Having traumatic events happen to you in your life can and most of the time will alter who you are.  This is something that many people would want to get away from and try to go along with their everyday lives as if nothing has happened, but the more you hide from what happened to you, the more it turns out affecting you in later years.  Let the changes come as they will and let your friends and family know of the hardships it has given to you. Running away from something never helped anybody in the long run and the more you try to keep it shut out of your life, the harder it is to keep it secret from the world, much less yourself.

In her room, Hazel is the normal girl that she remembers herself being, but this is the only place she finds those memories. Suffering from agoraphobia, she refuses to leave her familiar confines because of what can happen to her as soon as she leaves.  Her mother Dee is trying everything in her arsenal to snap her daughter out of it, but she has run out of options and money to do so and now she is left with only one alternative, to send Hazel to a facility in the desert that should be able to help her.  When the van comes to pick up Hazel, she is given a walkthrough of where she will be seated, but she is still concerned with the trip and her mother sees this.  Getting into the front seat, Dee and Hazel are ready to hit the road to sanity. 

While up front and talking to the driver, Dee lets out a piece of information about her ex-husband and why Hazel has to be sent to the facility.  The driver seems to understand, it is all about money and if Dee does not continue to get her income from her ex, she will not be able to take care of her daughter.  Picking up a couple more passengers, the van is ready to make its final push to the facility, but all is not as hunky dory as everyone would like.  As the other patients start to get at each other throats, they are told to practice calm, but before they can, the van is pushed off of the road and crashes.  Before anyone knows what is going on, two masked men approach the van and open fire on the people inside. 

Taking the young girl that joined the party late, Jessie and Pru are happy with their find and are ready to collect their fee, but little do they know that they have picked up the wrong girl.  Getting out of her box and seeing her mother passed out in the front seat, Hazel makes sure that her best friend is all right.  Seeing that her mother has been shot, Hazel knows that she is the only one that will be able to get help in time to save her.  Covering up and putting on her blinders, Hazel takes to the road that she has never seen before and keeps her sights on what is most important, getting help.  Not allowing the outside world to get to her does not prove to be as easy as she previously thought as she has to look much further out to see where she will be going safely.  Jessie and Pru have no idea that have picked up the wrong girl, but when they return to the van to dispose of the evidence, they have a good idea that there is something wrong when Dee sits in the front seat pointing at gun at their heads.  It is a race against time for both parties, as the dessert is not a safe place for anyone to be stranded.

I was pleasantly impressed by this movie as it continued to play through.  The interaction between the characters made you believe that they were concerned with each other’s safety.  Hazel has to be the character that you care about the most and watching as she has to battle her fears for the greater good was good to see.  I liked being able to see what happened to her as a young girl that gave her the condition that she continues to fight and with the help from an inner voice, she pushes herself beyond her limits.  I did also like the brothers, Jessie and Pru as you get to see that they are not far from being in the same position as the two women and Pru just seems so innocent, but you quickly find out he is not as kind as his eyes would have you believe.  Happy Viewing.

A deserted island would be the dream for so many people that have been caught up in city life.  It would be hard to imagine what it would be like to not have anyone around, no cell phones, and especially no internet.  This might be the best place to go for a vacation, but an extended stay, I would think that most people would wind up going crazy.  It would be great to escape as long as you have all of the necessities, but if you are left there to fend for yourself, you might find it much more difficult than you see in the movies. 

Winning their most recent match, an American soccer team is on their way home.  Sisters Elena and Eva are looking to have a good time on the plane as their father the Coach is celebrating his anniversary with their lovely mother.  Knowing that the players have been away from women for some time before the game, Eva wants to take her shot at bagging one before she gets home, but Elena has a better shot at it since she has been making eyes at the new team captain for many months. But their dreams to join the mile high club fall short when the plane experiences engine failure and crashes next to a pacific island.

All of the healthy players that survived the crash pull others to safety, but many on the team do not make to the island alive.  With their trainer Connie being the only one with any medical training, the injured might as well be ruled out as dead as the days pass on.  The captain of the team Slim has some decisions to make about what the team will have to do to survive, but when he falls ill, Andreas takes command and starts to use all of his childhood scout training to insure the wellbeing of the survivors.  Rationing food and water is a start, but Andreas wants to also cut of the sick and dying players from receiving any further provisions.  This causes a stink for half of the group, but when they put it to a vote, Slim who appeared to be against the measure votes to let the dying die in peace.

With tensions starting to mount about the dwindling food and water supply, Andreas catches a glimpse of another island and takes a small group over to investigate.  Not finding a better situation there is no food or water on this island either, he comes back, but now Elena has given her affectionate gaze to him. As the days pass and their supplies start to vanish quicker, Andreas knows that there is someone stealing from the rations and wants justice.  When someone is actually found to have a stash of food, it sets Andreas over the edge and he is ready to have his teammate repay his debt, in blood.  Stepping in, Slim will not allow this to happen but when he starts to lose the fight and is next on Andreas’ hit list, Felix steps in to protect his captain.  Receiving a deadly blow to the neck, Felix dies in the water and Andreas sees that the living arrangement will no longer work. Taking his followers to the other island, Andreas is preparing for a battle against the elements, along with his former friends. Will Slim and his small band of survivors be ready for what is coming their way, or will they just become another notch on Andreas’s belt when it comes to a death count?
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Honestly, who would not like to be stuck on a deserted island for a few days?  It seems like it would be really nice and relaxing, but with that being said, it is easy to see where others disagree.  When you don’t have enough food and water thrown into the equation and your survival is being hampered by other mouths to feed, well, damn, it does not sound like fun at all.  I really liked Andreas’s character throughout the movie since he seemed to know best about what to do and he seemed to have the best interests of the team at heart.  Then when he transformed into a killer that he did not want to be, well, let's call it like it is, he turned bat crap nuts and I was not sure where he was going, but when he got there, damn, he is a baddy.  Slim was also a strong character, but you have to wait and see him grow from beginning to end.  I was really hoping for something more from the sisters Elena and Eva since they were pretty prominent in the very beginning of the movie, and it was their father’s team, but I think it got lost in the waves when survival of the fittest started coming into play.  Not bad at all, but if you are feuding with your roommates about whose week it is to pick up groceries, you might not want to see what happens when they don’t pull their own weight.  Happy Viewing.