Michael Ledo Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) is a war photographer who gets blinded by a suicide bomber. The film starts three years later. We get an indication Sara is a strong person. She lives in an expensive Penthouse with a rich boyfriend (Andrew Walker). It isn't long before this becomes a home break-in film with Michael Keaton and Barry Sloane as the bad guys. It seems her boyfriend wasn't as nice as she thought.There must be a 100 home break-in films out there, some even involve a blind person. While not a bad film, this one doesn't bring anything new worthwhile to the table. A film you can wait to see.Parental Guide: No sex or nudity. No f-bombs that I recall.
zardoz-13 Michael Keaton portrays a psychotic killer searching for $20-million in diamonds in "Money Train" director Joseph Ruben's lackluster suspense thriller "Blindsided," alternately entitled "Penthouse North," co-starring Michelle Monaghan. Just about everybody involved in this half-baked crime saga has done better work elsewhere. You cannot watch this potboiler without comparing it with Terence Young's seminal blind woman in peril suspenser "Wait Until Dark," though "Lakeview Terrace" scenarist David Loughery has conjured up a lesser effort. The film opens in with our heroine Sara Frost (Michelle Monaghan of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") as a civilian photojournalist embedded with American troops in war-torn Afghanistan who loses her sight when a female suicide bomber cradling a baby doll in her arms blows up in front of her. The action fast-forwards three years later with Sara in a relationship with a mysterious hunk, Ryan (Andrew W. Walker of "Ambush at Dark Canyon"), who wants to marry her. She keeps holding out. After striking out on her own in New York City to buy some champagne for Ryan, she re-enters her apartment and discovers to her horror that her boyfriend has been stabbed to death. The knife-wielding assailant has stuck around for her, and Chad (Barry Sloane of "Noah") threatens to kill her if she doesn't tell him where Ryan stashed a fortune in cash. The problem here is that Chad gained entrance to an apartment complex without arousing suspicion, and Ryan opened the door and let his former accomplice in crime into his place. This makes no sense, but then most of this generic thriller doesn't make sense. Ruben and Loughery keep things thoroughly contrived. For example, our heroine manages to escape from Chad's clutches, scrambles down a stairway, and never screams or pounds on anybody's door for help. Furthermore, she never trips the fire alarm, because that would have alerted the police. The closest that they come to involving somebody else is the doorman, Antonio (Phillip Jarrett of "Exit Wounds"), who tries to rescue our heroine but winds up getting Chad's knife in his guts. The action expands momentarily by the confines of the penhouse with a balcony when Sara escapes from the apartment building. She begs everybody that she encounters to help her. Predictably, a helpful guy, Hollander (Michael Keaton of "Batman"), escorts her back to her building while masquerading as a cop. She realizes the horrible mistake that she has made when Chad joins them, and she ends up stuck back in her apartment with two greedy killers. She learns that Ryan stole millions from Hollander and Chad, and they want to find his cache of bills and diamonds. Another flaw in this flimsy thriller is the inclusion of a black cat that is our heroine's pet. Earlier when she came back to the apartment, walking around unknowingly about Ryan's murder, Sara finds her cat Shadow. As a cat owner, I can attest that strangers spook my cats and they won't come back out into the open until the strangers leave. Hollander has no problem scooping Shadow up into his arms. This is unbelievable. Later, Hollander hurls the cat over the balcony. Cat lovers will hate this scene, and they will probably stop watching this nonsense at that point. Okay, spoiler alert, the cat survives a fifteen-story plunge, and it emerges at the end. Meanwhile, it is a cat and mouse game between Hollander and Chad with Sara as the villains struggle to get the information out of her about the whereabouts of Ryan's stash. Little about this by-the-numbers thriller is memorable. Aside from Hollander's lying, the filmmakers don't have any big surprises to enhance the tension. Eventually, Sara's pregnant sister and her NYPD husband show up at the apartment, and Sara manages to send them packing, primarily because her sister's water breaks and her husband has to rush her to hospital. Michelle Monaghan plays the damsel-in-distress without a clue, while Michael Keaton is wasted in a bland role. Keaton usually blows away his co-stars, but this time he radiates little wattage as a killer. None of the dialogue is remotely quotable. "Blindsided" qualifies as a fair thriller, but nothing that you should waste your time watching.
adonis98-743-186503 A reclusive, blind photojournalist lives quietly in a New York penthouse, until a smooth but sadistic criminal looking for a hidden fortune enters her life. Penthouse North is one of those little films that you're going to find on a Videostore and you're probably going to rent it and personally the first time i watched it i didn't liked it that much. Now the film was on TV today and i said to myself "why the hell not?" right? I mean all movies eventually deserve a 2nd chance and i gotta say this time the film was so much better. I loved the performances by both Monaghan who plays the blind woman who gets captured inside her own apartment and Keaton the ruthless criminal who tries to steal a secret fortune of diamonds. Now you see the movie does have this particular same old, same old kind of moments that all those thrillers have in common but unlike previous films that i have seen Penthouse North tries to do somethings differently for example the whole blind thing at first doesn't really work against her favor until the very end or the 3rd act in general, the villains are pretty good but Keaton is the one who shines the most he brings a lot of energy to this character that he portrays and for once again he shows why he is such a fantastic actor. The final confrontation in the balcony is quite stunning and full of non stop thrills plus there's a terrific reference to both Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Overall this isn't one of the greatest films of all time not by a long shot but it's definitely way better than previous straight to DVD films and as i said both leading actors are terrific at portraying the characters that have been given to them.
Bob Rutzel Sara (Monaghan) a former photo journalist in Afghanistan became blind from an incident there lives with Ryan (Andrew W. Walker) who isn't all he says he is according to Sara's friends. When she returns from buying liquor for the New Year's Eve celebration she discovers that she is not alone in the penthouse, and Ryan is nowhere to be found. Enter Chad (Barry Sloane) and Hollander (Keaton) who are looking for something Ryan stole from them. This movie is also known as Blindsided, and DAS PENTHOUSE. Sara claims Ryan only told her that he was an investor and never told her where anything of value was hidden in the penthouse, but Chad and Hollander don't believe her. Hence we have a movie to see if Sara is telling the truth. And so it goes as Sara gets beaten up and threatened and we cringe quite a bit as she gets tossed about quite brutally. The acting all around is very good. Nothing is overdone.Ah, I see you are looking for a twist. Sorry, there isn't one. In 2013, twists were not mandatory in movies as they are now. (really?) What we are left with is seeing if Sara, who is blind, can overcome two brutes who just might kill her if she gives them what they want. (hey, you did say she didn't know anything, didn't you?) What do you think? (7/10)Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.
