Awake… but I should have been asleep

Last night’s movie was called Awake, and it starred Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen.  When I first saw Jessica Alba, I was not looking forward to seeing the movie, and I don’t know why.  It’s not like I’ve seen anything else with her in it, but for some reason, I was under the impression that I didn’t like her as an actress.  I think it might be an interview I saw with her on the Tyra Banks show – she came across as self-absorbed and dumb, and then the whole pregnant-out-of-wedlock thing doesn’t score her many points either…  Anyway, surprisingly, she was not the weak link in the movie.  It was the script.  The movie had tons of accuracy flaws, and I really don’t want to spoil it for you in case you’d like to waste your time on it, but let’s just say the movie was kind of pointless.  It’s about a young man who has a heart condition and must undergo a heart transplant.  When they put him under anesthesia, he does not fall asleep but instead overhears the doctors plotting his murder.  There actually is more to the plot, at least they pretend there is, and there are some so-called twists and turns that anyone with any movie watching experience can see coming from a mile away.  Aside from the unbelievability of the plot – and I’m not talking about staying awake during surgery; according to the movie’s tagline, it’s actually more common than you’d like to think – I’m talking about when this guy is getting his surgery, his “spirit” is walking around the hospital experiencing flashbacks.  It’s just dumb and ridiculous.  Anyway, aside from the unbelievability of the plot,  I have to share what the dumbest part about the whole movie is.  And I’m going to risk spoiling the movie for you, so if you might see this movie, stop reading now.  But I just have to say what the dumbest thing about the whole movie is:  there is no point to the main character’s overhearing his murder plot!  His mother, while waiting for his surgery to be completed, overhears everything anyway, the cops are called, yada, yada!  I still don’t consider watching this movie a waste of time – it’s really difficult for me to say that about a movie.  It was only 84 minutes long, and one of the rewards of watching the movie was seeing Christopher McDonald (aka Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore) as an alcoholic doctor who is too oblivious to stop the murder plot.  But I would much rather see him for the 100th time as Shooter any day – I would suggest you don’t waste your time with Awake, and go for something with more substance instead – like Happy Gilmore!  That sounds like a joke, but this movie was so bad, it’s really not that funny – Happy Gilmore is a much better movie in my opinion!