20 Years After

source: 20 Years After

This is one of those films I'm glad I took the "risk" and decided to watch no matter how many poor reviews were on this site. I'm learning to be suspicious when a movie'a been rated by as few as 100 people, let alone 22! I love post-apocalyptic movies for how they envision humanity will survive. That's the gist of this film. I've seen a lot of Hollywood movies with tons of effects and absolutely no story; of course "2012" comes to mind. The effects were lots of fun but what a disappointment "story"-wise. Why even waste the money if there's no story? Here is a film with basically no effects that I found very satisfying for the storyline, the acting and interactions between the characters. Parts were nebulous, but that added to the story; it mixed things up a bit. So overall very entertaining and a great use of my time. I recommend it.

Let's start with the positive: Far and away, the best thing in this movie is Tara Nevin's AWESOME performance of "Stars Fell on Alabama". And Azure Skye is very nice to look at. The story leaves way too many questions not only unanswered but not even acknowledged. Like "What really happened?". "How come everyone is so clean and groomed if the water is (and has been for 20 years) full of toxins?" All the exposition comes in one big clump at the end, and it's totally non sequitur. Imagine a slightly less ridiculous explanation for everything than in Silent Hill. A guy who looks like he could be Lionel Richie's gay brother goes blathering on about some pseudo magical nonsense as he leads a pack of refugees into what seems to be a latter day low budget Burning Man camp. Bah! Once the movie got that far along I was only looking for more good music. When the ending comes, it's abrupt and hokey/smarmy, as if the filmmakers suddenly ran out of money or they just realised that it was a lost cause.

Should line them all against the wall and have them shot!!!!And then stood up to be shot over again! My goodness it's a wonder i even made it through 10 minutes without killing myself!!! Damn ! I guess people will watch just about anything!!! I wonder if this movie even broke even. The estimated budget is a mill. Probably grossed 40 thousand! ROFL Before watching I suggest that you rip your eyes out of the sockets! And then stick burning hot poker in your ears! It would feel better than watching this crap!!!!! And whats up with the stupid puppet? That dude has got to be a weirdo! "do you know anybody with a hot air balloon?" You do not hear that every day!!! LOL

I vote level 1 for this movie for I cannot vote any less. This movie is worse than anything you have ever seen as "movie" This is not a movie, this is a disaster! Not only a waste of time but a great insult to the art of cinema! I request only one thing from Mr.Torres and his accomplices: PLEASE do not make any movie or any other production in the future. That will be your BEST contribution to the art of cinema and world audiences will like you better if you do not appear in credits at all. Geez, I cannot believe I had to write a commentary on such a waste but I guess it's my civic duty to warn other cinema fans.

okay where to start, first of all the story was jagged and discombobulated it had no rhythm what so ever. the special effects were absolutely appalling the acting was wooden and ridiculous. there were scenes that were cut weird and didn't make sense. for example a truck scene where the vehicle moves five feet and then there is a 2 sentence argument between the lead actors which i can only guess was added to show tension but failed miserably. At times the writing was artsy and then at times shallow and riddled with clichés. I can not fathom how this film won 3 awards they must have been bought. not only do I give one star to the movie but also one star to the film festivals who endorsed this garbage.

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...

20 years after the world comes to an end, Sarah (Azura Skye) is pregnant and about to give birth to the first baby in 15 years. She is pursued by people who want her baby, and she tries to find the mysterious voice on the radio (Joshua Leonard), who could help her. Think "Children of Men" only without the great acting, effects and storyline. All this film is is a boring, lackluster hour and a half of worthless crap. Azura Skye was hardly in the film, and when she was acting, it was so quiet and monotone that it lacked any sense of urgency. And Michael (Leonard) is your typical end-of-the-world antagonist who talks about how life was like before it all happened. I would've loved to see what happened, I bet it would've been way more entertaining.

I read the comments on this movie here before I saw it, so I expected nothing - and was pleasantly surprised. It's actually not that bad, suffers the same flaws that bothered nobody in "Children of Men". Yes, the acting is sometimes bad, but not without it's moments: Reg E. Cathey gave a good performance, for instance. Acting is not the problem of this movie; directing and sound (effects) are. As I said, I was pleasantly surprised and watched all through it, which I don't do on REALLY bad flicks. I'm giving it 4/10 because it had it's moments but I couldn't honestly recommend this to any of my friends (unless there is really nothing else at hand), who are not such nutters about movies as I am.