The Rendezvous (2016) Reviews

• Interesting Desert scenery

  jstockton-965172017-12-19

  This movie is way too hard to believe any of it. Surviving and kidnaping in the desert like that--ridiculous. The plot also hard to believe But the scenes of the desert, of Petra, of the Mid-East--very interesting

• Like a bad episode of Castle with no Castle or anyone else interesting

  pbento682017-12-23

  I of course watched this because I liked Castle and Stana Magic. She is lovely as always, but her usual shtick doesn't play as well against the less charismatic lead, and also he is the straight man not the loveable buffoon. Her characters brother is murdered but she gets over it in about 3 minutes since he is always needing money, so screw that loser. Very implausible plot with lots of eye-rolling. Just not a good movie in my opinion.

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• Very pleasant way to spend some time

  jnorton452017-11-18

  It's strawberry cotton candy. You'll have a few laughs - two surprising ones. There are a few serious notes, but no tears. It's fun and harmless. Which isn't a bad way to spend an hour or so in these times. On a scale of Stana's projects the writing here isn't as good as Sister Cities and nowhere near as good as the best of Castle. The writing and just about everything else is better than The Librarian thing she did. It's a nice if trite story well told with decent actors mostly in Jordan on a small budget. Production values are modest and good. The camera work and score are very nice. Direction and editing are well above average. It's a movie version of the school essay about what I did on my vacation.

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• Reality versus Fiction

  dncorp2017-11-09

  In the opening scene, David Rozman, is chained to the steering wheel, notice that on the other end from the steering wheel at his forearm is leather bindings, as easily cut with the Swiss Army Knife that David Rozman had used to crave the symbols of the two cats into his forearm. Removing the leather padding even if there was chain would provide enough space to slip his forearm and hand out of the bindings. 1960s to 1970s Mercedes Benzs were built like tanks, however, you can slide the seat back, and using leverage and the actual strength of the steering wheel start kicking the bottom or top of the steering wheel to break the bolts, or bend the column plate enough so that the steering wheel comes off from the steering column. Unless you ran out of fuel you can continue to drive on the tire rims to reach safety, even with the tires shot. Having been to worse deserts than at the Kingdom of Jordan, there are different kinds of sand, from granular, to fine nearly talcum powder sand, unless you follow known routes you and your vehicle can get swallowed up by "soft sand" that was wind blown and gathered in large holes. Rule Travel by Night, sleep during Day. Walking at Night can keep you warm enough as not to freeze to death, sleeping by Day minimizes water loss (sweat). Pillar of Smoke by Day, Pillar of Light by Night. Get the spare tire, let out the air, get whatever burns even the last drops of fuel from the fuel tank (even if you have to puncture the gas tank using a tire iron), or the rag in the gas tank thing, burning a tire will produce so much thick black smoke somebody will show up, usually Law Enforcement. Modern Border Guards at most "Middle East" Nations are armed and equipped, including Bulletproof vests due to Muslim Terrorists as Smugglers. Usually, there is an "Overwatch" Sniper or a 12.7mm Machinegun providing protection to the Border Guards. Gunshot wound at close range to the abdominal area, not usually survivable, velocity is too high, hydrostatic pressures would have ruptured main organs, bullet will fragment, even cutting spine, bullet fragments do not travel in a straight line and may end up anywhere. Jake Alshadi would have died within minutes of being shot.

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• a dessert adventure

  MLDinTN2017-12-17

  Rachel goes to Jordan to identify her brother's body, there she is involved in a religious mystery with help of us agent, Jake. They get kidnapped, wander through the dessert, and of course, people whom seem like friends are really enemies. FINAL VERDICT: OK, reminded me of Romancing the Stone except this takes place in the dessert and it is not as good. OK for a background movie while you do other things.

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