Penthouse North (2014)

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.

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.

Michelle Monaghan is a photo journalist injured and blinded in Afghanistan. It seems the bomb that went off in front of her caused no other disfigurement. The violence she suffers during the cause of this movie fails to give her even the slightest of bruising.She now lives in a luxury apartment in New York with a wealthy boyfriend who says he is an investor but is in fact is a diamond thief.However Monaghan's life is put at risk as the boyfriend is murdered by the men he betrayed. Michael Keaton is the leader of the pack and Barry Sloane as the ruthless junior partner who having killed the boyfriend without finding out where he hid the diamonds now terrorises Monaghan without once hesitating to think that this blind person may really know nothing.This is an updated remake of Wait until Dark but a low budget B grade film despite the presence of Keaton who went back to better things soon after this film was released. It has bad CGI with a horrible backdrop of New York. The script is at best functional, at worse lame. The acting is routine with Monaghan never once convinced me that she is blind.The film is directed like a straight to DVD film and that is just what it is.

Review: This movie seemed like it was made for TV because it's your typical thriller about a blind lady who has to protect herself against baddies who are looking for diamonds. It was good to see Michael Keaton back on the big screen, but this isn't really a movie that will be that memorable. I was waiting for twists in the storyline, but it just turned out to be a straight forward foodie against baddie type of movie. The whole film was only based around 3 characters so the director didn't have that much to work with as it was all based in the blind girls flat. At the end of the day, it's just a average movie with average performances and plot. Round-Up: The director really should have used Michael Keaton better because he is a great actor who usually pulls out great performances when he is pushed. Monaghan didn't really do a Pacino in Scent of a Woman, as the blind girl, but that's not to say that she didn't do well with an average script. There was loads of times throughout the movie when it could have switched into a whodunit type of film, but the director just kept it plain and simple. I recommend this movie to people who,are into there drama/thriller type of movies about a couple of guys looking for stolen diamonds in a blind girls apartment. 3/10