See If You Can Stay AWAKE to the End...

IT STARS RAZZIE® "WINNER" HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN (of I WAS A TEEN-AGED DARTH VADER SHAME) and FORMER WORST ACTRESS NOMINEE JESSICA ALBA. IT WASN'T PRE-SCREENED for MOST of AMERICA'S FILM CRITICS. AND INDUSTRY RUMOR SEZ IT TURNED OUT SO WELL THAT THE WEINSTEIN BROTHERS TRIED to SELL IT to the HIGHEST BIDDER, RATHER THAN GET STUCK RELEASING IT...

SOUNDS LIKE a RAZZIE® CONTENDER to US. BUT THEN, SITTING THRU IT LEFT US BARELY AWAKE...

Who'd Have Ever Guessed Lil Darth Vader Would Wind Up Married to Sue Storm??

I have to wonder, what are Terrence Howard and Lena Olin doing in this movie?  I gotta wonder if this is another Oscar Baiter gone wrong.

SPOILER

So, you wouldn't have a problem going along with a premise that three surgeons are bought off by the wife to kill the husband during a heart surgery, and he not only survives, but is anesthetically aware during the surgery to the point where he overhears the murder plot?

The worst point is, if three surgeons wanted to kill their patient during surgery, the patient would be dead.  Any other outcome would not be easy to go along with.

Mind you, I woke up during angioplasty.  I tried twice to sit up and see the monitor, and they kept putting me back down.  Then I woke up again, and they were transferring me to another room because the room where they were performing the surgery lost power.  I thought I dreamed the whole thing because I was flying higher than a kite.  But after the procedure, one of the nurses mentioned something, and I blurted out, "It really did happen?"  I later apologized to my cardiologist for sitting up during the procedure, not that I was in my right frame of mind at the time. 

So, I don't have any problem believing what happened to Christensen's character, having experienced something akin to that, although I obviously wasn't paralyzed nor fully aware.  I just have a problem with the premise.  It would take some pretty convincing acting AND a solid, acceptable plot twist to keep me engaged.  And from the reviews I read, Christensen and Alba are not convincing.

Terrence Howard has appeared in four movies that I know of this year, and the best one of the bunch has been The Brave One.  I liked that movie, but I know most people didn't.  I'm not sure what's happening here, because after Crash, Ray, Hustle & Flow and Four Brothers, it doesn't appear he's been picking them very well.  I still like his acting, but I'd like it better if he was in something better than Pride, August Rush or Awake.

Lena Olin was tremendous in The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  After reading several reviews of Awake, she's apparently the main reason to watch this film.

He's the protagonist.  You're supposed to hope he survives the surgery, and gives his wife and doctor their comeuppance.

Maybe this movie needs to be put to sleep?   

You'll find more company hating it that I will liking it.