The Darkest Hour (2011):

Starring:

Emile Hirsch - Sean

Olivia Thrilby - Natalie

Max Minghella - Ben

Rachael Taylor - Anne

Joel Kinnaman - Skyler

Veronika Vernadskaya - Vika

Dato Bakhtadze - Sergei

Director:

Chris Gorak (First Feature Film)

Rotten Tomatoes: 11%

Flixster: 25%

Synopsis:

The American software designers Sean and Ben travel to Moscow to sell their software to investors. However, their Swedish partner Skyler pulls a fast one on Sean and Ben, and they are out of the business. They go to a nightclub, where they meet the Americans Natalie and Anne and they flirt with the girls and see Skyler in the club. Out of the blue, the population is surprised by lights, which they mistake for natural phenomena. But soon, they learn that the lights are aliens invading Earth and using power supply to annihilate mankind. Sean, Ben, Natalie, Anne and Skyler hide in the kitchen and when they leave the place, they seek out survivors on the street.

Review:

Chris Gorak: "Hey guys, how would you like to spend 80% of the movie's budget to go to Moscow to film a movie?"

Cast: "Awesome Yeah. What's our motivation, our character story, what style of acting do we need to do?"
Gorak: "Oh it doesn't matter. Do whatever you want, we're going to Russia."

This is what you get when the man directing your film is only known for being an art director. You get a movie who's budget is large enough to make this film not a piece of shit, but then the majority of it is spent going to Russia. The actors could not care less about the role they are playing because some don't show a single emotion, no range nothing & then some are just over the top scared & just fucking annoying (see Rachael Taylor, star of WWE Films See No Evil). The review I read said that the film has "mind-blowing special effect" that were absolutely nothing more than clouds of dust & balls of static & lightning. If by mind blowing they must be talking about when the glowing ball orb things walk past a light bulb THEY TURN ON! WOW I can't believe they were able to do that. My mind has been blown. This had the feel of a mid level theatrical release with the special effects of the SyFy channel. Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus was more realistic than this. And can I also say how incredibly sick of alien invasion movies I am at this point? Every single movie involving alien invasion runs along the exact same plot line. They land, they start rampaging, people survive, they try to get out, they run, they figure out how to kill them, they imply that the world if fighting back. Same old lame boring ass shit. Let's try something new one of these days.

28%

Lead Acting: 3/15
Supporting Cast: 2/15

Plot: 3/10
Compared To The Genre: 2/10

Cinematography: 6/20

Intrigue: 8/20

Extra: 4/10