Awaken, Tropical Holiday and Organ Harvesting

You venture to Beliz, or South America...dance, drink, party....then see a doctor about a tummy anomaly....and wake missing a kidney.  The price of a cheap vacation.  As long as the tequila is good, no problem.  But what if you don't want to donate a kidney?  Hence 2015's "Awaken." Natalie Burn doesn't just star in "Awaken," she also helped write it, served as it's casting director, and sang the closing score.  All three she did with perfection. Ukrainian born beauty, Ms. Burn assembled a fine cast to include Vinnie Jones, Christa Campbell (a favorite of this blog), Robert Davi, Edward Furlong, Daryl Hannah, and David Keith...to name just a few.  Lots of shooting, carnage, and fighting, and a fair amount of gore highlight this very well made thriller.

Billie (Burn) wakes on a mysterious tropical island.  She meets up with with a half dozen similarly situated schmucks, and none of them know why they are there.  Uh oh, every few days a team of commandos arrives and captures one of them...and that poor schmuck will never be seen again.  Billie's arrival on the island occurred after she combed a third world hell-hole in search of her sister, who turned up missing five years ago.  As her fellow "prisoners" try to survive, Billie plots escape....and vengeance.  Billy enlists Nick (Michael Copon) and Stitch (Daz Crawford) and together they work on taking the fight to their tormentors.  Meanwhile, the weaker and more timid of them, led by Quentin (Robert Davi), stay on the defensive.  Our trio will endure initial setbacks until they begin outsmarting the mysterious commandos led by Sarge (Vinnie Jones).

After a raid yields gory results for the beautiful Chloe (Angie Duke), Billie and her pals turn commando themselves and plot an attack on their tormentors.  Uh oh...betrayals, sharks, and a small army stand in their way.  Meanwhile, we meet Rich (Jason London) and his beautiful aide, Kat (Christa Campbell).  They harvest organs and sell them to billionaires.  Arriving at their compound is Mao (Daryl Hannah) who needs a liver for her young daughter.  She wants Billie's.  As fate would have it, Billie is on her way, and not in a giving mood.  No spoilers here.  More plot twists, and lots of fighting, guns, knives, and organ harvesting gore will ensue.  Will Billie's spunk, and her two ill-equipped buddies be able to defeat a well armed commando unit?  Will she find her sister?  Will the psycho Mao allow her to succeed, as Billie's success will spell doom for Mao's daughter?

Ms. Burn is fantastic and displays brilliant judo skills in this action-fest. Do not turn this film off before the end credits roll as her rendition of "Awaken" is magnificent.  Shot in L.A. and Beliz, the scenery is awesome.  This DVD is reasonably priced on Amazon.com.