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Survival Skills Review

Survival Skills directed by Quinn Armstrong starring Stacy Keach as the Narrator and Vayu O’Donnell as Jim. We follow a new police officer in a found footage old training video from the 1980s.  As Jim learns what life as a cop is and the traps of the job. Jim’s a happy go lucky guy feels out of place as a cop but he is ready to protect and serve.

 

One of his first calls is a domestic violence case that will come back to haunt him not being able to let it go. He has a rough first few days and is learning how to deal with it. He sees the family of the domestic violence on another call and he reaches out to the wife. Only to be told not to call back there again leaving him unsettled. Chance would have it Jim finds the daughter home the domestic violence call on another call and talks with her.

 

Finding out she does not want to go home she opens up about her father and the abuse they face with him. Jim takes upon himself to save them from the father’s abuse. One of the biggest things not to do is make it personal and he just fell into that trap.  He sets in motion a plan to charge the husband with abuse take in the wife and daughter. Trying to help them get a place fails and the court date is coming up. Only to have things fall apart and the husband gets off and now has them back with him. He calls Jim and makes him hear what he doing to them sending Jim into a bad place mentally as well in this job.

 

This film was something else to watch with a found footage vibe and the 80’s training tape style. The best part was the Stacy Keach narrating the film. His trash-talking when Jim messed up was golden. The VHS tape look was a fun touch selling that 80’s vibe. The story was one that you could see happening just Jim was very off. He looked like a robot in the way he acted and talked which gave the film add vibe that Jim was not for this job. Overall the film was enjoyable for me so check it out for yourself and see how it ends for everyone.