Flashburn

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.

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.

This is a cool flick. Some of the gun flashes look hokey, but the overall feel of the the film was interesting and worth the watch.

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.

Post-apocalyptic stories add an extra level of difficulty in storytelling and to deliver a world that has ended. This movie avoids the cliché of focusing on the circumstances of surviving in this world and rather focuses intrinsically on a kidnapped scientist and his efforts to discover a cure for the monster he created which destroyed most life on the planet. A story of this caliber requires competent direction so the audience can enjoy the story as it is told. Another strong point of this project is the realistic acting of the main character, portrayed by Sean Patrick Flanery; his contribution to the film is essential. His acting is exceptional and speaks a lot for his experience as an actor as well as director Giorgio Serafini's mastery in guiding his actors to achieve what he has envisioned. Overall the film is very entertaining, the story line is both enjoyable and well-delivered, and it is a fantastic source of inspiration to all independent filmmakers.