Flashburn

I would have no hesitation in recommending this sci-fi thriller to any moviegoer looking to bite their nails completely off their fingers! Flashburn is a clever, heart-pounding thriller that keeps you questioning what's real. The anticipation kicks off from the first scene and then spins you around with a plot twist that leaves you with your mouth open. The characters have great chemistry but you can feel the secrecy that hides behind the tension. The main actress (Cameron Richardson) did an amazing job selling a compelling character with sinister moments that makes the audience question if we can trust her. She complements the main character and runs the plot into an unexpected twist.

This is not a sci-fi thriller. It is a tedious, mawkish 2-dimensional linear script mess.

I'm not sure which film garnered the high scoring reviews under the title 'Flashburn' but I'm pretty sure it was not the one I watched.

Not sure where to start? The story might have been intriguing for a 15 minute short, woefully inadequate for the 90 minute snoozefest. As it stands, it is repetitive and requires far too much 'tell' and not enough 'show' to make things move. The plot reversals are amateur at best, and again, repetitive.

Dialogue is strained, and the 'computer voice over' both annoying and yes, repetitive. The script itself is basic, not a lot of acting skills required, and most of it is delivered in either excited (and repetitive bursts) or wondering monotone.

Production values are as low as one can get, but they did make good use of what they had, most scenes had plastic sheets and diffuse lighting as the backdrop and the empty run down warehouse did create an atmosphere, just not a very good one.

The acting was good, unfortunately limited by both script and dialogue. The two main actors had good range and delivery, their performances giving a weak film some structure.

On a positive note, for those involved in this film, they can only move onto better things.

Would I recommend this film? Hell no.

If one looks at the "sparkling" reviews here it will be noticed they were all left within 2 days of one another. Far from being a 9 & 10-star film, this is a plodding, boring, illogical piece of nonsense that makes "straight to DVD" look like an Oscar winner.

Being already aware from the summary that the main character is looking for a cure to the virus... early in the film he is prevented from going outside a building because he "may be exposed". Yet almost immediately he finds himself in the company of an infected victim, with apparently no concern that she's exposing him every second he's with her. It goes downhill from there.

When a film relies on fake reviews to catch attention, that tells us a lot about its quality from the beginning. Be warned: this is a SyFy-quality film that will have you yawning within the first 20 minutes. If you take anything away from it at all... it will be a nice nap.

There is no doubt that this could have been a really good movie. With the current situation of several pandemic strains in the world, what seemed like an unlikely situation for humanity, the background of this movie seems quite possible today.

Sean Patrik Flanery is acting above everyone else in the movie, and he have clearly become an AAA actor and even better since the days as Indiana Jones.

The music is awesome, and it was a good idea to spend some extra money of the budget to get a known composer that could capture the mood of the story.

I loved the couple of twists and turns and they capture the slight panic, doubts and handicap of someone with memory loss.

Now , why the low score ?

Everything else in the movie screams " low budget ". I looks like a weekend project by a film student. They clearly had to cut scenes and places to film, by budget reasons, but that means that some dialogue in the beginning of the movie, doesn´t really add up as there probably were some actions scenes that had to be cut. The CGI is also really bad by 1995 standard, even worse today.

The acting was terrible, the writing was weak and cliche, and the characters were shallow and empty. This was a complete waste of time and money. "Open the bay doors, HAL". "I can't do that, Dave." "Daisy, Daisy, tell me your answer, please." Just nonsense.