VANish

What hooked me in was that they had Danny Trejo's mug on the poster (which by the way I think is one of the better indie posters I've seen in a long time). Now, I always come in with very low expectations when it comes to a Danny Trejo film as he's in every single film you can imagine so his quality control is scant. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It surprised me on how entertaining it was having only been shot entirely in a van! The director Bryan Bockbrader highlights this very well, using the tight space and passenger POV to claustrophobic effect. His performance as the sadistic half-brother to the film's protagonist played by Austin Abke is equally effective in its own right. Performances were solid overall with what may possibly be a career-turning role for Maiara Walsh as the acerbic and witty abductee of the brother's scheme to rip off her formidable, drug lord father: the one, the only, Danny Trejo. Tony Todd's brief but memorable cameo was especially exciting to see as well as new comer Adam Guthrie as the junk fiend, ex-military buddy along for the ride. Though maybe not an awards contender, VANish is a fun, fast-paced thrill ride that is sure to entertain even Trejo skeptics like me.

An independent/low budget movie that does deliver mostly. The story is nicely told and the action is nicely shot as well (there will be blood at times, so you can't be too squeamish about it). Don't expect to see too much of Danny Trejo though. I think he's doing a lot of movies, where he just has a small role (like in this one).

But the movie works well, especially the twists and turns along the way (no pun intended). There are a couple of different endings to this which normally isn't the best sign, but I think the ending that made it into the movie is the best one. It almost couldn't have ended any other way (even if it did and you can watch those scenes on your disk)

Greetings from Lithuania.

"VANish" (2015) is sometimes laughably bad, sometimes laughably gory, sometimes laughably stupid but most important, never good. The plot is very simple, and not really engaging. To be honest, i somehow managed to watch it till the end, till the very bad end. There was a shoot out scene at the end that has to be one of the worst shoot out scenes in the movie history - seriously, watch it closely and you will spot some very serious errors in continuity, terrible editing and even worst directing. What was the point of this whole movie?

Overall, to think that someone managed to spend a lot of money for creating this stuff and hoping to get it back kinda makes me want shake my head in disbelieve. The only think that was kinda nice in this movie actually was Bryan Bockbrader's acting. That i think was not bad performance at all, and you clearly see that this guy has some natural talent, although the material is wrong to make any real judgments. Overall, you can safely skip this flick and save some 1 h and 17 min.

I had fun with this movie. It wasn't high art but I really enjoyed the characters and their interplay. That was the best part really, I just liked listening to them talk to each other, but it was enough to keep me watching through the first half, and then I was just curious enough to finish it. The challenge they set themselves of only filming in and from the van was interesting. And the lead actress was very charismatic and beautiful, reminds me a tiny bit of Kate Siegel. Also always grateful to get to spend any time with Tony Todd or Danny Trejo.

It's definitely worth a watch.

It takes a lot to make a movie set in one confined environment and this writer director has come up trumps with this.

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as i did as some of the acting is not that great, the gore scenes are actually quite funny and not well done but I am not sure whether it was meant to be black humour but it has accomplished it by accident and quite well I must say.

Ignoring all the deficiencies it was well photographed , directed and the female lead was good in the role so against all odds this film actually comes out quite a way on top of what I otherwise would have expected it to be. I would like to see the alternate endings which all sounded as good as each other so all in all this was a well above average nights viewing and I am giving it a very respectable 7/10.