whether Elrod is hoaxing or not kind of becomes moot. It becomes apparent that this is a film about human nature, inclusion and interconnectedness instead. It's about a journey away from organized religion and towards personal spirituality. Elrod may be a fictional protagonist heading towards this conclusion or he may legitimately believe in his experiences but it doesn't really matter because it still makes for a fairly engaging quest.

npepitone I agree with timmyhollywood's review on this documentary. It was boring and very poorly thrown together. I expected to see more concrete examples of his connections with spirits, like in the movie sixth sense. The only interesting part of the movie was the interview with Roger Nelson on his Global Consciousness Project, which has been collecting data from randomly generated numbers for 12 years. They claim that there is a connection between randomly generated numbers and world events, it is an interesting theory. However, I am skeptical.I'm disappointed that Netflix has a 3 star rating on this film. Skip this film and watch Tom Shadyac's 'I Am' documentary, which is also available on Netflix and much more inspiring.

bainst This is a good documentation of the early steps of a spiritual journey/awakening, but it is so generic and leaves so much unanswered (what was/were the experience(s) leading up to waking up one day to just suddenly see angels and demons?...just the dream of his friend that came to truly happen?...), that it's not fulfilling as either a documentary or a mocumentary.As it is, it comes off as another WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW? attempt by the Ramtha organization to bring in a few more students. Maybe if the lead character and his girlfriend hadn't both had previous filmmaking experience...although, it certainly makes it more understandable that they would choose to shoot a documentary of his exploration of possible meanings to his experiences.The reason I gave this a seven out of ten is because it is structurally sound, decent craft in the cinematography/directing/...acting?, and got me into it enough that I watched it to the end to see how it developed (even though I was questioning its reality the entire time). In any case, it's better than Juaquim Phoenix's satire of this sort of spiritual path...so even if it's a more constructed "documentary" it's very well done.p.s. (real spoiler here) -- The "answer" that is hinted at but never stated is that we are in Hell, ruled and tormented by demons...including many of the spiritual masters featured in this story. When you die, don't come back. Party's over (if it ever really got started).

timmyhollywood I'm surprised there are no other reviews on here. I'll be brief. This film did not impress, and the subject matter struck me as a fakery almost right away.As far as the craft of making a documentary film, there is very little here. Docs need skilled hands just like narratives do. Shooting things on a camcorder and cutting it together does not automatically a documentary film make.As far as the subject matter is concerned, if someone is making claims to be able to see the supernatural (angels, demons, ghosts, etc.) then that person should not be the director of the film. Don't ya think? That's a little bit of a conflict of interest.An even-handed approach to this would have been nice; an objective point of view from a third party filmmaker may have made this watchable. Instead, viewing the subject / director, Jonas, turn the camera on himself as he sits in front of the psychiatrist with this self-deprecating, dismissive schtick about seeing spirits only seemed like a performance.I believe Jonas is lying, and that this is a hoax. But even "hoax" is too big of a word. This is just a guy pretending. The giveaway, for me, is in his put-on cavalier attitude. He continually downplays what is happening to him, acting as though it is embarrassing. He is a very subdued character, shuffling around and mumbling about how he feels goofy burning sage because it is "new age." The film takes a chance and tries to show the viewers something like Jonas is claiming to see. These are CGI "spirits" which float around some people on a New York City street. They look like colored paper underwater, or like the teleporter characters in the X men movies. This could have been a nice touch in a better film, but here, it's only a reminder that we're not actually going to be able to see anything Jonas claims to see, because it doesn't exist. At least, not for him.I give Jonas a little credit for putting this into place with a back story about "how it all happened" - he basically planted seeds for a while before making the doc. This is the only crafty thing I found about his synthetic story.And I have one admission: I didn't make it through the whole film. I got maybe halfway. So maybe in the second half I would have become a believer. I would have stuck around had the crafting of the film been better.