Review: Blackout (2008)

Blackout

IMDB rate: 5,1

Genre: Survival

I've already seen this movie once before and I did not really liked it back then, now I watched it again and I still haven't changed my mind. It's quite a boring movie and while the setting is very claustrophobic and gives much potential for a good horror, it's not really used very well.

I'm sorry by the way that the pictures aren't very good quality, there were hardly any pictures on google of this movie and I did not have the time to take screenshots of the movie, sorry!

Three people from different walks of life find themselves trapped inside a stalled elevator. What at first seems like an inconvenience rapidly escalates into a nightmare.

So the story is mainly about three people: Tommy (Armie Hammer), Claudia (Amber Tamblyn) and Karl (Aidan Gillen). These are three actors who are fairly familiar but I was not impressed with their acting abilities at all. 

Armie Hammer plays a punk kid who seems to be very tough but is sweet after all. Armie Hammer mostly plays charming roles and I must say that the 'punk kid' role looked very well on him. The thing that I did not like about Armie Hammer is his monotone voice. I'm not sure anymore what he normally sounds like, but this was very boring. 

I've seen Amber Tamblyn in quite some movies, very diverse movies like The Ring, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and House M.D., I'm never really fond of her acting abilities but in this case she was the best actor. Unfortunately, that is only because the other two were not good at all. And then there is Aidan Gillen, who I mostly know as Little Finger from Game of Thrones. He has this sneaky smile in GOT, and I thought it was something for his role, but apparently he has this sneaky (creepy) smile in every movie. Of course, I'm a big fan of GOT, and I never dislike his acting abilities as Lord Baelish but in this movie he really disappointed me. 

*spoiler*

In this role he is supposed to act like a nice guy and turn out to be the bad guy, but I thought he actually acted better as the good guy than as the bad guy, even though that is what he is supposed to be.

*end of spoiler*

I do blame most of these acting ability malfunctions partly on the dialogues though. The dialogues were  just very lame and unreal. No human speaks like that.

I like how you're being put on the wrong foot in the beginning. Like I already said, the movie has quite some potential. The elevator gives a very claustrophobic atmosphere, an excellent opportunity for a good horror movie. But there has to be a better dialogue in it, and absolutely a different plot. Eventually it appears that there is a killer inside the elevator, and from the moment you know it, the movie goes downward so fast. So one is fucked up, and the other two are helpless victims. Wow, very creative...

The movie only lasts for 81 minutes but it felt like two hours at least, it was so slow. The movie is very dramatic and there is not much action so the movie almost becomes a burden to watch. Also, a very unsatisfying ending.

While in the elevator you learn the story of the three people, and they could have done everything with it. But well, they fucked up with making it this way. 

One must hurry because of a photograph for a dying relative, the other must hurry to be home for a child and the other one must hurry for the impatient girlfriend. Who could have saved everyone by the way if she wasn't so selfish. The stories of each one is just lame and very uncreative. Even the story of the killer is lame. 

I absolutely do not recommend watching this. Even though there are quite some familiar actors in it, it's terrible. Lame dialogues with a terrible soundtrack, a very uncreative plot and not the best acting is all this movie has. 

My personal rate: 4/10