Movie Review: 'The Darkest Hour' a movie to miss if you're smart
The film "The Darkest Hour," flickering at the Fandango Galaxy in Carson City and elsewhere, is a desperate stab at making a movie. It had little intelligence, a poor cast and a lot of scientific hokum that apparently depends on audiences being to poorly educated to know when the science is all goofy.
Idea is four Americans go to Russia as the country is being invaded by sci-fi monsters out to rob Earth of natural resources and power (how to rob for power is not explained. The monsters can send out tentacles of power which grab people and explode them. (This is in 3D so we have a scene where one of the actors is exploded and his remains shoot out in 3D on the audience. That's why you play extra for 3D movies.)
There's a Russian scientist who lives in a steel cage room, explained as a Faraday room, where electricity can neither penetrate of exit. However, this doesn't stop the Americans from using cell phone and the like inside.
This twaddle continues with the Americans and a young girl for heading for a Russian submarine moored in the Moscow river (didn't know Moscow had such a river).
Editing of the film is sloppy, with scenes snipped in a couple of times and sequences muddled in time and clothing --- on and off and on etc.
This is throwaway movie. Don't waste your money on it, particularly on the more expensive 3D version. Director Chris Gorak moves fast but not intelligently. The cast is going through the motions, running around when the script falls apart.
If you go, don't say I didn't warn you.
--- Sam Bauman
Cast
• Emile Hirsch as Sean
• Olivia Thirlby as Natalie
• Max Minghella as Ben
• Rachael Taylor as Anne
• Joel Kinnaman as Skyler
Russian actors Gosha Kutsenko, Veronika Ozerova, Nikolai Yefremov, Arthur Smolyaninov, and Georgian actor Dato Bakhtadze also appear in the film.
Directed by Chris Gorak Produced by Timur Bekmambetov
Tom Jacobson
Music by Tyler Bates
Cinematography Scott Kevan
Editing by Fernando Villena. Runs 81 minutes and is rated PG-13.
20th Century Fox (Russia) Release date(s) December 22, 2011 (Russia)
December 25, 2011 (United States) Running time 89 minutes