What a waste of my time!!!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

GRACELAND is a watchable, well-made crime thriller, but the similarities to Park Chan Wook's SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE were distracting.Spoilers ahead: Both films feature a man who, after being fired by his boss, decides to kidnap his boss' daughter to help pay for his sick loved one's organ transplant. The kidnappings don't go according to plan (what kidnappings do?) and one of the two abducted schoolgirls dies. Both films also feature shady organ dealers and of course the revenge theme. There are enough changes in the story to make it interesting in its own right though.End of Spoilers While SYMPATHY had stunning cinematography, GRACELAND was shot on hand-held DSLR video and it shows. It is what it is due to the low budget, but I think it's worth mentioning.It felt a lot longer than it was, but held my attention nonetheless. The violence is sudden and raw and the always changing story is intriguing. The acting was okay, although watching the main character cry in almost every scene was tiring. There are a couple scenes of underage nudity that felt unnecessary and exploitative.Overall it wasn't a waste of time. GRACELAND is passable, highly derivative entertainment, if you're in the mood for a bleak noir-ish crime thriller filled with repellent characters.

The story is very strong and the visuals accompany the whole thing very nicely. Unfortunately the script is not as strong. I guess you could also blame the actors a little bit for not being totally convincing (though the "father" himself and a few other characters are really good too) through the whole movie.It's more than gritty and people will either like it for the fact (and award more points than me) or dislike it, because of its nature. The camera does suggest and gives a documentary feeling. If only they had concentrated on the things that make this movie strong, it would have a greater impact (it already has, but there could be more).

It was a Filipino captivity thriller-drama. A story of a driver father who risks everything to save his beloved daughter from the kidnapper. Well his daughter's kidnap is a mistake, the kidnappers wrongly abduct the driver's daughter instead the girl he works for. The story begins with his boss, a corrupted minister having sex with a minor girl. The lower middle class families are the one affected by this most powerful and rich minister. So the plot was very clear about its kidnapping theme which involves political corruption and scandals.Any parents can feel the heat for this father who roams in the streets like a strayed dog. The story was hyped enough to create tension and confuse over the viewers to see a struggling father to get his daughter home safely. He was an ordinary father, definitely not like Liam Neesan from the movie 'Taken'. A police officer lands to him for a help, knowing that corruption is everywhere the desires to work alone. In other side, it get started to unfold the story of a driver's ill wife which turns him from a witness to a suspect to the law's eye.The movie looked kinda real, like a documentary or something about under aged child kidnapping and forced into prostitution. The director really did a fine research about it to nail this movie. There was a scene it was totally disturbing to catch a minor girl in the act. I don't know is it permitted to make one like that, for me I felt it was totally unnecessary. It divides the audience into two specially the family audience. The twist was great, that made the movie's value reach a little bit higher. 'Trade' was a movie about human trafficking that happened in northern America while 'Taken' in Europe and 'Graceland' is not too far from those two which take place in south-east Asia. Overall it was a movie will leave you the unbearable images even after a watch.8/10

I know usually audiences who had watched this kind of kidnapping movies would certainly look for more action and visuals. Then when i saw this the suspense came from a believable story that could really happen. The situation was really a torture since you would see where poverty leads to others.Child prostitution seems to be the worst case. The execution was great, i really admire the actors they were natural, they gave justice to the movie. I think the fast phase story has made it more entertaining to watch.Also i liked the twist because all along I thought "Marlon" has nothing to do with it but he was also a victim of Poverty, He would take the risk just to help his ill wife and her daughter. It was all good for me but still depressing at the end. He didn't have any choice because he had the life he had which takes risks and his daughter has to live in a lie.I just wish the movie would have been longer.