Another loser is the 2009 film, "Duress" directed by Jordan Barker. It was written by Jim Kehoe and Dipo Oseni and is considered a thriller. However, it is not too thrilling of a picture. The actors include Martin Donovan, Sakis Rouvas, Joey Adams, Megan Ashley, Jacob Bertrand, Tommy Burwell, Desiree Cooper, Catherine Dent, Deon Derrico, Cristina Dohmen, Gina Gallego, Lisa Gady, Deege Harding, Chris Holz, George Ketsios, Cole S. McKay, Kathleen McNearmey, Alexis Raich, Chelsea Smith, Ariel Winter, Billy Wirth and Susan Spano. The story is that of a middle aged businessman who has a young daughter and who is blackmailed into a life of crime by a murderer who threatens the little girl's life if the father does not follow commands. It is a slow moving film and I found it hard pressed to give it only 2 stars. Dale Haufrect

I watched this film expecting to be disappointed by Sakis Rouvas' inexperienced acting skills, but it turned out there were several more major flaws.Yes, Sakis' acting was stilted and it was only too obvious that he doesn't belong in the world of movies. I think most everyone not blinded by his looks or reputation as a singer will agree that he just can't pull off such a role. However, I was surprised by how flat Martin Donovan's portrayal of the character turned out to be. Though his confused and blank expression fitted some scenes, he hardly expressed the emotion that most of the film required and left me waiting for a peak that never came.Furthermore, the attempts of making the killer oh-so-elusive and fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together left some major holes in the plot. I won't go into details to avoid giving out spoilers, but it's safe to say I rolled my eyes one too many times at the poor explanations behind certain events.And yet the most important and, in my opinion, obvious problem of the film was the dialogue. I can't recall ever hearing more unnatural conversations in a movie before...especially Sakis' lines sounded like nothing anyone would say in reality. There are only so many times you can address another person by his name in a conversation, so once he started using "Richard" at least once in every sentence it didn't take long before I grew sick of hearing it.To be fair I must admit I found the ending quite appealing, in a disturbed sort of way...but the twist in the tale can't make up for all the negatives. If anything, I felt it had a lot of potential and it's a shame it wasn't the highlight of the much better film it deserved.Overall I found Duress to be a very mediocre production, with less-than-adequate acting and horrible dialogue. It's not that it didn't keep me interested, but the unreal feeling of it had me wince more than once. I believe the word that best describes this film is "awkward".

The movie starts and fills you with expectations for the continue.For us Greeks it is bizarre to see sakis rouvas a pop singer playing a serial killer although he manages pretty good .Unfortunately the continue is boring with no action and when you begin yawning it comes an unexpected ending to make you see this movie with more sympathy.The result is not that bad if you take under consideration that it is a low budget movie.It is worth to see it if you do not have anything special to do. Looking forward seeing more Greek presences in the future in Hollywood.If you are curious to see Greek horror movies i suggest you "to kako(evil)" and "to kako 2 in the time of heroes" Hasta la vista

I decided to watch that movie because I am Greek and wanted to see how would Sakis act in an American movie. I would not spend time watching something like that if it was not for him. You see, he is just a pop singer and I was really curious to see how he would do.I can't say I was impressed. He is not an actual actor and the role required a lot! It had to be someone professional for this role. I think that Tom Cruise would be great. I am trying to imagine him like he was acting in "Collateral". Now that would be accepted acting. Playing a serial killer isn't easy. You must make your audience feel you are always in control and know what you do or you fail as a bad guy. Sakis was a failure because he was acting stupidly cool, not scary or i-mean-what-i-say cool. Many times it felt like he was an amateur felon and things went good for him just because he was lucky. But I can excuse him because, as I said, he is an amateur actor.Sakis was bad but the worst actor in that movie was Martin Donovan. That was not a victim. Someone from the audience could show more emotions and would react better in almost all scenes compared to him. He was REALLY bad. So cold blooded and non emotional in the whole movie, like nothing really happened and was forced to act like that. That would be good acting if someone robbed him 500 bucks and he was upset, not if someone did what Abner was doing to him. Even Kieffer Sutherland would have played that role better than Donovan. That was unforgivable acting.The flow of the movie was slow. (I don't know if that is the right expression, I mean the way things happen and the story unfolds). It was like there was nothing interesting to say so they were showing boring stuff to fill time. I think that there could be some nice action scenes. The story could justify anything going as bad as possible. Scenes that could have lasted 10 minutes made to last less that 3. For example that man is hitting someone in the donut place. Make that last. Give it some suspense. You end it so quickly just with a punch? What?? I could imagine so many things that could happen and I am not a writer or a director! Instead of good action you give as boring scenes with a victim that does not even react like one, not a fighter but a pathetic person not doing anything to get out of the bad situation, just waiting to see what's next.Things that I liked is Cristina Dohmen (Amy) and the subversion at the end! Christina has very few shots but I think she is exceptional when she is supposed to act good! Also know that everything you see happens for a reason and the reason is REALLY not obvious. If you are a subversion lover and do not have something better to watch, you should watch that movie. Thats why its 6 stars from me anyway. If it was not for that it would have been a 2.