Amped (2004 Video) User Reviews

Low Budget Girl Band Thriller

[jfgibson73 · 4/10 · 9 April 2010]

I watched Amped knowing beforehand that it would be a very low budget production. Wooden acting, out of sync audio, austere settings--you have to be ready to overlook all that going in. So what I hope for is to see something a little different, and to maybe explore some other places that more polished movies do usually go.

Amped was just a by the numbers thriller. It was entertaining because of how silly, implausible, and out of touch it all was. The story concerns the death of a lead singer of an all-female rock band. The other girls in the group may or may not have something to hide from the detective investigating. The dialog tries to create a witty banter between the characters, creating an almost flirtatious relationship between the detective and the bassist. He tracks down one of the band members that has gone into hiding and seems to be putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And then, all of the sudden, it is revealed that he, the detective investigating the singer's death, is the killer. There is nothing to suggest he might be anything other than what he seems, so the reveal is less of a twist and more of a glaring hole in the plot, totally unrelated to any of the exposition that came beforehand. What's even more amusing is the scene where one of the girls in the band seemingly puts it all together in her head and figures out the cop is dirty by having flashbacks of things he said that have NOTHING to do with anything.

This movie is silly enough to have been fun to watch, but it wasn't crazy enough that I would need to show it to my friends. Probably the only way I'll even remember having seen it is from this review.

Oh look it's a noir movie! oh wait no,my mistake.

[vegeta3986 · 3/10 · 19 February 2010]

This movie is WEIRD. Now I know that's an odd way to start a review, but trust me, this is an odd movie. The first thing i noticed about this movie was the actual video quality. I don't know how to describe this. Firstly they used letterbox Widescreen cameras. And...for direct to DVD movies.... that.....can be a problem. it wasn't anamorphic, it was like keyhole widescreen. and that got a bit distracting. The second odd thing was the filters. This movie LOVED filters. Either black and white, blue and black, orange, yellow, i don't know what was going on, but i think they just found a box of filters and went "Hey! Now we can call the movie artistic!" And thirdly, the sound. Sometimes it would be very quiet, and sometimes the mic would pick up wind in the background. Not the most professional level quality, but hey, what do you expect on a 50 movie set?

Now onto the actual movie. The first thing i'm going to mention is just plain "No". It shows how these girls are supposedly in an EXTREMELY popular rockband, popping up on the covers from everything from Rolling Stones to Playboy. And of course, they're living in this random house with no paparazzi around. EVER. Sure. whateeeevver you say. The movie opens with the girl already dead. Narrating herself being dead. But that's quickly forgotten as a random cop makes a joke and leaves never to be seen again. Damn. I didn't know this movie could afford extras! So the detective arrives on the scene (Why do all these low budget detectives look like they got to pick their own wardrobe for these movies?) and takes one taste of some coke found on the dead girls body and profoundly announces "Case Closed" and that's why we apparently don't even need a coroner at the scene. Or this guy's partner. Just him all by himself pretty much immediately after a high profile death took place. Awesome job movie. No one is taken down to the station, instead this detective seems to be like a vigilante case running around trying to find this girl to get information about the death.

At one point we cut to the Coroner's office (Aka some building with chairs and a few drawers) stating how the death wasn't an OD and she was murdered by asphyxiation. Oh noez! really! and now i'm supposed to care, right? OK. just making sure.

So next the girl who also was in the band ends up getting killed as well. Okay, wow. After the first girl was just found murdered, this band which is supposedly AS POPULAR as like N'SYNC just got murdered, there's no extra bodyguards assigned, not to mention NO PAPARAZZI. oh sorry let me rephrase. When they hold a press conference about their band mate's death. 1 guy with a microphone shows up. These guys are beginning to sound less like Rolling Stone material and more Home and Garden's style.

So, after a whole bunch of random crap including a girl who was far to chunky to be the supposedly sexy member of the group sleeping with the cop it turns out the cop is evil (makes shocked face). oh no. wait. that was cliché. whew! Turns out he's also a dirty cop and wanted the money for his drugs. Instead of...you know...just taking the drugs back after he killed her. cause...that would have been SMART. Also i have another question. If he's a cop, wouldn't he KNOW that the autopsy would prove she was killed by asphyxiation? Just a thought. Did he just HOPE that they wouldn't do an autopsy on a music star? I don't know but that's just stupid.

So we get to the last five minutes, the evil guy points a gun at the girl who's holding a knife and says "see, i have a gun and you have a knife. in order to kill someone with a knife you have to get close" and i am NOT kidding you, he walks into stabbing distance and pretty much says "like this" and then he stabs her and went "i didn't think you'd DO that!" (facepalms) This is the stupidest villain ever! i'd be more scared if Marv from Home Alone showed up on my doorway!

And then, to add insult to injury, after she stabs him, he's still fully conscious with the gun pointed at her AND KEEPS TALKING! oh my god i wanted to punch this guy! shoot somebody you dumb piece of crap! but of course he gets beaten by a lamp or something. i don't know. he doesn't really get...beaten... the chunky chick kind of just... lightly taps something on the ground that was obviously borrowed from the house they were in so it wouldn't break. So they lock the guy in the room who's unconscious, only to wake up and die from his blood loss. Cause yeah. THAT makes sense.

This movie was just pointless. I GUESS it was trying to go for like..a Film Noir feel, but it wasn't NEARLY cool enough for that. The acting was dry (especially from the chunky chick and the cop) it was stock, trite and most importantly boring. And of course one of the most obvious things, it had NO BUSINESS BEING IN A HORROR SET. This movie was all around unnecessary. however, it isn't the WORST film i've seen. so yeah... 3 out of 10.

p.s. movie makers, if you're reading this, if you're going to make a boring rip off at a film noir, at least SHOW some of the nudity. you're not being clever with your camera angles, you're being annoying.