Sunday, January 23, 2011

Boot Camp (2008)

I have to admit, I actually really liked this movie.  The promo shots and cover art make it look pretty cheesy, but it was a good flick.  I love Mila Kunis, and Dino Velvet from 8MM is the drill sergeant/protagonist.  Score!

Mila Kunis is Sophie, a spoiled rich bitch who lives to piss off her mom and stepdad since her father passed away.  She throws fits in stores, embarrasses her mom in front of guests, drinks, does drugs, etc.  Her boyfriend is Ben (Gregory Smith).  She confides in him about her hatred for her stepdad and begs him to marry her so that she can get the F out of there.  Just as they begin to discuss this, Sophie is dragged away by a couple beefcake guys into the night.

When she comes to, she's on a crappy boat headed for a remote island in Fiji.  She's with other people, including one poor guy who is detoxing from a heroin addiction.  They get to the island, where they get filled in on what's going on.  Their parents think they are problem children and therefore they have been sent to the Serenity (ha!) Camp to get help.  They spend their first night chained to a cement block as the tide comes in, nearly drowning them. 

The next morning, the head of the camp, Dr. Hail (Peter Stormare) comes to pick them up and explain how the camp works.  You start out wearing a black shirt, which means that you are the lowest on the totem pole.  You can then get promoted to yellow and then white.  Once you have your white shirt, you're on the road to getting the fuck out of there.  The whole process takes about two years.

It doesn't take long for Sophie to realize that this place totally sucks ass.  The participants (inmates?) are worked like dogs, fed barely anything, sleep in the elements, and are constantly abused by staff and fellow campers.  Apparently this is all part of Dr. Hail's philosophy of rehabilitation.  Luckily for Sophie, Ben finds a way to get into the camp, but will they be able to escape?

I just really liked this movie.  It was a new concept, and it's fairly timely as many of these "boot camps" and "rehab camps" have been under investigation.  I actually just saw an episode of Intervention the other day where the person was all messed up because of the couple of years she had spent in a Jamaican "reform camp."  This hasn't really been addressed in horror before and I thought this flick was interesting and exciting.  I recommend.

1 comments:

Lazarus Lupin said...

Sounds like an excellent idea. Reminds me a little of quitters incorporate. The philosophy seems to make things so intolerable that there is no choice but to make the "right" choices.

Lazarus Lupin
http://strangespanner.blogspot.com/
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