Teenager Scottie (Jack Gross) has been having a rough time at school. He doesn’t really have any friends, and is constantly being picked on by a bully. So his Uncle Joey (Jack Gross) offers to take Scottie and his younger sister Jamie (Juliet Rusche) to the mountains for the weekend—a place that they always used to enjoy going to with their father. However, Joey has some alternate plans lined up, and takes the children camping in the woods, where his amateur paintball team, the Weekend Warriors, will be going up against some professionals. Joey is one of the newer members of the team, most of whom met while they were in prison and formed a tight bond. They take this game very seriously, especially leader Wesley (Daniel de Weldon), who isn’t too keen on having a couple of kids tag along. While the festivities start off normal, things take a dark turn, and the children witness something they shouldn’t. Now they find themselves on the run, hunted by people trying to kill them, enduring the elements and dangerous wildlife, while also trying to remember the survival skills their father had taught them when they were younger. They’re going to need to quickly find their confidence in themselves and each other if they’re going to make it out of these woods alive.

While the premise of Weekend Warriors sounded great, its execution is severely lacking, and feels very low budget at times. First of all, I’m not really sure what the tone and target audience of the film is meant to be. There is a large portion of the movie that is just setting up Scottie being bullied at school, and his lack of confidence in himself. At this point it feels more like one of those made for kids movies where you’re going to see a teen learn to overcome his obstacles and find the inner-strength to take on the bully. There’s some humor as we meet the bumbling local cops and some of the team, but also this ominous feeling as Wesley talks about how the game is going to be more intense this year. At another point, I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a religious movie as the kids suddenly break into the “Our Father”. But as bodies are dropping left and right, it doesn’t really feel like it’s meant for kids anymore. At the same time, there is also this Home Alone-type feeling to the violence, because despite the body count, the kids don’t really seem phased or scared at all. As they are trying to escape their situation, there is no sense of panic, and they’re even joking with one another, casually walking and reminiscing about fun times from their childhood. These kids must thrive on pain as well, because even a bear mauling (which seems to magically heal later on) and an arrow through the shoulder don’t even elicit any screaming from these two, and moments after these incidents, they continue on like nothing happened. Are we supposed to be cheering for these kids, or terrified for them?!

The paintball team includes an assortment of stereotypical characters and cheesy dialogue. There’s the leader Wesley, who’s constantly showing off that he’s a tough guy and mentioning how he likes to inflict pain—to make sure the audience knows he’s not a good guy. As the team is speeding down the highway heading up to the mountains, they pass a cop, and when the siren comes on, Wesley uses the cliched “I’m not goin’ back to prison for nobody” and pulls a gun, ready if the cop catches up to them. And this is not the only time he uses this line during the movie. Also in the group are Wesley’s girlfriend Lisa (Isabella Sides) whom he’s abusive to, a former football star turned felon Bull (Maurice P. Kerry), redneck brothers Travis (Brannon Cross) & Mike (Bryant Carroll) who bicker like 10-year-olds, and quiet Edward (Phillip Andre Botello) who follows Wesley around like a pup. Sebastian (Jason Michael Carroll) is one of the only people on the team who wasn’t in prison, and is Joey’s friend who introduced him to the group. While the others met in prison, it’s a wonder of how/why Sebastian and Joey are part of this group.

The pacing and editing of the film is also a bit of a mess. We spend so much time with Scottie at school, then meeting all of the various paintball teammates and setting up this big epic paintball tournament—we are told that the team will be going up against this amazing professional team followed by an every man for themselves tournament among the teammates. However, when it’s finally time for the game, in a blink of an eye we are told there’s only two people left. We don’t really even get to see any of it, particularly this hyped-up professional team. This is a common theme throughout the movie where things are set up, and then we skip over the actual action and interesting parts and sometimes just told what happened. In one scene a bad guy is driving an ATV, only to have it cut to the ATV being flipped over a second later, because they obviously didn’t film the action/stunt sequence. There are some other similarly laughable edits as other characters are killed off. Corbin Bernsen, who plays the small town police chief, is on the front and center of the cover of the DVD, but is probably only in about 5 minutes of the movie. At one point he has a line about how great it was to spending several weeks with the kids and how he built a great relationship with them, but once again we don’t see any of that, just told it.

I’m guessing that most people will not watch this and think it was an amazing movie. They’ll likely be watching for laughs, which I don’t think was the intention, especially in the second half of the film. It’s a shame because the premise of the film was a great concept.

Mill Creek has only been released the film on DVD as far as physical media goes. The picture quality is pretty solid for a DVD, though it definitely doesn’t have the same clarity as a Blu-ray would. Busier scenes, like when the cars first arrive at the woods, driving across green grass with green trees all around, are where some of the SD limitations could be seen. However, overall the picture quality was more than sufficient. The audio track provides clear dialogue and does an excellent job of making the ambiance of the setting come to life, whether it’s surrounding the viewer with the sounds of nature, or of approaching storms overhead. The DVD disc comes packed in a standard DVD keepcase without a slipcover. The main menu just offers a subtitle on/off option, and there is no bonus material or digital copy included.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:32:58)

• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material included on this release.

Final Thoughts:

I thought the premise of Weekend Warriors sounded excellent and was looking forward to checking it out. However, the execution did not do it any justice. The film doesn’t seem to know what tone it wants to be, feels very low budget at times, and has poor dialogue, editing and direction. It does a lot of telling rather than showing, and you never really get the sense of panic or emotion that makes you take the situation seriously and care about their plight. Mill Creek’s DVD presentation is pretty solid for those thinking about a purchase, but the disc doesn’t include any bonus material.