Boot Camp (2008)

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

If only we still lived in the 1970's, when filmmakers were still unhinged artists and creative in a politically incorrect kind of way, the themes and substance featuring in "Boot Camp" could have made it an outrageously rough and twisted piece of grindhouse/drive-in exploitation! Supposedly "incontrollable" rich and spoiled US teenagers are unwillingly sent to a social rehabilitation camp by their "desperate" parents. "We have parental consent to take you with us" is the last thing they hear before they wake up somewhere on the Fiji Islands and in the devoted care of self-acclaimed doctor/guru Arthur Hail and his oddball 3-step ASAP program. Sophie and her boyfriend Ben – who deliberately ended up on the island to rescue her – attempt to escape to a nearby holiday resort, but when this fails the only remaining solution is to cause a revolution amongst the residents. "Boot Camp" features all the delicious ingredients to be a genuine piece of 70's exploitation trash: a tropical island location, naughty boys and wayward girls, a false but power-mad authority figure, perverted and corrupted guards, punishment pits and lots of cat fights in the mud! Unfortunately, however, we live in the post-2000 years and true exploitation as we knew it is long dead and buried… Admittedly "Boot Camp" isn't a horrible film, but fact of the matter remains that director Christian Duguay and his crew didn't have the guts to include any actual violence, sleaze or shocking content. Instead of a lurid action/thriller with drama aspects, it became a mostly dull drama with a couple of poor attempts to insert action. The film allegedly criticizes the real-life rehabilitation camps and their working methods, but who cares? I'm not a psychopath or a pervert, but a story like this simply just requires raw violence, rape and deranged stuff. Mila Kunis tries very hard to look tough, but fails embarrassingly. Peter Stormare has all the potential to be a terrific madman, but he's blocked by the script, and Tygh Runyan (what's in a name) nearly isn't memorable or hardcore enough as the evil sidekick.

This very intriguing film idea, is completely let down by the writers, the director and the supporting cast. Mila Kunis, Gregory Smith and Peter Stormare all do a somewhat decent job, but it's obvious that the directing is worse than sub par. But at least the cinematography is above average. The subject of this movie is very interesting, and apparently true. This is very shocking to me, and was reason enough for me to watch the film.All in all I really hope someone takes this subject and try again, because there is a good film hidden in this somewhere. Christian Duguay and the writers just didn't uncover it.

As someone who was in places similar to what this movie portrays, it was an excellent film. It did an excellent job of showing how places like that are run. How people can be staff members and think they are really doing good. How easily kids can turn on one another if given the slightest idea of freedom. And the fact the director of the place was just as twisted as the idea of the camp.. It all still makes me sick. The film absolutely hit home a lot of times. I thought they did an excellent job showing this. They may not have showed all that happens at these places, but they showed what needed to be showed and I am glad to know people are a little more knowledgeable now that they have seen this film.

Most of us are used to torture porn. With movies like Cabin Fever, Hostel, The Collector, and the countless Saws its a shock we can sleep. Those are all nice, though this one is real.The movie is about Sophie (Mila Kunis). After he father's death, she is stressed out in her life. Her parents are worried about her odd and relentless behavior toward her new stepfather, so they send her to boot camp (I would have sent her to a Daddy-Daughter Dance, saves money).Boot Camp members basically brutally kidnap Sophie and take her to a remote island off of Fiji. Instead of being a training camp like expected, it turns out to be an endless abuse and embarrassment school.People are locked in holes, thrown in mud, and beat with rods when refuse to do their work or just simply tired. Sophie's boyfriend Ben (Gregory Smith) does bad to get on the island and rescue her. But the strict leader doesn't like that.In the case of torture porn Horror movies. This one is real. The events in this movie actually occur. Unlike in Saw where a killer with lollipop circles on his face tries to lock you up in traps, this one is actually likable and realistic.The concept is stunning and meaningful and makes you feel as if you lived the story happening to these characters. Not a movie to watch twice, but definitely a must see kinda movie.Starring: Mila Kunis and Gregory Smith.