User reviews

When a mother learns that a shooter has targeted her son's high school (and discovers that her son is one of the 5 students that the shooter is holding hostage) she finds herself in a desperate race against time to try and reach her son before it's too late...

Whilst the concept is good and had the potential to be a good social commentary (particularly in the world that we live in at the moment) The Desperate Hour/Lakewood just never quite hit the mark for me.

The simple truth is that one woman jogging around and making several frantic phone calls to try to reach her son and find out what is going on at his school is a tricky role of the dice (particularly for around 85 minutes). Added to that several implausibilities such as police allowing a civilian to talk to a shooter as a distraction for them to send in a SWAT team? What???? A repair shop that can seemingly access personal information from all and sundry from their car number plates? I'm not sure how things work in America, but I'm pretty sure in the UK that only the police and the DVLA can access that sort of information. To me it was one of those films that presented lots of unlikely events in order to make the film more exciting, but for me, these gaping flaws were simply too difficult to overlook.

On the plus side Naomi Watts gives a great performance, but there's only so much that can be done with such a threadbare screenplay. I personally feel that this would have made a good 45-60 minute crime drama episode, but the material isn't suited to a feature length film. This is self-evident by its struggle to stretch itself out over its 85 minute run time.

It has its moments, but it's one note and is spread far too thinly to be truly enjoyable or involving.

This movie was just Watts the whole time. In the spirt of movies like this The Guilty and that flight movie where the guy is on the phone the WHOLE time. This movie was nothing new or special. I was a bit annoyed with the whole movie to be completely honest. I think the more ppl in the movie the better the movie. See I loved The Guilty but I did not like this one. Not saying you won't enjoy this one but it was just not interesting to me. I will also not be recommending it to anyone I know. As always be your own judge!

Trust me, I've tried them all: Billy Blanks, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, Turbo Jam, heck I even turned to Susan Powter. Nothing worked...until I found Lakewood starring Naomi Watts. Who knew, right? Just watching Naomi jogging for sixty minutes and huffing, puffing, and sweating nearly made me lose two pounds. And then I tried emulating her because after all, a good workout video isn't effective unless you can follow along. I'm thrilled she has gotten into the health fitness game and is selfless enough to want to help others.

So if you want to see someone jogging for the duration of the film, that is just making a ton of phone calls then this is the one for you. No surprises, a bit of limping, then she can run again, then the limp comes again back and forth. It would have been lacking excitement just as much if she had been on a running machine. It's annoying enough when someone in a room is constantly talking on their mobile, this is just a film that is as annoying and you just want to ask her to take it somewhere private and call an Uber.

And that's the film. Jogging for one hour straight, must of lost loads of weight. Also her phone bill must be high this month, overall a lockdown film.

Unusual script showcasing the skill and fitness of hugely talented screen heroine and mama lion, Naomi Watts. The film does not deserve such negative reviews. Watts pulls off a 21st century mom handling a crisis in the way we all live now - on the phone. The pacing and suspense are there. Give it a try.

That was visual torture. I should of turned it off after the first 15 minutes. I literally just spent an hour and a half watching Naomi Watts run through the woods while talking on a cell phone. I can't believe I just sat through that. If you decide to watch this, do yourself a favor. After the first 15 minutes skip all the way through to the last 15. Your welcome..3 stars..

I don't normally write reviews and normally check before viewing a movie. I'm happy to say this time I didn't because I would have missed this great movie.

Naomi's performance in this was amazing, and as other reviewers have stated the majority of this film is her alone with her phone, but this does not make it a "boring workout video", it keeps you on the edge of your seat feeling a mother's despair.

I really do not understand the hate on this one, this will be a film that sticks with me for a while and I will be recommending this to all my friends.

This is not a bad film. From reading the reviews I was expecting it to be very weak, but it's not. I think the problem that the reviewers have is that this is NOT an action film. If you watch it not expecting action, shooting and chases, it is actually a very good film. Its true that 80% of it is the main character on a jog in the woods, but that doesn't mean there is no suspense. The acting is good, the scenery is beautiful and the plot is strong and believable. Well worth watching if you're not expecting high octane action or CGI nonsense.

As a Canadian it bothers me that I only have to watch a half hour of a movie in order to recognize it as second rate Canadian-made, regardless of the actors. This is an example.

A solid hour of watching Naomi Watts making and receiving telephone calls while running in a forest. I kept wishing her battery would die!

I can't believe Naomi Watts is in a movie like this.

Either she got a loan from the bank and couldn't pay it back... Either she owes money to the mafia, or the producer/director is someone she loves very much and he couldn't answer no.

This could be the worst movie in Watts' filmography.

The premise of the movie revolves around a seemingly endless jog through a woods with a frustrating amount of phonecalls. The tension was built through an injury which seemed to come and go and camera angles which made it impossible to concentrate at times. About 45 minutes in I decided I was too invested to turn it off, however by the resolution I regret watching it to the end.

This was movie was super dumb! Naomi Watts spends all her time calling people. How narcissistic to keep calling 911. She was holding up the line during an emergency. Then she is taking all sorts of calls that add no value to the plot. She runs the whole time when she could have run back to her house.

I hated it. She was a total busy body that could have got her son killed. Just dumb.

By the trailer it looked really bad. Months later i decided to watch it after forgetting what it was about. I'm shocked at how much i ended up enjoying this. Very suspenseful, and basically a one character movie, where you're in their point of view and feel everything they feel. I'm also shocked no one else seem to like it, because of all the running. I thought it was entertaining.

Yep, I don't own a Smartphone, just an old fashioned cellphone, so I didn't really understand a lot of this. Nor has it made me want to get one either. Like many films on here it's got lots of bad reviews from strangely bitter people who when you look at their review histories never give anything over 3! But I don't feel it deserves them as it certainly kept my attention throughout and I'm glad I watched it.

From the sheer stupidity of the protagonist, the stupid choices she makes (how far did she run? Why didn't she come back to her house? And so on and on), her obnoxious behaviour and self-entitled attitude, everything in this movie is pure garbage.

I was not aware that one actor can carry a whole movie on her shoulders. Incredible acting!! Sad that meaningless super hero movies have better rating than this movie. Hats off to you Naomi watts!! Edge of the seat entertainer!!!

So many people on here skating this one. Yeah, it's never going to be an Oscar winner but it's not as bad as people say.

Yeah, it's Naomi Watts running for an hour, but that's the whole point. The building panic and fear.

I'm starting to become wary of these "lockdown movies" and watching THE DESPERATE HOUR reminds you of just how pitiful they are. This is a film in which for the entire running time we join Naomi Watts as she goes for a jog in the woods. That's it. It's in other words an attempt at a single location thriller that falls flat with ridiculous storytelling, obvious twists, and non-existent suspense and drama. Incredible that the guy behind DEAD CALM made this.