Blackout review: A muddled mess of tired action tropes that is barely held together by Josh Duhamel’s glossy action sequences

1.5/5

Story:

After a nasty car accident, John Cain(Josh Duhamel) wakes up in a Mexican hospital with post traumatic amnesia, with no memory of who he is. Cain finds himself surrounded by unfamiliar faces, a woman who claims to be his wife, an apologetic doctor and a Mexican man who claims to be his best friend. As sharp as ever despite losing his memory, Cain slowly tries to unravel the mystery of who he is, and how he ended up in the messy situation.

Review:

For action film fans, Blackout’s premise might seem oddly reminiscent of the Jason Bourne franchise, initially. Just as its on the nose title suggests, the action thriller follows a man who wakes up after a nasty accident with no memory of who he is. But the writing seems to have mistaken paying homage to action classics with making an out and out copy of them, as Blackout turns out to be a muddled mess of tired action tropes that is barely held together by glossy action sequences.

The film starts off with Josh Duhamel’s John Cain stumbling to escape an unidentified man, leaving behind a carefully crafted booby trap in his wake. But Cain’s luck seems to have ran out early, as he gets into a serious accident that gives him post traumatic amnesia. He wakes up in a hospital with a woman beside him who claims to be his wife, and a sketchy man claims to be his best friend.

The tired premise follows the route one can expect. Cain seems to have something of grave importance that everyone around him wants, and the protagonist struggles to remember what it exactly is. The way Cain goes about trying to recover his memories is far-fetched to say the least, with the protagonist simply punching his way through his problems from start to finish.

The entire film seems like one big melting pot of action cliches and familiar tropes. Right from Cain’s not so slick suit up, to a classic crawl through the vents, to his miraculous escape of barrages of bullets shot at him from close range, there are several instances which make you even wonder if the film attempts to parody the action films it generously borrows tropes from. And the stereotypical characters just add to the tiredness of the whole plot.

The slick action sequences, especially when it comes to the hand to hand combat scenes, offer some much needed respite from the corny dialogues and haphazard pace of the writing. Unfortunately, Duhamel does not depict the same flexibility he does for his action sequences when it comes to his acting. Viewers are treated to half hearted performances throughout the film. There’s Duhamel’s rigid acting, and his half hearted attempts at humour falling woefully short. There’s Abbie Cornish, who gives us the feeling that the film is the last place she wants to be. Nick Nolte’s patriarch who only speaks in punchlines act is also tiresome after a while, and his character arc goes exactly the way one would expect. Omar Chaparro is perhaps the film’s only saving grace when it comes to performances,a nd even he is not given a lot to work with.

Verdict:

Blackout is an action flick with nothing new to offer, stitched together with cliches and overused tropes. Even the star cast are given little to work with, leading to a disappointing watch despite the glossy action sequences.