Rising Fear

I want to start with "bravo". The movie wasn't that bad, the beginning absolutely grabs your attention after that, ehhh. The reason why, the acting, directing and graphics. It's obvious that the other reviews here are from people connected to this film. Come on, 10 out of 10? Die hard meets matrix? This movie is no where near those, it can't be without a bigger load of cash. That begin said, I have no doubt, with bigger money, better actors and perhaps directing it would've been a blockbuster - well, maybe. I have to mention that Tom seems a bit full of himself. I say that not because I have anything against him, it just shows when looking over it all. He should've focused on the directing rather than trying to be a leading man in the film. He is not a believable hot shot. The look, doesn't say ex marine. I know, let's not take the path all others have taken, a muscular tough guy, but they should've gone with some else more fitting. There has to be a believable 'look' to him. The other guy, the main fbi guy seems to be trying to pull off a Tom Cruise impersonation. It just really comes down to the acting - not good. The directing wasn't great but wasn't that awful. Just needs a little more work and thought. The graphics, again, eh. I can't say they were terrible. I would say 50/50, at times they looked decent, other times they looked absolutely horrible. Some of the lines in the movie make you say "what!?! Did they really say that? Are they kidding?". Overall it's a 3 or 4 star film(out of 10). The acting kills it. The unrealistic Lead hot shot, kills it. At times the graphics and directing kill it. It's a hell of an effort, especially considering the cash used to do it all. The story seems great and this could've been huge if done differently..(actors directing graphics and so on..).

I've been putting off seeing this because it seemed like a cheap cash grab on Olympics Has Fallen. And wow! I'm 10 minutes in the film and I want to watch it with an open mind, but boy does Tom Getty makes it really hard. First off, you cast yourself as the lead and direct the film? That is a big red flag unless you've has years of experience on either end of the camera, and then it's not always a good idea! The dialogue is forced, the effects are just as bad as a high schooler making a file with his friends on youtube with photoshop, the plot seemed interesting but the execution just ruined it. This is another film where the writers hoped on Google for acronyms that military and law enforcement use and picked the ones they thought sounded cool. Everyone is now dumber for watching this film. I award it no stars, and may God have mercy on Tom Gettys soul.

The special effects look like someone made them with Adobe After Effects or Blender on a rainy Sunday afternoon but the acting is not too bad and there are some nice plot twists. It's a decent action movie if you are not expecting much.

And I read it had a budget of $6000, which is amazing. I have seen way worse movies that cost millions (someone mentioned Independence Day Resurgence, that movie was one of them, see The Critical Drinker's takedown of it on YouTube.

Oh and I want the bad guy's mask. I saw it was a MSA mask in the close-up so it should be available on Amazon. When you're forced to wear a face mask because of the Wu Flu you could make the best of it and wear the most awesome one you can find.

This movie is the sequel to that Michael Scarn blockbuster. The guy with the mask is Goldenface. The president is...well, the president. Won't win any awards, but hey, it's better than I could do. I think.

I was scrolling thru the free movie site FREEVEE, and noticed a movie shot in my hometown of Pittsburgh that I never heard of before.

Being a Pittsburgh theatre tech and having worked on many film productions myself (Silence of the Lambs, Hoffa, etc) I decided to give it a shot.

I could tell that this was low budget, but the photography and editing was very good and amped the tension. The two lead actors were convincing. My only complaint was the sound quality. The story is good and deserves a big budget treatment.

After viewing I gave it 4 stars, but when I found out that Tom Getty was responsible for EVERYTHING! Writer, director, editor, sound, composer, lead actor, breakfast burritos :-) on a $6000 budget, I bumped it to 6 stars.

Cheers.