Lights Out
February 12th, 2024
MOVIE: LIGHTS OUT
STARRING: FRANK GRILLO, MEKHI PHIFER, JAIME KING, DERMOT MULRONEY
DIRECTED BY: CHRISTIAN SESMA
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 1 ½ STARS (Out of 4)
As someone who has watched his fair share of direct-to-video or VOD productions, it’s safe to say, I know what I’m talking about when critiquing the newest low-budget actioner. Recently, the quality of these productions has increased, especially since the sad diagnosis of Bruce Willis’ health, which put these films under a production microscope, and a realization that it’s the effort that makes a movie work. That was the case for William Kaufman’s excellent film The Channel or the strong work of director Jesse V. Johnson with Hell Hath No Fury. Lights Out is not one of those movies, although there’s a clear effort, along with a cool cast, the final result fails to land a punch.
The story begins with a group of soldiers fighting in Afghanistan with war and fire all around them and the haunting memory of a member losing his life. Things pick up in the present day with Michael “Duffy” Duffield (Frank Grillo) wandering around California and looking for a place to lay his head. When he stops in for a drink at a bar, he rubs a group of patrons wrong by taking their money in a card game. They find themselves on the end of a butt-whooping and newly paroled Max (Mekhi Phifer) notices a tough guy who holds his own. Max asks Duffy to do some back alley fighting for him, in hopes of helping repay his debts, and give both men a sense of redemption.
At the center of it all, Lights Out is a standard story, similar to movies like Out of the Furnace or Warrior, about military veterans, and tough guys who need a new beginning. What works best in director Christian Sesma’s film are the bad guys, led by mobster Sage Parker (Dermot Mulroney injecting some life into things) and crooked LA detective Ellen Ridgeway (Jaime King), both trying to play nasty people and succeeding when the dialogue calls for bad guy gab. It’s everything else that surrounds Lights Out that fails to elevate contrived material.
For a low-budget action movie, the biggest problem has to be the repetition of drone shots, city-scapes of cars driving in the night, transitioning every scene. The city is supposed to be LA, but it’s shot in Atlanta or Canada, and the action part is boring with very few set pieces. And it’s not only the gun fights and murdering that are lackluster but so are the backstreet fist fights. There’s no choreography to how Duffy is stronger than others but when he lands a hit, Sesma decides to slow things down and show an x-ray view of bones cracking inside of those on the receiving end of his punches. It only slows down the narrative in a movie that’s desperate for a payoff, but the writing hamstrings Grillo and company, without a character to care for if they live or die. Even the introduction of Scott Adkins’ character is too little and too late to help.
In the past, a movie such as Lights Out would fit the 1980s criteria of what a B-movie is, or work as a mid-range vehicle for the likes of Clint Eastwood or Steve McQueen. Instead, they now fall under the banner of disposable entertainment, destined to find a place on Netflix or other streaming service, where it will collect dust. It’s not the end of movies like this, no matter how promising the material gets, but there are only a few little flickers in Lights Out.
LIGHTS OUT IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS FRIDAY FEBRUARY 16TH, 2024.
1 ½ STARS
Written by: Leo Brady
leo@amovieguy.com
