Eight Days to Live (2006)

Touches You

That was an excellent one.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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.

Eight Days To Live is one of those films I found myself questioning how I got around to watching, it wasn't on my watchlist and I'd never even heard of it.It's a Lifetime original movie, it looks great and it's cast is brilliant. It stars Kelly Rowan, Michael Eklund and the always excellent Katherine Isabelle.It tells the story of a 19 year old who goes missing enroute to a party and his families efforts to find him, pretty simple stuff.Thing is it's actually really quite well made, some of the characters aren't overly likeable but the cast make the best of what they've been given and actually impressed me. The story though simple is paced perfectly and I found myself really quite gripped and looking forward to seeing where it was building to.Then it all goes wrong, then it delivers a finale that kills the film stone dead. The finale is unbelievable on many levels and I'm so disappointed with it. I was enjoying the film, this is something I would have gone on to recommend but then THAT happened. Oh dear.Watchable film if you just close your eyes and imagine your own ending.The Good:GrippingGreat castVery well madeThe Bad:One of the worst endings I've ever seen Things I Learnt From This Movie:Someone needs firing for coming up with that endingCheating protagonists are really a thing now aren't they!Michael Eklund was born to be a bad guy

Really great movie; Good job CTV for making movies like this. Families need more movies they can watch together. This was perfect to watch with your teenagers...some real emotions were shown. I really didn't expect to watch the whole movie, but it really hooked me; I cried, laughed and was on the edge of my seat. It was very realistic, some great scenery of our West Coast. Loved the actors in it... Ryan McDonell especially, who played the older jerk of a brother, but had an emotional breakthrough in the end played his part so well. Would love to see him in a lead role soon! I would highly recommend this movie to anyone...I would love to see it again as well. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

This movie doesn't claim to be a true story; rather it claims it is "based on a true story". Given the number of details that have been changed, I would say "LOOSELY based on a true story" would be more accurate. I live in the Vancouver area, which is near Aldergrove where the Spring family lives. I also grew up in Quesnel, which was Joe Spring's initial destination, and roughly halfway to his final destination of Prince Rupert (which wasn't mentioned). As such, I took a special interest in the events as they unfolded at the time.The whole subplot involving the drug dealers was completely fabricated. So were all other encounters on the trip. They had him found on his return trip over 400km (250miles) from where he was actually found, when he actually went missing on the initial leg of his journey. The movie also implied that he was facing winter-conditions out in the wilderness. In fact, the events happened in late May, and while Canada is known for its winters, there would have been no snow on the ground, and the temperatures would not have gone below freezing. Seasonable daytime highs of 21C(70F) would be expected. Finally, while the true family dynamic can only be known by the Spring family, I suspect that the dysfunction was largely exaggerated by the writers.In reality, he left his home at 11pm after a late shift at work. The area he was found was roughly 500km(312miles) away, which would have put him there at around 4am depending on how fast he was driving. Having driven that stretch of highway hundreds of times, I know how dangerous it can be, with all its twists and turns and steep banks, if you are not alert, especially when it's dark. Most sections on this highway have been fitted with "wake-up" strips along the shoulders and median to help prevent this type of accident, but I don't believe they were in place at the time Joe Spring went missing.There were some points in the movie that did ring true, however. He did survive 8 days trapped in his car without food and water after veering off the road into the trees. The initial search and rescue operations were centered on areas far from where he was found. And, he was found by helicopter after the search and rescue operation was called off.The most remarkable fact to me, which would seem to have been ideal "movie material" that was left out was that when the police officers found him, they had to chase off some curious bears who were in the area.In short, the true story of Joe's will to survive and how his family never gave up hope was remarkable in itself. I do not believe the altered facts were necessary and (to me at least), made the movie less enjoyable.The following links contain news articles surrounding these events:http://www.langleyadvance.com/issues01/06101/top1.htmhttp://www.langleyadvance.com/issues01/06201/news/06201N4.html

This movie is said to be based on a true story. It started out pretty good and unraveled at a nice pace. After the first half of the movie, though, the characters that you are introduced to and all the previous plot twists become completely insignificant. In fact, the first half of the movie is completely different than the second half. Consequently, the movie turns into a story of of a broken family coming together, completely with the cheesiest attempts to jerk tears from the audience, some are even dull rip-off's from other films. For the most part, all the characters are well acted, which is the strongest thing that it really has going for it. I would have excluded the weird 35-year-old-looking daughter that is supposed to be a fragile little girl. Her appearances are very annoying and she doesn't help at all. Overall, I think this film kind of shows that families should leave everything up to the police in times of crisis. My biggest problem with the movie is how they find the missing kid (the point of the movie). The way that they do makes the previous 95% completely useless (*spoiler* the kid fell asleep at the wheel and ran off the road. A random truck driver had spotted him and came in to tell the cops *spoiler*). So, I suggest you watch the first half then catch the last 10 minutes if you are interested. 95% of this movie has no purpose.