Shuttle

Interesting from the start, though far from riveting, the plot of Shuttle very slowly builds to an incredibly unsatisfactory ending. The premise is all right; people embark on an airport shuttle towards downtown only to discover that they are at the mercy of a psychopath who kidnaps them. What ensues, however, is a pretty by-the-number thriller where there is not one development, plot point or reversal that is unpredictable or surprising in the least. Even a supposedly midpoint twist is totally foreseeable only by the way the main characters are introduced at the beginning. From then on it's merely a long cat and mouse game that loses interest quickly.

Audiences of this type of genre fare are trained to expect a major twist at the end; no such luck here. There is a conclusion but it is neither truly shocking nor original. And to claim that the filmmakers wanted to make any kind of statement about the world and a sad phenomenon with this ending would be easily negated by referring to the sheer exploitative nature of everything that precedes it.

The length is way too indulgent for this material; at least twenty minutes could easily be cut without compromising this story. Shuttle is not without merits though. Acting is surprisingly accomplished throughout, particularly by the two girls, especially in light of the weakness of the material they have to work with. Their backstory, undoubtedly aimed at deepening their characters, is incredibly clichéd and poorly conceived. Directing is top notch, low-budget film-making at its best; again, too bad there is no properly developed screenplay to provide a solid foundation.

Unbelievable, suspenseful, very well made.

The characters' actions-reactions are not credible and the narrative isn't either.

But it's still a good one. I would recommend it to friends. It's a good thriller.

But at times, it seems more like Halloween or these "supernatural" slashers, where the evil character keeps getting up despite being killed over and over and over again. In other words, the suspense is a bit overdone. Too much peanut butter on the slice of bread, trying to chew on it with a dry mouth, if you see what I mean.

But despite the exaggerations, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, so it gets the work done. A solid 6 in my book.

If you have seen Taken, then you will notice the similarity of the idea of trafficking. I know that both movies were released in 2008 but I don't know which one came first. However, the similarity in here is only in that point and other than that both movies are different and not to be compared in anyway. I loved both though Taken is much much more better but this doesn't make shuttle a bad movie.

Shuttle has good things about it in terms of getting you wondering what the bus driver will end up doing with the girls. It's not that you don't guess why he kidnapped them but you will wonder what will happen.

Overall, the movie does have bunch of entertaining elements in the plot and though the reviewers probably didn't like the characters, I did like them and they were convincing in some parts. One of the reviewers mentioned the fact that the characters were so stupid and at some points could have easily escaped but this is not true. The other day I was sitting in the hospital waiting for my turn to get into the doctor's office and my laptop was with me. And then I read a sign about what to do if a fire starts and started wondering if a big fire flamed out in the whole place and the only way to save myself is to run fast, What would I do? Would I choose to forget about my heavy bag of laptop and CDs to save my life? and I found it really hard to leave my expensive things behind right away. Things have to really get worse for me to start considering throwing my things away. So this is what usually happens with movies when you find some actions stupid and you can't understand them or find the rationale behind them from the comfort of your seat at home. I find these things true and serve the plot and increase the tension.

Solid Hollywood good night thriller. Reminds me on Judgment Night, just this time there is a wrong bus instead of wrong turn. Consequences more severe in style of modern thriller of this decade. Good camera, predictable scenes, pretty solid plot composition, but no development of characters at all, regarding that part the movie is pretty shallow. Although good, plot composition leads you to pretty predictable climax as well. All in all, a solid chiller, kind a refreshment in dark thriller/horror style regarding Hollywood movies which are coming worst every year in most of the cases. Would recommend you if you are a fan of this movie genre. 5 out of 10.

I've just finished watching this movie and as always I refuse to give too much away on the plot and characters so here is my simple review.

The good points - Original plot, very acceptable acting by mostly unknown actors and OK direction by first time director Edward Anderson on a low budget. The bad points - Not enough time spent getting to know the characters i feel the movie could have spent the first 20 - 30 minutes getting to know about the characters, very poor colour and lighting in this movie everything seemed to have a pale complexion, its got your usual don't do that, why did he/she do that scenarios for thriller/horrors.

All in all could have been better maybe seemed a little too long based on the fact that there was no character development at all.

Average

Try and enjoy if you do watch it though.