User Reviews

I liked this movie. Lots of laughs, most of them unintentional. I think Joe's tie changes from scene to scene. No explanation of how he lost his memory, what the money in the bag was all about, lots of continuity blips like this. They probably could not afford to re-shoot anything. Hard boiled all the way. Emily is gorgeous, and can really sing. Sadie plays the hard moll perfectly. The Russian guy is adequately nasty. Fits my needs for a popcorn and box wine flick.

Held my attention. They were pretty true to the Drama. These were obviously acting students trying to make something decent. And they did. Good on them. Give it a watch if you like Film Noir.

Low budget retro noir. Not a classic noir story line but pulls in from various influences of the time, gumshoe detective, red menace, murder and double dealing. Black and white cinematography captures the mood pretty well with diffuse lighting, shadows and angles. Acting is a little uneven but overall the quality was much like what you would find in a similar film from that era. If you enjoy the older films of which this is derivative, then you will probably find Blackout worth a look.

Entertaining

Well, I wanted to like this, but it didn't work for me -- just too amateurish, despite having a fairly clever idea for a plot. The filmmakers should get some kudos for trying to recreate a 1953 film noir movie -- why? -- but they should have studied more such movies to prevent anachronisms. For one thing, back then, men in the crime world who didn't know each other well did not use first names, rather they used last names or nicknames -- think Rocco, Marlowe, Mason, Whitey. Some of the slang is off as well. The film also suffers from having the main character be as dumb as a board -- I wanted to yell at the TV screen: don't stand with your back to the door! It didn't help that the actor playing the part had to carry the movie but didn't seem to have either the range of expression or the intensity to pull it off. The other actors weren't bad, despite on-the-nose dialog -- Tracy Timm as Sadie was a sparkplug whenever she was in a scene. More nitpicks: continuity errors like where a character in shirtsleeves gets slugged and wakes up wearing his suit jacket. I admit to subtracting points that no explanation was provided for why the key character had lost his memory. As a final note, it was nice that the film showed a police practice -- roughing up a suspect -- as it was back then, rather than the whitewashed version we usually see on screen.

Solid independent movie on a $200,000 budget ! Wow ! Hollywood needs a lesson on huge multi million dollar budget movies that don't compare and often are duds. Blackout has great camera work and black and white composition ! Sets, scenes and costumes hit the mark too !! Wow, and again on a $200,000 budget. Most acting is really good but not great - the acting doesn't detract from the movie as a whole and would recommend this movie to anyone ! With more movies like this - Hollywood beware !!