Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Paul Magne Haakonsen I must admit that I was more than intrigued by the synopsis for this movie, especially since it sounded like a horror take on the "Groundhog Day" thing.However, I just gave up on "Salvage" not even 30 minutes into the movie. Why? Because nothing, and I do mean nothing had happened by then. It was a snoozefest of epic proportions. And I had no desire to keep wasting my time on the movie. If a movie doesn't sink its hooks in pretty early on, then there is just no sense is keep watching it.From what I saw, that "Salvage" didn't really offer anything worthwhile or interesting to the horror / thriller genre. And the acting that I witnessed wasn't particularly outstanding either.As for the special effects, well I saw none. So I can't really tell you how they are in the movie. I guess you will just have to suffer through more than I managed to in order to experience the special effects.I have no intentions of returning to finish "Salvage" because there was nothing that appealed to me here at all.I am rating "Salvage" two out of ten stars, solely because it did have some adequate production value to it. Kind of an ironic movie title, when there was nothing to salvage here in terms of entertainment value or storyline.

The Couchpotatoes Reading some reviews that are qualifying Salvage as an excellent movie I'm wondering if those reviewers ever saw an excellent movie before. Because honestly this is just an average movie, one out of a dozen. Okay it might be a very low budget B-movie but it shows it immediately. I don't say the actors were bad, even though they were not great as well, but the story was kind of weak. It's all been done before and even better. The final twist was okay but I was just waiting for this movie to finish. The soundtrack was really bad. Whoever wants to make a horror movie, or attempt to make a horror movie, should know that the sound is primordial for a good scary movie. And in this case it was very lame, with stupid music all the time. No tension at all, while if you had had good sound effects the story would have been much scarier. Anyways, I saw it and I will never watch it again. No big deal at all.

stratplayer-164-309944 For those of you who hated this movie for its "cheap" storyline "bad" quality and "poor" soundtrack, go back to watching Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. (both great films), this movie isn't for you. the storyline was mindblowing, combined with the cruddy picture quality, and this movie is a hit. I have to admit, things didn't pop for me until SPOILERS! you see Claire writing her essay and you see that freaky face appear in the door behind her (i had to play it back twice i was so stunned) END OF SPOILERS. after that the movie shot sky high. for those who think the soundtrack was unimpressive, and didn't fit the film: i almost think that was what they were aiming for. the whole movie felt like a romance flick, with surreal horrifying scenes dropped on you when you least expect it. they wanted you to settle in and get relaxed, then KILL you with some weird phenomenon. over all one of the best films I've seen, and the best horror flick I've seen post 2005. 10/10. no contest

MBunge The first 10 minutes of this movie are okay. The last minute of this film is very good. I'm not sure that's enough, however, to redeem the middle 69 minutes that monotonously meander across the screen.Claire (Lauren Carrie Lewis) is having one hell of day and she's having it over and over and over. No matter what she does, she keeps getting brutally murdered by a man named Duke Desmond (Christopher Ferry). Her boyfriend Jimmy (Cody Darbe) can't help her. Her mom (Maureen Olander) can't help her. Even the local sheriff (John Miller) can't help her. No matter where Claire goes or what she does, it's the same pattern. She leaves her job at a convenience store, goes home and gets her face cut off. Why it's happening to her and what, if anything, Claire can do about it…you'll have to watch Salvage to find that out.Before I get into the more substantive issues of the film, I should acknowledge that this is one of those really low budget flicks. I mean, REALLY low budget. This looks like one of those movies that gets filmed completely on weekends because the producers can't afford to pay anyone to take time off from their regular jobs. It has all the hallmarks of the cheapo movie. It not only reuses the same sets and locations again and again, it uses the exact same shots. They can't afford to take the time to move the camera or any of the equipment so multiple scenes at the same location are filmed from the same angle with the same lighting and same everything else. Just about everyone in the cast and crew also ends up doing double, triple and even quadruple duty. One of the lead actors was the production accountant and another was in charge of catering. The filmmakers also fall back on the old crutch of getting one deservedly obscure band to contribute a bunch of crappy songs to the soundtrack. I'd bet the band got paid in Cheez Whiz for their efforts.Having mentioned all that, Salvage is about as visually appealing and well put together as anything this cheaply made ever is. Even when the film-making is forced down to rudimentary levels by budget constraints, it's pulled off with professional grace. You'll never stop noticing this is a very low budget movie, but you'll never be bothered or distracted by it.As well made as it is, this would have been an outstanding 25 minute short film. By stretching it out for another 55 minutes, writer/directors Joshua and Jeffrey Crook create two significant problems for themselves.Firstly, they establish early on that what's happening to Claire isn't reality. She's dead, then she's alive. She's one place and then suddenly another. Things happen, unhappen and happen again. What is happening might be magic, parallel dimensions or all in Claire's head, but it isn't real. After making that clear, though, the Crooks then spend over an hour hitting the audience with standard horror movie clichés. Claire's hiding from the killer, she's running from the killer, the killer is suddenly behind her, that sort of thing. But there's no dramatic tension, suspense or importance to any of it. Whether Claire gets caught, gets away or gets killed, none of it matters because the audience knows none of it is real. A good filmmaker can get away with that for 10 or 15 minutes. Nobody can get away with that for 80 minutes.Secondly, while the Crooks have a superb ending, even the best conclusion needs a good build up. The body of the story has to set up and justify why the ending occurs when it does. With Salvage, this ending could have occurred after the first 24 minutes of the movie and it would have been just as good and made just as much sense. So in addition to the middle 69 minutes of this film not meaning anything to the audience, it also doesn't mean anything to the ending. That's what I mean by monotonously meandering across the screen. If the Crooks had explored or developed earlier in the movie any of the implications that flow out of their great ending, this might have been a tremendous film. For example, and without trying to give anything away, the ending to Salvage makes it the equivalent of a "suff film" for evangelical Christians. There's a lot the Crooks could have done with that instead of just relying on tired horror movie shtick to get from their beginning to their finish.Salvage isn't a good film, but it is the work of good filmmakers. Joshua and Jeffrey Crook didn't succeed with this movie, but their failure is interesting enough that I'd like to see them try again.