Wonderful Movie

Nice effects though.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

For most of its running time, "Duress" seems like a low-budget, flatly-photographed, dime-a-dozen serial killer thriller, with the only novelty being the stunt casting of Greek pop idol Sakis Rouvas as the nasty killer. Rouvas is more than acceptable in the role, after you get used to him, but what really distinguishes this film from most of the others of its ilk is its thoroughly twisted, amoral, and sick twist ending. I don't want to spoil anything here, but if you prefer movies where good triumphs over evil, or at least some characters are redeemed at the end, you might want to try something else. I was shocked on at least two separate occasions, and I was reminded of a Pauline Kael quote (about the Richard Gere thriller "Internal Affairs", but it applies here as well): "you may find yourself breaking into a grin when you recommend it to friends". You have been warned. **1/2 out of 4.

Another loser is the 2009 film, "Duress" directed by Jordan Barker. It was written by Jim Kehoe and Dipo Oseni and is considered a thriller. However, it is not too thrilling of a picture. The actors include Martin Donovan, Sakis Rouvas, Joey Adams, Megan Ashley, Jacob Bertrand, Tommy Burwell, Desiree Cooper, Catherine Dent, Deon Derrico, Cristina Dohmen, Gina Gallego, Lisa Gady, Deege Harding, Chris Holz, George Ketsios, Cole S. McKay, Kathleen McNearmey, Alexis Raich, Chelsea Smith, Ariel Winter, Billy Wirth and Susan Spano. The story is that of a middle aged businessman who has a young daughter and who is blackmailed into a life of crime by a murderer who threatens the little girl's life if the father does not follow commands. It is a slow moving film and I found it hard pressed to give it only 2 stars. Dale Haufrect

I watched this film expecting to be disappointed by Sakis Rouvas' inexperienced acting skills, but it turned out there were several more major flaws.Yes, Sakis' acting was stilted and it was only too obvious that he doesn't belong in the world of movies. I think most everyone not blinded by his looks or reputation as a singer will agree that he just can't pull off such a role. However, I was surprised by how flat Martin Donovan's portrayal of the character turned out to be. Though his confused and blank expression fitted some scenes, he hardly expressed the emotion that most of the film required and left me waiting for a peak that never came.Furthermore, the attempts of making the killer oh-so-elusive and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together left some major holes in the plot. I won't go into details to avoid giving out spoilers, but it's safe to say I rolled my eyes one too many times at the poor explanations behind certain events.And yet the most important and, in my opinion, obvious problem of the film was the dialogue. I can't recall ever hearing more unnatural conversations in a movie before...especially Sakis' lines sounded like nothing anyone would say in reality. There are only so many times you can address another person by his name in a conversation, so once he started using "Richard" at least once in every sentence it didn't take long before I grew sick of hearing it.To be fair I must admit I found the ending quite appealing, in a disturbed sort of way...but the twist in the tale can't make up for all the negatives. If anything, I felt it had a lot of potential and it's a shame it wasn't the highlight of the much better film it deserved.Overall I found Duress to be a very mediocre production, with less-than-adequate acting and horrible dialogue. It's not that it didn't keep me interested, but the unreal feeling of it had me wince more than once. I believe the word that best describes this film is "awkward".

The movie starts and fills you with expectations for the continue.For us Greeks it is bizarre to see sakis rouvas a pop singer playing a serial killer although he manages pretty good .Unfortunately the continue is boring with no action and when you begin yawning it comes an unexpected ending to make you see this movie with more sympathy.The result is not that bad if you take under consideration that it is a low budget movie.It is worth to see it if you do not have anything special to do. Looking forward seeing more Greek presences in the future in Hollywood.If you are curious to see Greek horror movies i suggest you "to kako(evil)" and "to kako 2 in the time of heroes" Hasta la vista