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36 out of 49 people found the following review useful: a haunting drama, 11 October 2008 Author: lordlahkra from Philippines
a psychological thriller that will make you think from the the beginning to the end. although a bit slow in the first parts to the middle, thats why its a psychological thriller, the climax to the end compensated for it.the lines are well delivered, a good script, all in all, a good movie. the acting's pretty convincing, particularly the way the lead actor tracks down the roots of his dilemma and the way he acted on it. i just gave it a seven coz, as i have said, the first parts makes me sleepy.just keep in mind that this in not for those who liked fast paced or some such types of movies.
27 out of 40 people found the following review useful: Slow story, weak twists, good acting, 12 October 2008 Author: Herve Andrieu from United States
The base story was interesting: a criminal given a second chance at a decent life. Unfortunately the whole plot moves very slowly and it comes with quite a few things that do not seem very likely. After 35 minutes, I was still wondering where this was going. Paul Walker is performing as usual and I was surprised to see Lambert Wilson having such a small part in the movie. Overall I would say that the performance of the actors was what made the movie watchable till the end. Without those actors I would have stopped watching this movie. The director did a decent work, but unfortunately based on a weak plot, with unlikely twists and slow story. I would not recommend going to the theater to watch this movie, DVD release is quite enough.
18 out of 23 people found the following review useful: Intriguing Thriller, 7 November 2008 Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In Dallas, Texas, the family man Ben Garvey (Paul Walker) is on probation but he is a hard worker of the Fort Garry Brewery Company and lives a simple life with his beloved wife Lisa (Piper Perabo) and their daughter Katie (Brooklynn Proulx). When his probation period finishes, Ben's brother Ricky (Shawn Hatosy) visits him after being released from prison and invites Ben to heist 12 kg of gold in dust from a laboratory. Ben refuses the invitation but he is fired from his job because of his record; he decides to join Ricky and his partner Phelps (Alex Sol) in the robbery. However things go wrong and Ricky, Phelps and a security guard die in the heist and Ben is sentenced to death for the murders. After his execution through lethal injection, Ben awakes working as housekeeper of the Monte Angel community in Dundee, Oregon, for Father Ezra (Bob Gunton), who explains to him that his past life is gone and now he is having a second chance. However he should never cross the boundaries of the location, otherwise he would die. Ben feels confused with the weird situation but he can not forget Lisa and Katie and forces Ezra to give a plausible explanation to him. But while working in the garden, Ben finds a frisby on the grass; he investigates and discloses the secret of the facility."The Lazarus Project" is an intriguing thriller with an original story and great acting of the talented Paul Walker and Piper Perabo. The plot has flaws, but is engaging, well constructed and it was a nice surprise for me. The twists do not surprise like, for example, the plot point of "Jacob's Ladder", but entertains and is reasonably tight. The politically correct conclusion is commercial and corny, reducing the impact of the good story, but works reasonably well. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Entre a Vida e a Morte" ("Between the Life and the Death")
34 out of 55 people found the following review useful: This movie is slow????, 20 October 2008 Author: Souvik Chatterjee from India
The different posts and reviews for this movie has one thing in common. They all say its a slow-paced movie. And thats what made me write this review. I will not dwell much on the story because the story itself is the main interest in this film. Rather, I would just discuss the so called 'slowness' of the film. For the people who said this is slow: What did you expect? A 10 min long movie? This movie is not slow. Period. The film is very well paced and fast. I did not find a frame in the movie to get up from my seat or even blink. Thats how fast this movie is. I do not really understand the understandings of cine-lovers when they say its not a well paced film. Really! Watch this movie. A great movie with a great storyline. Hollywood had started to getting boring the last few months and this movie breaks that numbness. Another great thriller. 8/10, Undoubtedly.
12 out of 17 people found the following review useful: Derivative but highly watchable psycho-drama, 24 October 2008 Author: bob_gilmore1 from United States
After facing lethal injection for a multiple murder that he happened to be the only survivor of, our hero awakens to find that he is the grounds keeper at a mental hospital for priests deep in the forests of Oregon. He faces the normal confusion that would be expected by such a turn of events but actually starts to get used to this second chance at life even though he has been told by a visionary figure that he can not ever return to his old life with his wife and child. Things really start getting weird after that.While the film is sharply derivative of many other better films ranging from "The Shining" to "Jacob's Ladder" it gets by and remains entertaining because it is the type of film that hits it's modest targets squarely on. The pacing is not exactly brisk so if you require your movies to keep you awake and alert then this might not be the DVD rental for you but this psychological drama is definitely worth a rental especially if you like this type of stuff
8 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Unbelievable, 23 October 2008 Author: kelokay-1 from United Kingdom
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Is he alive? Is he dead? Is he in Oregon? Is it Hell? Good acting which keeps you caring just enough. That and a curiosity in just how its going to pull together in the end. It does not. I was ready to accept Angels/Demons and maybe a sixth sense kind of ending. What I could not accept was a convicted criminal "executed" for a botched robbery, going home to his wife at the end as if it was all OK. Like the Police and Media wouldn't have a fit over that, not to mention his wife.Then you have to ask yourself just who thought it a good idea, and then had the power, to fake executions and leave the criminals in some town in Oregon with little or no supervision, give them a car, internet access, telephone, mail etc. Even the Democrats would Balk at that.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Why give away the ending so early on?, 17 March 2009 Author: fedor8 (fedor8@yahoo.com) from Serbia
What TLP has going for it is the moody photography and the deliberately slow pace (which morons might interpret as "dull"). The main problem is that we're informed straight away - through Walker's flashbacks - that he'd been spared execution and given a new identity. Hence there was never any true dilemma as to how the film would end. Toward the end there was a brief attempt to sidetrack the viewer into thinking that Walker's past wasn't what we thought it was, but that quickly fizzled out, and not much later does he escape the premises (with absurd ease - don't they know he is a master-burglar?).Far more ridiculous than Walker's leisurely escape is the premise. Given a supernatural twist, I'd be willing to overlook almost any nonsense, but because the story contains nothing out of the ordinary we are left with an idea that doesn't hold any water, no matter from which angle one looks at it. Why would the government, ANY government, waste that many resources on rehabilitating a handful of hardcore criminals? Why would they risk so much to help a few psychopaths and misfits, nearly all of them murderers? Why the hell would they be sent off to a remote town from which they could leave any time they choose? In the last scene, Walker's wife, upon seeing that he is alive, reacts as if he'd been away for a business weekend. Not very realistic... Perhaps she's had several husbands before Walker, all of whom were convicted murderers, all of which escaped the Lazarus Project and came back to her... Perhaps she just thought: "Yep, he's back. I knew it. Those Lazarus staffers are so incompetent."
6 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Swiss cheese, 11 October 2008 Author: Ismaninb from Suriname
To summarize: good acting, beautiful camera-work, lousy story with holes as big as in swiss cheese. To name a few: Ben gets the capital punishment for a robbery gone wrong, while he even did not wear a weapon. The evil shrink applies a program that violates a few laws but does not protect the computer on which the patient data are stored. We see a female psychiatrist being so unprofessional to make overtures to a patient - fortunately no sex involved. The evil shrink and his staff try to convince Ben that all this has been fantasy and hallucination. Still it takes Ben no effort at all to refind his dog in the nearest asylum. Somehow the movie managed a grip on me strong enough to sit through it to the cheesy end, but the main feeling afterwards is annoyance.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Bad story... full of holes.., 21 May 2009 Author: freedompriest from Israel
1. Why do they want to rehabilitate him? no real intent was given. They seem to go through a lot of trouble for this. 2. He's still on death row... right? How can this ending be? He's coming back home as if nothing's happened....But the worst of all, is that this movie tries to teach empathy for a criminal. He lost his job, and within a day he decides to go on a robbery? He's responsible for people dying. Don't give me this "He didn't pull the trigger". Did he make sure how many guards were there? how are they armed? His brother died - wheres the guilt for that? This is not a positive person and I see no reason to 'root' for him.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: Great as a concept, delivery falls flat, 15 March 2009 Author: evmill from Israel
The concept behind this is great: an executed convict that is somehow alive, an eerie town, a weird angel figure and a dog that keeps digging some place. Unfortunately, it all goes wrong.I'll start with the ending. Forget the cheese, I just love the range of emotions of the wife. "Oh, sure honey you've decided to do something stupid and criminal again, leaving me to raise our kid alone, but I'm not mad at you. Nor am I particularly shocked to see you turning up at my door." Oh well, she is blonde...Which swiftly takes us to the organization responsible for all this mess. Sure, they're running a place full of folk who got done for murder one... But fences? OK, forget the fences, how about a password for the old PC? I mean it's only secret files you're holding there, c'mon.There's more, but I think I'm just bound to throw up if I go on, so I'll just add that around the middle you do get the feeling that the explanation is going to be somehow mundane, and boy you're not in for a surprise.6, on the account of the concept.
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