Not Forgotten (2009)

Expected more

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

"Not Forgotten" probably won't do much to enhance U.S./Mexico relations. Set in Del Rio, Texas, a town located just north of the border, this thriller stars "The Mentalist"s Simon Baker as a loan officer whose daughter is kidnapped by a bloodthirsty religious cult that, we're told, has achieved widespread notoreity in Mexico."Not Forgotten" - which is strong on atmosphere and milieu and weak on anything even remotely resembling suspense - features all the red herrings, false leads and narrative blind alleys that we've come to expect from such films, with each of the characters harboring some deep dark secret from the past that, when it is finally revealed, turns out to be a surprise only to the other characters in the story. For, indeed, when the most likely suspect turns out to be the actual culprit in the end, you know that the screenplay could probably have used a few more runs through the typewriter before going before the cameras.

Jack Bishop (Simon Baker, "Land of the Dead") is your typical American. A beautiful wife and daughter, nice home, coach of the soccer team. But things go horribly awry one day when his daughter Toby (young horror veteran Chloe Moretz) goes missing... has she been brought across the border to become a prostitute? Or is she the victim of a known sex offender? Jack will stop at nothing to find out, even if he must reveal his own secret past.I had little familiarity with the people who made this film, beyond Chloe Moretz, who has been the girl in more or less ever horror film for five years -- and I'm not complaining. Paz Vega played a strong lead, although the rumor is she replaced Jordana Brewster, a friend of Killer Reviews. With all due respect to Brewster, I think Vega was the right casting choice -- she had the elegance, the versatility and the pluck to be the multi-faceted character she needed to be. Rounding out the notable cast is Claire Forlani ("Mallrats"), with a far too small role as the prostitute Katie.Simon Baker, who was not known to be (I have not seen TV's "The Mentalist"), was a commanding lead in every sense of the word. A devoted father, mysterious possible suspect, heroic ex-thug. I felt he was a natural for every position he was put into. As the plot twists and turns (which is really another strength of this film -- I had to keep guessing) he is able to roll with it and make every thing believable.Horror fans will enjoy this film, though it's not horror in any strict sense. It's a dark mystery thriller, with a cult, some epic violence -- one of the most brutal beatings I have ever seen on film -- and some creepy imagery. I was visually seduced. There's also some decent action and suspense... not too much romance (sorry, ladies) and a spattering of humor, but only just the bare minimum, keeping the film tense and taut.I found the film to have an interesting social and political commentary, though I don't feel it was intentional. Over the last several years, there have been a few horror films with a Mexican flavor, such as "All Soul's Day" and "The Dead One". By and large, these were failures. "Not Forgotten" has a strong American/Mexican theme, with border crossings and international crime being a key undercurrent. How accurate these are, I do not know -- I live in Wisconsin where we see more Canadians than Mexicans. But the way the border was portrayed struck me as fascinating and believable, as well as timely in a culture where fear of immigrants comes to a head again and again. This film portrayed Mexicans as both heroes and as ruthless killers, not stereotyping them one way or another, and I found that to be very honest."Not Forgotten" is a straight-to-DVD release, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's less than great. Even with my sporadically short attention span (I often require friends and/or booze to get through a film in one sitting) I could not remove my eyes from this movie. A pure win from beginning to the amazing twist at the end. Could a prequel or sequel be in the works?

This is a great movie. I haven't found any good suspense/mystery thrillers lately, and Not Forgotten has finally relieved that. I personally love a good suspense thriller with mind game twists. The depth of the story was refreshing, and it always kept me guessing as to what was going to happen next. And the ending, well I'll just say I never saw it coming.Simon Baker's acting was spot on, and Paz Vega was a great compliment. They really worked as an enticing lead pair. Although Cloe Moretz might not get as much screen time as the other main actors in the film, she still maintains a powerful role throughout the film. This movie is definitely worth seeing.Their website is awesome too.

Not Forgotten has it all. I didn't know what to expect from noted commercial director Dror Soref, but what I got was a first class production that well exceeded my expectations for a "night at the movies."The movie is a thriller, and a thrill-ride, in that it takes very unexpected twists and turns throughout—almost from the get-go. What was refreshing about this film was that it always stayed several steps ahead of the audience. Most modern audiences figure out films too easily. I can emphatically state that this will not be the case in Not Forgotten. The tale follows a family living in Del Rio, Texas—a typical border town, between the US and Mexico. Although it starts off with scenes of girls' soccer games and hot dogs in the town squares, it quickly takes a turn to a darker side into the occult—the Santa Muerte cult (which roughly translates into "Holly Death").When the daughter of successful bank manager is kidnapped, it sparks a chain of events that don't stop igniting until the very end. This is the story of Jack Bishop (Baker) delving into his past in order to find his only daughter. Not only does the search involve the entire community of worshiping denizens of Del Rio, it encompasses the seeder inhabitants of the dark, back alleys and brothels of towns just South of the Border. It also takes us into up close and personal with the depths that humanity can fall to—to view it face to face. But the most chilling aspect was the narration by the kidnapped Toby Bishop. It's particularly haunting, as she's narrating days after her disappearance—at her own vigil. Considering the frightfully frequency of female abductions in the US border town—the film touches on the "what if"—in this case, what if the preteen Toby has been taken to Mexico and forced into prostitution. Her father states in no uncertain terms the lengths he is willing to go, the depths he will travel to find his daughter—no matter what he has to do find her abductors. In the words of Toby Bishop, "There are just some things that you can't ask the Virgin for…"Baker's transformation is enthralling. From soccer coach dad, to terrifyingly revengeful about getting his daughter back. No more mister nice guy isn't even close when he his got the perpetrators in his sights. The sheer brutality and Baker's cold dedication, make this one of those scenes that you can't forget. Not Forgotten is told in classic storytelling fashion—in the vein of Hitchcock. It is beautifully shot and full of surprising details. The cast, not just the leading but all of the supporting characters are tremendously strong—making this a very well crafted tale. The director is an imaginative filmmaker who creates art with suspense. It is definitely one to see again as all the clues now come to the surface—missed cinematic gems along the tumultuous path that leads one to its powerful conclusion. That is NOT FORGOTTEN.