BLACKOUT

US, 2022, 81 minutes, Colour.

Josh Duhamel, Abbie Cornish, Nick Nolte, Omar Chaparro, Barbara de Regil.

Directed by Sam Macaroni.

Blackout is a brief American action show, the kind that used to be referred to as “straight-to-video”. It will appeal to the straight-to-video audience, a tough hero, difficult situations, amnesia, cartel bosses, DEA agents – and some final twists. It is the kind of action show that is easily dismissed by critics and those who want subtle entertainment.

It is surprising to find Josh Duhamel, aged 50, as a tough action hero. This is the kind of film that usually has Bruce Willis in it somewhere or has Nicolas Cage as the lead. However, Duhamel acquits himself with quite a lot of tough action, hard exterior, trapped by amnesia.

The film opens with Duhamel making an escape with a metal case, his car fired at, crashing, his finding himself in hospital, on the Mexican American border, looked after by a doctor, and a woman claiming to be his wife, Abbie Cornish, sitting with him. Gradually, he gets his memory back, we see this in flashbacks.

However, there are quite some complications involving the drug cartels, tough thug with a lot of subordinates taking control of hospital, even locking it down, blackout and generators supplying power. It seems that the hero has connections with the cartel – and they want that case that he has taken. What follows is a very tough-guy routine, the hero getting out of his bed, moving around the hospital to get free, lots of encounters with thugs and shootouts and fights.

In the meantime, there is contact from a DEA agent, played by Nick Nolte in his old grizzled way, trying to find out where he is when he makes phone calls from the hospital, getting his agents together and making towards the city.

And there is quite some ambiguity about the Abbie Cornish character, certainly not his wife, the puzzle about the case, her identity, whether she is with an agency or not.

There is a twist at the end which, when it comes, is not surprising – which means further confrontations, suspicions against Abbie Cornish, shootouts and a romantic happy ending.

One can say, typical brief American tough action.