“Amnesiac” on Netlix: Is the movie with Josh Duhamel and Omar Chaparro one of the worst of the year? | REVIEW

The avalanche of movies and series that Netflix and its streaming competitors release week after week allows us to find diverse results. From great dramatic stories such as “Succession”, to valuable historical records such as “The Underground Railroad”, passing through devastating criticism of the shortcomings of the system, such as “Dopesick”. Unfortunately, not everything is good. There are productions that, beyond perhaps easily climbing the ranking of the most watched, certainly leave much to be desired from the analysis.

Perhaps an unbeatable example of the latter is “Amnesic” (in English titled “Blackout”). It is an action film directed by Sam Macaroni that introduces us to Cain (Josh Duhamel), a DEA agent fighting the effects of amnesia, allegedly caused by a blow during a car chase.

No great knowledge of cinema is required to quickly realize the similarities that are sought to be established between the protagonist of “Amnesic” and his counterpart in the “John Wick” saga (starring Keanu Reeves). We have a white main character, good looking, but above all elegantly dressed, who suddenly finds himself fighting against a battalion of strangers, without any of them getting to shoot him throughout the 80 minutes that the film lasts.

Returning to the general lines of the argument, Cain is an anti-drug agent who suddenly wakes up in bed at the Sonora clinic in Mexico. The doctor on duty and the woman next to him (Anna / Abbie Cornish) explain that, apparently by accident, he has suffered from post-traumatic amnesia. That, however, is far from his only concern. It doesn’t take many minutes for the long and endless parade of assassins to start trying to find Cain and snatch a “valuable briefcase” from him. Our protagonist, also affected by a medication that was injected into him without his consent, must divide his immediate time into three things: clarify who the woman who accompanies him really is, fight for his life, but fundamentally, try to remember who the hell he is.

“Amnesic” presents, among its various shortcomings, a series of secondary characters who are empty from head to toe. The doctor who treats Cain seeks to protect him from the assassins, but at the same time he does not miss the slightest opportunity to continue injecting him with substances. But he is not the only one. In itself, everyone inside the Sonora clinic seems more concerned about the gray briefcase than about the life of an anti-drug agent.

Another character that never quite gels is that of Ethan McCoy (Nick Nolte), supposedly Cain’s boss in the anti-drug department. The development of this old leader in the DEA is so zigzagging that it is difficult for us to even comment on it. At one point he seems willing to give his life for him, but then he reacts and betrays him with the excuse that “everywhere there is corruption.”

Something partially similar happens with Anna. From her introduction, lying to an ailing Cain that she “is her wife”, to the times she seemed willing to kill and die for him, this young agent also has a winding path in the plot of the story. movie.

The final part of this comment goes directly to Josh Duhamel and Omar Chaparro as Cain and Eddie, respectively. The first, although apparently committed to the idea of ​​​​the tape, ends up dislocating for the role in an obvious way. Without being overweight, the DEA agent is slow in the chases and hand-to-hand fight scenes. In the same vein, watching him rant every five minutes about not being able to retrieve his memory becomes a failed resource. Although none of this is as bad as seeing him hit a concrete wall while trying to run away from Eddie.

On the antagonist’s side the situation is the same or perhaps worse. Is Omar Chaparro’s work as a villain convincing at any time? Certainly not. From the look he wears (a wig with a long tail and a line of hair falling over his eyes) to his expressions and mannerisms — even as he picks off someone who’s exhausted and just annoys him — they ultimately end up turning him into a parody of dangerous ‘bad guys’. in action movies.

Approaching a movie for the first time, it may come as a surprise to find a release that is only 80 minutes long. However, after seeing “Amnesico” in its entirety, it is clear that perhaps this is its only great success: its brevity. Exceeding that time with a proposal full of endless chases, empty dialogues and repeated resources, would certainly be a blow to the viewer.