Boot Camp Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES PLOT SUMMARY
A group of troubled teens are sent to a rehabilitation program housed in a remote camp on the island of Fiji. What their parents believe is a state-of-the-art deluxe institution in a beautiful natural environment turns out to be a prison-like boot camp where they are abused and brainwashed.
| Mila Kunis | Sophie |
| Gregory Smith | Ben |
| Peter Stormare | Norman Hail |
| Alejandro Rae | Jack |
| Christopher Jacot | Danny |
| Tygh Runyan | Logan |
| Matthew Smalley | Nick |
| Colleen Rennison | Ellen |
| Regine Nehy | Trina |
| Barbara Gates Wilson | Rhonda |
| Lexie Huber | Marianne |
| David Haysom | Drug Dealer |
| Serge Houde | Karl |
| Tyrone Karius | Young Jack |
| Pete Seadon | Guest |
| Christian Duguay |
5.60 out of 10 (330 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Bumpy start, Brutal finish
posted on 28 May 2009A little thrown off by the "excessiveness" in the beginning of this film I was pleased to see the pace quickly changed into an intriguingly heart wrenching and fist clenching experience. Pulling no punches in exposing the cruelty that exists in these rehabilitation centers you frequently find yourself a little uneasy with this films content (especially upon remembering that this was based on true events). A lot of content is crammed into this sole title as the story is a melting pot of drama, action, and even a relatively strong love story. Not a dull moment is to be found within this running time. The visuals compliment the story well with a beautiful setting and equally stunning cast.
They had a name for films like this in the '80s and '90s.
posted on 20 May 2009It was "Made-for-TV Movie". It's a premise that hasn't really been explored in films, but it could have been done far better, and in the end it all just falls apart, both on the screen and figuratively. Peter Stormare, a/k/a "Scary guy from Fargo" doesn't convince as the Dr. Moreau of Teen Rehab, some of the acting is stiff, and in the end I just wished they would have filmed a documentary on real-life "tough love" camps instead -- I think that would have been far more interesting and emotional (and cost a heck of a lot less than $14 million).Not recommended, unless you're a die-hard "Family Guy" addict that just has to see each and every film starring the voice of Meg Griffin.
Great Flick
posted on 25 Mar 2009I haven't seen a good flick like this in awhile, you really feel for the characters and the situations they go through. Plus the story is based on true events.Parents who think their children are out of control send them away to camp serenity where they think they are being looked after, little do they know its a torture camp with twisted, manipulated methods to get the kids to change.This is a great night in flick, I recommend it. Mila Kunis from that 70's show and forgetting sarah marshall is great in this film. You will not be disappointed.
real events in Hollywood style
posted on 13 Feb 2009In the seventies boot camps were the real stuff in the US. Nobody watched what happened in those camps, and several persons really died in those camps. This is one of those stories. To promote this film the said that it was more frightening than Adrift and more horrible then Battle Royale. well, those to movies are independent and are better than Boot Camp. As always in Hollywood there has to be some romance in it and that just doesn't work for me. It is never fearful or there isn't any suspense, it isn't even bloody, the roughest thing is a blue eye. But I gave it a 5 because the effects they used in the cutting. It could have been all better if it was more in the style of Battle Royale.
Manipulative and insulting. But if you like that sort of thing, be my guest.
posted on 16 Jan 2009First comments I've ever made on IMDb. Too bad they are for some worthless piece of garbage like this. But I think it important to warn potential viewers instead of just reviewing a film because a film like this is manipulative and in some ways dangerous. Dangerous if people accept it as something positive. The comments made by "Missed Opportunity" are the only ones really worth reading when it comes to this manipulative film. I know that at this point anyway I'm probably the only one who agrees with him/her and that is sad and also maybe why in part films like this are made. The "children" in this film are were in dire need of discipline. But they obviously never got it when they were younger and now they are pot heads and borderline criminals. So the parents are made to look like fools and uncaring simpletons while the writer and director look to make you sympathize with these kids when they get to the island. Oh poor, poor little deviants. Now this is supposedly based on true events. Who knows? Who knows if the brutalities are really that bad if these camps exist? We all know that Hollywood always does amp things Basically the movie makes these kids out to be victims while in reality they are spoiled little brats who need a beating to straighten them out. Not torture, but punishment and accountability for their actions. I could see it coming in the first 10 - 15 minutes of the film. The one and only reason I finished watching it was because I was also hoping for some kind of "realization" by these kids at the end of the film that even though the camp leaders were wrong in what they did, but also that they themselves needed to grow up and be accountable. However I was sorely disappointed. Neither the parents nor the kids, nor the island disciplinarians were heroes in any way shape or form. They were all losers. BEWARE!!! this is a movie made to manipulate your thinking into that "If it feels good, do it, and to hell with any kind of rules and regulations". It also tries to make authority look evil and menacing when in reality we all need rules to live by. If not then you have anarchy and chaos. It makes a mockery of parenting and of parents that do teach their children the difference between right and wrong. I know that giving a film a bad review for being controversial will only make people want to watch it more. That's a shame especially when the controversy involves a film supporting such a theme. But if you want to feel absolutely lousy about how people think things should be in this world (I'm speaking about the makers of this film and a few of the posters on this site) then by all means knock yourself out. But this movie is an atrocity.
missed opportunity.. you need help
posted on 29 Dec 2008you know i've been doing some research 'missed opportunity'. i've found that many people in the fields of psychology and rehabilitation, do themselves suffer from psychosis, both mild and severe. now i'm not well educated in the field of psychology, so my lack of a phd may lead you to disregard the last statement. oh well.yes, i do believe that boot camp is needed to help some children, such as my step sister who i strongly believe should be sent to one. but she is 18 and can opt out at this point. yes i DO believe that children with such behavioral problems have unfit, abusive, negligent, or otherwise ignorant and naive parents. that's not to say the parents are bad people. and a great deal of this comes from environment, school, and friends.my step sister for example is the single most selfish, disrespectful, rude, self centered, un disciplined, slutty girl i have ever met. her mother and father are not bad people. however her father doesn't know how to stick with his word, and gives in too easily. her mother just spoils her. she's never had much discipline, if any, or self control for that.on the contrary, i know my faults. i was lazy when i was younger. i didn't like to study but i still got good marks, but i never disrespected my parents. i never said ''no'' to them, and i was always polite and generally obedient. i never spoke rudely to them, and i never did drugs, alcohol, partying, or sex.all this in light of the fact that my father was a rapist and raped me from the time i was 11 until the cops found out when i was 15. but there were points when my father threatened to send me to boot camp for being a ''horrible, useless, lazy, selfish'' girl. and my mother did not know what was happening when she wasn't home. but when she got home she believed him that i was all those things. and i never was.so YES i buy into that there are times when you people should do a little research before assuming ''oh evil child, poor poor parent'' i am married now, i'm not a teenager. do you know that the school i went to, i was unpopular (duh) and made fun of... and i knew who the meanest kids were, i knew who were the drug addicts and such. but i also knew almost all of their parents. do you know that i can not think of a single kid that was a bad kid, acted up, did drugs.. that didn't have either a looser for a parent, or one that didn't care.now this isn't coming from some convict, i've never done drugs, i so rarely drink and honestly i don't like the flavor of alcohol, i'm not some out going person. i've lived in a 3rd world country now for 4 years, as my husband is from this country. i see these bad behaviors more than you ever will in your professional career. you think it is bad the kids you get? possibly the drug addicts, the under aged murderers, the rapists... at the extreme. i see that every day and all i need to do is look out on the street.big contrast to where i grew up, in the safe woods 30 miles from my school. and yet there i saw it too, just more secretively.in no way do i condone the behavior of these kids, nor excuse it. as my step sister has learned not to disrespect me, i'm the only person she has a little respect for. i don't like her, and i would support the decision to send her to boot camp. but it would take an idiot to say her father is not partially to blame only because he is a nice man. i like my step dad, but that doesn't make him perfect.yes they need discipline, yes they need strictness. but how in your right mind can you think it is in any way excusable to teach other kids to beat their peers is how you get out of a tough situation. to kick them, insult them, abuse them, rape them... that's how you get through. uuuh, last time i checked, thats WHY they are like that. boot camp, its more like a camp to create even more psychotics.if you think the man that ran that camp ''cared'' for those children... tough love has taken a new turn in your book. i guess when i look at people with those problems, and i look at their parents and their friends... especially their parents. it's one of a few things. their parents are too soft and let them do anything. their parents are so strict it drives the kids nuts. their parents are abusive, or spoil them rotten. and the man that beats them and teaches them to beat the other kids, and starves them, and denies them nutrition, and chains them to cement blocks, and throws them in wells, and brainwashes them down to the mental capacity of a robot... CARES!? are you really that freak'n stupid!? yeah sure the security guy was an a** but u really think a guy that walks by all these things happening, and ENCOURAGES it.. cares!? omg... I think if the parents of the kids in your profession read this, you'd loose your career.i'm the kinda person that wont tolerate disrespect and such lifestyles as my step sister or many other people. but if i ever saw a person like you near my kids i'd get a restraining order. and i'm not exaggerating, i've been through the system, i've been in tougher situations than a jerk like you can imagine, and the one thing i've gained from this all, is that i've learned to be a person of my word.
What's all the fuss about ?
posted on 14 Sep 2008A 'boot camp', as shown in this film, makes a convenient place wealthy parents can send their out-of-control teenage children to. I didn't know they existed in this form, but can imagine very well why.When it comes to the pictured camp-life, I don't see much difference with a regular army place. Just like millions of soldiers in past and present, these teenagers are taught how to obtain goals by close cooperation under tough conditions.And yes, just like everywhere else, you have the good and the bad ones. Inevitably bringing in some crime & casualties.Although getting a little melodramatic at times, 'Boot Camp' makes a good watch. Different from this film's message, however, I see no reason to condemn institutes like these. No doubt the majority of its inhabitants will get out better prepared for life than they were when they arrived.
Missed Opportunity
posted on 03 Aug 2008I work with troubled teenagers in my profession, and I am always on the lookout for movies to show them that they might relate to and learn something from. I always pre-screen the flicks before watching them with the youth, and Boot Camp is a good example of why I bother doing this. Although admittedly entertaining and mostly well acted, Boot Camp feels like a movie written by troubled teenagers who are unable to see beyond their angst and hopelessness. The result is a "misunderstood kids" versus "evil authority figures" storyline that was disappointing in its singular focus and lack of meaning.The idea of the film is actually quite interesting, and it reminded me of another flick about a troubled teen made in 1989 called Lost Angels. The difference between the two movies, however, is that the angry young man in Lost Angels actually learns something about himself and comes to understand how his actions got him into trouble in the first place. In Boot Camp, Mila Kunis stars as a young woman who is actually not a very nice person and learns nothing about herself throughout the story. She starts off being annoying, and stays that way until the very end. The only thing she learns is that you can get raped and killed in youth counseling programs.She decides to embarrass her father in front of his business associates, and then is seemingly surprised when he gets angry about it. The parents have had enough with her antics and send her to a boot camp overseas. Her boyfriend tries to rescue her by pretending to be a heroin addict, so that his parents will send him to the same boot camp. His plan works and the film slips into a fairly routine "prison escape" flick.What's so disappointing in Boot Camp is the lost potential it had to show many different sides to the same story. All of the parents are portrayed as cruel cardboard cutouts lacking any ability to empathize with their kids whatsoever. They are shown to be ruthless disciplinarians who just don't understand their children and refuse to try, thus sending them away to boot camp to have them "fixed". The teens have this attitude that they just need to be left alone and that they can take care of themselves. It's all very black and white.I was hoping for at least some kind of growth to occur with the main character; a moment of awakening or some event to take place that would suggest a level of maturity had been attained. But this was not to be. From the moment she arrives at the boot camp until the final escape when it gets burned to the ground, she's an icy bitch who frowns on another girl with weight issues and treats the staff like garbage. Admittedly it's not a very nice place to be, and in no way am I defending the horrendous abuse that does occur in the film towards some of the youth. Boot Camp just doesn't bother trying to convey any message other than, "Hey kids, it's not your fault that you are messed up. It's your parent's fault. And if they send you to a boot camp, you could get raped or killed." The most interesting aspect of the story for me was the dynamics between the camp leader and his sister. It really did seem like he cared about the youth and had decent intentions. His plan of "saving" kids through these labor-intensive boot camps with extremely strict rules and consequences is not new and it has been proved to work in real life. He just became too obsessed with "making it work", and his vision flew off the rails after some very poor decisions, such as hiring that psycho ex-Marine to be head of security.Most of the positive reviews for this flick talk about the evil camp leader and the equally evil parents. If you can watch Boot Camp with this one-sided view of "troubled" teens just being misunderstood and unfairly hassled by authority, than you will probably really enjoy it. You are also probably a teenager feeling the same way. Wait a few more years and watch it again. When you can no longer pump your fist at the end and say "hell yeah" when the camp burns to the ground, that is when you have finally grown up.
Think About it
posted on 18 Jun 2008This comment is a response to 'Missed Opportunity' Only a so called 'educated' man upon the subject of troubled teenagers would say something along those lines. Pathetic is what that comment was, for you see your like many people who believe they even have the slightest clue on what is happening with in the teenage mind. Grow up, thats just pathetic and weak. This movie is based upon true events and why shouldn't we all stand shouting hell yeah as a camp which served as a torture chamber for some innocent kids burn to the ground? One girl put in there because she cut after being harassed god knows how many times. Another because his parents where insanely strict, and lastly the main character. Who quite frankly had done all the growing up she'd needed to at that time. She'd lost a father and was now forced to live with a man she did not approve of what so ever who frequently called her names and turned her mother against her. What teen wouldn't be furious and act out when their own mother pays more attention to a man they hate than them when their own father has died. Her acting out was completely justified so yes she was a witch, yes she was a bratty girl but did she really deserve such torture as being placed in a camp like that? The answer is no my friend, and before you say another word I suggest you step down off your high horse because that pony makes you look short to all of us...You my friend are clueless, with each day that passes all the knowledge you had once attained when going to school is waisted. The reason being is because times change, faster than some adults would like to admit. Now a days kids are exposed to loads more than they where before hand. Its adults like you however that try and make out spoken teenagers that have a mind obey adults like they where dogs. Free will is a right given to all, no I do not agree with some of the ways they acted out but I am not standing here saying this movie is no more than a flick in order to boost and provoke teen angst. Kids have rights and its sad that so many adults feel they don't and feel that they're not smart enough to think on their own. Which is of course a common misconception. Many kids including myself have gone through some more stuff and gained more life experience than some adults could ever dream of. With what happens in this world kids face challenges at 7 that adults where only exposed to at 12. Times change and now a days kids learn life lessons a hell of a lot faster than adults once did. Which leads to why adults think kids are so narrow minded and just absurd and that their thoughts shouldn't even be considered. What your saying is that kids are not as mature as adults, but that is merely stereotyping. For some kids are more mature and have even better morals than some adults. Think about it, how many kids do you see that are alcoholics compared to adults. How many adults compared to kids are druggies? The numbers clearly favor the adults, so my friend maybe you should open your eyes and stop being so closed minded and actually think for a second that a child or a teenager may actually know something more than you do. Keep that in mind the next time you state that approval of a torture chamber being burned down is childish, but wouldn't you clap if the Concsentration camps where closed when you where alive? So next time think about it before passing judgment...
Do the End Justify the Means?
posted on 17 May 2008In Denver, the rebel Sophie (Mila Kunis) misses her deceased father and hates her stepfather Karl (Serge Houde), pushing him to the edge. After a serious incident with his guests at home, she is sent to the ASAP – Advanced Serenity Achievement Program – a correctional facility in Fiji Island leaded by Norman Hail (Peter Stormare), who self-entitles doctor, to be rehabilitated in a socially acceptable pattern of behavior. She finds a concentration camp without human rights that uses abusive military training techniques to brainwash the offenders. Meanwhile her boyfriend Ben (Gregory Smith) forces a situation at home to be sent to the same boot camp and escape with Sophie."Boot Camp" explains in the very beginning that is based on a true event; therefore it seems that it really does exist places like the Serenity Camp in the world. The story does not have the intention to discuss whether these boot camps are necessary or not, but to show a specific place directed by an unprepared man with psychological problems that uses torture techniques as if the end could justify the means. A dictatorship with absolute power associated to playing God always generates injustices and corruption and is doomed to fail. The story is entertaining, but some of the teenagers (and parents) depicted in the movie really deserve to be sent to a correctional facility or to a shrink to resolve their issues. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "A Ilha - Uma Prisão Sem Grades" ("The Island – A Prison Without Bars")
Different...
posted on 15 Apr 2008This film is actually not bad. I was entertained. The plot was very different from the usual ones. Good acting. The film makes you think about what kind of programs like "ASAP" exists today. During the film my mind kept thinking about how this kind of abuse is currently going on in the world. It's hard to believe that it's still going on. I would recommend this movie, but don't expect any hard action or fight scenes. It's pretty slow I felt, but yet at the same time you wanted to see what was going to happen next, but not in a suspenseful way. It was just an interesting and different kind of movie. All in all I give this movie a 6 out of 10 stars. Good acting.
I would probably give this the Boot.....
posted on 13 Apr 2008For a $14 Million film i would have to say this is probably not one of the best. Christian Duguay has brought some good but not amazing movies in Art of War, Extreme ops and the mini series Human Trafficking but this is far far below his best.The story is average although the movies does not look like a cheap budget film with ropey sound, casting and cinematography. It actually looks quite good (at $14 million i would hope so) but the movie has no real direction. There are no major action scenes, no dramatic story, no humour, no real suspense, in fact on reflection i am not sure what there was that made the movie very interesting.Your story is around an island where parents send their uncontrollable teens for a harsh lesson in life through a BOOT CAMP. Whether they are fairly there or not you decide but its up to the camps Chronies to show the teens the error of their ways. I was thinking all the way through right, abandoned island, rebellious kids, brutal guards....here comes the updated version of Ray Liottas No Escape but what i got was Survivor without the tribal councils and any of the trials !!!!
The revolt of the overindulgent
posted on 01 Apr 2008**SPOILERS** Made to straighten out spoiled and uncontrollable teenagers Camp Serenity in the far off Fiji Islands has been turned into a modern day WWII German or Japanese POW camp with the well meaning but somewhat unstable Dr. Norman Hill,Peter Stormare, as it commandant. Taking out of control teenagers off their parents and guardians hands Dr. Hill uses a new form of tough love as well as torture and humiliation to get the youths back in line and back to civility. The trouble is that Dr. Hill's methods don't always work and somethings leads to the people he's trying to cure to end up dead.It's when Ben, Gregory Smith, faked his way into Camp Serenity by posing as a heroin addict that things really started to get out of hand there. With his girlfriend Sophie, Mila Kunis, incarcerated at the camp for treatment for her anti-social behavior Ben decided to crash the place by getting incarcerated there himself. It didn't take long for Dr. Hill to realize Ben's plan but let him and Sophie make their badly planned and almost suicidal escape only to have them again taken into custody by his goons. Dr. Hill then had the two brutally worked over with each spending time in the hole,solitary confinement, for their acts of insubordination.The main reason for Dr. Hill's fall from grace, with his colleagues in youth rehabilitation, was the sleazy and uncalled for actions of his top honcho at Camp Serenity US Army deserter and, possibly, convicted felon Logan, Tygh Ruyan. Logan despite being very effective in keeping things at Camp Serenity going smooth as silk is also a bit of a sicko when it comes to the many women imprisoned there.It's Logan's shaking down of young Trina, Regine Nehy, to have sex with him in order to get her a white shirt, making Trina eligible to leave that God forsaken place, that in the end came back to haunt him with a vengeance. It was also Logan's responsibility in the deeply disturbed Danny's, Christopher Jacot, drowning death that just about had Dr. Hill who was covering up for Logan, in his having his way with the women prisoners, to chew him out and almost can him. It was after verbally putting Logan in his place that Dr.Hill put him through the same torture and humiliation that Logan put the teenage prisoners through something leading to their death or suicide.Having just about enough of Dr. Hill and his tough love tactics his sister ,also a doctor at Camp Serenity, Dr.Ronda Hill, Barbara Gates Wilson, pulled the rug under him. Ronda emptied her terrified brother's gun so he couldn't shoot the rampaging and revolting teenagers as they forcibly took control of Camp Serenity and came crashing into his bunker-like office.You couldn't really dislike Dr. Hill in that his heart seemed to be in the right place in trying to help those-the teenagers- under his care. Dr. Hill seemed genuinely concerned in helping those young people who even their parents gave up on and discarded like a pet that can't help tearing up the upholstery and be house broken. It was just that Dr. Hill's enormous ego and sense of infallibility got in his way and eventually ended up leading to his sorry and humiliating downfall.
I really don't know what to think of this movie
posted on 06 Jan 2008Within the first 15 minutes of the film I was about to turn it off because of the horrible acting, but I just couldn't. I finished the entire thing and there was just something about it that I really enjoyed. The entire story was something that I have never seen in a film before, and nothing was really predictable about it.Most of the horrible acting came from no name actors. Mila Kunis played her role very well, as did Peter Stormare. There was something really cheesy about the whole "captured and taken to an island" idea, but I really think with some better actors it could have been pulled off much better.The cinematography was excellent, and the soundtrack was just amazing. The island location was a perfect choice and really added a lot to the film.I still don't know why I enjoyed it so much, but I would say it is worth a rental to see for yourself.
It was OK....not Great but just okay !
posted on 25 Dec 2007i just watched this movie and well it was'nt what i'd expected you know.i mean the acting was fine, actually it was quiet good and the story, very imaginative although it was based on true event so i cant really give the writers any points for that! however i must say the directing was abit better then good as it made me felt like i was actually in the movie.The down point would be that well i left the movie feeling abit empty, this is probably due to the fact that the movie just did'nt live up to my imagination of how the story could be and this movie certainly could be a lot better.hmmm... maybe its the plot. i would recommend you to watch, but I'm sure you'll agree that its just okay nothing more nothing less !
Not brilliant but definitely something different....
posted on 12 Aug 2009..which is probably the reason enough for one time watch. I liked the movie for its different approach and the questions it raises and forces us to ponder over the issue of such camps as ASAP. If such camps exist, and actually they do, what is their purpose? if the purpose is to "help" the troubled teens, they fail miserably or at least the movie says so. coming to the movie, it was a good film with a lot of potential. maybe better actors may have been able to pull it off much better but nevertheless the movie doesn't disappoint you. my suggestion to those who have not watched this movie is to watch it before forming an opinion over it. believe me its not that bad as some comments here suggest.