Painkillers
Painkillers
| 15 November 2015 (USA)
Painkillers Trailers

Led by Major John Cafferty, a squad of US soldiers are sent on a mission,deep into the mountainous regions of Afghanistan with orders to extract a mysterious top secret package. Now they are back home in a military hospital because they have no memory of what happened to them, or even who they are. In time, they start to recall the strange events that occurred: apparitions that appeared, luring some of them to their deaths and readings of a powerful electromagnetic energy from a strange unearthly power source. But there is no time to dwell on the past, they need to face the bitter truth about how they ended up in Afghanistan to begin with and the betrayals that wiped out their minds and nearly destroyed their lives.

Reviews
Michael Ledo

The DVD cover pretty much covers the entire plot. Major John Cafferty (Tahmoh Penikett) leads a group of military people on a top secret mission into an Afghanistan cave. They get out minus their memories of the event. Most of the film takes place in a hospital setting with the actual trip being a flashback.If you look at the DVD cover you get to see what the "otherworldly" artifact looks like.The film would have been better if there was less hospital time and more tunnel time. The finding of the object and much of the film was designed to be disjointed which didn't work too well. It ended as if they are going to generate a series...perhaps for SyFy. Mark acting and dialogue as "needs improvement."Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

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vindalootiger

I tried to make this review "spoiler-free" as I felt this was worth watching. Good start, I agree with the other reviewers it felt a lot like a New Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode. Some interesting twists, some I saw coming but a few caught me off guard. I like the casting choices for such a small cast, they worked well together. Military action scenes in Afghanistan, seemed contrived at best. There were so many inconsistencies when it came to props and the behavior of actual soldiers. (The actual blank plugs in the assault rifles that were painted black were funny) I do not believe this movie was ever intended as an action movie. I believe the focus was meant as a psychological thriller with sci-fi and military-industrial conspiracy elements. Some of the action scenes felt like they were added to attract certain audience types. The movie did slow down at parts but it seemed to be for tension, atmosphere building and building background for sequels or a series. Way too many unanswered questions, some conveniently answered in the voice-over at the end. Deus Ex Machina . . . I have to agree with another reviewer as this felt like it was meant to be a 2 episode series premiere for syfy channel or its like. The movie was 1 hour and 45 minutes which is 30 minutes longer than most movies. There was a natural first episode ending about 42 minutes which reinforces the idea that this was a series premiere. It feels like there was added footage to make it a standalone movie and wrap it up with a nice bow Not great, but had it become a series I would have probably watched at least the first season off my DVR eventually. I liked it, not great but I did like it.

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fred here

Wow What a great movie. I was expecting a movie about a war mission, and boy was i wrong. I did not know anything about this movie at all going in and 9 times out of 10, I wind up clicking on the next movie on the list. Not this time, I was blown away. The sci-fi aspect was woven in perfectly, the scenes were perfect. The only weak part was the believability that these people shot all their ammo just straight ahead and not like in a firefight. Now, don't take this the wrong way, I grew up with weapons in the country, so don't let this deter you, just be aware, it is sorta funny, luckily,it is only a few scenes, so no big deal, still done well though. I would call this a B movie that turned into a great movie, so just sit back and enjoy.The big surprise for me, was the dad from family ties was one of the main characters, and I always enjoy his performance and this was among his best. great editing and fairly believable and very emotional with some gripping scenes. I want to tell you about them sooooooo bad, but it might detract from the suspense and who done it. The amnesia bit at the first was a perfect setup and not letting you really know what is going on was perfectly done. It was almost like Hitchcock would have done it. cud dos(sp?) to the crew and producers. nice job

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Hope Elizabeth

The acting isn't bad as I've seen some say. The story line is so so & parts don't make much sense. The script is definitely a B flick. Cinematography is also good. Its just too bad they didn't put more of an effort into the script. It's not a complete waste of time but not a movie you're going to talk about expect to try to figure out what really happened. It's not one of the worst I've seen. Only about 50% disappointed. An A for acting, A for cinematography but a C- for storyline & script. A lot of things don't add up & there seem to be some conflicting information about what is what. For example, at one time he says his wife does in a car accident. But yet she's still alive. Daughter died in accident as well but he did it for her? Those 2 pieces of info don't lend very much to the storyline itself.

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