Amber Alert

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.

So the people that made this film obviously had all of the original reviews removed to make themselves look better, too bad I can just keep making reviews. The truth about this movie is that it had a good premise, all that it was missing were decent writing and actors. This movie starts out looking like a film student's first shot at a full length feature and leaves you wondering why you ever thought watching it was a good idea. The two main characters are just plain annoying and have little to no creative acting ability. I found myself thinking that if I wanted to be bickered at by my most annoying ex-girlfriend for a couple of hours, I could have just made a phone call instead of paying for the ticket to this movie.

I hate having to be this awful, but I have to say that Summer Bellessa has no business in front of a camera. She's pretty, but really, I don't see how anyone can listen to that voice without going brain dead. What really took the cake as far as my bad review goes were the actions and reactions in the last 25 minutes of the film. Any random moron off the street would have made better decisions than these main characters, that is what really shows that the writers just either phoned this in, or should not be writers.

In a nutshell, amateurish, poorly written, insufferably annoying, and poorly acted.

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 want to acknowledge that I completely understand that not every studio can afford to hire Steven Spielberg as a Director or have Matt Damon, Emma Stone, or Ryan Reynolds act in their movie. So I try very hard not to judge movies solely because they have a lower production value or less well known less talented actors or actresses. However, even with the most shoestring budget or the most inexperienced actors, I just have no sympathy for movies, who totally neglect, realistic situations, or do not do the research before hand before they write and make the movie. I think the subject matter amber alert puts forth is actually a very thought-provoking, a found footage type of movie, but not just a horror or slasher film, actually a pretty good idea. However, it is nothing less than embarrassing that they did not do any research about police procedure or even put an ounce of effort into making the situation that happened in Amber alert even remotely realistic. It is a real shame, because there was a lot of good ideas here to work with, but they just could not deliver on any of them.