Amber Alert (2024) Review and Movie Summary

In 2012, a “found footage” film called “Amber Alert” was released. It had a pretty cool premise, but a pretty sloppy presentation (common with found footage projects). A group of children hear a yellow alarm and spot the car on the highway. They give chase, which leads to all sorts of unlikely twists and turns and behavior that makes no sense, all “captured” by the cell phone cameras. The main thing I remember about “Amber Alert” is how everyone was screaming the whole time. The characters bickered from start to finish and it felt chaotic and unformed. Now, in 2024, we have another film with the same title and scenario. It's basically the same film, even if the current film eschews the found footage approach. Kerry Bellessa directed both films. As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”

It's an interesting idea to remake a film you made twelve years ago. But has anything improved? There are so many stories in the world. Why should you tell it twice? The 2012 film was clearly made on a micro-budget, and the found footage aspect brought with it all the typical problems of the “genre.” The 2024 version is sleeker and more polished, the acting is much better, and in some ways it's easier to watch despite its absurd final sequence. The setup is a bit complicated, but it goes like this:

An 8-year-old girl named Charlotte disappears from the park while playing hide-and-seek with her brother. The mother panics. She was taking videos of her baby and caught a glimpse of her daughter in the background, standing next to a black car. She immediately calls the police. Meanwhile, a young woman named Jaq (Hayden Panettiere) reports an off-duty ride. She's late and desperate. The driver, Shane (Tyler James Williams), was supposed to be home for his son's birthday, but agrees to give her a ride since he is on the road. They both receive the Amber Alert on their cell phones and a few minutes later they think they see the car. They call the police and then basically chase the car wherever it goes.

It's a gripping setup, and Panettiere and Williams create believable chemistry from easygoing chatter. Shane doesn't want to get involved in chasing Amber Alert's car, but is won over by Jaq's passion and urgency. The police are overwhelmed by the leads coming in (including those from Jaq and Shane) and end up assisting the two detectives, essentially doing their jobs for them.

Saidah Arrika Ekulona makes a great impression as the dispatcher who takes the first call. She convinces the sergeant (Kevin Dunn) that they need to put out an Amber Alert, even though they don't have a license plate and the car is a Camry (needle in a haystack). Once Jaq and Shane's journey begins, Ekulona mostly disappears from the film and the film moves past her perspective. There are some good Dispatcher films (with Gustav Möller's 2018 The Guilty being the clear winner). Ekulona is mostly alone on the phone, her urgency and competence dominating the screen. The dispatcher lives in the real world. Jaq and Shane are clearly in a movie. Both have backstories that probably make them even more empathetic to the missing girl's plight. All of this is unnecessary and drags “Amber Alert” down. We don't need to hear about Jaq's past to “understand” why she cares about the missing girl.

The film has a driving rhythm and cinematographer Luka Bazeli occasionally uses drone footage to emphasize the smallness of the car and the impossibility of searching. (Drone shots can be effective, but sometimes I miss old-fashioned helicopter shots that add reality and humanity to what's happening on screen. “Dog Day Afternoon” with drone shots instead of hovering helicopters wouldn't be the same film.)

“Amber Alert” is ostensibly about the Amber Alert system (a few title cards are shown at the end, detailing the history of the system and the number of children saved). The film can't help but become an episode of “Criminal Minds” in its final sequence. Jaq and Shane take insane risks and their behavior is often incomprehensible. The overall impression is one of no real danger, but rather an obligatory ticking of the “thriller” boxes. Once the final showdown begins, everything becomes clear. “Amber Alert” functions like a thriller at times, but it has serious aspirations. It wants to “say” something. These two things don't go together.