DVD Review: Boot Camp

Boot Camp
Written by: Agatha Dominik and John Cox
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Starring: Mila Kunis, Gregory Smith and Peter Stormare

Boot Camp is a rather misleading film, indicated to be based on actual events, about kids sent to a rehabilitation camp in Fiji who are brainwashed and abused. The misleading part, at least from the marketing and the DVD art, is the fact that this film looks like a horror film. It's not at all. In fact, had this been shot as a horror film, or even done as a documentary, it would have been far more successful. Instead, it's a drama that focuses on a horrific situation that comes off a bit full of itself.

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Boot Camp is not a terrible film by any means but it's not that great either. It certainly isn't worth it's current $25.99 price tag.

It plays more like a Movie-Of-The-Week with all the melodrama that comes with it. The story revolves around a young woman played by Mila Kunis who is acting out since her Father's death. One night, while she attempts to convince her boyfriend, played by Gregory Smith, to marry her and take her away from all of this, she is abducted by men from the rehabilitation program Advanced Serenity Achievement Program (ASAP) located in Fiji.

The film focuses on her for most of it while intermittently checking in with her boyfriend who is hatching a scheme to get himself committed to the same camp. This might be a minor spoiler but he does get sent to the same camp and later it's said that his parents sent him there because HE said it was the only thing that would help him. This kid had been nothing but a model kid his entire life, at least that's what it seems like, and suddenly he gets into a fight with a drug dealer, tells his parents to ship him off to a prison camp, and they do it. That seems more than a little far fetched.

For a camp on a tropical island, things look a bit washed out and dreary. I'm guessing this was a creative choice to signify how bad the camp is, as if we couldn't tell from the mass beatings, and rape. There is a point when our protagonists think they've achieved freedom where the sky is bright and clear and the ocean is crystal blue. The bright beauty of Fiji is muted whenever we're seeing things happening around the camp.

The performances are decent throughout. I wouldn't say anyone is bad but no one is particularly great either. There are no stand out performances or anything that really elevates this film beyond the mediocre.

The directing is decent but again noting to special here. The script is a little weak. Like I said before, this movie would have been much better if it were taken to the extreme and turned into a horror movie. Alternatively, it would have made for a brilliant documentary. We know these camps exist and that some truly heinous things take place so dramatizing them into a low-rent drama doesn't really do the subject any justice.

Boot Camp is just middle of the road. It's neither good nor bad enough to be memorable and barely peaks at mediocre. It sat on the shelves for quite awhile before being quietly released on DVD mainly because I don't think anyone know quite what to do with it.

As for the specific aspects of the DVD, well there isn't a special feature to speak of besides a trailer for another movie I can't even recall right now.

If you are interested you can check it out. Boot Camp is on DVD now.