Amber Alert (2012) User Reviews

Too Much Screaming!

[Hajimoto0625 · 4/10 · 8 June 2021]

And not in a good way.

Overall, the story was good and efficient and the acting was not bad. But there was far too much of the two main characters screaming at each other. I realize that this is probably what would have happened in real life, but it didn't make for a good movie.

But it was good to see a found footage movie about something real in our society today. Less screaming and more interesting dialogue and I would have graded this higher.

I made it through the end

[kboi · 5/10 · 3 September 2016]

I watched this via my cable service On-Demand feature; just a random search and watch. On the plus side, I do have to admit that in spite of my hate for the characters, it is one of those movies where once you get hooked you have to watch until the end to see what happens. As I titled this review summary, I did make it through the end. But what an effort that was.

The story premise was not bad. But have I ever hated two characters more in a film than these two main characters? Never. I cannot recall such despise and hatred. The guy was an absolute narcissist in spite of his apparent affections for the female lead. His constant fighting back and lack of concern regarding the situation just grated to where I wanted to reach in the movie and punch the crap out of this dude (in spite of my non-violent nature). As for the female lead, unfortunately I felt likewise although I would never condone violence against a female just because she is stupid. Aaaargh! I have trouble writing this when I think about these two numb-skulls in action.

One last point that I have to criticize is that this movie insults our police forces. I cannot believe they would be as lax as they are portrayed in this movie. While not always perfect, I prefer to think the police response to an Amber Alert situation would merit a much quicker response. Unfortunately the movie premise would not have existed. Maybe that would have been a good thing.

Don't DO THIS!

[Im-not-all-here-myself · 3/10 · 23 March 2013]

Well, that was an hour+ of my life I'm not getting back anytime soon. The makers of this film started with a promising situation but then failed in every conceivable way bringing that situation to the screen. As with all other "found footage" movies, the story begins with a simple situation which gives reason to why the characters have a video camera. After that everything goes downhill ... fast! The characters behave in the most unrealistic ways possible! In fact, there should be a crawler at the beginning of the film stating that the characters in the film DID EVERYTHING WRONG!!! First, was the constant bickering. This was apparently in the dialogue to increase the believability, but in fact, it makes the viewer want to strangle the stupid female lead SFL (at least in my case) The characters do not do a single thing logically. Seriously! NOT ONE THING! They call the police, but ignore the advice they are given. They are told the only follow the car at a safe distance and NOT confront the driver. What do they do? They TAILGATE the driver and CONFRONT him!! More stupidity: They don't even continue calling the police! Instead of screaming at each other, the SFL should have been on the phone constantly with the police (logical). The stupid male lead SML character is another idiot for KNOWING that what they were doing was stupid, but continuing to do it simply because the SFL nagged him to. Grow a pair dude! AFTER they tell the cop what's happening the SFL nags the SML into NOT doing what makes sense (bringing the tape to the sheriff's dept.) and instead go on a wild goose chase searching for the car. The SML constantly yells that "He's not a cop" yet acts otherwise. The SML and the SFL break into the house against police orders. They know nothing about the layout of the house, the bad guy is probably armed and what were they going to do if they confronted the guy? They find A lot of loaded guns in the house yet they just leave them alone. They don't arm themselves when common sense screams otherwise! When the car alarm goes off, they just kinda hang out inside instead of beating a retreat out of the house Again, this was a movie where instead of rooting for the "good guys" the viewer really just wants the good guys to just die and get it over with. The people behind this movie should not be allowed to film anything ever again. The people "acting" in this piece of crap should be forced to burn their SAG cards and promise to never do this again.

Samantha

[johnny-thrash · 1/10 · 7 November 2017]

This is the most annoying movie I have ever seen. I would have kicked that girl out of my car while driving down the road at 75 miles an hour. She was super annoying and how could anyone be best friends with that annoying, screaming wretch.

I suggest the if you are going to watch this... drink a lot of alcohol beforehand.

Welcome to the film industry, guys! K bye.

[richieblac · 1/10 · 10 March 2013]

Yeah, look at the full cast & crew. Look at the last names. Yeah. So are you guys happy? Your film made it all the way to Netflix! Happy? Good. Good for you. Now goodbye.

--With the cops slacking the entire time, the girl would've been calling them NON-STOP, every step of the way.

--Nobody. Nobody. N-O-B-O-D-Y is as clueless as the fat guy.

--We can see right through your "realistic" writing. You had them bickering so much because you thought it was "realistic". It wasn't. Mostly because of how unrealistic the fat guy's stance was in their bickering. From there, it was beyond obnoxious.

--They pull over and talk to the guy, and the fat guy is still being a non-human. Not a "moron". A moron is a type of person. They were not behaving like people. Period.

--They find an arsenal of loaded guns, and nobody grabs one. LOL.

--They're trying to break the locks, and nobody grabs a gun. LOL.

--They hear their friend get shot, and nobody grabs a gun until it's too late. LOL.

You guys had a couple opportunities here. The gas station and the off-road encounter. These were golden opportunities to create tension and conflict in realistic ways. But you completely skated by them and opted for NON-HUMAN things.

You thought, "Well, that's what we had to do. We had to navigate away from realistic things the whole time, so we could move the story forward." No. That's only true if you SUCK.

Go away. Too many truly talented people are struggling to get somewhere in this industry, barely affording to eat and having their applications/reels completely ignored among the bundle of other applications, to deal with watching this heresy make it to Netflix. Just spit in our faces.

This is an okay portfolio piece for the actors and whoever worked on post. Everyone else: no.

Awful!

[dawulf · 1/10 · 10 January 2013]

I want the last hour plus of my life back.

Can I do that? This is my amber alert to stay away from this movie..If I can save just once person from watching this my job will be complete. If you want to see a movie that has a good hour of random driving with two people in the front seat just screaming at cars and each other, well then knock yourself out. No. Really. Knock yourself out. It will be better for you in the long run. Take a nap. I wish I had but all the incessant yelling and whining kept me awake. Horrid horrid movie. Why didn't I check the reviews? Please read your reviews first people! Stand up to bad film making.

awful movie

[rachelcoleman-57919 · 1/10 · 8 June 2021]

It took me a while to figure out if this was a legitimate movie people tried to make or 3 kids actually filming something because thats how bad it was I couldn't even finish it.

Seriously Annoying, Seriously Bad.

[darthvoice · 1/10 · 3 January 2013]

So the people that made this film obviously had all of the original reviews removed to make themselves look better, too bad I can just keep making reviews. The truth about this movie is that it had a good premise, all that it was missing were decent writing and actors. This movie starts out looking like a film student's first shot at a full length feature and leaves you wondering why you ever thought watching it was a good idea. The two main characters are just plain annoying and have little to no creative acting ability. I found myself thinking that if I wanted to be bickered at by my most annoying ex-girlfriend for a couple of hours, I could have just made a phone call instead of paying for the ticket to this movie.

I hate having to be this awful, but I have to say that Summer Bellessa has no business in front of a camera. She's pretty, but really, I don't see how anyone can listen to that voice without going brain dead. What really took the cake as far as my bad review goes were the actions and reactions in the last 25 minutes of the film. Any random moron off the street would have made better decisions than these main characters, that is what really shows that the writers just either phoned this in, or should not be writers.

In a nutshell, amateurish, poorly written, insufferably annoying, and poorly acted.

Good movie if you go in with little expectation

[andoneandtwoandthree · 6/10 · 18 June 2013]

(This part has nothing to do with the movie. See next paragraph.) I was getting irritated with all the bad reviews. These reviews were done as poorly as they tried to describe the movie as being. When writing a review the goal isn't to belittle the movie and try to come up with 'clever' ways to speak badly about the people and their career choices as actors. You basically are a bully and not a critic at that point, so stop it.

(Amber Alert) I went into this movie not expecting much and came out much happier than most by doing so. It is a low budget movie with its share of flubs. But it is not a 'pathetic' and 'horrible waste of time'. The story is simple yet captivating. The acting tends to lack in a lot of areas but is good at certain points. If you can get past the acting and keep yourself in the movie the story has a good build. People like to believe they would have done things differently, but it's a movie so if you can accept that then their actions in the film won't bother you. The only thing that genuinely bothered me was the police' lack of response and at some points their concern. In the end it was a decent movie. And it's just a movie so if you like it, good. If you don't like it then just leave it at that and don't feel like it is your civic duty to really ream these actors because in the end it makes you no better than a Starbucks customer.

Completely Terrible

[pdlr-imdb · 1/10 · 22 January 2014]

This is one of the worst films I have ever suffered through. Hyperbole? Perhaps. Did I truly suffer? Yes. The film actually caused me stress. Not because it provides thrills or scares. No. It's because the main characters are incredibly annoying. The female lead is the main culprit. Her incessant penchant for idiotic choices are compounded by the terrible acting. The film boils down to, "What other completely unrealistic reasons can we come up with for continuing to pursue this car?"

Actually, this film is remarkable. It made me sign up with IMDb just so that I could rate and review it. I have the overwhelming urge to warn people to completely avoid this film.

Annoying. Annoying. Annoying.

[Michael_Elliott · 6 December 2013]

Amber Alert (2012)

BOMB (out of 4)

Found footage film about three friends who are shooting an "introduction" video for what they hope will lead to a reality show. While filming they spot a car that has been linked to an amber alert so they decide to follow it. AMBER ALERT is a realistic found footage film but that's not always a good thing. I must admit that I've never seen a movie that has made me more angry than this one here. If a genie had popped up while watching this movie I would have made a wish to jump through my television screen and strangle all three of the people in this movie. I honestly can't recall a more annoying movie full of stupid characters doing stupid things in my life. The entire movie just seems like there was no thought put into it because the story is so slim and there's really nothing that happens through its short 80-minute running time. Obviously if you're following an amber alert car you're going to call the police. How this is handled in the movie is just downright laughable at times and it's certainly not realistic. What's so annoying is that the two lead characters do nothing but scream at each other and usually it's about the same stuff. The guy wants to give up looking. The girl screams at him. The two fight about various things like their responsibility or what could possibly happen to them. This non-stop arguing appears to be improvised and it's just annoying and throughout the film it just keeps repeating itself. At times I had to stand up during the movie because my blood was boiling over how angry these characters were making me. They do one stupid thing after another. Yes, you need to suspend disbelief at times but this film crossed the line into stupidity. With that said, I think for the most part the film is technical well-made considering it is a found footage movie. It's well-shot and I think the performances are realistic but, then again, this also adds to some of the annoying bits. I'm not going to spoil anything in the movie but if I were to do so then you'd see how many more faults are in the story. AMBER ALERT is without question one of the most annoying films I've ever seen and it's actually making more angry as I write all of this.

This Movie Deserves A LOT More Credit

[william_r-41-790699 · 10/10 · 23 February 2013]

This movie is not as bad as everyone on here is trying to make it out to be. Actually it's not bad at all. It's a very good film. It had me on the edge of my seat most of the movie. This film is like Rear Window on the road.

The premise of the movie is, a group of friends decide to follow a car they see on an Amber Alert posting on the highway.

When they decide to actually follow the car, the characters do a lot of bickering over what actions they should take, either follow the car or just let the police handle it. Now a lot of people reviewed that they were frustrated with all the bickering. I got really frustrated myself but in a good way. I engaged the entire time. The point of a film is to evoke some type of emotion out of you and frustration was one of them. Just imagine how frustrated the characters were, being in that situation. Me being frustrated with the characters helped me feel what they were feeling.

Some other people reviewed that the characters were under developed. While that may be true, this wasn't a character driven film. This was more plot driven. Given the situation the characters were in, they were developed just enough. The reason you care about the characters is because they went out of their way and put themselves in danger to try and save a young girl who's been kidnapped. You're rooting for the characters the entire movie hoping they are able to save the little girl AND not get caught by the kidnapper. We knew everything we needed to know about the characters, who they were, their relationship with each other, and why they were even on the highway to begin with. That's all we needed to know.

The script, in my opinion, was well written. The dialogue felt too real at times and you don't get that from a lot of films. All the bickering, yes it was annoying, but it worked. It made sense. They were scared not only for themselves but for the little girl too. Certain actions taken by the characters probably were stupid but it works in the context of the film. The protagonist was really passionate about saving the little girl and put herself on the line to try and save her. If there anything I've learned from studying screen writing, it's this, "A character wants something and is having trouble getting it." The protagonist wanted to save the little girl and was having trouble doing it. They were faced with a number of obstacles while trying to save that little girl.

Overall this is a good film and personally, the best found footage film I've seen. It's not a cheesy paranormal/supernatural ghost movie. It's a real issue that we're faced with in this world and that's what made the film so tense and kept you on the edge of your seat. I highly recommend this film. It's very chilling, engaging, and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Annoying characters and stupid police almost ruin this one

[victoryismineblast · 6/10 · 16 May 2014]

A guy, his friend, and his brother on a road trip see an amber alert sign on the highway and instantly see the car it details. They decide to follow said car and instantly the the two friends begin to bicker incessantly. I'm telling ya, it gets annoying.

The of course call the police to report the car but incredibly the police do nothing about it. They call again to no avail. They even get stopped by the police and STILL they do nothing.

The film has an interesting premise and starts out pretty interesting with some nice ideas but reality is held in disbelief as to some of the main character's and police's actions.

Eventually they get into some trouble that I won't reveal and the ending gets pretty good, the only problem being that you don't really care about the main characters by then, they being so annoying.

The film has it's share of suspense and enough twists and turns to make for a decent watch.

Made a IMDb account just to review this

[user-615-600578 · 1/10 · 22 February 2013]

Never has a girl been so annoying. I literally had stomach pain from listening to the whiny, illogical, annoying woman yammer on. Absolutely worse actor I have aver seen. The movie plot itself is not bad, although I was rooting for the primary antagonist to do something to shut the girl up. This is an absolute disgrace and the Producer (also playing Sam) should not touch any movie again.

Summer Bellessa should never show her face on film again, or at the very least never let her mouth spew whatever foul vile she did in Amber Alert.

It honestly seems that Bellessa wanted to get something off her chest for the movie. It seemed like she honestly had some personal relation to the story, otherwise her character was absolute rubbish.

Absolutely Pathetic

[anupama-mantry · 1/10 · 9 February 2013]

Real waste of time. The look and feel of the movie reminded me of Paranormal Activity. The acting by the couple seems pretty natural although the girl might have done some over-acting. The car chase sequence is just too too long. If feels as though all you are doing is watching a drive through on the road. Also the bickering and constant fighting by the couple really gets to you. I wanted to tear my hair out by hearing Samantha's constant screaming. The constant interference by the couple in the abductor's path was bound to anger him and this is what made the movie very predictable. I was sure something bad was going to happen in the end.I watched the movie by constantly fast-forwarding and yet did not miss a thing. I m not sure what made me watch this movie but i beg others not to watch it.

Horrible

[angelinabee · 1/10 · 15 July 2021]

I have never wanted the bad guy to take out a female lead in a "horror" movie more. I can't even cheer for the good guys because she's so irritating.

A helpful tip for watching "Amber Alert"...

[darrenb-10265 · 1/10 · 16 January 2023]

The title itself informs you sufficiently of what the movie is about, and you can achieve some sort of mild satisfaction by following these two helpful steps: (1) fast-forward to the 28-minute mark for an interesting plot development with the protagonists and assumed antagonist. When this scene ends, you can optionally stick around and extra minute or two until a relevation of sorts occurs, and then... (2) immediately fast-forward to the 58-minute mark for the meat and bones of "Amber Alert".

Trust me - apart from these two segments you're missing absolutely NOTHING and saving your ears from shrill, highly annoying, irrelevant and constant bickering and whining that literally makes up the other 3/4 of the film.

** 4/10 for the bite-size "Amber Alert" edition.

Show me on the doll where this film touched you

[movieman_kev · 1/10 · 17 February 2013]

Yet another simply putrid 'found footage' film that had me hating life for an hour and a half. This one has to do with a trio of extremely irritating dimwits following a car that's been involved with an amber alert. Strike that, I only loathed two of the three characters as the cameraman only talks sporadically throughout the movie. Ironically, the child molester was the least annoying person in the film. (Something that would make Victor Salva, director of Jeepets Creepers and Powder happy) Instant Netflix gets a lot of crap for having truly awful movies in its lineup. This film does nothing to dissuade that notion.

My Grade: F

Absolutely annoying

[marshonmccall · 1/10 · 13 January 2023]

The main character is so annoying, I had to create an account in the middle of the movie just to review this. She talks the entire time and by talks I mean annoying screams, I checked the credits and she's the writer, this movie has more dialogue and useless dialogue than a stage play. If the main character wasn't there maybe I could stomach it since the premise of the movie is fine, but do yourself a favor, unless you enjoy hours of annoying screams and you're looking for a movie that will have you rooting for the main character to die, don't watch this. I want to see how it ends but I would rather sit in silence than torture myself with her voice and nagging.

Annoying and irritating

[gingernichols · 1 March 2021]

I watched because I thought it was a true story. But about 15 minutes in and the lack of police presence is what showed me it wasn't true. I wont bash the actors because they are trying. But the constant bickering and the little b**tch driving was only concerned about wanting to get something to eat instead of trying to find the little girl he just annoyed me to no end. DO NOT WATCH THIS!!! COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME!!!!

her voice made my ears bleed

[valy-02108 · 6/10 · 5 May 2015]

oh my god this movie would be better without that stupid girl. her voice is the loudest and most annoying thing i have ever heard. i wish she would just shut up because Im ready to turn off this movie even though i would like to see it. i even muted the movie for a moment because her voice was giving me such a headache. she sounds like a tortured cat in a warehouse. somebody shut her up OH MY GOD i couldn't say enough about her.... and honestly I'm surprised nobody else said anything because half of this movie is them arguing and screaming. the directors should've just muted the first half or maybe had a different actress??? lol she's horrible. i hope she doesn't appear in another movie and if she did i would have to kill myself.

Ruined by a Character

[giffbirds · 4/10 · 22 January 2023]

It was a decent enough movie. Cool idea and I was interested in what would happen next. Acting and production were fine as well. However, certain things really bring it down. The police's involvement for one. They literally said they called off the amber alert at one point. Just didn't make sense. The 3 people who pursued the vehicle had the number of the guy in the vehicle and didn't think to give it to the police. Pretty sure with that information, they could geo-locate him in no time at all. It's not uncommon for a movie like this to have people making stupid decisions though, but there is one glaring thing that made me lower this from a 5 to a 4. The female character. She is so ridiculously annoying almost the entire time. She is completely unhinged and stupid. It's admirable that the character wants to help the little girl, but the character makes it almost unwatchable.

It's all about the curve

[allsolesday11 · 10/10 · 12 March 2013]

I rated this 10 stars to counter the one-star reviewers. All or nothing, that seems to be the acceptable trend...so I'm rating it "all".

Wow - on this budget, I was floored. I loved the characters. I found the acting excellent for first-timers. Seeing that the producers and actors were related to each other was not a surprise; but having made independent films myself, I was shocked at how well this was put together.

I related to the filmmakers and the characters. I have had to call in suspected abusive behavior, and have been in both characters' shoes. I felt this was very realistic. The vigilantes made stupid mistakes. The coward, the thoughtless renegade, the smooth-talking pedophile. Yes, they are all common types, but well-played here.

The only thing I didn't like was the end. I don't think anyone can argue they were on the edge of their seats. If you read other reviews, you'll see people watched until the end. You don't even have to leave your couch to change the show on Netflix.

pretty good- NOT AWFUL!

[katythemermaid · 7/10 · 17 May 2013]

I think this film should get a lot more credit than a lot of people are giving it! This movie had me on the edge of my seat the whole time I was watching it and I even found myself crying at the end! I see why some viewers may be annoyed by the bickering characters, but I actually found it to be realistic and engaging for the audience! It made me think--- If it causes me to think....it's a good film! The characters made a few bad decisions, but there would not be an interesting movie if they had not made those bad decisions- it would have been over after 30 minutes! I think most parents would appreciate this film. It educates you on the creeps that are lurking around our children. Beware…..If you have a little girl!! You may cry!!

Wasted $3.99

[wenwhitairbnb · 1/10 · 11 October 2021]

I wish we could get our $3.99 rental fee back. The fact that we paid to watch it is the only reason we made it to the end.

We had high hopes as the trailer was intriguing and we enjoy "found footage". However the acting and character actions from the time they spot the car on was SO extremely frustrating, it became completely unbelievable. The few times we thought they were finally going to do something believable, nope.

The storyline had serious potential in my personal opinion. HERE ARE my "10 reasons my eyes were bleeding" in no particular order: 1. If you are following an Amber Alert car, CALL THE POLICE INSTEAD OF ARGUING OVER WHAT TO DO.

2. If you are following an Amber Alert car, STAY ON THE PHONE WITH POLICE.

3. If you are following an Amber Alert car and a cop starts trying to pull YOU over, tell the 911 operator immediately. You could do that if you were ON THE PHONE WITH POLICE.

4. If you are following an Amber Alert CAR and they pull over in a well populated area, use your phone to relay information to the police. Do NOT use it to communicate with people in your car as you attempt recon.

5. STAY IN YOUR CAR.

6. I'm on the fence about the mic in car. If you are going to listen to pedo convo, use that info wisely.

7. If the Amber Alert car pulls over, keep going.

8. If you are going to pull over and engage in conversation, remember that you literally just eaves dropped and pedo is feeding you bs.

9. If you are going to break in an "abandonded" house upon hearing/seeing pedo leaving on an errand and you find his arsenal, grab them and take them with you.

10. The repetitive car argument scenes left me wanting to slap a kitten. (Not literal, PETA!)