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The Darkest Hour

Play trailer Poster for The Darkest Hour PG-13 2011 1h 29m Sci-Fi Action Mystery & Thriller Adventure Horror Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
12% Tomatometer 60 Reviews 26% Popcornmeter 25,000+ Ratings
Young entrepreneurs Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) meet stranded travelers Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor) at a hot Moscow nightclub. Their whole world changes in an instant when an alien attack devastates the city and everything goes dark. Joined by a Swedish businessman (Joel Kinnaman), the youths emerge from hiding days later and must somehow fight back against a nearly invisible enemy that could find and disintegrate them at any moment.
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The Darkest Hour

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Critics Consensus

Devoid of believable characters or convincing visual effects, this may be The Darkest Hour for the careers of all involved.

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Critics Reviews

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Tim Robey Daily Telegraph (UK) 01/13/2012
1/5
Cool though this might seem as a post-apocalyptic fashion accessory, it's fatally ill-thought-through... Go to Full Review
Peter Bradshaw Guardian 01/12/2012
1/5
Very cheap and silly-looking. Go to Full Review
Ashley Clark Little White Lies 01/12/2012
1/5
Sensationally poor. Go to Full Review
Patrick Cavanaugh The Wolfman Cometh 09/24/2023
1/5
A poor execution of a poorly conceived story, full of generic characters and bland special effects. Go to Full Review
Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review 03/01/2023
1/4
All of the poor 3D, lousy CGI, and run-of-the-mill plotting could be forgiven if there were some interesting characters onscreen, but there are none. Go to Full Review
Annalee Newitz io9.com 05/25/2018
[It's] like a bad holiday fruitcake that somebody tried to spruce up with a zillion lumps of neon-colored, soggy jellybean guts. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Antonio C @RT66697039 4d This is a good movie, something different, and I really like it. Not the usual space aliens and plots See more Jodie C @RT10559462 Aug 26 I honestly thought this was great. It was gripping, it was tense, people died unexpectedly. This is a much better watch than newer films with awful AI/CGI and stupid jokes in a moment thats meant to be scary. Older films will always be better and this was fantastic! It was like war of the world's, not quite as good of course thats a classic but this was a great film. See more Harry T @RT75886331 Aug 26 Great movie, no need for extreme cgi these days since its difficult to find a movie that entices you rather than throwing in popular actors/actresses in with 0 imagination, aka 'the end of oak street'. Any move past 2019 is poor. This was well directed and im gutted there isn't a 2. Other so called critics are way off, the characters used were not 'let one man lead the way to victory and save the planet', this movie gave multiple different personalities as you would find if the situation was real all essentially handing in their own knowledge and working together. There is no saving a character just because the audience likes them, it is just carnage. Criminal that this movie has 12%, I would happily swap the end of oak street rating for this. 87% is well deserved. See more Mitch S @SwagoDiego2k May 26 Wow I really wonder if they were planing lining up a series with this one. You'd have to be completely out of your gord to look at this and think this was a suitable product to release and charge people money for. I watched for free and I'm still upset at how bad it was. If you paid professional actors to try and act this bad they would fall short! But the ending seems like someone thought this would not only be a success but that they would obtain funding for a second which is bonkers. The enimies are silly. The come to understanding and ultimately how to defeat these, electrical balls? Is dumb. Every second to the last is all pointless garbage. I could watch paint dry and be a more beneficial and exciting experience than watching this. One star for the sheer fact it is hard to make a movie and I respect effort even if that effort was horrific. Don't watch. Or do! Dealers choice. See more Blake- N @PBSAniDom Apr 27 The Darkest Hour is a major disappointment and feels like a wasted opportunity from Summit Entertainment’s US release strategy. While the concept could have been interesting, the execution is flat, uninspired, and lacking any real tension or emotional weight. The characters are underdeveloped and hard to care about, making most of the film feel empty and repetitive rather than thrilling. The international distribution handling by a different studio only highlights how uneven this film’s identity feels, as if different versions of the same idea were never fully unified. Compared to it, 50/50 (2011)—also handled in the same general era—is far superior in storytelling, pacing, and emotional impact, even though it’s a completely different genre. That film actually connects with its audience, while The Darkest Hour just doesn’t land. Overall, it’s forgettable, poorly executed, and not worth revisiting. 2/10. See more Meru B @ItsMeeeJessicaaa Apr 21 Is it the best? No. Are the graphics and dialogue trash? Yes. But it is mindless fun and worth a watch. See more Read all reviews
The Darkest Hour

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The Darkest Hour

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Movie Info

Synopsis Young entrepreneurs Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) meet stranded travelers Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor) at a hot Moscow nightclub. Their whole world changes in an instant when an alien attack devastates the city and everything goes dark. Joined by a Swedish businessman (Joel Kinnaman), the youths emerge from hiding days later and must somehow fight back against a nearly invisible enemy that could find and disintegrate them at any moment.
Director
Chris Gorak
Producer
Tom Jacobson, Timur Bekmambetov
Screenwriter
Jon Spaihts
Distributor
Summit Entertainment
Production Co
Summit Entertainment, Jacobson Company, New Regency Pictures, Bazelevs Production
Rating
PG-13 (Some Language|Sci-Fi Action Violence)
Genre
Sci-Fi, Action, Mystery & Thriller, Adventure, Horror
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 25, 2011, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 10, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA)
$21.4M
Runtime
1h 29m
Sound Mix
Dolby
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