Unaware (2013)

Let's be realistic.

Better Late Then Never

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Slowest start and a weak attempt at building anticipation. Talking for long long LONG scenes about the barn being off limits, for example. We got its importance the first time. And building it up and having them go in and just. talk. more. when they do finally get into the barn is not the way to capture an audience's attention.This movie seemed ad libbed in many of the scenes, and unfortunately, the actors just didn't have the skills to pull it off. It didn't help that they were given "Female Character" and "Male Character" as personalities, either.The first twenty minutes actually felt like watching a home video of a slightly boring couple. They talk about Roy and the barn a lot, but it is repetitive and annoying, rather than working us towards any kind of interest or dread. It also fell into the biggest trap of found footage movies. I'm sure it must be really hard to shoot a movie that looks professional while also appearing to be shot by amateurs. It must be hard, since so few movies can do it well (The Borderlands was good at this, as was the otherwise horrifying Skinwalkers Ranch). The shaky camera, losing focus, the weird tracking thing that I didn't think happened on digital cameras, setting the camera down at uncomfortable angles, the static, having half the movie shot in the dark are all unnecessary and detract from the movie. A few of these things could bring us into the premise of the movie. Having all of them makes the movie impossible to watch. It is worse than having it shot in a traditional way. (At 35 minutes, I have written this review up to this point, and nothing has happened in this movie. This review is now the only thing keeping me sane.) There are three or four conversations at this point that they've had multiple times. That is absolutely unnecessary, and I don't understand how anyone watched this edit and thought, yes, this is great, we should release this.They shouldn't have released it. "LOOKS LIKE ITS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE"Is this a primary school play. Could you beat us over the head with this plot any harder. I may not understand what's happening yet. 45 minutes of barn talk hasn't been enough to give me a back-story to this inane plot. Please. Explain more. Hopefully for the rest of the hour twenty."Let's not get ahead of ourselves"No. At 45 minutes, you are absolutely behind yourselves. You are licking your own butts. NOTHING HAS OCCURRED. "HIS ADVENTURES DRIVE ME NUTS"He's gone into a barn. Three times. His grandfather's barn. His grandfather's papers. Wow, son. Calm down before you hurt yourself. That is a wild life you're leading. Watching TV and sleeping and looking in a barn.This movie only makes sense if they are aliens.ooo I hope they are aliens.They see a dead thing in an old box and proceed to freak out. As if maybe that will convince me that this movie is worth watching. Maybe if the actors pretend this is a big deal, the audience will be convinced that something is actually happening! I, however, am not that easily fooled. I know there's nothing happening because I have spent the last 58 minutes watch nothing happen.I don't think they're aliens.He goes on about his grandfather being his only family, but doesn't wait four hours for him to get home to explain the barn before calling the FBI. "This is a very. serious. situation." No, its not. You found some old stuff in a barn. This is how they try to build anticipation. Now, we have to go and look in the barn before the cops get here! We don't want to get my grandfather in trouble! Who knows what else is in there! If you didn't want to implicate your grandfather, you could have, oh, not called the FBI?They have been arguing for the past ten minutes about going to the barn. She, the nagging wife before they even get married. He, to stalwart man trying to defend his grandfather from the FBI he called on him.I'm hoping this movie is a joke, because otherwise people watched this and thought it was good. and that. That is so sad.They've spent more of this movie talking about going to the barn than being in it, which is frankly ridiculous as they've gone into it five times. FIVE TIMES. "What is that? What the f* is that?"I have no idea, since you are shooting it in the dark with a blurry camera at 200 yards. However, having since seen it closer in the next ten minutes of the movie, I'm pretty sure its a guy in a rubber suit.I'm glad you both went missing. I only wish it had happened 120 minutes ago.TL;DR There is slow build and then there is this plodding excuse for a movie. Terrible cinematography, writing, pacing and acting just add to mind-numbing redundancy of this 120 minutes. Avoid.

**spoiler alert**There are already reviews that walk you through the story-line so I will save you from reading another iteration of it. Essentially I will focus on why this movie is so brutally and obviously fake and a complete insult to the found footage genre. However before I slice this apart I will say that the movie producers and director did a tremendous job of hyping this and creating a thick layer of internet rumor buzz including lacing the communication lines with rumors of the actors being unknown and still missing and the Governments involvement in this cover-up. Well played marketing lead-up however there are so many things that become obvious and predictable once you see this movie that this marketing hype, like me, may completely offend you. I will start by saying that when they make movies like this where they want you to believe something that is not real, they will start with many 'setups' strategically placed to convince you. Secondly because they are so focused on convincing you that they miss really key little details to hold the story together to keep you believing.So I will create my list for you focusing on the 'setups' and 'details' in no particular order so that you can make your own deduction: 1) Setup - on the way to their grandfathers, the pass and pay particular attention to a military base - makes us believe there is military involvement of some kind 2) Setup - male actor shares his distant relationship with grandfather and the secret nature of his service - makes us believe there are secrets ahead 3) Setup - big chained fence with intercom at a country home - makes us believe something big might be behind it (female actor also builds this for us in a badly acted way) 4) Detail - although the big chain fence is locked the male actor still remembers the code - makes us believe a grandfather that is hiding something would not change the code (sure). 5) Setup - grandfather and grandmother not home - surprise, surprise (of course they're not home) - makes us believe they will be alone 6) Detail - poor acting by female actor to get mad at male actor about not calling ahead - not believable at all as she lets him off the hook way too easily. 7) Detail - male actor knows where he hides the key to the house - which is in the middle of the back yard near a true in no specific spot (hmmmm, must have been right there in the grass where it is obvious and easy to be mowed over...makes sense!) 8) Setup - male actor shows female actor around showing the 69 Cutlass - ah, because this will be used later so you have to know about it now. 9) Setup - male actor talks about his grandfather never letting him go near or see inside of the barn - so we are made to believe that a kid as curious as this guy has never, ever seen inside this barn...nice setup to ask "Oh, please tell us what's inside". 10) Detail/Setup - absolutely no chemistry between these 2 and his big surprise is he is taking her to his grandparents' house (with his grandfather who doesn't like him) to arrive unannounced only to propose to his girlfriend...how romantic! (Brutal detail and setup!) 11) Detail - they apparently make food and she arrives back with a movie, he pours wine and they proceed to eat what appears to be snacks for their romantic post proposal dinner. Of course all he can do after proposing is think about going to the barn...as anyone would do after proposing of course. Again poor detail and setup. 12) Setup - male actor goes to barn to hear a strange noise inside only to get scared and run back to the house - making us believe something ominous is inside...oh...ah. Of course if you were really that freaked out I guess like all of us we would stay put on the property and think more about it vs getting the hell out of there!!! 13) Setup - tries to tell girlfriend but she is too engulfed in her movie - making us believe it is now his big secret. 14) Setup/Detail - talks to the camera...which by the way...they are documenting their weekend way too closely as this camera is going absolutely everywhere with them....people don't even us a GoPro this way! Additionally he mentions earlier that he will leave the place exactly how he found it yet he is smoking in the house in their bed....how courteous of him; I am sure his military, raged grandfather Roy will be fine with this! 15) Setup/Detail – he convinces his girlfriend to back to the barn and gets a crowbar to open the lock - makes us believe she is involved in the mystery to build suspense. Detail missed is he twists the crowbar a few times to open the lock, only to claim fixing it later (even though he is afraid of his grandfather)...really??? (END OF PART 1 OF 2)

I was on board for a hot second with this one. I love alien movies and found footage genre type stuff. This, however was lacking in almost all areas that you would expect to find in something described as "is it real?" type genre film. I find it mildly unbelievable that anyone could actually think that this movie was the real deal or any 'found footage' film for that matter. It's a movie. It's been produced and been shown in theaters, obviously it isn't going to be real. Anyways, what's more awful than that marketing idea was the atrocious acting. I kept waiting for it to get better and for something to actually happen but I couldn't even bring myself to believe in the story because they both were so bad. The woman playing 'Lisa' was probably the worst, however 'Joe or Joel', I could never really tell, was not anymore spectacular. Their chemistry was horrid, their motivation completely irrational and scripted beyond belief, and their reactions to each other and to the events were barely able to be taken seriously. If you want something to preoccupy your time for a bit then you can watch this but honestly I wouldn't expect anything more than something your friends could put together with a less than stunning hand-held.

Another one of those found footage movies , I have been looking forward to this movie since the trailer came out. The trailer seem great however this as got to be one the BIGGEST Disappointment's Ever! (I love most found footage movies.This as got to be the most boring-est and dullest movie I have ever sat thought, there nothing really happens until hour into the movie. Little things were like over in an flash and then panic and then it's calm down for again until last five minutes of the movie, where the movie start going and of course ends! The scenes was okay but nothing great at all as there were no suspense in this movie at all, not sure what to thing of the Alien. I felt I seen this done before and better in Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape (Which was not great but still miles better then this movie) And what hell was the point of that end of Credit scene, Blue sky! The acting was wooden at times by lead Male, the Girl scream was good! One of the worst and dullest of them Found footage movies (I have seen more then few)3/10 Very, Very, VERY! Poor!