Drone (2017) Reviews

• Very Well Done - Better than expected

  jacob2i2017-05-27

  Based on the comments I read here, I wasn't going to watch this movie. One even said this was basically the same as the movie I.T. which is silly. They are two entirely different stories. Yes. They both involve psycho's but I.T.'s psycho is truly going psycho for the most flimsy of reasons. I couldn't even finish watching that movie. This movie however really delves into a legitimate reason why someone would do what the antagonist did in this movie. It avoided a paper thin presentation of the Muslim's rage against the guy who killed his family by drone strike. And it had a totally different take on the possibilities where this movie could end up. I'm saying it like that so I don't ruin the movie. The acting while not stunning was quite good. The writing was actually understated which I liked. The response of the government to this situation seemed more plausible than some movies that are so over the top. This should be rated higher, at least a solid 6.5 to 7.0. In my mind, this movie is worth an 8.

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• Disappointing

  startingfromscratchlv2017-06-03

  What was the accent that Bean was supposed to be using? it changed as the film progressed. As for the storyline, well, the premise was good but the acting was second rate to say the best. The over emotional kid.... and the ending I've seen more exciting in made for TV movies . Plenty of time for it to have been controlled better and the twist, I'd guessed that was going to happen from the earlier dialogue. Can't see why it was called drone, apart from that being his day job, better to have been called a little light drama of dinner. I stuck it out to the end but, wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

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• Drone On...

  markjhanson2017-05-22

  This is a totally unoriginal story. Very similar to the recent Pierce Brosnan film IT. This narrative has been played so out so many times in so many films you can skip the unsurprising ending. If you want to save a dollar just watch the trailer, you have the whole unimaginative story. Sean Bean & Patrick Sabongui are excellent actors and their performance are first rate considering the material but the rest of the film is a complete dud and hard to watch. Looking on the producers list of past films he is not known for ground breaking or original stories and this is waste of 90 minutes of your life.

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• False moral and unrealistic premise

  Extinctive2017-05-31

  The acting didn't seem all that special, to be perfectly honest. It was unclear why they were all so troubled and tired. Was it that grandpa died? The characters were not very rounded, not well formed. It was a messy script, more suited for an episode of a B-class TV-series. And above all stands; The core of the story seems entirely fabricated in order to discredit whistle-blowers worldwide. How much did they get paid extra by the US-gov to make this movie? It tries to make it look like leaking or whistle-blowing by definition is unredacted, unchecked, unedited before going public. In *all* war-related leak cases known to the world this was never the case. The leaks have always been checked for names of (like in this movie) drone-operators and the likes, in order to not have them become endangered by the leak, and to have the whistle-blower remain innocent of indirect murder and such. Thus far there has not been 1 proved case of endangerment of people involved in the leaked information, making this movie rather unfairly assuming a lot of false info. The strangest part of the story however is the fact that it blames Islamic hackers for the breach of NSA data, which has never happened for real. The leaks came from the inside, from within the NSA/CIA/FBI.

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• The Confessional

  lavatch2017-08-24

  In the bonus segment of the DVD version of "Drone," there was a deleted scene that was instructive in defining the dysfunction of the Wistin family. The teenage son named Shane is being counseled at his high school, and he opens up to the psychologist about his home life. The youngster is grieving over the death of his grandfather, but the grief extends to Shane's frustrating relationship with his dad with whom the youngster is unable to communicate. The inclusion of this deleted scene in the final film cut would have explained more completely the backdrop for the troubled Wistin family that was left vague for filmmgoers. And the core emotion of guilt is what drives the parents of Shane: the guilt of the mother Ellen who is having an affair and the guilt of the father Neil who is a contractor for the CIA involved in drone strikes in the Middle East. The film opens in Miramsha, Pakistan on March 21, 2016, where innocent civilians are killed in an American drone strike. On the one-year anniversary of the strike, the scene shifts to Renton, Washington where on the fateful anniversary, the Wistin family will be confronted by Imir Shah, whose wife and daughter perished in the strike. Unintentionally, the serious drama lapses into near comedy, due to the naivety and indeed stupidity of the husband, who fails to perceive the danger posed by Mr. Shah, arriving at his home with a briefcase and claiming that he wishes to spend $16,000 for a used boat! No other motives about the stranger's bizarre appearance on his property occur to the dim-witted Neil. Without a doubt the most interesting character in the film is the inventive Imir Shah. He succeeds in evading the feds in entering the country. He skillfully tracks the top secret work activities of Neil. And he shadows Ellen, capturing her on camera with her lover Ted. In the most moving part of the film, Imir helps Neil with the preparation of the eulogy for his father, suggesting that funeral speech should open with a childhood memory and then address the three constituent elements of how the dead live on in our memories through (a) their good deeds; (b) charity given in the spirit of their good name; and (c) the knowledge they leave behind that benefited others. Those words of wisdom seemingly had never been considered by Neil. The heart and soul of the film is the confessional that occurs in the Wistin family. Yet the aftereffect of the family's newfound understanding seems shallow. Neil was in violation of the Geneva protocol. Will his whistleblowing actions serve to expiate his sins? Will they be anything more than a drop in the bucket with regard to the covert operations of the CIA? Similarly, it is not clear if Ellen will be transformed from the experience. Her background is in ethnology, and she teaches "comparative cultures" at the local community college. Will she become any more enlightened from the traumatic encounter in her home? The family member who appears to have the greatest humanity is young Shane, who fittingly sends out a toy ship into the lake with a nobel tribute paid to his grandfather: "I'll see you in Valhalla, gramps!" Shane is in the best position to transform his life out of the ashes of the secrets and lies of the Wistin family.

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