New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Chico & Rita ***
• The Secret World of Arrietty ***1/2
• This Means War *
• Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
• Safe House ***
• The Vow **1/2
• The Innkeepers ***1/2
• The Woman in Black ***
• The Grey ***
• Man on a Ledge ***
• Underworld Awakening **
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
• Haywire ***
• Beauty and the Beast ****
• Contraband ***
• The Divide *
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
• The Devil Inside **
• The Iron Lady **
• A Separation ***
• More

• The Rum Diary
• Take Shelter
• Anonymous
• Essential Killing
• Lady and the Tramp
• La Jetée
• Sans Soleil
• Story of a Love Affair
• 3
• A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas
• 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• More

• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender
• Interview: Simon Curtis
• Interview: Werner Herzog
• Interview: John Cho
• Interview: Roland Emmerich
• Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
• Interview: Nick Swardson
• Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson
• Interview: Lone Scherfig
• Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari
• Interview: Wayne Wang
• Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter'
• Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills
• Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link)
• The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
• Interview: Emma Roberts
• Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
• Interview: Tom McCarthy
• Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
• 2010: The Year's Best Films
• 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays
• Interview: Sofia Coppola
• Interview: George A. Romero
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

The Darkest Hour (2011)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Illegal Aliens

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The Darkest Hour is something like the eighth alien invasion movie in the past 12 months, and though most of them are terrible, this one has the benefit of being merely dull. (Of the bunch, only Attack the Block is really good.) The characters aren't deep or interesting, but at least they aren't irritating. The invisible aliens aren't scary, but at least they aren't cheap looking.

Best friends and American dot-com entrepreneurs, Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella), travel to Moscow looking to expand, but find that a local lowlife (Joel Kinnaman) has stolen their idea. Later, at a cool nightclub, Sean and Ben meet fellow travelers Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor). Just as the fun is about to begin, weird lights begin descending from the sky. Unfortunately, they turn out to be killer, invisible aliens, aiming to turn the entire human race into ashes. Our band of humans survives the initial onslaught, but can they make their way to the American embassy and find help? Or does a deadlier fate await them?

Chris Gorak, a former art director on spectacular looking films like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fight Club, The Man Who Wasn't There and Minority Report, directs. He provides nothing terribly interesting to look at, except for vacant Moscow city streets. Though the heroes are white Americans, some of the cultural displacement is used to good effect, and the heroes are generally polite to their Eastern hemisphere neighbors. It's too bad the movie isn't more daring or exotic -- or fun.

Buy Poster

Trailer

With: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor, Joel Kinnaman, Veronika Ozerova, Dato Bakhtadze, Gosha Kutsenko, Nikolai Efremov, Vladimir Jaglich, Arthur Smoljaninov, Anna Roudakova, Pyotr Fyodorov
Written by: Jon Spaihts, based on a story by Leslie Bohem, M.T. Ahern, Jon Spaihts
Directed by: Chris Gorak
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some language
Running Time: 89 minutes
Date: December 25, 2011

Please also see my more in-depth review at Common Sense Media