brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Best movie ever!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

A nervous film of a descent into the decay of self-preservation. The opening scene at the Mall and in the movie theater is appropriately apprehensive. From then on nobody on screen displays any helpful signs that this is going to be a comfortable, let's pull back into our safe seats and see what happens movie, because it is tense and uneasy...until the end.An abrupt about face in the latter third keeps this from succeeding at all levels. At best it is a watchable thriller that never really rises above average, and at worst it is a disappointing dive into the psychological that is so clichéd that some may call this a calamity of cinema commonness. So there is enough here to be a curious peek into a very real modern situation, but just don't expect anything really new or impressive to give insight into the next catastrophe. Because as sure as God made little green apples and the power-grid, we will be forced to face it and to endure.

What would you do if there was no kind of power, electricity in your city and you needed to do stuff, solve problems away? How people, society in general would react in such chaotic situation where nothing works? "The Trigger Effect" unique power is in touching such thoughtful matter that should be deeply thought in several possibilities. Too bad director/writer David Koepp ("Jurassic Park", "Secret Window") only dwindles in a soft "Twilight Zone" scheme pretending to be serious enough to make us fully interested. It works on a minor level of entertainment, due to the lack of brainy ideas. For the most part, it's a little depressing, somewhat ridiculous and strangely annoying.It begins in a dull presentation of characters where three main characters, a couple (Kyle MacLachlan and Elisabeth Shue) and a guy (Richard T. Jones) are introduced in all sorts of confusion while gathered in a movie theater. Only in the 1990's we can think of small misunderstandings happening with people accidentally stumbling on other people causing such disturbance and heated little arguments that seems to lead towards aggression. We in the 21st Century are somewhat more aware of people, that we never know who they might be and we avoid conflict in the best possible way unless if inevitable. One small push and those characters need to curse, start a fight over pointless matters. But, they were together when the power went down in the room, then returned and by the end of the day, it will fail again, this time for a long stressful time, no answers given.The couple's problem is finding medicine for their baby who's having some health issues. Breaking point for the father is to steal the medicine of a drugstore amidst the chaos and after fighting with the pharmacist simply because the guy "didn't like him" after (again!) small discussions. Their only assistance comes from a friend (Dermot Mulroney) who makes sure they're safe due to the violence threats, riots and robbery happening in the small town after the energy disaster. No news, no information, nothing is said about the incident and the situation gets worse by the hour. Another breaking point comes when a robber gets killed after trying to steal things from the couple's house, starting some deep ethical questions in our heads.The movie's major weakness is in having a weak character as the figure we're supposed to root for. It's not a case of bad acting since Kyle is quite good in it; the problem is that it was too annoying, and far exaggerated all the time he had to take some different action than he used to take. Doesn't convince. Also, all the trouble presented by Koepp that society would rise into pandemonium simply because they're stuck without power was far too one-sided, simplistic. He only touched the surface of the problem and that's it. And when he creates the problem it isn't all that interesting to see, in fact it's too damn unbelievable. The whole road situation and how they deal with Michael Rooker character were ridiculous, almost killed the movie. And his character should've been presented earlier in the movie and we should have the right to know his motivations for doing all what he does, menacing people. But no, he's just there to surprise us with what can be surprising since he always plays the same role of menacing tough guy.If we don't get stuck with the negative aspects of "The Trigger Effect" we can enjoy it because of the proposition given and the actors working on it. Those who hated the movie for its acting or lack of a good story are a little wrong about it. Fine, it's not the best work of many of the stars present in here but it's not that bad. Hands down as best acting to Bill Smitrovich playing MacLachlan's friendly and helpful neighbor. He's a great character actor you recognize for countless films, never knows the name but here he makes his presence quite notable, specially after the robbery incident. Best character of the movie, it's because of him the film gets more gripping and more questionable when it comes to judge people's actions amidst such strange turmoil of events.Not the best or the worst, it's right in the middle. A little mediocre but positively watchable specially on a night time. 6/10

I thought this was a tightly-made survival piece and was surprised by the number of downbeat reviews. Good grief, people, this was hardly a bad film!It might be a case of herd-negativity; one person reads a bad review, gets a bias, and so on. That is, unless they saw an edited version on TV that was too trimmed-down. A TV viewing should always be noted by reviewers, since it often ruins movies by cutting crucial scenes.This movie starts with a strong sequence about random people getting on each other's nerves, with a sense of general foreboding that something bad is looming, although you knew that going in.Then, it progresses quite seamlessly toward a societal breakdown scenario, without giving away too much information on the cause. That keeps the mystery going, which many films fail to do by letting the cat fully out of the bag. It's also presented from the viewpoint of a handful of people, not some national command center with the usual political bickering.The tension between the married couple goes along well with the growing sense of general insecurity. I didn't find it contrived at all. At no point in the film was I able to guess how it was going to turn out, which is the way it would be in a survival situation. The ending could have gone either way.Yes, there were some logical holes, but nothing truly glaring. It was entertaining enough to not inspire second-guessing.I'd already seen the James Burke "Connections" episode of the same title which inspired this film. They gave it a visual nod early on, and that made it all the more entertaining.I think "The Trigger Effect" is well worth your time unless some negative reviewer turned you against it, which is ironically how people behave in mobs when order breaks down!

The basic idea behind 'the trigger effect' was seriously interesting. but it should have inspired screenwriter and director David Koepp much more to write some really strong material. It's not that the story was badly written, it's just the dialogues which were predictable and cheesy, making the characters seem quite two-dimensional.Among the actors, the lead man Kyle McLachlan has done the worst job. Elisabeth Shue was not that bad (but I guess I shouldn't pass judgement on really hot actresses). Perhaps their characters were so badly written the actors didn't have much to do.One interesting thing: all the other IMDb user reviews of the film really bash the film, but that doesn't show in its ratings.