I just finished watching Shockwave - Countdown to Disaster (2017) and I'm pretty sure this film used the same lame SFX people, only this films SFX were a little better than the latter.
Novice director and writer Sean Cain (primarily experienced as a film editor according to his IMDb resume) did a fairly decent job in both departments considering his lack of experience.
All the B & C grade actors were surprisingly convincing in their roles, except in the last 15 mins of the film, where the acting got a little laxed, cheesy and unconvincing, especially the Russian bodyguard and his clearly fake accent.
It seemed the writing and directing were also off towards the end as well - seemed rushed, maybe due to time and budget constraints.
Overall, I've seen worse B-grade films and also a handful better ones. This was in the middle, although the acting was much stronger, but the poor SFX dropped it down a notch or two for me. Had the producers invested a little more in that department, or even find some SFX/VFX final-year student with skills (so many out there) that would have created 10x better effects (probably for free just to have their name in the credits), this B-grade film would have been a winner for me.
Would I see it again or recommend it? Nope. Did I still enjoy it? Sure. It's a 6/10 from me... primarily for the decent acting and interesting story.
