Children of Men
So last night around 9PM I got motivated to go see this flick-- but it wasn't playing in my neighborhood. Only in Manhattan. (weird initial distribution?). So I called up a friend of mine and was like, 'C'mon let's go! C'mon let's go! Into the city! Movie!' And he was like, 'I dunno...' And I was like, 'C'mon motivate! Movie! Let's go and see it!' And he was like, 'Tonite? Really?' I was like, 'Yeah let's go go go! Now now! Motivate motivate!' He finally reluctantly agreed. The movie was playing at 10:50 on 42nd Street. Around 10PM, I started losing motivation rapidly. It was like I had had a big pixy stick sugar rush of movie motivation then crashed out totally. So I called my friend to de-motivate and cancel--but he'd already left. So I had to go.
And I'm glad I did remotivate. I dug this movie alot. I did a successful media-blackout on this flick (blocking out plot-details for the movie in reviews or whatever) but I knew it had something to do with the whole world falling apart because people couldn't have babies anymore. In theory it seemed like an old Twilight Zone/Star Trek/Outer Limits/Masters of Horror (aka: man, is that show the worst or what?) episode. I meet up with my friend in front of the AMC Theater on 42nd street at 10:40 and immediately got pissed off because I remembered there's two free AMC movie passes on my peg board that have been staring at me in the face all year long-- but when I finally get to an actual AMC theater do I remember them? No! But whatever!
Ok enough blah blah. So how was this movie? It was actually a very good movie propped up to look like a really great movie. There's alot of coolio stuff to like about this flick. The decay of society is done really well. Society crumbling apart across the board but still functioning on sad bad levels was coolio. The year is 2027 and it was nice that it didn't look like 2075 like some 'future' movies do. It looked and smelled like a bad 2027. And the sickening idea of 'What would happen to the world if the whole planet went infertile?' thing was a pleasantly nauseating mood throughout. But for me, it was really the action that carried this movie over the goal line, spiked the ball and humped the uprights. It's been a long time since I've seen and heard action so real. There's a car chase scene that's straight out intense panic and crunchingly good-- with a twist. Explosions and gun fire jolted me like a friggin cattle prod. I felt actual fear and shock. Like I was genuinely nervous I was going to get hit in the eyeball with some flying shrap.
The not-so-good thing about this flick is if you take the action out of the picture- the plot was sort of a mess. Everything was too convenient. At times eyerolly dopey. The bad guys were amazing at finding the hiders... but once they got there-- it was like they pulled their pants and underwear down around their ankles and ran around in circles before giving chase. The plan was random. But whatever, between the intense action, the juicy 'thinkyness' of the overall idea, and the fresh smell of modern human decay-- this flick was the best movie I've seen umm... all year?
Three Good Things About this Movie
- The action was some of the best I've ever seen. And my ears were
happily ringing along.
- There were a bunch of side characters that were funny fun goofballs.
- As the movie wound down the chaos got wildly excellente.
Three Bad Things About this Movie
- It might have been the brit thing or whatever but sometimes I found it hard
to understand the dialogue.
- The characters didn't drive the plot. The plot drove the plot.
- The lead girl's acting was distractingly weird at first.
All in all, this movie really is fun to watch from beginning to end. You can't help but to stare at this movie. Sometimes I was in awe. And for what could have been a dopey Twilight Zone episode it crosses over into 'serious' movie pretty cleanly. It feels important and it brain lingers. I enjoyed the queasy end of the worldness and stale grey look and all that-- but the best part was every time I felt the movie slipping into sci-fi cornball confusion there'd be some SMASH! Or bOOm! OR kaBOOM POW BLAM POW eeeeeeeee... which would grab my nuts and friggin rattle my ribcage...