The Blackout (2014)

Simply Perfect

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Some of the user reviews raved about this film, while others trashed it. I' in between. There are some wonderful exterior shots. There is--at times--some well-earned tension. And there is an ending that might surprise some of you.On the other hand: the acting is not really that good. There are not startling or unique effects. The pacing--which was OK for my during my lunch break--might be painstakingly slow from some.Bottom line: If you have a free night and you can't find anything else that interests you, then check this one out. It isn't a complete waste of time (unlike "Aftershock" which I just saw and other than some laughs at some sick humor-e.g. a guy loses his hand--graphically--and his female partner picks it up and places it in her purse. On the way to the hospital with his injury, his female friend has her purse ripped off. Had to laugh at this bit--and a couple more.) So for an OK night, with an OK movie--you could certainly do far worse than "The Blackout."

I enjoy this genre, so I decided to watch this film when it popped up on Amazon Prime, despite the mediocre reviews.Definitely has B-movie overtones: Script is a bit ham-fisted at times. Background sound effects are overdone, particularly the transitional "thunder." At volumes just loud enough to hear the dialogue, the sound effects were rattling my home theater. Definitely out of balance. Acting performances were acceptable, but it's clearly B-level talent.On the positive side, the cinematography is excellent. Not sure where it was filmed, but the backdrops are beautiful.Perhaps best of the film is that the screen writers depict what many preppers consider to be the expected reality for such a situation: The thin veneer of society will peel away quickly if the power goes out and stays off for more than a few days. The plot deals with this very effectively, and that alone will interest viewers who think about these situations.

I rented this from a redbox on a whim one night, not really giving it much thought. When I picked it out, it reminded me of the TV movie "American Blackout" that came out on nat geo a while back, which had a very similar plot. But "The Blackout" surprised me, it looked good, had solid acting, and above all it had a story was realistic and not over the top. Even minor things really stood out to me, like how loud the gunshots were (it's a pet peeve of mine when gunshots are too quiet in movies). It gave that same feeling the TV show "Jericho" did, where you don't know what's going on, so the anxiety levels are up there. This movie gave me a pretty good adrenaline rush on more than one occasion. I would have liked to have seen a little more of how the survivalist made use of his preparations though, but that's not something that took away from the movie.

Wow where to start....I thought it was throwaway rental from Rebox.Well that was wrong! It was very well paced and it really dragged me in. I didn't even realize it was Costas Mandylor he was so good at the role. So many movies that deal with the subject of when the "Sh*t hits the fan" go way over the top with the subject you can't believe it. This didn't it dealt with it as it would really happen or look. No monsters just ourselves. I was really blown away by the cast they did such a great job in showing how bad things could get.I also like the keeping of the violence to a minimum not so over the top like most b-movies or major blockbusters. It relied on plot not the visual so you were more dragged into the Blackout. Kudos to the screenwriter and director for doing a kick ass job with it all. The cast really did their jobs also, by not being so over the top. Just a great movie all around that really needs to be seen by anyone that's into a great movie not just us Sci-Fi/Action which I thought it was when you read the description at the Redbox machine. It was just a awesome movie period. Could have been a bit longer but was very well paced not to many slow moments or sub plots that didn't need to be there. No plot holes also. I won't say much about the ending but I was very satisfied. Also not having a ending that sets up a sequel was nice. All in all one the best rentals I've had in years that really made me want to waste 1000 words on here without saying to much.