Das Penthouse

I'm old enough to remember being scared silly by Audrey Hepburn's movie of the 60's - a blind woman being terrorized for something her husband stole. The hand grabbing her ankle still makes me screech. This movie is nothing original but still suspenseful in a more current way - more violence, more sexual threat. However, a huge plot hole - a dead body STINKS. Blood stinks, a body "letting go" in death stinks, a sweaty killer stinks. Also, if she could hear the guy on the balcony at the end, why couldn't she hear (or smell or feel) a guy standing a foot in front of her?

Lifetime Channel movies are getting better...a little. They are using more well known movie actors, like Michael Keaton in this one. Blindsided is still not an award winning script or performance but it's much better than some (mind you I'm a Lifetime movie watcher, no matter how sappy, although I'm using a bit more discretion with my time nowadays) This movie has decent acting & suspense. It's still a bit predictable, but keeps you interested. The lead Michelle Monaghan is believable (and pretty) as a blind woman pursued by criminals, who think she knows where their "goods" are hidden. It reminds me of Audrey Hepburn's, 1967 classic film, Wait Until Dark, a much better movie. If you need something to watch on a slow weekend this will do. If you are a Lifetime movie watcher, this is a good one. 6.5 stars in my humble opinion. Jan 2014 (watched when first aired on TV)

Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton star in "Blindsided," a 2013 straight-to-video film coproduced by Keaton for reasons known only to him.

Monaghan plays a former photojournalist, Sara, who was blinded by a suicide bomber while covering a war and still suffers from PTSD. If she didn't suffer from it, she would have been by the time the action in this film finished.

On New Year's Eve, the man she is living with, Ryan (Andrew Walker) is killed by a former associate from whom he stole a fortune in diamonds. Sara has been out, and it takes her a while after she returns home to stumble across the body, and the perpetrator (Barry Sloane) is still in the apartment. He is joined by the brains of the organization, Hollander (Keaton) and together they try by various sadistic means to find out where the loot is.

This is really cliché-ridden claptrap, derivative, predictable, and how dare anyone compare it to Wait Until Dark. You know every move the villains are going to make. What's more, you know where the diamonds are hidden. You also know what the end of the film is going to be. It's all too obvious.

Michael Keaton does a terrific job, but this is a generic mean guy role. Michelle Monaghan does okay, but these are all generic characters there to serve the predictable action.

There were a lot of holes in this thing. First off, why not look for the diamonds in the apartment? Or a key to a safe deposit box? How do you know Sara knows where they are? Quite possibly she knows nothing of Ryan's past and therefore nothing about any theft. And what a place to hide them. If this had been shown in a theater, the entire place would be yelling out the hiding place.

Secondly - and this I really didn't understand - this is a 2013 release. Okay, Sara gets into a room and locks the door. She gets on her computer, which takes vocal commands. And she's going to send an email. Well, I hope the person is checking messages.

No cell phone with a quick connection to 911? A phone she can keep on so she can be found, should she not be able to get out her address? Though in the time it took her to get onto her email, she certainly could have.

The woman is blind, and all she has if she needs help is a computer where she can e-mail someone? We know she had one while she was out. I think someone physically challenged would have it on her at all times.

I can't go on. Skip this movie. Rent Wait Until Dark where an entire audience screamed OUT LOUD at one part. They would have screamed here too - at the box office for their money back.

A blind reclusive war photographer is living in a penthouse in New York, when she is experiencing that someone has come into her apartment. Too late she senses that there's someone there.

Well it doesn't take long before the action gets going, that's the good thing. Also the actors are doing an OK job. Nothing extraordinary, but OK job. Michael Keaton is always good in these kind of roles. Director Koseph Ruben is experienced, and has directed "Sleeping with the enemy", "The forgotten" and "The good son" amongst others. Quite good films. I don't like the war time flashbacks though. The cutter hasn't done a favorite job here.

This is very mediocre filmmaking, and has troubles in engaging me, mainly due to the script. Strange, because David Loughery, the man behind, had done good scripts like "Lakeview Terrace" and "Passenger57".

What's evident, is that blind people sense more than it's the case here. It's simply impossible to imagine a blind person being this motionless, and not even being able of smelling blood when it's out in ounces on the kitchen floor. And also another thing, when she takes out her white stick long after going out in the streets. And then a penthouse window which can be broken with throwing a chair!? Come on! This film would gave been much better if a blind had been involved in the script writing, do that stupid things could be avoided.

If you want to watch a similar themed move, seek out "Blind" by Eskil Vogt instead, which is a completely profound experience compared to this. (Blind was a selected movie, and later prize winner at Sundance Film Festival in 2014.)

The film is very predictable. So predictable it actually hurts. But if you don't mind, it's an OK watch. But if you don't wasn't to use time on mediocre films, you'll find much better!

Almost came close to giving it a 6 but I don't really think it has much replay value so I'll just leave it at a five.

Got interested in watching this after being pleasantly surprised by Michael Keaton's performance as a hit-man in MERRY GENTLEMAN so I was a little let down when he hadn't shown up in the first 25 minutes, but once he pops up (closer to the 30 minute mark), he becomes one of the key characters in the film.

Has a bit of a rough start in terms of truly getting going and feels slightly amateurish but once it gets going it gets decent enough to keep watching, Michelle Monaghan initially felt a little miscast during the war-segments but once she goes blind she feels more natural.

And even though Michael Keaton never feels truly threatening his screen-presence speaks for itself and makes it work somehow, it helps that Monaghan portrays her characters fear very well.

Barry Sloane is the third lead in the film and he's just okay, not bad but he doesn't come across as terribly menacing either and doesn't have the same star-power charisma that helped Keaton to make his role a bit better than it was.

As far as the story goes, we've kinda seen it all before although minor details feel fresh but they could have done so much more with it.

Yeah overall not a great movie, but not a complete disaster either.

Decent to watch on a slow Sunday afternoon perhaps.