|
From:Michael Caine , Pam Ferris , Julianne Moore , Peter Mullan , Clive Owen , Universal , Alfonso Cuarón , Universal Studios ,
|
See Product Page
|
User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#956 |
| | Page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 83 >> |
 Possibly the best SF movie in a decade, 2008-11-17
I really can't think of a better science fiction movie in the last decade. It isn't about the standard story of how we bring about our own demise, or the immediate aftermath. In fact, we don't even know why people stop having children. Instead, we look at the world twenty or so years from now, and see how people have learned to deal with it.
What really makes this a superb movie is the way in which the story is told. Long, single shots make this a beautiful movie in its own right. Most things are shown, not told, and whenever I watch it I see something new (watch for the worn out London Olympics 2012 sweatshirt!). Technology has progressed in a believable way, and is there not to show off the latest in special effects but to draw you in to the realism. Each little thing sums up to an amazing movie.
Every time I watch this movie, I imagine how it might have been as done by another director. And every time, I'm very, very thankful.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
 A medieval miracle tale cast in the year 2027, with a fine performance by Clive Owen, 2008-11-03
I suspect that if one agrees with what appears to be director Alfonso Cuaron's premise, that humankind's basest instincts for selfishness, fouling its own nest, violence toward each other and the acceptance of authoritarianism when faced with fear can be met by the redemptive power of hope and love, then one will accept Children of Men as a film of emotional power.
For me, Children of Men is a movie in which Cuaron tries to stuff in far too many actions. He seems to aiming for the kind of allegory that can change the way we feel about our lives, but he winds up making many of the compromises that movies force upon some directors as they find themselves with big budgets to work with and the need to sell tickets to justify the investment.
The story, as has been pointed out by others, is one big Macguffin. It's 2027 and civilization has fallen to its knees. The world is nothing but chaos, terrorism, a rotting environment and death. Britain has managed to survive as a nation state by becoming a horrendous dictatorship, needing immigrants for menial work and turning them into outcasts, periodically rounding them up along with the fugees, the refugees from the world's chaos who managed to slip past Britain's barriers. Concentration camps are filling up, laws are enforced with ferocity, there are no civil rights and the government has become the greatest killer of them all. In exchange, the British have order.
And it has been 19 years since a baby was born, anywhere in the world. Humankind has mysteriously become sterile. The point of the movie is that a frightened young woman is discovered to be pregnant. In an instant she becomes the center of the movie...will she be used by rebels to try to undermine the government? Will she find a way to escape by sea to some almost mythical group of scientists who are searching for peace and an answer to humankind's infertility? Will she and her baby be killed? Will they survive? It seems her only hope will be a burned-out, used-up functionary who once tried to change things, years ago. From the time this man first meets this scared girl-child and realizes that she's pregnant, to the end of the movie in a small rowboat waiting to see if mankind has a future, we're on a medieval journey through the terrors of hell as the girl and her protector deal with hatred, avarice, brutality, imprisonment, death and war.
The question for me was: Is all this Macguffining well done enough to be interesting? If it is, is the story itself worth it?
You'll have to make up your own minds. Simply as a story, I think whatever success Children of Men has had has depended on Clive Owen. He's the protector and he's in just about every scene. Owen is a fine actor. Unlike many actors who have made it to the top, he is most effective reacting. He seldom indulges in flashy heroics in his movies and doesn't do so here. At first, he's uncertain, confused and cautious. When he commits himself to the journey, he doesn't have all the answers, just a willingness to take advantage of opportunities and to risk his life because he's come to believe in what he is doing. It's a first-rate performance.
But then we have Julianne Moore as a rebel leader and Owen's former wife. In my view, she's too big a name for the size of the part, and the part is too large for the story. Michael Caine has a juicy role as Owen's older friend. He's gotten up to look like Brent Spiner in Independence Day. Caine does a nice job, but both he and Moore infect the movie with "star" presence. I think both roles would have been better for the movie if played by little known but good actors. Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent as a dedicated and even ruthless rebel leader. But the movie only needs Owen, and he delivers.
Cuaron, in this medieval miracle tale, has given us a great look at the hell humanity has made for itself. At times, for me, he lingers on and expands this view the better to sell tickets. The whole extended urban battle at the end of the movie seemed to go on and on for no great purpose than to show us how a well-crafted urban war can be presented. Most of the movie's horrors, in fact, are so carefully framed and photographed, so well and ingeniously lit, that I was always aware I was watching a movie. Most movie-ish of all was that heavenly voice wafting down on us as humanity's redemption is resolved by a young mother and her baby.
This is one of those movies that, for me, needs to be taken seriously simply because a talented director with serious themes has made it. In this era of endless comic book movies and films with the old ultra violence, Curaon deserves our respect. So does Clive Owen.
Try Owen in Croupier. To see Julianne Moore at her finest, try Vanya on 42nd Steet. And for a taste of near sighted ur-dystopia not to be missed, read David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries.
 "You look good. The picture the police have of you doesn't do you justice." , 2008-10-24
The dark future of Alfonso Cuarón's "Children of Men" is a stifling one. Bleakness so pervades every corner of this world that the light of hope cannot help but be extinguished.
Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is drawn into the web of rebel group who have an important task for him. He is told by his ex-lover, Julian (Julianne Moore), that he must accompany a woman named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) out of England and deliver her to a sanctuary run by "The Human Project." What makes Kee so special is that she is pregnant - a miracle in a world where the female population has become sterile. Yet, Theo's task is far from easy as government factions and a rogue element within the rebel group want Kee for their own purposes.
"Children of Men" does have its share of positives. It does not shy away from addressing many hot-button issues regarding immigration, assisted-suicide, and totalitarianism. Also, the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is astonishing. The future world he captures on film is frightening and is all the more disturbing because it could easily be seen as prophetic in light of the numerous troubles plaguing the real world at this moment. Yet, the film overall is ultimately unsatisfying. The story turns out to be uninvolving and even borders on the boring after the film's premise is established. As it unfolds, "Children of Men" devolves into nothing more than a prolonged chase that tries to keep matters interesting by sneaking in some social commentary every now and then. Cuarón undoubtedly set out to make a film with higher aspirations but only succeed in making one with squandered potential written all over it.
1 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
 Too many plot devices, 2008-09-13
Okay, I am the first to admit that the only thing I know about cinematography and its art is what I happen to like. That being said, I have to say that I was very much impressed with the visual side of this film. To my taste, it was a little dark, which worked quite well with the dark story line. I don't think I understood why the camera was always working as it was, but it was neat. Frankly, the first thing that drew me to the movie was its premise, and I still happily say that is the finest thing about this film--in opposition to the concern of overpopulation the film discusses what it would be like if this threat was very much gone and the end of humanity was instead looming over our heads. Then a miracle of a pregnant girl comes about and the situation of the story is how can she be protected. The story is a little extreme, but then again I bet society would crumble. The problem is that it's also contrived, with too many plot devices for my taste. I happen to prefer a character-driven tale rather than this example of situation upon situation. Still, this is a surprising poignant little film that should be appreciated by the right audience.
1 of 1 customers found the following review helpful:
A TERRIFYING DYSTOPIAN VISION NOT FAR OFF, 2008-09-10
Alfonso Charón's "Children of Men" is an adaptation of the P.D. James dystopian novel about the breakdown of all social institutions when the human race ceases the ability to procreate and faces the likelihood of its own extinction.
Chaos and civil war overtake the globe, and, in Great Britain, Orwellian fascism is the only order left as refugees are imprisoned in cages, the middle class disintegrates, terrorist acts (usually by the government) are a daily occurrence, and underground rebels fight on for revolution, trying to maintain some futile hope.
While the film's events occur in 2027, 20 years in the future, the film becomes more of a comment on the Now with its pro-war stance by the government and "Homeland Security" to protect us all. But the film transcends politics to focus on its human level, specifically on the character of Theo Farin (played to existential perfection by Clive Owen) who fatefully goes through a rite-of-passage similar to Bogie in "Casablanca" - that of a man who had pulled himself away from involvement in a war-torn world finding himself now beginning to discover a newly-reborn idealism.
Brilliantly, many references to key art works of the 20th Century fill the film. e.g., musical references from rock and classical works: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, iconic rock songs -- along with Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Penderecki and Gustav Mahler, whose first song in the "Kindertotenlieder" ("Songs for Dead Children") is quoted. Images are staged in the style of great paintings, and, most importantly, Picasso's "Guernica" becomes the major symbolic icon of the film, with the cinematography drained of bright colors to convey perfectly the film's atmosphere.
But over all, Charón's directing is breathtaking, with his long Wellsian single-takes that truly nail the viewer directly into the world of the film. This is a masterpiece, and ultimately not one of bleakness but of hope, and one of the truly top intellectual and emotional experiences of 2006.
|
| Page: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 83 >> |
|