Duress

GREAT ENDING.... I didnt see it coming! Im not sure what they could have done to improve this! Above all? BELIEVABLE! Well worth a watch! What would YOU do?

A story so dark that no child should ever watch. Brilliantly acted by everyone. Plot at the end is just mind blowing. This screen gem is another gold standard for what a dark thriller should be like.

Some movies require a lot of good will. Some almost need gullibility from the viewer to work. This one is of the latter category. And yet it's not science fiction or horror, it's not fantasy. It's a "crime thriller"! The story is not bad, it's unpredictable, and Martin Donovan is always good. But it's so improbable, so unbelievable that you just can't let yourself get hooked. I guess you can say it's a nice effort nonetheless.

Duress is a very thrilling and spooky film! If you want to watch a movie with , a mystery, a action, and a murder film then see Duress today because it has all of that in it!

For most of its running time, "Duress" seems like a low-budget, flatly-photographed, dime-a-dozen serial killer thriller, with the only novelty being the stunt casting of Greek pop idol Sakis Rouvas as the nasty killer. Rouvas is more than acceptable in the role, after you get used to him, but what really distinguishes this film from most of the others of its ilk is its thoroughly twisted, amoral, and sick twist ending. I don't want to spoil anything here, but if you prefer movies where good triumphs over evil, or at least some characters are redeemed at the end, you might want to try something else. I was shocked on at least two separate occasions, and I was reminded of a Pauline Kael quote (about the Richard Gere thriller "Internal Affairs", but it applies here as well): "you may find yourself breaking into a grin when you recommend it to friends". You have been warned. **1/2 out of 4.

Where do I start... The way that the story makes it seem as though Richard is chosen at random in the beginning, then at the end you see that he was picked. The story in a whole was very good, its very psychological you have to really pay attention until the end. there is a lot of things that you don't notice, until the end. Like yes {spoiler alert} when Richard, put tommy Wilkins shirt on that hook, I didn't notice that at all when I first watched it. Also when shes playing with the remote control car and he asks where she gets it from and she says "tommy left it in the park" notice at the end, that they're in a park and tommy's in back when shes killing that bird and Armand was watching her. Didn't notice that either. Also, when he kills the detective and his wife mistaking the detectives wife as Armond's wife OH MY GOD. This movie was awesome. great acting great story you wont waste your time while watching this.

I admit the main reason I watched this is because I am a giant nerd and was a fan of Ariel Winter because of Final Fantasy 13-2. I have seen Martin Donovon in many different things and he usually brought a little something to the table. I originally had this as a 4 because it seemed very straight forward as home terror movies have seemed to go as of late. I initially compared it to things like The Strangers, and You're Next. After the initial excitement it quickly winds down for me and it becomes what appears to be a very boring movie. I think they worked a little to hard at covering up the things they were trying to conceal, because the middle part of the movie did seem very slow. Without revealing to much there are a few twists in the end, one of which I think anyone can see miles away, and then something else happens which in the opinion of this writer, truly made the movie in a higher quality. All in all I think it is worth a watch, just drudge through the middle, and you will be rewarded! rlyonsii.net

Another loser is the 2009 film, "Duress" directed by Jordan Barker. It was written by Jim Kehoe and Dipo Oseni and is considered a thriller. However, it is not too thrilling of a picture. The actors include Martin Donovan, Sakis Rouvas, Joey Adams, Megan Ashley, Jacob Bertrand, Tommy Burwell, Desiree Cooper, Catherine Dent, Deon Derrico, Cristina Dohmen, Gina Gallego, Lisa Gady, Deege Harding, Chris Holz, George Ketsios, Cole S. McKay, Kathleen McNearmey, Alexis Raich, Chelsea Smith, Ariel Winter, Billy Wirth and Susan Spano. The story is that of a middle aged businessman who has a young daughter and who is blackmailed into a life of crime by a murderer who threatens the little girl's life if the father does not follow commands. It is a slow moving film and I found it hard pressed to give it only 2 stars. Dale Haufrect

Today's paper had a picture of President Barack and Michelle Obama lighting 26 votive candles in the White House for the Newtown, CT, shooting victims. Did the paper say 26? Yes, 26. Weren't 27 people murdered? Yes, 27 people got whacked. But the President knows that Americans do not consider parents of criminals to be people any more. As DURESS shows, their defective genes make them just as much ticking time bombs as their kids. How many dinner party invites do you think went out to the senior Dahmers, Bundys, Mansons, Gacys, Klebolds, Harrises, Loughners, McVeighs, Oswalds, or Booths after their offspring made headlines? The answer is NONE, and if their child IS considerate enough to off them on the way to their own possible last stand--as was the case in Newtown--they won't even rate a 25-cent votive candle at the White House. DURESS proves WHY the parents of American criminals are heaped with as high a degree of social damnation as their kids. We all remember the Bible says the sins of the children will come back to haunt their folks: like son, like father!

I watched this film expecting to be disappointed by Sakis Rouvas' inexperienced acting skills, but it turned out there were several more major flaws. Yes, Sakis' acting was stilted and it was only too obvious that he doesn't belong in the world of movies. I think most everyone not blinded by his looks or reputation as a singer will agree that he just can't pull off such a role. However, I was surprised by how flat Martin Donovan's portrayal of the character turned out to be. Though his confused and blank expression fitted some scenes, he hardly expressed the emotion that most of the film required and left me waiting for a peak that never came. Furthermore, the attempts of making the killer oh-so-elusive and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together left some major holes in the plot. I won't go into details to avoid giving out spoilers, but it's safe to say I rolled my eyes one too many times at the poor explanations behind certain events. And yet the most important and, in my opinion, obvious problem of the film was the dialogue. I can't recall ever hearing more unnatural conversations in a movie before...especially Sakis' lines sounded like nothing anyone would say in reality. There are only so many times you can address another person by his name in a conversation, so once he started using "Richard" at least once in every sentence it didn't take long before I grew sick of hearing it. To be fair I must admit I found the ending quite appealing, in a disturbed sort of way...but the twist in the tale can't make up for all the negatives. If anything, I felt it had a lot of potential and it's a shame it wasn't the highlight of the much better film it deserved. Overall I found Duress to be a very mediocre production, with less-than-adequate acting and horrible dialogue. It's not that it didn't keep me interested, but the unreal feeling of it had me wince more than once. I believe the word that best describes this film is "awkward".