User Reviews

This is a pretty unknown thriller that was actually good. The writer/director managed some tense sequences and the actors are above the usual C-grade for a small movie and they managed sympathetic performances that led me to care about their welfare. The story isn't above flaws but the characters, who've been kidnapped and are being transported to an unknown location via shuttle bus, are proactive and not daft, and so I contentedly went along with it. In fact, there was a surprising twist that I quite enjoyed too.

Oh hello, I guess this movie wasn't that small if Roger Ebert reviewed it. Now that I've checked out his one-star review, I remember glancing at it sometime back and deciding not to watch this movie. Good thing I'd forgotten about that; this is one of the rarer instances where we disagree.

On the surface, 'Shuttle' looks like it's going to be one of those slightly laughable high-concept movies like 'P2' - kids get on the wrong airport shuttle bus and all hell breaks loose. You'd be forgiven for expecting little more than incompetently handled third-rate genre clichés. This is one of those rare instances when you'd be wrong. Defying all the odds, writer/director Edward Anderson manages to craft a tightly structured thriller with a genuine sense of mounting dread and performances well above the norm for straight-to-DVD fodder. He's able to create some sequences of real tension and displays more talent and understanding of the mechanics of suspense than many more experienced directors. I, for one, found the story involving, the protagonists likable, and enough unexpected reveals to keep me guessing 'till the very end as to the true nature of the crime being perpetrated. All in all, 'Shuttle' is a solid horror-thriller that chooses suspense over violence, and does so admirably well for such an inexperienced director. I've no idea what Anderson's been doing in the three years since making this movie, but I hope his evident talents won't go ignored much longer.

What can you say about the film where the general idea behind it is good... but the construction is so appalling? Watching the last few minutes offered some semblance of satisfaction... but recalling almost everything that led up to this point... such as: twists you can see from a mile off, cretinous behaviour from all concerned and a ludicrously indestructible villain meant whatever good feelings I may I had towards the movie came crashing down like a lead balloon.

These two girls have just come back from Mexico, and are trying to get a ride home from the airport. Rather than take an official bus, they rather unwisely choose to hop on a dodgy looking blue van driven by a seedy looking geezer... with the offer of a 50% discount. A couple of lads desperate to get off with the two ladies join them, along with a nervous-looking businessman. His role will quickly become clear for anyone with a half functioning brain. Surprise, surprise... the truck doesn't stop where they want it to. Then, when the vehicle halts abruptly when it gets a 'flat'... that's where the ordeal begins.

And not just for the protagonists. Constantly, we see people having countless opportunities to run for it, kill the bad guy, escape with the van... and do they take any of them? Nope. Admittedly, this would have ended the film much sooner (not a bad thing). But to endlessly harangue us with these venues of retreat, only for the foolish characters to choose THE WORST POSSIBLE OPTION and muck them up is just an insult to the audience. This is a common problem to be found in a lot of recent films... if our heroes are going to fail, at least let them do it in a believable way, not by having them act dumber than roadkill. It also majorly diminishes what sympathy we may have had for the hapless fools... when they're the architects of their own downfall.

As for the evil dude, he can be involved in a major automobile accident, bludgeoned over the head repeatedly, stabbed in the thigh and shot through the skull... and STILL muster up enough strength to not only survive, but force a young woman into a box. Is he a cartoon? It just adds to the lunacy, anyway. And the few curveballs the script throws our way could be anticipated by the most inattentive of viewers. Shuttle could have been a noteworthy horror with originality, but thanks to poor treatment just ends up being a forgettable also-ran... 4/10

On the whole, SHUTTLE is a perverse and mean-spirited motion picture, yet the powerful final moments of the film are truly sensational but diabolical none the less. The movie begins with two weary young women who have just ended their Mexican vacation, and need a ride back to town. They board the airport shuttle bus, and are taken hostage along with the other passengers. How will this divergent group free themselves from their psychotic abductor? The plot is straight-forward to the point of banality, yet here is where the story begins to lose plausibility. The fiendish driver takes them on a late night journey that seems endless and lasts most of the night. It really stretches credulity that no one would notice this out-of-control bus, and it would seem that they would have encountered more traffic if the airport had been located in the wilderness of Alaska. Their malevolent driver is menacing to the extreme, and a maximum of physical and psychological torture is dispatched. It is only in the final few minutes that the true motive for the kidnapping is revealed, and this electrifying final impression of abject loss makes the suspension of believe just about worth it.

1st of all the story was ok but then they made the villian a Michael meyers mr indestructible and the victims were the dumbest ever in any thriller. The ending was extremely depressing so if that's your genre by all means get depressed its 2020 why not!!!

The usual dark and grimy horror fare in which innocent people are caught up in a violent world and find themselves murdered by emotionless bad guys. This is very similar to the likes of HOSTEL and in particular the Thora Birch film TRAIN, and it attempts to be a single location film set entirely on a bus; however the action often diverts to outside of the vehicle given the limited filming opportunities inside.

SHUTTLE is no better or worse than a dozen other similar genre films. The odds are stacked against it insofar as the script is entirely bland and lacking in appealing characters; Tony Curran's villain is just sort of there and doesn't have much in the way of presence. The emphasis is on violence and humiliation, which means that this isn't much fun to watch, but the film as a whole never manages to be frightening, just depressing. The sole redeeming thing is that this never goes all-out into torture porn territory, which is something to be commended.

While there's not a lot of blood and gore for the low-brow slasher devotees, I admired the way the screws slowly tighten as the story unfolded, and the tension cranked up to relentless. Nothing cheap, fast or easy here. Especially loved how everything strange that happened during the course of the night ends up fitting together and explaining all the seemingly random events. This is a smart, compelling film that draws you in and doesn't let go.

Best of all, the climax is original, brutal, gut wrenching and not at all expected.

Highly recommend.

I was going to rate it the lowest possible but my wife said I only do that because I'm in a bad mood, she scored it with a three star rating with her argument that we've seen worse, so I'll take an average and score it two stars. She was right though, I've seen worse but not by far, and I'm in a bad mood but that was because of this stinker of a movie, I was perfectly fine before watching this garbage. The story is so lame and predictable you wonder if they did it on purpose to write it that bad. Without spoiling a couple examples of the total amateurism in this movie. At one point a guy gets his fingers chopped off, his friend that wasn't even close to him suddenly appears with already blood on his shirt, they clearly had to take that shot again, and more than once but ran out of clean shirts. They don't even care about little details like that. Another example the shuttle drives in LA, and during almost one hour they don't cross any other traffic, in LA!!! I live in the middle of nowhere and there aren't ten minutes passing without traffic. I know those are stupid details but they add up after awhile and made this movie unwatchable. The entire story doesn't make any sense, dad decision after bad decision, everything just gets worse the more we advance in this movie. The acting was exactly spot on for this movie, mediocre at best. Shuttle felt like I was forced to watch this for four hours straight, it's like it was never going to end. The ending is exactly like the rest of the movie, predictable and very bad, but at least I had an explosion of joy when the end credits finally appeared.

Interesting from the start, though far from riveting, the plot of Shuttle very slowly builds to an incredibly unsatisfactory ending. The premise is all right; people embark on an airport shuttle towards downtown only to discover that they are at the mercy of a psychopath who kidnaps them. What ensues, however, is a pretty by-the-number thriller where there is not one development, plot point or reversal that is unpredictable or surprising in the least. Even a supposedly midpoint twist is totally foreseeable only by the way the main characters are introduced at the beginning. From then on it's merely a long cat and mouse game that loses interest quickly.

Audiences of this type of genre fare are trained to expect a major twist at the end; no such luck here. There is a conclusion but it is neither truly shocking nor original. And to claim that the filmmakers wanted to make any kind of statement about the world and a sad phenomenon with this ending would be easily negated by referring to the sheer exploitative nature of everything that precedes it.

The length is way too indulgent for this material; at least twenty minutes could easily be cut without compromising this story. Shuttle is not without merits though. Acting is surprisingly accomplished throughout, particularly by the two girls, especially in light of the weakness of the material they have to work with. Their backstory, undoubtedly aimed at deepening their characters, is incredibly clichéd and poorly conceived. Directing is top notch, low-budget film-making at its best; again, too bad there is no properly developed screenplay to provide a solid foundation.

I just couldn't get to like this film. Not much action too much talk seems like the film makers have no idea of how to finish the film. It kept dragging on and I eventually got fed up and stopped it before it ended. A complete waste of my time and money. Jacey peace out a biffin rubbish piece of tosh.

I honestly sat down to watch Shuttle as more of a "time-killer" while I was waiting for one of my jobs to complete. I didn't expect a whole lot out of it and it is predictable in some parts. However, One of the previous posters stated that as the film progresses, "the screws slowly tighten" and that hit it on the head. For me, it was a little slow to start and the acting was "ok". Still, I continued watching and before I knew it, I couldn't walk away. The final twist really affected me as such that I'm still thinking about it 10 days later. I'd definitely recommend watching this film as it is very thought provoking, if for nothing else than awareness of an extremely obscure, yet serious issue.

I've just finished watching this movie and as always I refuse to give too much away on the plot and characters so here is my simple review.

The good points - Original plot, very acceptable acting by mostly unknown actors and OK direction by first time director Edward Anderson on a low budget. The bad points - Not enough time spent getting to know the characters i feel the movie could have spent the first 20 - 30 minutes getting to know about the characters, very poor colour and lighting in this movie everything seemed to have a pale complexion, its got your usual don't do that, why did he/she do that scenarios for thriller/horrors.

All in all could have been better maybe seemed a little too long based on the fact that there was no character development at all.

Average

Try and enjoy if you do watch it though.

Solid Hollywood good night thriller. Reminds me on Judgment Night, just this time there is a wrong bus instead of wrong turn. Consequences more severe in style of modern thriller of this decade. Good camera, predictable scenes, pretty solid plot composition, but no development of characters at all, regarding that part the movie is pretty shallow. Although good, plot composition leads you to pretty predictable climax as well. All in all, a solid chiller, kind a refreshment in dark thriller/horror style regarding Hollywood movies which are coming worst every year in most of the cases. Would recommend you if you are a fan of this movie genre. 5 out of 10.