December 14, 2012

Review: Amber Alert (2012)

It's getting to the point where making fun of and/or ripping apart the average Found Footage/POV Horror flick is like picking on the slow kid in class; the slow kids can't defend themselves, and it's usually a complete asshole who picks on the defenseless, and we really don't like being the asshole.

While I would never pick on anyone who is defenseless in real life, I really have no choice but to be the asshole when it comes to the slow kids of the Horror world.

Amber Alert might be the worst movie I've seen all year, and that's saying a lot.

The premise of this movie is a truly great one, and if done well, it could make for one hell of a FF flick. As it stands though, this movie is little more than frustrating and horrible.

 
Nate and Sam are two wacky friends who are out and about making an audition tape for some Reality TV Show that they want to be on. Nate is the pudgy, doting best friend who is secretly in love with Sam. Sam is the cute, thin girl who keeps Nate in the friend-zone, because she has no interest in him whatsoever, but can still get him to be her bitch on command.

How fun are they?
While driving down the highway, taping everything for their audition, they come across an Amber Alert on a freeway billboard. True terror sets in when they realize, about ten seconds after seeing the alert, that the car in front of them is the car mentioned in the Amber Alert! Even more terror sets in when we get to witness two of the dumbest people in existence argue back and forth for the next 70 minutes.

These are the aforementioned two people.
They follow the car, alert the Police to its whereabouts (even though they are too busy doing something more important to investigate), and they even walk up to the car in a gas station to get a better look. Sam sees the girl in the backseat, and instead of breaking the window and grabbing her, she drops a microphone in the car, and they follow they driver some more. And argue some more. And do things that no one who isn't mentally retarded would ever do.

This movie should have been called Screaming Alert.
Finally the Cops show up! Of course after being told to go to the Sheriff's Station -to hand over the tape that they have and give a statement- Sam decides that they should keep looking for the girl instead, and Nate the pussy whines about it, but does her bidding anyway. Worst of all, her reasoning is so weak, that as bad as this movie has been so far it just became painfully worse. Its obvious that shes a moron, and homeboy should have long since told her to shut the fuck up, but then again that's why they're friends; she's in control. That's also why he's in the friend-zone, because his bitch-ass deserves to be there.

Dude, move on.
Darkness falls, and they lose their quarry. Somehow though, Sam catches wind of an address (?!?), Googles it, and they head there to investigate. It's his house! Wow, she's good. So then they break inside, search the ramshackle home in the dark, and find some guns... and then they keep searching.

Then it ends, like every other FF flick seems to end, and we breathe a sigh of relief.

OMG I found him on the Google!
It ended.

"
His shirt says "Cuck."
Plot points, and the ridiculous nature of their failure; that's the clinic that Amber Alert put on for us. This movie fails to make sense on such a massive scale, that it really felt like a middle finger from the people who made it.

- The Amber Alert is broadcast on a billboard while our main characters are driving down the highway, and 10 seconds later, one of them is like "isn't that the car right there?" Now, the driver was feverishly talking to and paying attention to the chick in the passenger seat, they pass under the Amber Alert doing average highway speed, so how did he know what it said? Did he really read that sign, absorb its contents, and have time to process it so quick, all in the midst of a lively discussion?

- So they call the Cops, and say they see the car with the alleged kidnapped kid inside, and the Police say they have a lot of calls and they won't be there for 15 minutes? Wouldn't they stay on the phone? A lot of calls or not, wouldn't Police investigate a call in which someone says "We see the guy right in front of us!" first?

Kill him now. Please.
-If this is a Found Footage tape, how is the licence plate blurred and why is the swearing bleeped out?
Raw footage? Are you saying that the Cops edited this "real" tape, to highlight their ineptitude and culpability in the events of the kidnapping and attempted rescue?

- This movie is full of people doing things that no one in their right mind would ever do. I could see following a car if you really thought there was a kidnapped child inside, but I would have been on the phone with the Cops until they showed up. I'd lie to get them to show up. And for the record, if I'm driving the car, and some witless banshee of a she-bitch in the passenger insists on screaming at me the whole time, the car trip would be over in very short order. Then again, I don't have a vagina like Nate apparently did, so we would have never been driving anywhere together to begin with.

Shut up or walk, issue solved.

I can barely read that, and it's a still image from a movie trailer.
In many FF flicks, the main issues are believability and characters, and their lack of quality. In Amber Alert, we are presented with what may be the two worst, most annoying characters we've seen in recent memory. The girl in this is seriously the most annoying and moronic bitch ever. I can't fathom how anyone would write a character like her, and think that she'd be compelling in the least.

The protagonists were so annoying, and their constant arguing so distracting, that I never once felt any sort of dread about their situation or even the kidnapping. Even when Sam drops a microphone through the window of the car they're following (?!?), and we hear the creepy guy talking menacingly to the scared child in his backseat, it evoked nothing. I cheered for the creeper to kill the heroes. That's bad.

Hipster? Hispter.
Amber Alert takes a truly great premise for a Found Footage flick, and makes a total mess out of it. This movie is more about two people arguing and bickering incessantly than it is about two people following a guy who may have a kidnapped kid. The characters are horribly annoying, the local Police are horribly inept, and not one thing in the movie makes any sort of rational sense whatsoever.

If you're looking to watch a movie that will leave you pissed off and wanting to punch things, this is your flick. Enjoy.

Not even this QT could save Amber Alert from being the trainwreck that it is.

19 comments :

  1. I just watched the movie. This is the only review i've seen to be 100%my accurate. Some critics gave it a 7.5 out pf 10anger or a 4 out of 5.
    All I can say is that I'm sure im not watching any more "suspense driven" FF's. The only driving I would have done would of done is away from my friends house to watch this terrible "film"

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  2. Yeah, it really was terrible. I don't understand what the people who liked it saw in it.

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  3. This movie was terrible, and the main reason for that was that dumbass Sam. I kept waiting for Nate to grow a pair and kick her out of HIS freaking car. How idiotic is chasing some possibly psychotic dude around a city for hours? I hope she at least gave him money for gas. And you mean to tell me, the didn't see a single cop car they could have flagged down and pointed the vehicle out to? No one else paid attention to the alert? Gah, I'm glad I watched this on Netflix, because if I'd gone to a theater or Redbox, I'd be highly pissed.

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  4. Yeah, this one was painfully bad and made zero sennse.

    Glad you didn't have to pay outright for it.

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  5. I had to quit, I was unable to stand it after 30 minutes. I wanted to punch those dirt bags and yell them to shut the F* up.

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  6. I had to shut it off by the time the cop pulled them over. I've never seen such an annoying movie in my life. Those two characters, and especially Sam, made me want to punch something.

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  7. Looks like we all wanted to punch people during/after this movie. It's definitely one of the worst we've seen over the past few years.

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  8. I actually liked the movie a lot and thought it was based on a true story! You people probably wouldn't know a good film if it bit any of you in the ass! Boooooo to all of you haters!

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  9. Our thoughts exactly, Marie. You are correct!

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  10. As annoying and dumb as Sam was, I inherently rooted for her because she was trying to save the child. Maybe I just have a high tolerance for bullsh!t films, but I suffered through it til the end, and it was well worth it! Horror films only play on my fear of realistic situations, so seeing the molester in the final moments scared me to death! I actually found myself sweating out of panic for the child in the film. This will definitely stick with me, but I would only recommend it to someone if I could work the remote and fastforward through all the screaming matches. So hey, my friends shouldn't mind a 5 minute film!

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  11. The most annoying two actors ever. I wish the guy had attacked them and ended the movie.

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  12. The only realistic point about this is that Phoenix Valley cops really are that inept.

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  13. I watched this with my 18 yo daughter ...who btw believed Blair Witch Project too. She was annoyed with me when I kept yelling at the characters to "God... just shut the hell up, already". And was chubby flirting with the kidnapper? Batting his eyes and fumbling over his words... sticking up for him and making excuses while he was in their window? Maybe THAT'S why the two mains aren't dating... Chubs is gay...I digress. Really the worst movie and was glad they died... just wished is was in a car accident while they kept screaming at each other.

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  14. Anon, you said it perfectly. Chubbs lol.

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  15. I rooted for sam because of how she wanted to save the child, but once they find his house, they couldn't of waited for the police to show up? it's a good FF movie but it could've been way better.

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  16. I know this movie isn't real and yes it was very annoying and cheesy at best. But there is a important question incorporated in the movie. That question being " What would you do?" While it was mostly DUIs and one shooting I have done the same. But I also know that limit as well. Cops here say if can follow at a safe distance if you are able. I had one guy go into a apartment complex and just took information down and left. Reported back. Never have I confronted the person. I wouldn't be worried about no microphone. I would of got the child and ran the second I had opportunity. Basically it boils down to bad movie but important messages.

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    1. Agreed about the messages.

      And I would have smashed the window and grabbed the kid too. Let someone call the Cops, that's what I'd want anyhow.

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  17. Same. I really liked it and made me wake up to reality.

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  18. Best horror film is Wrong Turn 1, the action is somehow believable, something beautiful girls, forest, isolated place, perfect ingredients for a successful movie.Closer to reality and success is guaranteed.

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