User Reviews

This film obviously has a limited budget, but it's biggest handicap is limited imagination and innovation.

These actors are given nothing to work with but scraps from other action films. The quiet stretches are the strongest parts of the film, and they're not strong.

The real weakness is when action scenes are shot and it's obvious only one take was in the budget.

The scene between Rhys-Meyers and Gigandet at the conference table sounds like bad adult film dialogue. I'm guessing this entire film was shot with one take per scene.

Even though I enjoyed the film I was left thinking that the director wasn't sure what to do with the action scenes. Cam who is a black belt in real life and has shown his thing on movies that he has done previously gets barley any unarmed combat time in this movie and I think it was a big misopportunity by the director. There are quite a few action scenes in the movie, cars, gun play, Tec and these are done pretty good, but you feel as if something is missing. Rhys Meyers was wasted throughout the movie. If you liked films like time bomb then you will like this film. This film was a combination of The Manchurian Candidate and Time bomb, with the latter's budget. Overall not bad but when you watch it, you will see that it was a big misoppourtunity.

Lame copycat of the Total Recall, Demolition man and the Clockwork Orange which substitutes screaming and running/driving for acting and plot. Absolutely dreadful movie which goes nowhere, your time is better spend watching the movies this one ripped off, or just doing anything else but. Avoid.

The Shadow Effect suffers from a very weak script. Ideas seem plundered wholesale from other movies where they were executed much more effectively, including The 6th Day, The Manchurian Candidate, A Clockwork Orange, Edge of Tomorrow, Total Recall, The Bride and Universal Soldier. The derivative nature of key plot elements could be forgiven, if they were presented with some sort of original twist or insight which is sadly lacking here. The production was clearly limited by a modest budget, estimated at $4MM; however, some very good films have been done with comparably limited budgets, such as Lone Star and Dinner Rush. The difference is creativity. Plot elements that are not shamelessly misappropriated seem contrived. Some elements are simply missing, such as the lack of response by the FBI, DHS and BAFT, motivation, character arcs and theme.

The producers assembled a capable cast and secured a wonderfully rustic cabin in the woods as a location for several key scenes. However, one character is heavily tattooed, which makes no sense relative to a key element in the plot, and it's difficult to imagine how the owner-operators of a rural café with only one employee and not many customers can afford such a home. By contrast, a secret laboratory that would seem to require antiseptic conditions is located in a dingy industrial setting.

However, a DTV potboiler doesn't need to be cerebral, provided it delivers the genre basics: fight scenes, chases, gunplay, explosions and sex. The gunplay is a bit hit-or-miss with a few good scenes and shots, but a lot of weapons brandished without being fired and not many impacts. CGI explosions are pretty decent. A car chase and crash is done well for a film of this caliber, but a character steals what seems to be a souped-up vehicle but doesn't drive it. The fight choreography is clumsy. The sex and nudity are self-conscious, although integral to the plot.

Whereas similar efforts hobble along with very little plot and a lot of eye candy, TSE offers a lot of plot, but very little eye candy. However, the plot is largely incoherent and derivative and not sufficiently engaging to bridge the gaps between the visuals.

Part of me was intrigued before watching 'The Shadow Effect'. It sounded interesting with a great concept, but it did look like a not very well made, ridiculous and by the numbers film with not particularly good actors so there was a little apprehension. Saw 'The Shadow Effect' anyway out of curiosity, being intrigued by the idea and having been a lot of low-budget films recently (most not very good to put it lightly).

''The Shadow Effect' managed to be worse than expected, even with mixed expectations. It started off pretty well, giving off the sense that maybe the film won't be bad and be better than it seemed. This didn't stay for long though and it is something of a shame. After the opening, the film went down south catastrophically very quickly and never recovered or improved. Actually got pretty much worse as it progressed.

On a visual level, 'The Shadow Effect' looked shoddy. Drab and simplistic, with haphazard editing, far from slick photography and very artificial-looking visuals on the whole.

The sound/soundtrack are intrusive and obvious with no variation and the direction has no sense of atmosphere or pacing, nothing to be thrilled by and nothing much engaging.

Script is awkward-sounding and ponderous, with lines that do make one cringe. A lot of it is gibberish and juvenile, with a stilted improvisatory feel that shouldn't have made it past draft stages.

On top of that, the story goes through the motions with no tension, suspense or thrills, a lot of intelligence-insulting ridiculousness, implausibility and pacing so dull that it makes a reasonably short length much longer. It is very derivative and parts also felt incomplete. The action sequences are more preposterous and by the numbers than they are thrilling or fun, a big problem for a film so heavy on this aspect. The terrible way they look also hinder them.

Characters are basically every stereotype in the book it seems and are one-dimensional caricatures with no likeability or development and with the inability to behave logically. The acting is very poor all round, particularly from Cam Gigandet, again showing no acting range of any kind. He and anaemic Jonathan Rhys-Meyers have zero chemistry together and their dialogues have no naturalness or believability whatsoever.

In summary, bad film in almost every way. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Just horrible, unimaginative. The writing is bad, the directing and producing is bad. I see why the producers now are trying to get into real estate development, because this movie just bombed. Being from NC I always love watching local film and other artistic productions. I actually feel I'm more generous with a review when the producers are from my home state, but I could barely get through this movie. The action I thought would at least be exciting, but I found myself busting out in laughter.

It's not easy for an actor to get out of a certain pigeon hole. And while it's mostly women that are reduced to their looks, it also can happen to male actors. In this case it's Cam Gigandet, who many might remember or know as a regular in the show OC.

He gets a vehicle here, a movie that has a really good premise. And he also has a veteran by his side with Michael Biehn. Still the story has flaws and the character is not fully developed. But if you like Science Fiction action movies that are a bit off and low budget, this is one you can check out. High concept idea, decently produced and acted. You could do worse

Great idea although already seen. The rest is just crap. I regret so much for 2 hours i just spent watching this pile of crap. Don't waste your time on this one. In 2017 shot a movie with such a bad special effects is unforgivable. CRAP. IMDb should remove this limit of 5 lines of text because some movies doesn't deserve 5 lines of text. This movie deservers only one word. CRAP.

This movie is much better than the avg 4 star given to it. Everything could've been done better, but it still keeps you wondering what is going on throughout the movie, and it ain't stupid or boring. Certainly worth watching if you like "dark" sci-fi. If you're only looking for mindless action - look elsewhere.

I liked this movie in many ways . The Atmosphere , The picture , The Music , The mysterious line of the movie that makes you wanna finish it no matter what the result is ,, I felt kinda like it's a video game

What I didn't like was the acting in many situations especially when it comes to action shots , although I liked the acting of the main characters ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Cam Gigandet ) in their dialogues they are doing a good job

The story line is good and thrilling but lacking something maybe more details or that's how I see it

Overall , This movie isn't bad and I really enjoyed it .. But It could have been something way better if you fill those missing parts

My rating 6.5/10

Story, writing, acting, action, effects, this movie has them all...and they are all terrible. It's so bad it's not even laughable. If a 6 yr old wrote a script, then gave it to an improv class on their 1st day, then the class burned the script and "guessed the dialogue " for the whole movie - that would have been better.

I'm no film critic, so I'm not going to speak about lighting, angles, etc. This is my personal opinion as a viewer.

The beginning was not bad. I had never come across the title and it was a boring evening, so it was either this or the hundred-thousendth rerun of King of Queens (in hindsight that would have probably been a better idea...) Where was I... Ah, yes. It started kind of OK - not much happening, the lead is a hard-working young man, got a business to run, loves his wife and so on and so forth. I caught myself smiling when the first action scene arrived. I was almost laughing out loud by the end of it. And it happened again with the second one. And then it was all downhill. I can't put my finger(s) on why, simply because I don't have enough for each of the things...

At this point I started thinking, 'It looks like a low-budget one - let's try looking past the cheapness.' Well guess what - that didn't help. The storyline became so flat and boring, I started wonder why I was doing this to myself and why not change the channel (we all know why, so let's not go there). By the way, if you haven't noticed, the budget is stated at $21 mil. - not exactly garage-style.

But then, maybe the acting would compensa.... Bwahaha, what acting?! Must have missed it while too busy trying to count in how many buildings they've had the same lift with the same flimsy panel (no, I refuse to comment on the buttons).

I'll just cut it here, skipping the Swiss-cheese-like plot - could have been worse, hence 3 stars. Oh, and it did trigger a response - made me write this.

What I find really annoying and deeply concerning is how this has even been greenlighted. As somebody who tends to appreciate a good film, I'm genuinely worried about the trend this 'masterpiece' represents. Again, no professional critic here and a fairly forgiving one on top of it, but the constellation of goodness called 'The Shadow Effect' looks like yet another example of money + marketing - everything else. Which in projection, based on the current rate of development, would mean that, if things don't change - A LOT, in 5 to 7 years time there will literally be nothing new worth going to the cinema for... Almost said I was glad I didn't spend anything on it, but then remembered that nowadays you pay for everything you see, one way or another. So unless cable and streamers join the game and start filtering stuff they offer, a measly margin of profit through royalties will remain in existence, fuelling this truly sickening part of the film industry.

Yep, it's a crapfest. Someone had a few million dollars to burn, so they decided to throw it into posterity.

Avoid like the plague. If it comes on TV, change to the Crap Noise Nutwork.

Crappy crap complete wast of time A law budget, law direction no plot, no story movie Oh my my! the actors as if they're rehearsing the seen but nope it was shoot.. So artificial acting, a cheap copycat.. GOD!!! I wish for my wasted time back

JRM looks ridiculous. The script and writing are bad.

This is an action movie with almost no action sequences, but a nicely mature Cam Gigandet is our hero and he is filmed shirtless making love, freaking out, hugging a toilet, being brainwashed. Good butt shots as well.

There is a weird, hard to follow, scifi resurrection plot.

Cam's acting is not bad. JRM acting accent hair is rather atrocious, but it looks like his scenes were shot in 1-2 days.

This was shot in Atlanta GA and has state tax credits written all over it. "We call them shadows, but yes they are ____."

Watch it for Cam's butt and chest and overall attractiveness. Howl with laughter for everything else.

This is probably the best movie I have ever seen, hands down. The acting was terrific, the twist of the plot was great, and the mystery surrounding the ending of the movie was one of the best I have ever experienced. It kept you on the edge of your seat the entire time, and it had the perfect combination of mystery and scary. Must See

I'm often amused at the jaded and self absorbed state of the average IMDB user. It's so often clear that they have allowed themselves to devolve (Sadly so) into near automatons that USE to be film lovers only now to be wanna be "critics", whom like that sad profession, have lost the ability to find satisfaction outside of a very limited scope of their own "Prefect drug". Almost as though once they've seen a masterpiece they cannot appreciate any other painting that cannot smile the same smile as the Mona Lisa they beheld. Or cannot find the same rush from that perfect HIT of whatever their drug of choice may have been.

This movie is perfectly fine, it is a low, but adequate, budget thriller with sci-fi elements about an assassin in the vein of the Manchurian Candidate where mind control is in question. Meyers and Gigandet are fine, as is the rest of the cast. The story is played and told well, with adequate doses of action, tension and wonderment as our protagonist begins to break his brainwash and seeks to discover who and what he is, who has created him and why. Not to mention what to do about it once he begins to break their holds on him and his own mental bonds., Gigandet makes nice eye candy and does a good job in his role, and Meyers does well in a role of his usual flavor...that being charming and deceptive, manipulative and usually on the wrong side of the villain fence.

In the end it s satisfying ride, a good time and nice little movie. It's not a masterpiece, and only a fool would go into thinking it was or even should be, it's not Citizen Kane. It's an action thriller. Get over yourselves and try to get some of your ability to have fun with film back.