Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 22% (Critics) / 41% (Audience)
Directed By: Xavier Gens
Written By: Karl Mueller and Eron Sheean
Starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Courtney B. Vance, Rosanna Arquette and Milo Ventimiglia
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Synopsis: Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic. (Source)

The Good:
A couple of the performances really stood out for me most notably Michael Biehn as the gruff, jingoistic building super who assumed immediate control of the situation and who lorded that authority over the rest of the survivors; Rosanna Arquette who was absolutely heartbreaking as the single mother who falls to horrid depths during her time in the basement; Courtney B. Vance who always delivers as far as I am concerned; and HEROES Milo Ventimiglia who impressed me by playing such a convincing psycho.
The claustrophobic natures of the film worked really well too even though at times that basement looked to be the size of Grand Central Station. I also liked how each character began to visibly shift as the hopelessness and mania began to set in. It was like a post-apocalyptic LORD OF THE FLIES after a while.

The Bad:
I was a bit annoyed that more wasn’t done with the alpha male clashing that was going on between Biehn and Vance’s characters. It seemed like the film was setting them up as being the opposing sides of a major power struggle but nothing came of it at least not to my satisfaction.
And the sight of one character bottoming out through radiation poisoning and psychosis until he finally ended up turning into a bald meth’d out drag queen was very disturbing.

The Ugly:
Not getting a satisfactory answer as to what the hell was up with the armed To Catch A Predator storm troopers really pissed me off.

Final Verdict: A decent movie that played on the strengths of this type of movie: a small group stuck in one locale during a stressful situation that is rife for fomenting paranoia that soon shifts to deranged behavior over time. Solid performances by most of the cast and a very bleak intensity that never seemed to let up (and for me that is one for the plus column as I said when I reviewed the trailer for this film not too long ago) made for a pretty enjoyable viewing that was only marred by major questions going unanswered and some behavior by characters that made little to no sense. B-