Did you people see the same film I saw?

Absolutely brilliant

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The first must-see film of the year.

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.

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.

The current rating of 5.5 for this excellent movie is way too low. I just watched it and while some of the reviewers criticize it for its simplicity and lack of twists, i would say that is what gives the movie its power. These reviewers just missed the point. Indeed, there are no moments where you jump out of your chair or scream out in fear: that would make it a horror movie. This is a solid thriller with good acting. The story line is simple but effective, and the movie does not need any more complexity or double layers. It is just perfect as it is. Actually, i think the makers have done a great job in making the simple story line interesting enough to be glued to your seat all the time, wanting to know whats going to come next. And there is enough suspense to make it exciting all the way through.

Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton star in "Blindsided," a 2013 straight-to-video film coproduced by Keaton for reasons known only to him.Monaghan plays a former photojournalist, Sara, who was blinded by a suicide bomber while covering a war and still suffers from PTSD. If she didn't suffer from it, she would have been by the time the action in this film finished.On New Year's Eve, the man she is living with, Ryan (Andrew Walker) is killed by a former associate from whom he stole a fortune in diamonds. Sara has been out, and it takes her a while after she returns home to stumble across the body, and the perpetrator (Barry Sloane) is still in the apartment. He is joined by the brains of the organization, Hollander (Keaton) and together they try by various sadistic means to find out where the loot is.This is really cliché-ridden claptrap, derivative, predictable, and how dare anyone compare it to Wait Until Dark. You know every move the villains are going to make. What's more, you know where the diamonds are hidden. You also know what the end of the film is going to be. It's all too obvious.Michael Keaton does a terrific job, but this is a generic mean guy role. Michelle Monaghan does okay, but these are all generic characters there to serve the predictable action.There were a lot of holes in this thing. First off, why not look for the diamonds in the apartment? Or a key to a safe deposit box? How do you know Sara knows where they are? Quite possibly she knows nothing of Ryan's past and therefore nothing about any theft. And what a place to hide them. If this had been shown in a theater, the entire place would be yelling out the hiding place.Secondly - and this I really didn't understand - this is a 2013 release. Okay, Sara gets into a room and locks the door. She gets on her computer, which takes vocal commands. And she's going to send an email. Well, I hope the person is checking messages. No cell phone with a quick connection to 911? A phone she can keep on so she can be found, should she not be able to get out her address? Though in the time it took her to get onto her email, she certainly could have. The woman is blind, and all she has if she needs help is a computer where she can e-mail someone? We know she had one while she was out. I think someone physically challenged would have it on her at all times.I can't go on. Skip this movie. Rent Wait Until Dark where an entire audience screamed OUT LOUD at one part. They would have screamed here too - at the box office for their money back.