gpeltz
Nicely done, Twenty Years After (2008) Directed by Jim Torres, who also co wrote it with Ron Harris. Spoiler ahead, It's a post apocalyptic tale, somewhat picking up the plot from Children of Men (2006) Sarah, played by Azura Skye, is pregnant, her husband was killed. A lone voice, broadcasting from a portable transmitter, is Michael played by Joshua Leonard, Sarah's desire is to have the child born in a "Better Place" than the war torn landscape, Michael and Sarah join a rag tag group, Reg E Cathey plays Samuel, the entertaining mystic. There are a whole slew of other characters, mostly going along for the ride. Some are intent on kidnapping the newborn baby, these are the bad guys, we can tell because they are never filmed with warm colors.I find it odd saying that in this movie, the plot does not matter, it is the impression that is of importance.The gritty last gasps of a world, that might be beyond the ability to clean up it's own act after us humans foul things up, (Shades of Wall-e 2008) The tone is on par with the other apocalyptic film, The Road (2009) By the way, sad to say but all these other films I mention, were all better. One thing I liked, The plot device of using a broadcast, to set the scene for the upcoming action, This was a device used to great effect in the Walter Hill 1979 classic, The Warriors. it works here as well. Another thing I liked, the use of music was effective. not so much a great score, but rather a evocative sound design with an emphasis on acoustic. One could stretch and mention biblical parallels, The woman is Sarah, she is comforted by Samuel who tells her that her child is going to be special. The plot played with the idea, but in the end dropped it for a more broad and less mystical "Special" There are a lot of nice touches throughout the film, by no means a thrill a minute blockbuster. What did I not like, over convoluted plotting, I never did find the "bad guys" back story that interesting. production of cigarettes, or at least of markets to sell tobacco seem to be taken for granted, as well as the availability of gas. and electricity. If you can put these points on the back burner and just enjoy the flow, you might find yourself entertained. Looking at the reader reviews on IMDb. it seems there were many who did not like this movie. They gave it terrible reviews. Not I, I give it Seven out of Ten "True to it's vision", Stars .
vanderwoude330
I had high hopes for this movie, but was very disappointed. I am a huge post-apocalypse fan, but this movie did not hold it's own. I like movies where there are zombie or where people work together as a community to survive, but this movie had almost no plot. All that happened throughout the movie was she had a baby (which she could have had anywhere) and the guy on the radio got a better signal. There was no real point to the whole thing. Many of the characters were poorly introduced to the movie as well and there were random quick scenes that did not have much to do with what was going on. The only thing I liked about the movie was Samuel and that David and his large sidekick killed the woman at the end. I also thought it funny how the cover of this movie is misleading. It gave me the impression that Sara might do some fighting, seeing as there is a gun on her back on the cover. She never picked up a weapon the entire movie. Overall I thought this was a bad movie and would not recommend watching it.
darkelfv
I got this out of redbox - not knowing what to expect, go to redbox's site and look up the movie. The cover is totally different than what the movie ends up being about. There are no wolves or half naked, fully loaded women.However I was caught and couldn't look away from the story and the characters that came into view. Yes there were some sci-fi bits that didn't make sense but in a setting of such, why not. Plus unexplained mysticism is as it should be.I guess what it comes down to, I liked the story and the characters in it. I have seen plenty of high budget movies that were downright boring and had no meaning other then flash bang boom. I like movies that bring some good storytelling and allow one to think about some of the unknowns. Its like when you read a good book and the ideal and the story stays with your for a while. In a way it reminds me of how evil dead started. Low budget by just a few ppl.Each to there own. I suggest you give it a try !!
acoigreach
We sat through the whole thing since it had a deceptively provocative title (a la 28 days later, etc.) Post-apocalyptic films are notoriously B quality so I was prepared for that because I love this genre anyway. Or so I thought. This plot offered nothing new, but instead ripped off elements of other PA films like the Stand (evil leader calls the lost to his side in an apocalyptic end-game, black spiritual leader for the good people) and Magic(Anthony Hopkins and his creepy ventriloquist dummy), and why not good old punk haircuts for the "crazies" to make it REALLY post-apocalyptic? They even threw in a Harper Lee/Faulknerian idiot man-child or two. For example, the inexplicable use of 2 (mentally retarded?) twins as minions of an evil 50 year old disappointed bride character were nearly as confusing as a "Trashcan Man/Lenny" thug covered with purple birthmarks all over his body. The roles the African-American actors were relegated to was less than dignified. An old black professor turned in a toothy, Ben Vereen/Mr. Bojangles performance reminiscent of Hattie McDaniels or Jack Benny's Rochester such as early Hollywood allowed of black performers. Not to mention, one of the twins mimed an absolutely ridiculous Carl Spackler lip grimace throughout the whole movie. The South sure hasn't changed much has it? The most confusing element of the whole film is the ventriloquist dummies that just seem to have absolutely no purpose whatsoever to the plot other than to utilize the fact that those things give everybody the damned creeps, however even this cliché is not developed logically.The only reason I even spent time on this review is to recoup the wasted time and money spent on this clunker by exacting revenge...As the end credits rolled on this film, my 11 year old son completely unprovoked said, "I spent so much time on this thing just now. I can't believe someone spent time and money making this. I would rather have smelled shoes..."Out of the mouths of babes. I think that says it all...
