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Poster for Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue

The true story of a small town massacre

2006 · 1h 43m · N/A Crime, Drama
Directed by Robert Sarkies

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Overview

Ordinary people find extraordinary courage in the face of madness. On 13–14 November 1990 that madness came to Aramoana, a small New Zealand seaside town, in the form of a lone gunman with a high-powered semi-automatic rifle. As he stalked his victims the terrified and confused residents were trapped for 24 hours while a handful of under-resourced and under-armed local policemen risked their lives trying to find him and save the survivors. Based on true events.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
84%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The usual dramatic affectations applied to such true-life material are largely absent; instead, Sarkies focuses on various quotidian elements that take on weight as the inevitable draws closer.

David Fear, Time Out New York
Fresh

Sarkies avoids the genre's conventional trappings and prefers instead to concentrate on the ways in which the people of Aramoana deal with the unfolding event.

V.A. Musetto, New York Post
Fresh

Robert Sarkies' dramatization of that event is as sensitive to its subject as it is stark in its rendering.

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News
Rotten

Without such thematic resonance, it plays like a more elaborate version of one of the dramatic re-creations seen on any number of true-crime television programs.

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Fresh

Like Steven Spielberg's historical epics, the film shows the nastiest incidents from a great distance, or cuts away before a bullet's impact to show an onlooker's shocked reaction. The director confronts horror without wallowing in it.

Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times

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