Blackout Effect (1998)
There has been a mid-air collision involving a passenger jet and a cargo flight, killing everyone aboard the two planes. The NTSB investigator in charge, whose girlfriend died in the crash, is puzzled. On one side, the air traffic controller claims he lost radar contact with the cargo plane shortly before impact, when his screen "blacked out." On the other side, everyone else, including the controller's bosses and the media, put the blame on human error. The truth is soon to be uncovered, as the aging air traffic control facilities are on the verge of failing right in the middle of the busy Thanksgiving season.
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the audience applauded
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Absolutely Brilliant!
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
"Blackout Effect" gets off to a good start and ends confused about it's own purpose. With Stoltz at the center as an NTSB sleuth investigating a midair collision, the film takes the audience into the world of commercial aviation and air traffic control. However, once there, it becomes a mess of conflicts between ATC's and management, the NTSB and the ATC management, the quirky bad guy and everyone, and even a side plot about a relationship between the investigator and a passenger on the doomed flight which serves no purpose. The film loses itself when an agitated ATC threatens to disrupt aviation with a home made ray gun. Yeah, right. An okay watch with sufficient energy to keep the viewer awake, "Blackout Effect" will be most enjoyed by tech-heads and people interested in convoluted dramas, especially about aviation.
This was recently shown on BBC so I had a chance to watch it. An Air Traffic Controler's life is one of the most stressful, as is illustrated in this drama. It has an interesting plot, which (I think) is well played out by the actors. Although Charles Smith's character is a little over the top.All in all it's a pretty good movie.
I have seen this movie several times, and think that it is one of the better TV movies out there. No, it's not the best, but it has a good story line that flows quite well. Some things, as stated in a previous review, may not be totally accurate, but pretty much anyone smart enough to notice those technical mistakes should know that made for TV movies don't have a large enough budget to get every little detail correct. I have to say that this is a movie worth watching.
I like "Charlie" Martin Smith and he hadn't been in much when this movie aired, so I was happy to watch, and even happier that this was a network TV movie, but not one about love interests, and affairs and sexual passions and all of that other junk that most fills most other network TV movies. Instead, "Blackout Effect" is a pretty interesting story about an air traffic controller(Mr. Smith) basically getting his life ruined because people blame him for causing a fatal plane crash. I don't know a thing about air traffic controllers, so I didn't exactly understand a lot of what was going on, but Smith does a nice job at his "troubled" character and co-star Eric Stoltz is very convincing as well. Add that with a smooth directing job from Jeff Bleckner(who's "Concealed Enemies" I quite wish I could have seen) and you get a film that's quite above average for the usual network-TV fair. An achievment.