Off the Grid

Such a waste of good talent. This was so amateur hour, it's like it was written and directed by a 5th grade drama class. The entire story was cliched with the worst parts of every other cat and mouse drama film, all dragged out with ridiculous scenes. Even the normally comfortable 104 min runtime felt like 4 hours of the same run hide catch run hide catch etc. The top cast was all decent considering what infantile script and directing they had to work with, with the exception of long greasy hair dude that was annoying af and unconvincing in his role. Skip this one, it barely qualifies as a watchable B movie.

This movie felt like MacGyver, Lost, The Fugitive, and a telenovela got trapped in a writer's room, then someone sprinkled in Predator (1987) and No Country for Old Men and said, "Perfect - now let's shoot it like a high school project." The plot is all over the place, characters make baffling decisions, and the tone swings wildly between gritty survival thriller and melodramatic soap opera. Visually, it tries to be cinematic but ends up chaotic - like someone discovered both slow motion and shaky cam and used them nonstop. It's oddly entertaining in a "what am I even watching?" kind of way. If you're looking for logic or cohesion, abandon all hope. It's either a misunderstood masterpiece or a beautiful disaster. Still undecided.

Decided to watch this movie based on he concept and the actor lineup. The director's intent seems to have been to give it the pace of the Equalizer. A slow steady execution with emphasis on skill. Unfortunately, it was a bit too slow and leaves the audience looking for it to speed up. It is an unfortunate miss which could have lead to a sequel if done properly. Duhamel and Kinnear are definitely on my fave list and drew me to watch and keep watching. Without them the movie is not really worth watching. No disrespect to some of the supporting actors.

All in all, the pace is what killed this movie and gave it more of a B status.

I picked up Off The Grid thinking, "This could be good." This promised tension, action, and intrigue - all the ingredients for a decent watch. But what followed was one of the worst movie experiences I've sat through. And I've watched thousands.

The actor playing the "child catcher" was unintentionally comical - more pantomime villain than menacing threat. As for the so-called hero? Sure, he might look like a leading man, but any sense of screen presence or charisma was completely absent. A plank of wood might've offered more emotional range.

The plot? Barely there. The dialogue? Stiff and predictable. The pacing? Slower than a dial-up connection in 1998.

Do yourself a favour - stay clear.

You're welcome. ⭐

It was a relatively fun ride, nothing really original, there were some moments of doubt. At about 1 hour and 20 min in, I was getting a little impatient, in fact I started to doze off. Anyways... Simple linear story, nothing too far fetched, easy to follow, Greg Kinear was fine, Josh played his role well, but overall it was a typical action movie with the ever so over done payoff, if your bored... give it a watch but don't go into this expecting a wild non stop action ride. The only reason I gave it a 6 star was "it was fun" just enough to keep you watching. If it wasn't cast with the 3 decent actors, I probably wouldn't have continued.