Amber Alert Review

 

 

TITLE: Amber Alert

DIRECTOR:  Kerry Bellessa

STARS: Summer Bellessa, Chris Hill, Caleb Thompson

PUBLISHER: Wrekin Hill Entertainment

RATING: R

GENRE: Thriller, Found Footage

 

 

We’ve all witnessed those warning signs on the highway warning fellow motorists to be on the lookout for a suspicious vehicle that’s on the run. It’s just a sad reminder of the many bad things that do happen in society but at the same time serves as a beacon of hope that someone’s turmoil has the possibility of ending on a happy note. Most of us admit however, that when we see these amber alerts we just shrug it off and go on with our lives because lets face it; what are the odds that anyone would stumble across that vehicle in question. “Amber Alert” is an independent found footage thriller that documents the events of three average people who are thrown into this very scenario and shows how one’s actions could mean the life or death of an innocent victim. Does this film bring an awe inspiring story home or is a perversion of the subject that should’ve remained missing? 

Samantha, Nathan, and his censored shirt are way too extreme for your petty reality show.

The story centers around two close friends named Samantha Green and Nathan Riley who are filming an audition video to get on a reality TV show. One day the two decide to take a little road trip to record more footage and bring along Samantha’s younger sibling Caleb. Along their way they notice an amber alert and shortly after they stumble across a car with the matching license plate and call the police to report their findings. As all these stories go a lot of mishaps occur and the trio’s courage and humanity are tested as they do all they can to bring the abducted child home safe. The dialog comes off as natural sounding but unfortunately the actions taken by the character are anything but believable.

 

Hope you like the view. It will be all you see throughout most of the film.

“Amber Alert”, from what I can gather is the first credited role of Summer Bellessa who plays the part of Samantha Green and also produced the film. Chris Hill plays best friend Nathan Riley, and Caleb Thompson spends most of his time behind the camera playing Caleb Green. Whether the dialog was scripted or consisted mostly of improve is unclear but kudos need to go out to the actors since there are very little scene cuts throughout the film and does a great job in selling the illusion of what the viewer is seeing is real.

Nathan goes way beyond the call of duty of any guy caught within the friend zone.

Since this is a found footage title, no soundtrack is supplied. The film does have some odd editing choices however where certain visual details are blurred out along with dialog being beeped over. It really throws one out of the film since this is supposed to be raw footage yet somebody had taken the time to blur out license plates, t-shirts, and phone numbers. I can only assume that this is because the film was shot in public without proper consent turning whoever was in the area into an unknown extra but I could be wrong.

To anyone driving a Honda, the public is onto you and your shiestyways.

Unfortunately Amber alert is plagued with tons of problems; the biggest being that the two main characters who are unbearably annoying. Nathan Riley is an immature selfish ass who for the longest time refuses to accept the severity of the situation in front of him by supplying a plethora of wisecracks at the little girl’s expense that are beyond distasteful.  Samantha Green isn’t any better since she’s hot headed and rushes blindly into scenarios without taking a moment to reflect on how her actions may endanger the child even more. She even goes so far as to put her younger brother in danger which is inexcusable. Eventually these two personalities clashing together escalates into them having a constant screaming match for a good third of the movie even when an inside voice would logically be used. Watching Amber Alert is like being on a long road trip with your parents who are at each other’s throats and no matter how bad you want to jump out of the vehicle, they have access to the child safety locks and you’re simply stuck with them. To make matters worse there are multiple times where the protagonists could’ve easily stopped the kidnapper in his tracks but never took the initiative to do so forcing the viewer to suffer through more ear bleeding yelling moments.

I dare you take the Samantha challenge. Just try listening to her shrieks on high with headphones.

The way law enforcement is depicted in this film is downright insulting to anyone that’s ever sworn to protect the public because the police are flat out incompetent beyond all comprehension. They never arrive when a call is placed stating that they are “too busy”, they meander about when the suspects is right in front of them, and they even call off the search without reason knowing fully well that they just missed their target hours earlier. It’s a shame we never see footage of the missing girls parents along the families of the main characters seeing this recording because it would surely result in them joining together to sue the precinct for their mishandling of the situation.

 The film also suffers from the typical faults existing in found footage movies. The actors never put down the camera no matter how dangerous the scenario might be when they should be fighting for their lives and the camera never loses power nor memory despite how long this story’s timeframe is.

Samantha’s lack of stealth somehow never attracts the attention of the neighbors.

 In the end the film’s purpose is admirable for trying to shed light on an all too real dark scenario and to its credit does try to ask some very important questions. For example what does one do if they find a suspected vehicle on the highway after calling the police? Do they stay with the target or move on leaving the victim’s fate to blind luck once again? That’s a pretty tough question and invoked a lot of discussion between my girlfriend and I after witnessing that. The execution sadly just falls flat and ends up having the audience despise the protagonists rather than cheer them on. So in the end I really can’t recommend “Amber Alert” but instead urge people to simply pay more attention to ones surroundings the next time you see one of these warnings over the road because like the poster says, you really could be that person’s last hope.

 Ryan Pierce

Rating: 2 out of 5