THIS REVIEW DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS
From the moment that I heard about this film by seeing the trailer, I knew, somehow, that it would be different from any other thriller. And I thought this primarily based on the distributor of the film. Lionsgate Films has now become famous all across the world for licensing forthright, hard-hitting, emotional, and generally controversial films, that hardly any other studio would take on (such as the Saw franchise, Hostel, The Descent, Hard Candy, Crash, and the remake of the British horror classic The Wicker Man). You could pretty much say, that Lionsgate Films have developed a highly thought of position in the film industry, and come across as a distribution company with 'no holes barred'.
Also, the plot line showed a large amount of interest to me. In the time of 'Post 9/11 Paranoia', any film with a terrorism link has developed a huge amount of hype with the media, and this is no exception. Sure, it isn't shrouded in limelight like United 93 and World Trade Centre, but they have reason to be. Any film with terrorism as a theme is bound to generate a fair amount of interest, and if anything, a reasonable amount of tension, and at the start of the film, it does, more than any other film I've seen.
In a way, it is unfair to compare United 93 and World Trade Centre to this, because they are not related storyline wise (well, not as much for United 93. World Trade Centre, maybe). The basic plot line of this film is the main character (Brad), who sends his wife off to work as normal, but the whole situation is rocked by the fact that multiple Dirty Bombs were detonated in Los Angeles. Brad becomes panicked, and is worried sick about his wife. And as the situation worsens, his tensions get higher.
The Film opens with the word of numerous explosions rocking LA. And word comes in that the explosions were from the downtown area and the Beverly Hills area. You can hear explosions in the background noise; you see buildings burning, flames in the sky, and huge clouds of black dominating the LA skyline. You then hear that a bomb has been detonated at Los Angeles International Airport. We see Brad becoming more and more anxious about his wife not being home, her not answering any of his calls, and as the situation becomes more deadly (because we finally hear that toxic chemicals were released in the explosions, and are now traveling in the clouds), then you really begin to feel upset and angry for Brad, because the fact that neither he, nor the viewers, know if his wife is alive or not.
However, from the moment that you find out his wife is alive, and has been exposed quite badly to the toxic cloud, the film dramatically looses nearly all of the tension that had developed in the beginning of the film. The wife (Lexi) plays hell at him for not letting him in after he has sealed the house so none of the toxins can get into the house. In frustration, she throws her cell phone through the window. Which, from a love and humanity point of view, was purely ridiculous, but you will find out why, later on, it was the right thing to do.
So, after loosing most of the tension about wondering whether she was alive or not, the tension now shifts to what happens to her. After he has been isolated from her own husband, and is trapped outside the house. After spending what seemed like an hour to-ing and fro-ing from character to character, we finally have some army guys showing up to find out if people are OK or not. They declare the house as a "Red Flag", then bugger off again somewhere. And then, we're back to the fact that his wife is STILL alive, coughing and stuff after being exposed to the clouds for 3 days.
Then, the army guys come back at the end of the film, take the wife away, and seals the house down with Brad still inside it. It turns out that the house had become a breeding ground to the toxins, and it was growing at a massive rate because of the fact that some of the toxin got into the house when Lexi threw her phone through the window, and when he sealed the house up, the temperature in the house went up, the toxin began to multiply. So, the army boarded up the house, and gassed the house, with Brad still inside.
Now, the major problem i have with that is, If the house had become a breeding ground for the toxin, why was his wife showing far more severe symptoms for longer than he was? I think it was because she was exposed to the cloud sooner, but Brad didn't even start to show symptoms. Meh, i guess a film will have it's plot holes...
Well, aside from the lame-ass ending and the fact we find his wife alive about 20 minutes into the film sort of ruined it for me. The first 20 - 30 minutes of it were amazing. From a cinematographic point of view, it was just amazing, The writing and directing skills of Chris Gorak were just stunning for a first time writer and director, although the ending could have been a lot better
So, i would say 7/10 for this movie.
From the moment that I heard about this film by seeing the trailer, I knew, somehow, that it would be different from any other thriller. And I thought this primarily based on the distributor of the film. Lionsgate Films has now become famous all across the world for licensing forthright, hard-hitting, emotional, and generally controversial films, that hardly any other studio would take on (such as the Saw franchise, Hostel, The Descent, Hard Candy, Crash, and the remake of the British horror classic The Wicker Man). You could pretty much say, that Lionsgate Films have developed a highly thought of position in the film industry, and come across as a distribution company with 'no holes barred'.
Also, the plot line showed a large amount of interest to me. In the time of 'Post 9/11 Paranoia', any film with a terrorism link has developed a huge amount of hype with the media, and this is no exception. Sure, it isn't shrouded in limelight like United 93 and World Trade Centre, but they have reason to be. Any film with terrorism as a theme is bound to generate a fair amount of interest, and if anything, a reasonable amount of tension, and at the start of the film, it does, more than any other film I've seen.
In a way, it is unfair to compare United 93 and World Trade Centre to this, because they are not related storyline wise (well, not as much for United 93. World Trade Centre, maybe). The basic plot line of this film is the main character (Brad), who sends his wife off to work as normal, but the whole situation is rocked by the fact that multiple Dirty Bombs were detonated in Los Angeles. Brad becomes panicked, and is worried sick about his wife. And as the situation worsens, his tensions get higher.
The Film opens with the word of numerous explosions rocking LA. And word comes in that the explosions were from the downtown area and the Beverly Hills area. You can hear explosions in the background noise; you see buildings burning, flames in the sky, and huge clouds of black dominating the LA skyline. You then hear that a bomb has been detonated at Los Angeles International Airport. We see Brad becoming more and more anxious about his wife not being home, her not answering any of his calls, and as the situation becomes more deadly (because we finally hear that toxic chemicals were released in the explosions, and are now traveling in the clouds), then you really begin to feel upset and angry for Brad, because the fact that neither he, nor the viewers, know if his wife is alive or not.
However, from the moment that you find out his wife is alive, and has been exposed quite badly to the toxic cloud, the film dramatically looses nearly all of the tension that had developed in the beginning of the film. The wife (Lexi) plays hell at him for not letting him in after he has sealed the house so none of the toxins can get into the house. In frustration, she throws her cell phone through the window. Which, from a love and humanity point of view, was purely ridiculous, but you will find out why, later on, it was the right thing to do.
So, after loosing most of the tension about wondering whether she was alive or not, the tension now shifts to what happens to her. After he has been isolated from her own husband, and is trapped outside the house. After spending what seemed like an hour to-ing and fro-ing from character to character, we finally have some army guys showing up to find out if people are OK or not. They declare the house as a "Red Flag", then bugger off again somewhere. And then, we're back to the fact that his wife is STILL alive, coughing and stuff after being exposed to the clouds for 3 days.
Then, the army guys come back at the end of the film, take the wife away, and seals the house down with Brad still inside it. It turns out that the house had become a breeding ground to the toxins, and it was growing at a massive rate because of the fact that some of the toxin got into the house when Lexi threw her phone through the window, and when he sealed the house up, the temperature in the house went up, the toxin began to multiply. So, the army boarded up the house, and gassed the house, with Brad still inside.
Now, the major problem i have with that is, If the house had become a breeding ground for the toxin, why was his wife showing far more severe symptoms for longer than he was? I think it was because she was exposed to the cloud sooner, but Brad didn't even start to show symptoms. Meh, i guess a film will have it's plot holes...
Well, aside from the lame-ass ending and the fact we find his wife alive about 20 minutes into the film sort of ruined it for me. The first 20 - 30 minutes of it were amazing. From a cinematographic point of view, it was just amazing, The writing and directing skills of Chris Gorak were just stunning for a first time writer and director, although the ending could have been a lot better
So, i would say 7/10 for this movie.