Stowaway (II) (2021) User Reviews

Most boring thriller I have ever seen

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 3/10 · 10 August 2022]

Music video director Declan Whitebloom should stick to music videos. Even for a low budget B film, this was the most repetitive, dragged out film I have seen in a long time. Even the editing was bad. We go from a little girl swimming in knee-high water to drowning in the depths of the ocean. How? Did she trip over a rock and fall into the deep dark abyss? The same ariel scene of a boat sitting in the ocean was used many times, when it was supposed to be a moving boat.

The cat and mouse searches on the boat were just bland and repetitive. The entire story was riddled with plot and technical issues and predictable from the start. You could trim the slow dragged out 90 min runtime to a 15 min short film and it would me more watchable and interesting. Whitebloom also didn't direct his cast properly, because most of the time they looked lost in their scenes.

The only redeeming part of this B film was a half-decent score, when B films usually have a loud constant annoying and unfitting score. I feel bad for Grillo, because he deserves to be in much better films. Only he and Schwarzenegger were convincing. Rose seemed like this was her first acting role. Any review higher than a 5 is clearly from the cast or crew. It's a generous 3/10 from me.

Pretty bad

[Nevergivea10 · 3/10 · 5 August 2022]

The acting is terrible and the storyline is just as bad. Without giving anything away the whole concept is completely ridiculous.................... ..................

Almost as bad as Bruce Willis' last movie

[billmcvoy · 3/10 · 8 August 2022]

The producer leased a yaht for a week and made a bad movie, the real editor must have been on vacation. Very choppy the girl tries to fight a guy three times her size.

Ruby Rose is TRASH

[covington_c · 1/10 · 29 September 2022]

Everything about this movie is horrible... plot, directing, casting & acting. Not even Frank Grillo can save this nonsense. Ruby Rose is 1 of the most worthless actresses in Hollywood. Seriously... she couldn't act her way out of a styrofoam cup. When she was in John Wick II she didn't even say a word... & was STILL horrible b/c she just can't act to save her life. What I want to know is how is it that she continues to be cast for roles but has no talent.

Do yourself a favor... miss this garbage. You'll absolutely thank me b/c you didn't waste your time. You'll be more entertained checking out the back of your eyelids!

Frank....Frank....Frank

[ziad-M-N-T · 1/10 · 8 August 2022]

I started watching it for Frank Grillo, who is a great B-movie actor who has starred in many decent B-movies. This is not one of them though!

But at the end I found that this formula: Frank Grillo = the new version of the last ten years of Bruce Willis.

Some B-movies are better than others...and this one is terrible!

[imseeg · 1/10 · 7 August 2022]

I started watching it for Frank Grillo, who is a great B-movie actor who has starred in many decent B-movies. This is not one of them though!

The bad: this movie looks and feels cheaply made, shot in a really weird filmformat (video?). But that's not what was bothering me the most though, because this movie isnt in any kind of way thrilling or suspenseful. Not even the few action scenes are impressive.

Completely forgettable. And for the Frank Grillo fans out there, better watch any other B-movie with him, instead of this inferior product.

Very BAD

[AMZCali · 1/10 · 9 August 2022]

Don't buy the high ratings. This was very bad. I like Rose but she has gone down the same very bad low-b rabbit hole Bruce Willis did.

The plot, the acting, the dialogue, all horrible.

Super slow

[prolead · 1/10 · 11 August 2022]

You can probably take a nap in between while watching the movie and you still won't miss much. The movie is slow paced with poor sound, camera and direction. Horrible acting too. There absolutely nothing going for this movie.

Not even just to fill in time

[A1047938 · 10 September 2022]

Sometimes you're reasonably certain a movie is not going to be amazing, but you figure if you set your expectations low, it won't be so bad.

It's the sort of movie you keep in your back pocket when you want some quiet time at your mother-in-law's house, so you put it on and thirty minutes in your MIL has gone to bed and the movie, while not great, was worth the watch to give you the peace and quiet you were looking for.

Not this.

Honestly, I would have rather spent a week in lock down with my MIL than watch whatever this was.

Predictable, confused and the acting talent of a teaspoon (though at least a teaspoon has one job and does it well).

The following does not qualify as a spoiler, as nothing could spoil this further than it emerged off the cutting room floor.

There's a scene where a couple of bad guys are attempting to break into a safe with a battery powered drill (okay!?!), and during said safe cracking, twenty meters away our heroine tip toes up the staircase. Bad guy, sitting right next to the drill drilling into hardened steel stops: "I think I heard something..."

Moments later, they attempt to crack a sophisticated biometric lock using ... Windows Update.

Give this a wide berth

[Easy-S · 1/10 · 10 August 2022]

I can see why someone would say this is an amazing move, the best they've ever watched. If this is the only movie they've ever watched. Because honestly, it doesn't get much worse than this. Anyone giving this more than 5 stars must have some kind of interest in this moving getting a high rating. And anyone giving this 2 to 5 stars is being very generous. After having watched it, I don't feel like being generous so only 1 star from me.

Give this movie a wide berth, I'm sure you've got something better to do with 1h30 of your life. Even watching paint dry is time better spend.

Abandon ship

[Silicone54 · 1/10 · 8 August 2022]

Do not waste your valuable time on this POS. I hate to spoil movies but here goes.

Bella gets notified that her estranged father died and left her a mega-yacht. The man who portrays himself as the executor of the non-existing will is the business partner of the deceased. He tells her she simply needs her to bring her passport to the marina and she takes ownership of the property. WHAT? Yes that's how easy it is. The dock master just hands over the keys of a multi-million dollar yacht without any paperwork. In fact, she has an Australian passport to which when know his system cannot possibly verify but I digress. She gets onboard and looks the boat over but is informed she cannot stay on the boat because well, them are the rules. You can takeover a boat with a flimsy passport check but staying on the boat is a no-no!

Without going on with further useless detail she sneaks onboard later that night and the real story is revealed. A band of mercenaries commandeer the yacht on off they go into open water so they can open a safe in one of the cabinets.

The premise of this heist is they steal millions of dollars they believe Bella's father stashed in the safe. When the job is done they would junk the yacht and Bella can claim insurance money on it. Everyone makes out rich in the end. This plan might even be plausible if not for the fact that the bad guys already had access to the boat. The captain, who is part of the heist told Bella he's on contract to with her father until the end of the year. So they could have cracked the safe without ever even leaving the marina. In fact, they didn't even need her at all. Her only plotline is that she possesses something they need but they don't know that ahead of the heist. She literally blows up their plans and the yacht, end of story.

So nothing new in the art of storytelling here. The acting, the action, the lackluster story, the resolution ... the whole thing was worse than any made for TV movie. Hard pass on this.

GOOD WATCH!!

[taylorfigueroa · 9/10 · 7 August 2022]

Storyline was very good , probably needed a couple of changes ; but for a first time director i am impressed. Would of been nice to see more of Frank Grillo & Patrick Schwarzenegger. Ruby Rose was great! Luis Da Silva Jr killed his role. From seeing him normally playing the other side, including roles in Fast and Furious, Triple 9, 21 Jump street and Dead Man Down, this was a completely believable character and a different light was portrayed on him. I would definitely watch this movie again, is it a academy award project, no , but is it a good thriller ? ABSOLUTELY.

Independents+Pandemic=...

[zacharyreeves · 7/10 · 7 August 2022]

It's hard enough for anyone to get a film off the ground. So, I give credit here to a team that put one in the can during the height of a pandemic. I also extend my admiration to performers like Ruby Rose, Frank Grillo, and Luis Da Silva Jr for signing on to a lower budget film surrounded by such conditions.

As for the film, I think by now we all know what we are getting with a Saban movie. I don't mean that in a bad way, it's just evident the types of films they exploit. For that, it's hard for me to compare this film to any I hold in my personal lists of greatness.

I give it a 7 out of 10 because I personally believed 70% of the performances. My top prize will go to Luis Da Silva Jr. I feel he is finally showing the world that he can give a solid performance without a gun in his hand. So, my hat is off to Mr. Da Silva. Anxious to see more.

Anything can be better, and there's no such thing as perfect. Given the social and economic conditions this film was produced under - I love it! This scenario actually reminds me of two quotes - Comparison is the thief of joy & What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.

Not a rational story

[william-71506 · 3/10 · 31 August 2022]

The start of the movie is as bad as possible: a good girl becomes a thief/criminal for no reason, and the movie creator obviously loves it and hope every American follows her footsteps. The successful father loves the daughter and left her a million dollar yacht, that's a little too good to be true but also implies the girl's criminal and rebellious life is glorious, in the Hollywood creator's eyes. Of course, there must be a year 2022 Hollywood woke fashion show: the sweet American girl turns into a person (from appearance), not a girl anymore. The professional robbers are so unprofessional that they even missed the girl and her one-night-stand guy in the master bedroom.

Don't bother

[jimbo-53-186511 · 3/10 · 4 October 2022]

Bella Denton has recently found out that her father has left a boat to her in his will. Feeling euphoric about this she goes out to celebrate and catches 40 winks on the boat after she's done celebrating. While she's sleeping a group of thieves steal her boat, but Bella isn't going to give up her newly acquired gift without a fight...

Conceptually, this film isn't a bad one (even though it seems that it is one in a very long line of Die Hard type clones). In fairness, I don't mind this sort of thing when it's done right, but Stowaway is so boring and so badly put together that it becomes almost laughable...

Not long after Bella (or Stowaway as she's oddly referred to in this film; strange given that she owns the boat and therefore cannot possibly be a stowaway) starts sneaking around the boat she accidentally bumps into the man who is captaining the boat (whom happens to be the same man who showed her round the boat earlier in the day). Despite knowing that this guy is now part of an outfit who are stealing her boat she doesn't question him as to where they are going, why they are stealing the boat or what they are hoping to achieve? Inexplicably she also chooses to trust this man even though he quite clearly betrayed her trust; so why would she choose to trust him now?

Other laughable incidents arise when Bella makes a distress call and the Costguard arrives; despite the fact that the boat thieves look like the shiftiest bunch of people you've even seen and one of them inadvertently leaves their mask lieing around waiting to be discovered (he states that it is a halloween mask even though nobody would wear such a mask for halloween). The Coastguard chooses to believe this (not because it makes sense, but because it is convenient for the narrative). Bella chooses to make her presence known when the Coastguard leaves rather than alerting them when they were there. Also when Bella makes the distress call surely it would have been relayed to the Coastguard that a female had put the distress call in so why ask if there was a female on board? Unless it was to try and catch them out, but this clearly wasn't the case here. To me there was just too much here that didn't make sense and the fact that the film had no real thrilling moments or any kind of intensity about it also made it something of a dud.

I'm trying to look for positives with this film....erm... hang on...give me a minute...err oh yeah it was short and that's about it.

Give it a miss

[scrivvy01 · 1/10 · 25 September 2022]

Silly sytoryline and poor acting added together equals a ridiculously bad movie.

You knew what was going to happen long before it happened. I ended up watching it in three instalments just to get to the end. Infact i forget I still had watch the last twenty minutes until I was going through my planner a week later and thought I'll try to finish it now. I did and it was truly excruciating

You try writing a review and look for any redeeming features but there isn't any

Surely after making this film you would watch it back and then put it in the bin

In summary give it a miss, no point in wasting your valuable time.

Watchable, but rather generic...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 2 September 2022]

When I sat down to watch this 2022 thriller from writer Ian Hayden and director Declan Whitebloom, it was without ever having heard about the movie. However, the synopsis sounded interesting enough, plus Frank Grillo is usually always a blast to watch on the screen.

However, I must admit that I was a little bit concerned about the movie's relatively low rating, as I happened to check the movie on IMDb before watching it. And a rating of 3.1, as I sat down to watch it, wasn't really boding all that well. But I opted to watch "Stowaway", nonetheless.

The storyline in "Stowaway" was adequately written. I mean, it was sufficient for a single viewing, however the script doesn't have the contents to it to support a second viewing. The narrative in the movie was pretty straight forward, but it was lacking ups and downs, so there weren't really much of any thrills throughout the movie. And with a single plot twist along the way, it was a somewhat generic viewing experience.

The acting in the movie was fairly okay. A shame that Frank Grillo wasn't playing a bigger part in the movie, because he would have spruced it up a lot more.

Watchable for what it was, but director Declan Whitebloom just didn't manage to deliver a memorable or outstanding thriller.

My rating of "Stowaway" lands on a four out of ten stars.

...a sinking ship...

[rjmlvv-54366 · 1/10 · 21 January 2023]

Started to watch this because of Frank Grillo.

I get the feeling this was a favor to someone who wants to get their first crack at a longer movie (directing/producing/editing/camera). If that's the case, most is forgiven.

So the plot is that a young woman inherits a yacht from her long lost father. The inheritance also comes with some complicated history and the young women will soon find herself in the middle of it.

What struck me immediately is the lighting and camera work. It just gives the movie the feel of a (low budget) soap opera, think "bold and the beautiful".

The editing is off. Either the scenes start just a bit to early or cut away to soon. The sequencing is just off, with many shots just repeating. It disrupts the flow of the movie and makes it cringing to watch. It's like the first time you learn to drive stick.

The set looks pretty cool. Unfortunately, the special effects are just poorly done. Think Sharkenado. (If sparks from an angle grinder fly in someones' face, the pain will be real).

(young and old) Rose is overselling the whole abandoned, "I don't care attitude" child and is underselling the suspense and action sequences.

I liked her in John Wick. She is capable of action movies and fight scenes. It's just not coming together for her in this movie. Maybe the step to being a lead actor was a bit to big for now?

Frank, I think he's an underrated actor. LOVED him in Warrior and The Purge: Anarchy. I don't know what he was thinking doing this movie. He's so out of place. He's working very hard to carry the dialogue. So either Rose is not giving back enough, or the lines don't give enough to talk about and/or the director is not giving enough direction to the actors.

Over all the acting is not convincing. There's no chemistry and the dialogues don't flow. Grillo keeps asking if her dad ever talked about him or the past. Rose keeps repeating that her dad was absent at best. It's just awkward.

The action sequences look rehearsed and aren't logical.

1) even someone who's had a week's worth of training with a riffle can hit a target from 50 m. A seasoned merc will definately hit the target.

2) A merc will easily escape a guillotine choke.

3) Street kids fight dirty, so they'll go for the groin, eyes and throat first.

So, I'm looking forward to Frank's next movie!

Complete waste of time

[cozmozpilot · 1/10 · 20 January 2023]

The producer etc. Of this movie should really do whatever else but making movies. The story has so many loose ends e.g. Why on earth does the boat leves the harbour? The actors talks like robots from the manuscript but I get a feeling that someone told (instructed) them to do do. The people behind this movie should get fired soonest possible. The best actor in this movie was the boat for sure.

Jesus, what's going on when the boat explodes in the end. Some kind of homemade fireworks or did the sponsor suddenly woke up from coma and realized that life should be spent into value adding activities instead of movieproduction like a dead racoon. My kids new year fireworks last year was better planned than what's going on here.

Over and out!

One of the worst movies out there

[ibnul-45024 · 1/10 · 13 February 2023]

Please don't waste your time watching this POS.

I watched this piece of trash tonight because I like Grillo as an actor. He's done a lot of good movies, but I do not know what made him sign up for this one.

This has got to be one of the worst movies out there.

The start was sort of interesting (not the so-called teenage antics of the young protagonist), but the premise at the beginning was promising. However it was all downhill from then on.

Ruby Rose has to be one of the worst actors in Hollywood. Wooden, uninterested, stiff, expressionless. She probably thought the GI Jane haircut and torn jeans would make up for her totally lacklustre performance. Nope. Not a chance.

And what is with the repeat shots of the boat literally going around in circles when it should have been powering out into the ocean, if the actions of the "skipper" where to be believed.

And the US Coast Guard turning up in a dinghy in response to the distress call?

Everything about this "movie" is trash. From the acting, to the directing, to the editing.

A total waste of time. 1/10 is generous. I would have given it a minus rating if one was available.

(not) floating around

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 6 February 2023]

No pun intended here either - like with every other review I do, I try to find something funny to do with either the movie itself or mostly the title. The story does not give that much to play with (quite straightforward and quite predictable to say the least) ... that leaves us with the title.

If you are a fan of Frank Grillo or even more so of Ruby Rose .. well there is something for you to find here. Still there are better things that both have done ... surely. Well I know with Frank, I assume same is true for Ruby. Action is decent, acting is ok (circumstances and all that taken into account of course) ...

AWESOME THRILLER !!

[beccadefillipo · 8/10 · 7 August 2022]

I thought this movie was pretty good. Good plot story. Amazing ending. Put tears in my eyes. I would like to see a bit more action but the suspense made up for it. A MUST SEE!!! Definitely you WOULD NOT be disappointed!!!! Ruby Rose playing Bella did a really good job as well as Frank Grillo. One that stood out wa the captain Lawson played By Luis Da Silva Jr, I knew I recognized him from something but couldn't remember what, so I googled! He is the cat from Fast and Furious also many other films where we is usually playing bad guy or Villain. He did a hell of a job in this transition role playing a captain of the ship.. Very believable!! The bad guys were great as well. Good movie! A must see especially if you like Ruby or Frank.

Great Summer Thriller

[lpolhemus · 7/10 · 6 August 2022]

I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed movie starring Frank Grillo, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Ruby Rose. They are fantastic (best acting Ruby has done to date). Get some popcorn and settle in for a fun ride.

it could have been a good movie but..

[k-stensbirk · 1/10 · 19 January 2023]

The story, special effects and especially acting is embarrassing the team behind the film has tried but has failed.

My experience with the film:

the story seems as if it has not been read by others, and written in less than a week.

The start is not good - not good, but looks like it might be a nice experience, but it goes downhill from here.

The manuscript could well have been read through and changed: at times the actors cannot hear the others on the boat.

And then suddenly in the middle of a noisy engine room, one of the villains can hear someone walking on a staircase? It seems unrealistic.

The actors have forgotten to rehearse, I have seen several of the actors in other movies with much better acting.

The fights that are fought do not seem convincing.

Special effects do not seem convincing the explosion is comparable to movies in the 90s and when the picture is better than the old movies, it even appears worse.

The movie hadn't needed that final explosion.

Sounds from shots are so low, even without silencers on the weapons, that even saloon rifles make more noise.

I doubt whether the instructor bears full responsibility, or whether it is just the whole team that has performed poorly.

Good cast, terrible movie

[MattHankinson · 3/10 · 1 January 2023]

You read the names of Frank Grillo, Patrick Schwarzenegger and the gorgeous Ruby Rose with shaved head and get excited. And then the film leads to anything but. Frank and Patrick hardly feature.

Honest to god it is one of the slowest, most boring 'thrillers' I've ever seen. There's loads of silence in scenes and some acting is terrible. Bad cgi and blood splatter. I hate it when the writing is that Stupid and the characters are making decisions that you wouldn't make in real life.

It was watchable but I was criticising all the way through, some films you can tell are independents and this was definitely one of them. Would only watch again to show someone how laughable it is.