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I watched this one night when it appeared on TV and really enjoyed it. The storyline involves a air traffic controllers screen blanking out for three seconds causing two planes to crash. The authorities try to use the controller as their scapegoat and are prepared to let him take the rap. The crash investigator on the case notices some evidence is not what appears at first glance and decides to dig deeper uncovering some surprising results. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the viewer interested and the storyline raises it above par for a TV movie. The acting is very good and characters like team friends in the air traffic control room dominate a lot of the film. Ending up more like a whodunit/mystery than suspense but the finale is worth waiting for and you will be rooting for poor Henry, the air traffic controller.

Since I like thrillers very much this is not the first one I have ever seen about airport security (EXECUTIVE DECISION is one that quickly comes to mind). However I was a bit reticent when I had to watch BLACKOUT EFFECT because of its low score and few divergent reviews. But when I saw it, as it progressed it became better.

John Dantley (Eric Stoltz) is a NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) officer that is sent to O'Hare Airport for investigating about a collision between a Boeing 757-200 from Los Angeles to Washington DC and a Boeing 727-200F where 185 people were killed. It won't be easy because air traffic controller Henry Drake insists that his radar had a malfunction when the planes were cleared for landing, but Dantley will do everything for making the truth come out: Drake was an already high-strung individual that didn't got along well with almost nobody and the radar system was already showing some signs of malfunction but instead of taking action started a cover up after the collision.

The acting by Stoltz was very good and this shouldn't come as a surprise. But what I liked most about this made for TV is that the twists and turns were pretty much like those in theater released thrillers, and I really couldn't wait to see when the truth would have come out!

Overall, a nice made for TV thriller that fans of the genre will no doubtly love and it's available on Youtube if you want to give it a try.

John Dantley investigates a midair collision between two planes that killed over 130 people. At first it appears human error is to blame, however the controller, Henry Drake, insists that a blackout causes one of the planes to disappear temporally from his screen. Dantley investigates to find a history of equipment failures and complaints has not been recorded and that Drake may be the most likely suspect. However with time things begin to look more complex than he first thought.

The story essentially is a condemnation of lack of investment in air-traffic control in contrast with spiralling air traffic. It could have coldly looked at that and been damning in effect, but instead it tries to turn it into a thriller and ruins it's credibility as a serious film. The glitch that caused the plane crash is far to specific to have it represent the whole system of the failure and Drake is far to suspicious (what was he doing on the CCTV? It's never satisfactorily revealed) to be an `everyman' type - in fact Drake is totally misused as the film changes his character to create a `tense' `standoff' finish to the film. Why?

Another example of the plot stretching to make it more of a TVM thriller than a serious movie is the way that Dantley's ex-girlfriend was on one of the planes that crashed. This adds nothing to the story and only succeeds in clouding the issue. The main point of the film is valid - that systems are close to breaking point and are not up to the job, but it's lost in a bigger conspiracy, Dantley's personal loss and Drake's unlikely actions at the end.

Charles Martin Smith is good right up till the very unlikely last 30 minutes, but Stoltz is mixed. At times he seems OK but some scenes are terrible - the one near the end where he confronts the site manager with a forced emotion and bad dialogue is a good (bad) example.

Overall, this has a valid point to make and it makes it well for much of the film. However the makers added too much baggage (a thriller climax, a dead ex etc) to make it work. Some scenes are great but mostly this is a C movie - and only for trying hard.

"Blackout Effect" gets off to a good start and ends confused about it's own purpose. With Stoltz at the center as an NTSB sleuth investigating a midair collision, the film takes the audience into the world of commercial aviation and air traffic control. However, once there, it becomes a mess of conflicts between ATC's and management, the NTSB and the ATC management, the quirky bad guy and everyone, and even a side plot about a relationship between the investigator and a passenger on the doomed flight which serves no purpose. The film loses itself when an agitated ATC threatens to disrupt aviation with a home made ray gun. Yeah, right. An okay watch with sufficient energy to keep the viewer awake, "Blackout Effect" will be most enjoyed by tech-heads and people interested in convoluted dramas, especially about aviation.

I like "Charlie" Martin Smith and he hadn't been in much when this movie aired, so I was happy to watch, and even happier that this was a network TV movie, but not one about love interests, and affairs and sexual passions and all of that other junk that most fills most other network TV movies. Instead, "Blackout Effect" is a pretty interesting story about an air traffic controller(Mr. Smith) basically getting his life ruined because people blame him for causing a fatal plane crash. I don't know a thing about air traffic controllers, so I didn't exactly understand a lot of what was going on, but Smith does a nice job at his "troubled" character and co-star Eric Stoltz is very convincing as well. Add that with a smooth directing job from Jeff Bleckner(who's "Concealed Enemies" I quite wish I could have seen) and you get a film that's quite above average for the usual network-TV fair. An achievment.