Solid and Moving Dramatic Thriller
Added 2/1/2010
I went into this film expecting "The International" meets "Minority Report." Instead, the film plays out more like "28 Days Later" meets "Saving Private Ryan." Either way, it's a solid piece of filmmaking that stands out due to it's emotional stance and amazing performances. I was genuinely impressed at the calculated tension the film delivered (the scene with the stalling car nearly stopped my heart!) I rate this movie as a solid 4, and it could have been a 5 if the ending were a little better. (As it stands, it's a sort of sad/abstract ending. Hope is coming, but there's no REAL climax.)
Highly recommended work of art!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Children is our future, yes. What is this movie about?
Added 1/19/2010
I can say it in one line: without children, 100 or 200 years later, nothing is going to matter. History, Art, Economics, Politics, Medicine, Geography, because no human exist, and everything is irrelevant. (So that's why when I see law that is used to screw people instead of help people, I feel it is used in a reserved way).
Anyway, it can be said in one sentence, I don't know what this movie is trying to say -- and to use "Tomorrow" as the name of the ship as a symbol? How shallow is that?
Many scenes in this movie is very "acting" like. Even at the beginning, I can feel the actors try to "focus and look at the TV and look concerned", as being told. They were not really concerned. They only tried to look concerned.
Another scene is, the guy and the woman was talking to the soldier in the building (near the end of the movie). The soldier almost get shot -- the bullets from the street down below would hit places which were 1 or 2 feet away from his face. So when the bullet hit, he shot back. And then, he was not even dodging or hiding and then talked to the guy for another 30 seconds. That is totally fake.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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A Movie Made for Blu-Ray
Added 1/14/2010
Imagine being famous for nothing more than your age. Do your parents even know how old you are down to the minute? Imagine the entire world knowing.
Children of Men takes the audience on a wild ride with a somewhat downtrodden hero named Theo, portrayed by Clive Owen.
On the run from an English government that persecutes individuals of any other nationality and an activist group that wants to claim an unborn baby as their own, Theo is thrust into a game of deceit and betrayal orchestrated by a society obsessed with a hope for new life. With the help of a handful of selfless individuals, Theo strives to save the unborn child. Through his adventure, without knowing it, he begins to revive something inside himself that has been dormant since the death of his own son.
Steadicam shots and hand held camera movement bestow a documentary style on this film, which is set 20 years in the future. In some scenes the audio track becomes a character of its own, guiding the audience through long shots absent of dialogue. Dark, dirty scenes create a feeling of despair that is mirrored in the characters on screen. Still the actions of those characters, allow the audience to see current ideologies in the not so distant future, which brings to light many of our selfish ideas.
As the sounds of the playground faded, the despair set it," a nurse accompanying our hero on his mission says as the two wander the deserted classrooms of an dilapidating elementary school.
Beautiful long camera shots pull the audience into the world through Theo's eyes as he tries to understand why he is adamant about involving himself in something that will most likely end with his own death. Raw shots, a constantly moving camera and point of view angles maintain a look and feel that at times seem almost entirely too real.
At the emotional conclusion, the movie leaves the audience with a sense of hope when, if only for a moment, the sound of a baby crying changes the behavior of not only a handful of people, but multitudes.
Overall, Children of Men is a fast paced story told by an innovative director (Alfonso Cuaron) that leaves the viewer wondering about the path of humanity and acknowledging the good and bad we are all capable of.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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How about actually following the plot of the book?
Added 1/11/2010
I had read the novel by P D James some years ago, and because this movie was so awful I plan on reading it again. Maybe too many pages have come and gone since last reading this tale, but the movie, supposedly based on Ms. James novel, didn't strike me as anything like the book. Basically, even when the characters are somewhat cleaned up and dressed nice, it is dark and dingy. The fact that the whole of the west is sterile, is basically used as backdrop by the writer/director Alfonso Cuaron. Maybe because the director is from Mexico he felt compelled to use the movie as allegory for United States political and global policy, though the movie is based in the United Kingdom. Did the director ever stop to think that without immigration, because of the continual over promoting of birth control, consumerism, and socialistic secularism, most countries in Western Europe would cease to exist? Maybe this is the plague of sterilization P D James alluded to in her novel? But you wouldn't know it by this awful movie. The movie trys and sell us on the idea that the UK becomes insular and is either killing or deporting all immigrants. Again, the whole idea of Ms. James book, no children moves out of the forefront in this movie. The movie is absurd. All one need do is read books like Londonistan by Melanie Phillips or The Last Days of Europe by Walter Lacquer to see how stupid this movie really is. I mean these are not new ideas. The 1930s writer and British Parlimentarian, Hilaire Belloc, predicated the end of Anglo Saxon Britain and Christian Europe due to unbridled Islamization. As for the acting, Clive Owen is his usual dark, inward doting self. Julian Moore gets killed. (She should have passed on this movie.) And Michael Caine as the 70 some year old hippie just looks goofy and awkward in his role. The cinematography is jumpy and comes at you in snippets. Enough already with that cliched approach. If I have to say anything positive about the film, it is the music composed by John Tavener. Oh and before I forget, if you dare look at the "extras" on this DVD you will be intellectually assaulted by the usual Brit Ivory Tower types and the cinematographer going on and on about overpopulation (by the way, all the people currently living in the world standing side by side would fit in the state of Texas) and global warming (this is interesting as right now Britain and the US is seeing the coldest winter in 25 years.) Of course if you are an actor, film maker or ivory tower type your attitude about poor people in poor countries, as you jet around the world, is there are too many of them and just enough of me. In the end there is nothing worse than a bad film on DVD that is preachy to boot. Unless you pick this one up at a garage sale for 50 cents or less, pass on it.
1 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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awful awful awful
Added 1/8/2010
One of the worst movies I have seen. Beautiful book, awful movie. I won't waste anymore of my time on this. Argh.
0 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Solid and Moving Dramatic Thriller
Added 2/1/2010
I went into this film expecting "The International" meets "Minority Report." Instead, the film plays out more like "28 Days Later" meets "Saving Private Ryan." Either way, it's a solid piece of filmmaking that stands out due to it's emotional stance and amazing performances. I was genuinely impressed at the calculated tension the film delivered (the scene with the stalling car nearly stopped my heart!) I rate this movie as a solid 4, and it could have been a 5 if the ending were a little better. (As it stands, it's a sort of sad/abstract ending. Hope is coming, but there's no REAL climax.)
Highly recommended work of art!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Children is our future, yes. What is this movie about?
Added 1/19/2010
I can say it in one line: without children, 100 or 200 years later, nothing is going to matter. History, Art, Economics, Politics, Medicine, Geography, because no human exist, and everything is irrelevant. (So that's why when I see law that is used to screw people instead of help people, I feel it is used in a reserved way).
Anyway, it can be said in one sentence, I don't know what this movie is trying to say -- and to use "Tomorrow" as the name of the ship as a symbol? How shallow is that?
Many scenes in this movie is very "acting" like. Even at the beginning, I can feel the actors try to "focus and look at the TV and look concerned", as being told. They were not really concerned. They only tried to look concerned.
Another scene is, the guy and the woman was talking to the soldier in the building (near the end of the movie). The soldier almost get shot -- the bullets from the street down below would hit places which were 1 or 2 feet away from his face. So when the bullet hit, he shot back. And then, he was not even dodging or hiding and then talked to the guy for another 30 seconds. That is totally fake.
0 out of 3 people found this helpful.
|
A Movie Made for Blu-Ray
Added 1/14/2010
Imagine being famous for nothing more than your age. Do your parents even know how old you are down to the minute? Imagine the entire world knowing.
Children of Men takes the audience on a wild ride with a somewhat downtrodden hero named Theo, portrayed by Clive Owen.
On the run from an English government that persecutes individuals of any other nationality and an activist group that wants to claim an unborn baby as their own, Theo is thrust into a game of deceit and betrayal orchestrated by a society obsessed with a hope for new life. With the help of a handful of selfless individuals, Theo strives to save the unborn child. Through his adventure, without knowing it, he begins to revive something inside himself that has been dormant since the death of his own son.
Steadicam shots and hand held camera movement bestow a documentary style on this film, which is set 20 years in the future. In some scenes the audio track becomes a character of its own, guiding the audience through long shots absent of dialogue. Dark, dirty scenes create a feeling of despair that is mirrored in the characters on screen. Still the actions of those characters, allow the audience to see current ideologies in the not so distant future, which brings to light many of our selfish ideas.
As the sounds of the playground faded, the despair set it," a nurse accompanying our hero on his mission says as the two wander the deserted classrooms of an dilapidating elementary school.
Beautiful long camera shots pull the audience into the world through Theo's eyes as he tries to understand why he is adamant about involving himself in something that will most likely end with his own death. Raw shots, a constantly moving camera and point of view angles maintain a look and feel that at times seem almost entirely too real.
At the emotional conclusion, the movie leaves the audience with a sense of hope when, if only for a moment, the sound of a baby crying changes the behavior of not only a handful of people, but multitudes.
Overall, Children of Men is a fast paced story told by an innovative director (Alfonso Cuaron) that leaves the viewer wondering about the path of humanity and acknowledging the good and bad we are all capable of.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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