If studios were still in the business of specializing by genre, this is precisely the sort of taut, efficient entertainment that Warner would have turned out. It takes the typical mistaken-identity thriller and sets it under the friendly blue skies of Hawaii, a welcome change of scene for a genre that tends toward claustrophobia. Then it simply winds itself up, does its dance and bows to applause for a job perfectly well done.
Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn are our entrance into this film, a a couple vacationing in Hawaii when another young couple is killed there. They encounter two perfectly opposed couples on their way: a pair of grungy hippies with a threatening air, and another composed of an Iraq veteran and his sunny southern girlfriend. When the second couple joins Jovovich and Zahn on their trek to a secluded beach, strange clues begin to surface. Or do they? The southern belle certainly is skilled at disemboweling animals, and her boyfriend insists on traveling with an uncomfortably large knife and lecturing people about never disregarding their surroundings.
For once I refuse to spoil the ending of a film I'm reviewing. You don't need to know the ending to appreciate it, and a simple reflection on what went before will suffice to make everything clear after the film ends. This is a movie that ties up all of its loose ends, and a second viewing will reveal no details which don't add up in the light of the twist ending. Along the way enough jitters and jumps are generated to keep the viewer perfectly entertained by what seems to be the primary mystery. An exemplary example of a lean thriller, the type of tight little B-picture that no one (except apparently David Twohy) is interested in making anymore.
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