Director: Pedro C. Alonso
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom/Spain
Alternate Titles: Hostage Radio
Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Plot:
Heading back to work together, former members of a beloved radio show are forced back on-air together in a ploy by armed robbers to expose secrets between them and bring them into much darker territory than expected the longer the event carries on.
Review:
This was a troubled if still watchable thriller. What really works well is the generally enjoyable air on display once the film generates its main selling point. Once the kidnappers arrive and the brutality unfolds as well as bringing out the dark series of secrets out between everyone, the films’ best aspects come to the forefront with the violent methods the kidnappers use to insert control over everyone. The secrets that get exposed the deeper into the night manage to provide some intensity here, and as the graphic carnage mounts this one becomes quite dark and thrilling mixing together their intentions as well as how they’re going about doing so. These are where the film gets a lot to enjoy.
The main problem befitting this film is the general lack of uninterest in what’s going on. This whole situation is built on supposed secrets that don’t mean anything if they’re exposed or not, the way it goes about handling everything with the robbers doesn’t make you side with them the deeper this goes and the fact that they go on with this whole ploy doesn’t evoke any sense of empathy towards the two of them. This is a case where the film manages to be very skilled and expertly crafted uninteresting elements, especially once the final reveal comes which is nowhere near as shocking or impactful it wants to think it is. This all makes the running time far longer than needed and really holds this one down overall.
Overview: **.5/5
A rather watchable thriller where it gets very dark and intense yet nothing really manages to stay interesting the entire time, there’s an odd conundrum on display here that manages to leave this one a somewhat mixed bag of an effort. This is certainly worthwhile for fans of dark thrillers or genre fans willing to look into what’s going on here even though they will still have issues here, while those viewers who aren’t into thrillers in the slightest will be completely uninvolved here.
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