Amber Alert

I watched this via my cable service On-Demand feature; just a random search and watch. On the plus side, I do have to admit that in spite of my hate for the characters, it is one of those movies where once you get hooked you have to watch until the end to see what happens. As I titled this review summary, I did make it through the end. But what an effort that was.

The story premise was not bad. But have I ever hated two characters more in a film than these two main characters? Never. I cannot recall such despise and hatred. The guy was an absolute narcissist in spite of his apparent affections for the female lead. His constant fighting back and lack of concern regarding the situation just grated to where I wanted to reach in the movie and punch the crap out of this dude (in spite of my non-violent nature). As for the female lead, unfortunately I felt likewise although I would never condone violence against a female just because she is stupid. Aaaargh! I have trouble writing this when I think about these two numb-skulls in action.

One last point that I have to criticize is that this movie insults our police forces. I cannot believe they would be as lax as they are portrayed in this movie. While not always perfect, I prefer to think the police response to an Amber Alert situation would merit a much quicker response. Unfortunately the movie premise would not have existed. Maybe that would have been a good thing.

I love found footage films. Favorite genre really and not hard to please but this film was pretty hard to enjoy. As others have mentioned after the characters are introduced you can skip sections of the film and not miss anything. If you watch the beginning, a bit of the middle and the last 20 or so you've seen what you need to. Was the ending worth it? No. But what I found really awful was how the characters were written. The way the lead female was directed to behave was atrocious. Nails on a chalkboard to listen to. She was awful. In ways you could understand her concern over a child in danger but that does not excuse her maddening harping, complaining, whining, etc. She made this movie the reason I was skipping forward to get to the end. I don't blame the actress, she was written or directed that way. It was awful.

Amber Alert (2012)

BOMB (out of 4)

Found footage film about three friends who are shooting an "introduction" video for what they hope will lead to a reality show. While filming they spot a car that has been linked to an amber alert so they decide to follow it. AMBER ALERT is a realistic found footage film but that's not always a good thing. I must admit that I've never seen a movie that has made me more angry than this one here. If a genie had popped up while watching this movie I would have made a wish to jump through my television screen and strangle all three of the people in this movie. I honestly can't recall a more annoying movie full of stupid characters doing stupid things in my life. The entire movie just seems like there was no thought put into it because the story is so slim and there's really nothing that happens through its short 80-minute running time. Obviously if you're following an amber alert car you're going to call the police. How this is handled in the movie is just downright laughable at times and it's certainly not realistic. What's so annoying is that the two lead characters do nothing but scream at each other and usually it's about the same stuff. The guy wants to give up looking. The girl screams at him. The two fight about various things like their responsibility or what could possibly happen to them. This non-stop arguing appears to be improvised and it's just annoying and throughout the film it just keeps repeating itself. At times I had to stand up during the movie because my blood was boiling over how angry these characters were making me. They do one stupid thing after another. Yes, you need to suspend disbelief at times but this film crossed the line into stupidity. With that said, I think for the most part the film is technical well-made considering it is a found footage movie. It's well-shot and I think the performances are realistic but, then again, this also adds to some of the annoying bits. I'm not going to spoil anything in the movie but if I were to do so then you'd see how many more faults are in the story. AMBER ALERT is without question one of the most annoying films I've ever seen and it's actually making more angry as I write all of this.

And not in a good way.

Overall, the story was good and efficient and the acting was not bad. But there was far too much of the two main characters screaming at each other. I realize that this is probably what would have happened in real life, but it didn't make for a good movie.

But it was good to see a found footage movie about something real in our society today. Less screaming and more interesting dialogue and I would have graded this higher.

(This part has nothing to do with the movie. See next paragraph.) I was getting irritated with all the bad reviews. These reviews were done as poorly as they tried to describe the movie as being. When writing a review the goal isn't to belittle the movie and try to come up with 'clever' ways to speak badly about the people and their career choices as actors. You basically are a bully and not a critic at that point, so stop it.

(Amber Alert) I went into this movie not expecting much and came out much happier than most by doing so. It is a low budget movie with its share of flubs. But it is not a 'pathetic' and 'horrible waste of time'. The story is simple yet captivating. The acting tends to lack in a lot of areas but is good at certain points. If you can get past the acting and keep yourself in the movie the story has a good build. People like to believe they would have done things differently, but it's a movie so if you can accept that then their actions in the film won't bother you. The only thing that genuinely bothered me was the police' lack of response and at some points their concern. In the end it was a decent movie. And it's just a movie so if you like it, good. If you don't like it then just leave it at that and don't feel like it is your civic duty to really ream these actors because in the end it makes you no better than a Starbucks customer.