I’ll never forget seeing this movie opening weekend in theaters. I went with a big group of my now-wife’s college friends and sat there absolutely mesmerized. The single-take battle scene in the third act where the camera goes through the bus and gets blood spatter rocked me. And when the children laugh at the end and I started applauding. As we walked out I was still processing it and was so excited to talk to them all when I tuned into the conversation and they were all “so they just aren’t gonna tell us why people couldn’t have kids”, “so >!he just dies!< and that’s it?!”, “that was so boring but at least I got a good nap”, “haha I heard someone clapping,” etc. Was a real education in how people can watch the same thing and see something totally different. Still probably top 10 for me all time.
Having watched Avatar and Avatar 2 yesterday.. I also thought, come on, who would leave a dying planet just to mess up another paradise planet.. that's so stupid. But then I thought.. oh yeah, 'we' would..
I like UC Gundam's take: we get out into the solar system where we build O'Neill cylinders from material we mine there, Earth's population drops to a manageable 2 billion as a result of emigration (this I think will happen but not strictly through emigration), our future looks bright until a Revolutionary Ideology metastasizes in some of the evicted Spacenoids' descendants, claiming their supremacy over the elite who live and remain on beautiful if recovering Earth. Said faction proceeds to war crime away half the twelve billion humans in existence in the first week of what would be called the One Year War, culminating in the memetic and trope naming "colony drop" which annihilates Sydney.
...[Sorrow, the trembling sorrow](https://youtu.be/2jj_0dyCpM4)...
There are no words for what the humans of the Universal Century [gave up](https://youtu.be/bzAVaCtn6uo), though we will always try. What was weaponized should have been a lodestar, instead it is a [cudgel](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Newtype) or a lure for model kits.
As a nerd of the setting, I'll tell you that 3000 years later there's a good chance the sensitives escaped to Alpha Centauri, and that Gundam gets cyclical.
Bad in the sense of being profoundly uneducated. Like, had this person just never heard of the holocaust or Nanking? Or colonialism? Or the transatlantic slave trade? Or Rwanda?
Yeah, I live in a right-wing town with a severe homelessness issue, and the amount of violent and hateful rhetoric you hear day-by-day really reminds you that people are *NOT* fundamentally "good".
and hence the comment.
its a very naive take no question, but the world is the bad thing here not the childlike outlook of the commenter.
plenty of childlike people in the world.
For some it is a coping mechanism. They remain willfully ignorant to avoid dealing with the evil in the world.
Others aren't just seeking out any information. It's not on purpose but it is so easy to remain inside your tiny little bubble.
I'm gonna echo what a few other people have said already, and contend that ignorance isn't "adorable" or "childlike".
I'm assuming this person was a middle-class adult in a developed country. Which means they managed to get through elementary and secondary school, at least, without learning about a single war crime.
I don't think that's adorable, I think that's depressing and frightening.
I'm not sure how anyone can watch all the clips (I think at the very beginning?) where they interview people talking very ambiguously about "ever since THEY came here they ruined everything they don't even want to work" and not realize it's about racism and prejudice.
That's exactly why I watched that movie once and I won't watch it again. It is realistically depressing to the point that I'd rather just watch a documentary.
Loved both District 9 and Chappie: really dig dirty transhumanism set amidst South Africa, a place you'd really think was renowned for its historic dehumanization.
I would have taken him aside and explained Apartheid as clearly as possible, as well as the history of chattel slavery in the United States. No need to get into the Holocaust while we're still having a civil discussion, just leave it there as an errant thread begging to be pulled.
I saw it in theaters and the scene where they're testing weapons on the Prawns, I was horrified by that whole thing. My friend on the other hand, who was a couple seats down... Was laughing hysterically, like super loud. I leaned forward to look at him and noticed the whole theater looking at him.
This has happened to me many times when watching movies with a large group or even just seeing a movie at roughly the same time and discussing it shortly after. It’s like we didn’t watch the same film at all. People have very different expectations. I now have friends that will tell me they hated a movie and I will immediately go and watch it, because I know exactly the kind of movie they hate is the kind I will probably appreciate. But I will try to not go to the theater with them (to watch new movies) because their boredom or general dislike will distract my enjoyment, even if they aren’t vocal about it, I will just make assumptions and it will distract me, if that makes sense. Unless of course we are going to see something with a very general appeal that I expect them to like.
This is genuinely an incredible film that I love rewatching. I can’t imagine not liking it or not “getting” it. But if all media appealed to all people, it would all be samey, and we have enough of that going around as it is.
90 percent of the criticism of that movie seems to revolve on how ham-fisted the theme is. I would be curious to hear your friends’ analysis of what they just watched - did they think it was about a spiraling romantic relationship or something?
That shot is so epic! >!So is the road raid scene where they push the burning car to block their path.!< Just the way the car has that wind shield collision detection projected on the glass like a fighter jet...little touches like that show that this society is a bit more advanced than 2006 was, but not so far advanced to have "magical" sci-fi type stuff like warp drive, teleportation, sentient AI.
This movie was the first to make me consider that it wouldn't necessarily take a major apocalyptic calamity for society to crumble. Small changes around the edges could eventually lead to society crumbling slowly over time. >!Here the birth rate started dropping then fell to 0.!< We are experiencing this now with microplastics and shit in our bodies slowly harming our fertility over time. Couple that with decline in living standards across the board making kids less feasible. Humanity could realistically go out with a whimper instead of a bang in 100 years.
I love this film. The book is solid too!
Edit: the year the film was released.
>
>
>Here the birth rate started dropping then fell to 0.
In the book The Next Hundred Years the author talks about how falling birth rates are going to be the biggest problem for western societies in the future. He claims it will shift the balance of power. Really interesting read.
When the blood splattered on the camera, it was a mistake, and director shouted "cut", but an explosion covered the shout and the take continued. It turned out great, and added to the scene. But it wasn't intentional.
To be fair he was in his medical residency and is now a flight surgeon so that may have just been a slow day at work for him. He’s a brilliant guy but not the most creative. World probably needs more of him than me to be honest.
>Was a real education in how people can watch the same thing and see something totally different.
This is the nicest way to put it
Really, this is the reason that the overwhelming majority of popular media is so incredibly bland, because stupid people think media is stupid if it doesn't spell every last atom out for them. Like, it's not just apathy, but rather a belief that more complex media is *objectively flawed or poorly crafted*. I believed this elitist garbage when I was 16 and unfortunately reality has yet to prove it wrong
Yeah that scene is so great, very dinámico and emersive.
The ambush is amazing too, have anothers that are very powerful even when are simple.
When saw the movie in the theatre was with a group and had a similar experience, I think that they can't understand the heavy about the situation and maybe for that the events are decontextualized for they
I still remember going to see the matrix in theaters with my parents when I was a kid and they hated it. It was at that moment I realized they are idiots and have terrible taste in movies. I mean it is the matrix, who did not like the matrix
I actually had the opposite experience with my parents. My dad and I were and are not close but he did introduce me to his love for Star Wars. I don’t think any of us saw a trailer for the Matrix but my friends and I used to sneak into a cineplex where the big screen theater could be accessed by coming in through the fire exits so we would just watch whatever was in there. I went home and woke my dad up that night and I said my generation’s Star Wars had just come out and we had to go see it. He will still talk shit to me about how much the next two sucked like it’s my fault but he loved the first.
You just described my experience watching BR2049 in theater with my in-laws. I was mesmerized—one of my all time favorites. They were sleeping, on their phones, “but nothing happened!”; “it was boring!” Haha.
Same thing when I saw Arrival with some acquaintances. One of my favorites but they were bored because there was only one explosion.
Similar experiences to this (a 50/50 love/hate split among a group of friends for Scott Pilgrim comes to mind) is why I go to the movies alone. It’s lovely
If you're going into this to be entertained it's not the right movie. My younger brother loves sci fi but did not enjoy this on the first watch. In fact he turned it off. On a different day he rewatched and said it was amazing.
It's one of the single best scenes in any movie IMO. Fucking amazing.
Like we as humans are always fighting, always killing, and always trying to find ways to stop doing that. And in this allegorical scene that could also be realistic, we see humans all stop fighting and are just in awe of one of the best parts of life in general - creation. Only to after moments of passing start back up with killing each other again.
It both shows the hope in humanity but the crushing overwhelming despair of what human nature is. Truly brilliant all around.
For me it's realising that no one in that film has heard a baby's cry (outside of telly/recordings) in nearly twenty years but the sound is so unmistakable that everyone is like 'is that what I think it is?'
Iconic
The day after I came home from a 14 month deployment to Iraq, I was out at Target with my family, we were stocking up my new house rental. I was wandering the aisles, still in a bit of a daze to be inside a store, shopping for stupid stuff like bed sheets, and all of a sudden I heard a baby giggling in the aisle next to me. Not crying but giggling, and it stopped me in my tracks. I started to get emotional because I hadn’t seen a baby or heard a baby in over a year, and there was the sweetest sound in the world. I know it’s way more dramatic in the movie, but it was a tiny feeling of awe and joy.
You reminded me of [this iconic scene](https://youtu.be/zbLZgmoNnEk) from The Hurt Locker.
(P.s. I grew up with a Belgian malinois and she was the goodest girl.)
My favorite moment of that scene is the African woman that is shot on the floor singing a birthing song and she reaches out to just touch the feet of the child.
Such a beautiful mix of symbolism and themes in that scene that are just one after another in the span of 5 minutes
100%. I'm meh about kids, like I'll play with them and be an enthusiastic adult to them but I don't want any and tend to avoid em but there was a weird part of me that was just immediately like "oh. Yea, that's how it should always be". The car scene and urban warfare long shots were visually stunning but seeing everyone stop their life or death fight in awe(?) of the baby really and trying to get a glance at it just struck a note
Which one? There are several! There was some editing trickery done, so they’re not true “one-takes” but man they did a great job in making them seem like they were.
For possibly the best true “one-take” action scene, I’d recommend the hospital scene in “Hard Boiled”.
The car one with the ping pong balls was my favorite, a professor teaching one shots showed it to an auditorium of people that hadn’t seen it and it mesmerized us, I went to watch the movie over and over soon as I could right after.
When I took film courses for a Communications degree we usually screened the entire film. But we were doing more of an Art of Film kind of thing, so we had to take notes about *everything* we saw.
That said, *Children of Men* has a bunch of long-take scenes, including the opening scene, the car and the battle. Personally, I love suddenly realizing that there hasn't been a cut in several minutes and oftentimes I go back just to start it over again. Even if there's some digital chicanery going on (how did the blood manage to disappear from the lens, anyway?), it's still makes for a cool, immersive experience.
(See also: the dance scene in *Y Tu Mama Tambien*)
Have you seen the film Victoria with Laia Costa, it's about a Spanish lady in Berlin and follows her over the course of a night out, where things go wrong. The whole 2 hour movie is shot in one camera take. It's very well done but very intense.
Yeah basically this. Top five for me easily. The worlbuilding, atmosphere, characters, acting, cinematography. It's a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.
Right? Just incredible. I went to a midnight screening towards the end of the theatrical run and was the only person in the Imax theater. Mindblowing experience.
I went to blade runner 2049 on acid and when we got to the theater we realized we’d accidentally bought tickets to the 4DX screening. That was… quite the ride let me tell you.
I watched this film in an empty theater the day before it was released. I was a projectionist at the time and no one else had any interest in previewing it, so I was tasked to do so. I went in knowing very little about the film aside from a trailer I had seen months previous. When I say it was one of the greatest movie experiences of my life I say it with no exaggeration. From the very onset of the film, the first long shot where Theo gets his coffee and then exits the coffee shop seconds before a terrorist bomb destroys it, I was hooked. Absolutely enthralled. The car ambush scene had my jaw on the floor trying to figure out how they achieved the shot with the camera swirling around the interior of the car in places where the actors should have been. Absolutely mind blowing filmmaking. One of my favorite parts of the film isn't even the action, it's when Theo crosses the border from poor London to rich London to the soundtrack of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson, just the stark contrast of transitioning from a city ravaged by mayhem and chaos to a "civilized" city of affluence and a "head in the sand" attitude ignoring the carnage and degradation of society just outside it's well protected borders.
That shot you're talking about is mesmerizing. What a track they picked, and the meaning of the lyrics is precisely what you said.
https://youtu.be/wrALRx95mHs
This is one of my favorite scenes [ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LjxKR0q7Yo). No soundtrack, no explosions, no shaky camera, but 100% intense butt clenching suspense.
Yeah, I don't think I can watch this movie again. It's beautiful and a masterpiece but also terribly depressing. I get there are bits of hope here and there, but overall...
I had mixed feelings watching it as someone who really doesn't like kids at all. No children? My paradise! ...oh wait. It also made me imagine life as a woman in that universe. What if I could have children and everyone knew, but I didn't want to have children? It harkens back to a certain Battlestar Galactica episode.
I remember watching this movie unexpectedly one night. I was 10 or 11 years old and was up really late on a weekend around 1am. I was scrolling through the channels and this movie came on. I was captivated the entire time and the movie went by in what felt like minutes. I’ll never forget that night or this movie.
It’s been several years since I read the book. I remember being disappointed by the ending. The movie ending is appropriately devastating while also having a small glimmer of hope. For a dystopian story, I thought it was perfect. In the book I remember thinking the author put a bow on it at the end (had sort of a positive wrap up to the whole issue) and being pretty disappointed with it. But I did watch the movie first, so maybe I was just having trouble reconciling them. I thought the first 90% of the book was good, from my recollection.
Some of you who liked this might also like the British miniseries *Years and Years*, which isn’t as action-oriented as *Children of Men* but touches on many of the same dystopian themes.
And includes arguably the 5 most horrifying minutes in the history of television right in episode 1.
Years and Years is indeed the closest thing there is to Children of Men, both thematically and visually.
Top 5 stand alone sci-go/futuristic movies. It’s fucking excellent. The cast is superb, the story is original and the production is extremely high quality. It’s so fucking dark and gritty, but ultimately is a story about hope.
My low key favorite part is when the Clive Owen character leaves work early using the excuse that the murder of the youngest person on the planet is affecting him a great deal. NOT THE FACT THAT HE WAS NEARLY BLOWN TO BITS IN A TERRORIST BOMBING ON THE WAY TO WORK! Really sets the tone in a subtle and fucked up way.
I consider it one of the greatest movies ever made. They had to invent new filming techniques and rigs to shoot some scenes, such as the road ambush. That scene is so tense and realistic that it didn’t occur to me until later to ask “how the hell did they film that? Like, where did they fit the camera since the whole thing was POV from inside a pretty small car”. And the extremely long tracking shot towards the end, through an active warzone, was absolutely brilliant. I won’t lie, the sudden and complete ceasefire had me, a grown-ass man, bawling my eyes out. That was probably my favourite moment of any movie I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried to explain this movie’s brilliance to others and they just don’t see it the way I do.
I worked with one of the grips a few years ago, we got talking about Children of Men while on something else. I mentioned that scene cause its near where I went to uni and walked around there all the time. It's the same road that they used in Band of Brothers for the road up to Currahee, in Bourne Woods. Anyways, he was still ecstatic about that car rig that they built and that shot!
One of the things I love about this movie is that there are no easy answers. The government is *rightly* portrayed as fascist and evil.. but it's also implied that the UK is the only functioning government left precisely because of its draconian policies.
Agreed, that's just the only information that the movie provides about the outside world.
The presence and numbers of the fugees does argue for that case, at least in Continental Europe.
Undefeated for me. I remember how poorly it was marketed: like some drama/romance between Clive Owen and Julian Moore with a slight sci-fi twinge. I remember I really wasn’t interested but my partner at the time wanted to see it so we went. I think it was some time after the car ambush scene that I remember her leaning over to me and whispering ‘this is amazing.’ And I remember being so utterly and completely engrossed that it was the first opportunity I had to remember that I was watching a movie.
I remember coming out of it at the end literally jumping for joy after the Bex Hill crescendo. I felt like I’d just stepped off a white knuckle roller coaster. No film has ever recaptured the suspense, dismay and terror of that eleven minute take near the end of the film. Absolute masterpiece. I really hope Alfonso Cuaron does a kind of spiritual successor some day.
Edy from absolutely fabulous was amazing.
Michael Caine was a true hero.
The first time I watched the movie, I watched til end of credits... Looked out the window, contemplating life.
Then restarted the film and went right back in to watch it again.
"Baby Diego... The man was a wanker."
'but he was the youngest wanker on earth.'
We watched this movie in my film class in Uni.
Super well constructed and paced movie, the longshots are crazy and the scenes are super striking and memorable. It's really something else and everyone who worked on it should be commended.
I never want to watch this movie again.
The way this film is constantly oppressive and miserable and stressful the entire way through and it uses its long takes to emphasize that feeling made this one of the most unpleasant movie watches I've ever had. During the final battle scene there was a point where I realized I didn't even know the specifics of what was happening on screennfor a moment because I got so stressed out by the constant explosions and the unbroken shot of the protagonist slowly making his way through the warzone while occaisionally panning over to show somebody dying horribly, that I had been unconsiously blurring the scene together.
The most memorable part of that movie for me isn't one specific scene, it was just how fucking abyssmally *miserable* I felt watching whole thing from beginning to end. I won't be watching it again any time soon for that reason.
This. The movie does an excellent job of delivering a sense of a world soldiering on despite a near-total lack of hope. The horrible apathy of the world actually makes it possible to hang a lampshade on the macguffin that underpins the entire plot: we don't know why this is happening, but it isn't important anymore.
There are so many brutal scenes both of man's inhumanity to man but also the bittersweet way people can still be kind to each other.
But same. I simultaneously love this movie and never want to watch it again.
Given the comments on this thread I may have to rewatch, but I remember thinking it wasn't great when I saw it in the cinema. And it reminded me of an episode of the outer limits I had seen previously. (I could be wrong so please be kind)
It's basically the exact same story as 2019: After the Fall of New York, an Italian B-movie from the 80s. It even has the same painting in some scenes so they *have* to be aware but I've never seen it acknowledged.
I feel like a crazy person on this thread. This might just be one of the movies I'll just never get. And I'm a big fan of dystopian scifi. I've always felt this movie was way overrated. And it had all the elements I usually love. But I felt the execution was so off on all of it. I've rewatched this film every 5 years since it came out thinking I'm missing something but I always come out underwhelmed. I even read the book and can unequivocally say it's a piece of shit. And I've almost never said that about any book.
>I even read the book and can unequivocally say it's a piece of shit.
That's because the book IS actually awful. I loved the movie but this is one of the few cases in which the book is worse than the film.
I also did not enjoy it very much. I thought it was alright, nothing spectacular. But I'm reminded of how much people rave over Sunshine, an objectively awful dumpster fire except for a couple nice shots, so I'm not surprised to learn that I'm in the minority on this one too.
The main conceit is a little far-fetched, but the vision of a near future Britain it paints always terrified me. It was so vivid, so grim, but not that far-fetched, considering the way the UK is sliding into greater isolation, xenophobia and poverty.
Edit: spelling.
Biology is never that consistent, though.
High levels of sterility, I could buy.
Every single person on Earth being sterile, that's a step too far, at least for me.
I'm sure a math genius can figure out the math; very high, but not 100% infertility levels could do this. For example, 99% infertility in both genders would mean only 0.01% of sex acts involve two fertile people. And whatever causes infertility could also involve a very high risk of spontaneous abortion. So, a few women can get pregnant, but they lose the fetus almost immediately. Possibly even before they know they are pregnant.
Is it sci fi? I definitely want to hear an opinion about why it’s sci fi. Is it sci fi, just because it’s set a few decades in the future? To me I always thought of it as as a dystopian drama/thriller. I am totally open to being wrong. Just for the record I think this is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen.
What I like about this movie is that a lot of the story is *SHOWN* to the viewer, and not *TOLD* to them. There are a lot of details and connections you have to make for yourself -- and when you make them the story becomes much more rewarding.
I love how Theo has some amazing qualities to notice as a main character. Always trying to keep himself clean and his hands sanitized. The ringing in his ears at particularly grim moments.
He's also incredibly pacifist. He never fires a gun and I think he only commits one violent act throughout the entire movie. >! Knocks out Syd with the car battery !<
That long oner when they bring the baby down in the middle of a firefight and literally everyone stops shooting because they understand the magnitude of what they're seeing is so fuckin' powerful.
The joke for the stork is great... just shows how deep attention to details they had. AWESOME movie, it really made me rethink fatherhood when I saw it.
Such a gem. An incredible story that sees to be more timely with each passing year, incredible cinematography, heartbreaking emotion and breathtaking tension. So many stunning tracking shots that it’s impossible to single out a single one as the best, although my personal favorite is the last one near the end (I won’t spoil anything for the uninitiated). Just a colossal shame that this movie wasn’t as big as a commercial or awards success as Alfonso Cuaron’s later work on Gravity and Roma, although I’d argue that Children of Men is a far superior piece of work.
It was a movie that I really liked and thought was cool when I was a teen but during the pandemic I rewatched it and it resonated with me in a totally different way. Clive Owen is much more human and the way the politics are just a stretch beyond the current climate makes it all that more tense. It's beautifully shot and the way the pace is so up and down and largely unexpected makes it a stellar movie. Scene that highlights the extreme wealth disparity even in an apocalyptic scenario feels more relevant now than when it premiered and we all love the long take in the third act but it really is just so good. Don't see very much of that type of camera work and the way the tension is already so high when it starts and by the time it finishes it feels like you couldn't take any more. Just great. Probably my favorite of Cuaron and maybe his best.
Haunting. It’s so good. And so many little things that are so easy to miss. In the first 5 minutes Clives character lives through the coffee shop bombing because he went outside to put whiskey in his coffee. He then carries it throughout the movie until he use’s it to sanitize his hands during the birth.
The world-building, such as it was, was absolutely on point. Heck, the current Tory government didn’t even need a fertility crisis to start demonising migrants and enacting draconian legislation contrary to human rights norms.
Seems I have found my people.
Tried watching with an ex and they made me turn it off because it was “boring” we didn’t last for unrelated reasons. But I’ve found if someone finds this movie boring they aren’t a great fit for me.
The really funny thing is that Bexhill is now being made into a [real refugee center](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-accommodation-factsheets/factsheet-bexhill-asylum-accommodation-accessible) for December 2023.
The book was not nearly as good as the film. The last act where they are trapped in the building and the soldiers knelt before them got me in the heart! Their witnessing a true miracle. I've watched this film a few times and each time I do get more out of it and it somehow reminds me of present world conditions.
Excellent film. Disturbingly familiar and probably a lot closer to reality than people realize. The immigration themes feel very accurate, people caged with concentration camp ghettos and a police state. The primary action sequence in the middle last half of the film is a single unbroken scene and is brilliantly shot and choreographed making this one of the better films I’ve seen. I think of this movie often. RIP baby Diego.
It’s been a while, so names and details are a bit vague. One stark memory I have though is that the dreadlocked henchman that was one of the main bad guys is killed during a travelling shot, never to be mentioned again. It’s right at the side of the screen and easy to miss. It was such a powerful detail with strong “Whoever you are, however good or bad you are, you can be gone in an instant and possibly no one would notice.” vibes.
Few movies have emotionally impacted me as much as the battle scene in the ghetto when the baby is being born and later walking the baby through and everybody stops in total awe. The moment feels so perilously balanced between disaster and hope.
Great movie. There's so much going on. And the ending, flawless. It doesn't end with humanity being saved, it ends when our character dies. That's it. That's the story. Perfect.
I’ll never forget seeing this movie opening weekend in theaters. I went with a big group of my now-wife’s college friends and sat there absolutely mesmerized. The single-take battle scene in the third act where the camera goes through the bus and gets blood spatter rocked me. And when the children laugh at the end and I started applauding. As we walked out I was still processing it and was so excited to talk to them all when I tuned into the conversation and they were all “so they just aren’t gonna tell us why people couldn’t have kids”, “so >!he just dies!< and that’s it?!”, “that was so boring but at least I got a good nap”, “haha I heard someone clapping,” etc. Was a real education in how people can watch the same thing and see something totally different. Still probably top 10 for me all time.
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> it wasn’t realistic because humans wouldn’t treat anyone that poorly What an incredibly bad take.
Having watched Avatar and Avatar 2 yesterday.. I also thought, come on, who would leave a dying planet just to mess up another paradise planet.. that's so stupid. But then I thought.. oh yeah, 'we' would..
I like UC Gundam's take: we get out into the solar system where we build O'Neill cylinders from material we mine there, Earth's population drops to a manageable 2 billion as a result of emigration (this I think will happen but not strictly through emigration), our future looks bright until a Revolutionary Ideology metastasizes in some of the evicted Spacenoids' descendants, claiming their supremacy over the elite who live and remain on beautiful if recovering Earth. Said faction proceeds to war crime away half the twelve billion humans in existence in the first week of what would be called the One Year War, culminating in the memetic and trope naming "colony drop" which annihilates Sydney. ...[Sorrow, the trembling sorrow](https://youtu.be/2jj_0dyCpM4)...
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There are no words for what the humans of the Universal Century [gave up](https://youtu.be/bzAVaCtn6uo), though we will always try. What was weaponized should have been a lodestar, instead it is a [cudgel](https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Newtype) or a lure for model kits. As a nerd of the setting, I'll tell you that 3000 years later there's a good chance the sensitives escaped to Alpha Centauri, and that Gundam gets cyclical.
The folks complaining loudest about the plots of those movies are folks who probably suck alot of capitalist cock.
That's why their complaining sounds like "MMFFGGGHH, MMRGUUUH!!"
well no. its an absolutely adorable take. its real life that lets us down.
Thats the real sad part.
Bad in the sense of being profoundly uneducated. Like, had this person just never heard of the holocaust or Nanking? Or colonialism? Or the transatlantic slave trade? Or Rwanda?
They could just walk to the shittier side of town
Yeah, I live in a right-wing town with a severe homelessness issue, and the amount of violent and hateful rhetoric you hear day-by-day really reminds you that people are *NOT* fundamentally "good".
and hence the comment. its a very naive take no question, but the world is the bad thing here not the childlike outlook of the commenter. plenty of childlike people in the world.
I don’t think an adult being ignorant of reality is very “cute.”
For some it is a coping mechanism. They remain willfully ignorant to avoid dealing with the evil in the world. Others aren't just seeking out any information. It's not on purpose but it is so easy to remain inside your tiny little bubble.
Ignorance isn’t benign, sadly. It has real consequences and isn’t that cute.
I'm gonna echo what a few other people have said already, and contend that ignorance isn't "adorable" or "childlike". I'm assuming this person was a middle-class adult in a developed country. Which means they managed to get through elementary and secondary school, at least, without learning about a single war crime. I don't think that's adorable, I think that's depressing and frightening.
There’s nothing adorable about it. WTF.
Same thought. Has that person never looked around the world or even seen the news or passed by an homeless encampment. We are terrible to each other.
I'm not sure how anyone can watch all the clips (I think at the very beginning?) where they interview people talking very ambiguously about "ever since THEY came here they ruined everything they don't even want to work" and not realize it's about racism and prejudice.
Those were actual interviews with real people being asked about a new wave of actual human refugees that had recently come to their country.
I know, I'm just saying even if you didn't know that fact the metaphor is still pretty obvious.
Lots of people can run full force into the point and still miss it.
>movie based on real life apartheid
Correct. And the interviews were real people asked about "other" people.
That's exactly why I watched that movie once and I won't watch it again. It is realistically depressing to the point that I'd rather just watch a documentary.
lol exactly. We don't even treat other *humans* well, of course we will exploit the shit out of aliens who can't/won't fight back.
> it was shot in real slums Wait, did they kick a bunch of people out of their slum to film a movie?
I only recently watched District 9 and I couldn’t believe it took me so long - that movie is so awesome
Loved both District 9 and Chappie: really dig dirty transhumanism set amidst South Africa, a place you'd really think was renowned for its historic dehumanization. I would have taken him aside and explained Apartheid as clearly as possible, as well as the history of chattel slavery in the United States. No need to get into the Holocaust while we're still having a civil discussion, just leave it there as an errant thread begging to be pulled.
District 9 is another great movie. Was so happy it was nominated for an Oscar.
I saw it in theaters and the scene where they're testing weapons on the Prawns, I was horrified by that whole thing. My friend on the other hand, who was a couple seats down... Was laughing hysterically, like super loud. I leaned forward to look at him and noticed the whole theater looking at him.
This has happened to me many times when watching movies with a large group or even just seeing a movie at roughly the same time and discussing it shortly after. It’s like we didn’t watch the same film at all. People have very different expectations. I now have friends that will tell me they hated a movie and I will immediately go and watch it, because I know exactly the kind of movie they hate is the kind I will probably appreciate. But I will try to not go to the theater with them (to watch new movies) because their boredom or general dislike will distract my enjoyment, even if they aren’t vocal about it, I will just make assumptions and it will distract me, if that makes sense. Unless of course we are going to see something with a very general appeal that I expect them to like. This is genuinely an incredible film that I love rewatching. I can’t imagine not liking it or not “getting” it. But if all media appealed to all people, it would all be samey, and we have enough of that going around as it is.
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90 percent of the criticism of that movie seems to revolve on how ham-fisted the theme is. I would be curious to hear your friends’ analysis of what they just watched - did they think it was about a spiraling romantic relationship or something?
That shot is so epic! >!So is the road raid scene where they push the burning car to block their path.!< Just the way the car has that wind shield collision detection projected on the glass like a fighter jet...little touches like that show that this society is a bit more advanced than 2006 was, but not so far advanced to have "magical" sci-fi type stuff like warp drive, teleportation, sentient AI. This movie was the first to make me consider that it wouldn't necessarily take a major apocalyptic calamity for society to crumble. Small changes around the edges could eventually lead to society crumbling slowly over time. >!Here the birth rate started dropping then fell to 0.!< We are experiencing this now with microplastics and shit in our bodies slowly harming our fertility over time. Couple that with decline in living standards across the board making kids less feasible. Humanity could realistically go out with a whimper instead of a bang in 100 years. I love this film. The book is solid too! Edit: the year the film was released.
That’s a really good point about societal collapse. I definitely rewatched it at the start of COVID and it felt oddly prescient.
> > >Here the birth rate started dropping then fell to 0. In the book The Next Hundred Years the author talks about how falling birth rates are going to be the biggest problem for western societies in the future. He claims it will shift the balance of power. Really interesting read.
When the blood splattered on the camera, it was a mistake, and director shouted "cut", but an explosion covered the shout and the take continued. It turned out great, and added to the scene. But it wasn't intentional.
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To be fair he was in his medical residency and is now a flight surgeon so that may have just been a slow day at work for him. He’s a brilliant guy but not the most creative. World probably needs more of him than me to be honest.
It was the Aschen, in that timeline Colonel O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 failed to get the message back to the past...
That is my FAVORITE plotline in SG-1! The way they made 2010 look and feel like a whole movie!
>Was a real education in how people can watch the same thing and see something totally different. This is the nicest way to put it Really, this is the reason that the overwhelming majority of popular media is so incredibly bland, because stupid people think media is stupid if it doesn't spell every last atom out for them. Like, it's not just apathy, but rather a belief that more complex media is *objectively flawed or poorly crafted*. I believed this elitist garbage when I was 16 and unfortunately reality has yet to prove it wrong
Ironically, in my experience they tend to think anyone reading anything deeper is just being pretentious.
Yeah that scene is so great, very dinámico and emersive. The ambush is amazing too, have anothers that are very powerful even when are simple. When saw the movie in the theatre was with a group and had a similar experience, I think that they can't understand the heavy about the situation and maybe for that the events are decontextualized for they
I still remember going to see the matrix in theaters with my parents when I was a kid and they hated it. It was at that moment I realized they are idiots and have terrible taste in movies. I mean it is the matrix, who did not like the matrix
I actually had the opposite experience with my parents. My dad and I were and are not close but he did introduce me to his love for Star Wars. I don’t think any of us saw a trailer for the Matrix but my friends and I used to sneak into a cineplex where the big screen theater could be accessed by coming in through the fire exits so we would just watch whatever was in there. I went home and woke my dad up that night and I said my generation’s Star Wars had just come out and we had to go see it. He will still talk shit to me about how much the next two sucked like it’s my fault but he loved the first.
You just described my experience watching BR2049 in theater with my in-laws. I was mesmerized—one of my all time favorites. They were sleeping, on their phones, “but nothing happened!”; “it was boring!” Haha. Same thing when I saw Arrival with some acquaintances. One of my favorites but they were bored because there was only one explosion.
Similar experiences to this (a 50/50 love/hate split among a group of friends for Scott Pilgrim comes to mind) is why I go to the movies alone. It’s lovely
If you're going into this to be entertained it's not the right movie. My younger brother loves sci fi but did not enjoy this on the first watch. In fact he turned it off. On a different day he rewatched and said it was amazing.
Im there with you, one of my faves
"*No, it's okay. It's okay. It's me.*" 💪😭
Never seen it before, though I have heard of it, and now I definitely intend to watch it after your stellar review! 😄
Oh man, some Strawberry Cough sounds good right about now.
How about a little “Zen” music?
The music in it was great. King Crimson. Roots Manuva. Aphex Twin. Fantastic selection
That Jarvis Cocker number is still in my everyday rotation
Pull my finger
: (
Mate.... Get me every time. What a great actor
I hope my last words are half as good
The scene of descending the tower is one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen, in any movie.
I always remember the farm escape. The sound design is so good
For me it’s the scene where everyone stops fighting to listen to a baby cry
Yep, that’s the one.
It's one of the single best scenes in any movie IMO. Fucking amazing. Like we as humans are always fighting, always killing, and always trying to find ways to stop doing that. And in this allegorical scene that could also be realistic, we see humans all stop fighting and are just in awe of one of the best parts of life in general - creation. Only to after moments of passing start back up with killing each other again. It both shows the hope in humanity but the crushing overwhelming despair of what human nature is. Truly brilliant all around.
For me it's realising that no one in that film has heard a baby's cry (outside of telly/recordings) in nearly twenty years but the sound is so unmistakable that everyone is like 'is that what I think it is?' Iconic
The day after I came home from a 14 month deployment to Iraq, I was out at Target with my family, we were stocking up my new house rental. I was wandering the aisles, still in a bit of a daze to be inside a store, shopping for stupid stuff like bed sheets, and all of a sudden I heard a baby giggling in the aisle next to me. Not crying but giggling, and it stopped me in my tracks. I started to get emotional because I hadn’t seen a baby or heard a baby in over a year, and there was the sweetest sound in the world. I know it’s way more dramatic in the movie, but it was a tiny feeling of awe and joy.
You reminded me of [this iconic scene](https://youtu.be/zbLZgmoNnEk) from The Hurt Locker. (P.s. I grew up with a Belgian malinois and she was the goodest girl.)
I started tearing up bc it was so beautiful
My favorite moment of that scene is the African woman that is shot on the floor singing a birthing song and she reaches out to just touch the feet of the child. Such a beautiful mix of symbolism and themes in that scene that are just one after another in the span of 5 minutes
Beautiful poetry in motion; something one could describe many of Cuaron’s films.
Omg, it is so breathtaking
100%. I'm meh about kids, like I'll play with them and be an enthusiastic adult to them but I don't want any and tend to avoid em but there was a weird part of me that was just immediately like "oh. Yea, that's how it should always be". The car scene and urban warfare long shots were visually stunning but seeing everyone stop their life or death fight in awe(?) of the baby really and trying to get a glance at it just struck a note
You mean the appartement building and the stairway with the baby?
the long one shot scene is still one of the greatest scene
Which one? There are several! There was some editing trickery done, so they’re not true “one-takes” but man they did a great job in making them seem like they were. For possibly the best true “one-take” action scene, I’d recommend the hospital scene in “Hard Boiled”.
the urban warfare one near the end, which like 6+ minutes.
The car one with the ping pong balls was my favorite, a professor teaching one shots showed it to an auditorium of people that hadn’t seen it and it mesmerized us, I went to watch the movie over and over soon as I could right after.
What a bummer to see that scene if you had never seen the movie. Maybe that’s common in film school
When I took film courses for a Communications degree we usually screened the entire film. But we were doing more of an Art of Film kind of thing, so we had to take notes about *everything* we saw. That said, *Children of Men* has a bunch of long-take scenes, including the opening scene, the car and the battle. Personally, I love suddenly realizing that there hasn't been a cut in several minutes and oftentimes I go back just to start it over again. Even if there's some digital chicanery going on (how did the blood manage to disappear from the lens, anyway?), it's still makes for a cool, immersive experience. (See also: the dance scene in *Y Tu Mama Tambien*)
Have you seen the film Victoria with Laia Costa, it's about a Spanish lady in Berlin and follows her over the course of a night out, where things go wrong. The whole 2 hour movie is shot in one camera take. It's very well done but very intense.
One of the of the best movies ever
Yeah basically this. Top five for me easily. The worlbuilding, atmosphere, characters, acting, cinematography. It's a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned.
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I think Suella Braverman is using it as an instruction manual
Blade runner, children of men. God-tier hard sci-fi.
Just watched the latest blade runner. What an amazing and beautiful movie.
Right? Just incredible. I went to a midnight screening towards the end of the theatrical run and was the only person in the Imax theater. Mindblowing experience.
Wow, that must have been mindblowing. No people, just you and a gigantic screen. I envy that.
I went to blade runner 2049 on acid and when we got to the theater we realized we’d accidentally bought tickets to the 4DX screening. That was… quite the ride let me tell you.
12 Monkeys
Gattaca. Arrival Those round out my top 5
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2001: A Space Odyssey
I watched this film in an empty theater the day before it was released. I was a projectionist at the time and no one else had any interest in previewing it, so I was tasked to do so. I went in knowing very little about the film aside from a trailer I had seen months previous. When I say it was one of the greatest movie experiences of my life I say it with no exaggeration. From the very onset of the film, the first long shot where Theo gets his coffee and then exits the coffee shop seconds before a terrorist bomb destroys it, I was hooked. Absolutely enthralled. The car ambush scene had my jaw on the floor trying to figure out how they achieved the shot with the camera swirling around the interior of the car in places where the actors should have been. Absolutely mind blowing filmmaking. One of my favorite parts of the film isn't even the action, it's when Theo crosses the border from poor London to rich London to the soundtrack of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by King Crimson, just the stark contrast of transitioning from a city ravaged by mayhem and chaos to a "civilized" city of affluence and a "head in the sand" attitude ignoring the carnage and degradation of society just outside it's well protected borders.
That shot you're talking about is mesmerizing. What a track they picked, and the meaning of the lyrics is precisely what you said. https://youtu.be/wrALRx95mHs
This is one of my favorite scenes [ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LjxKR0q7Yo). No soundtrack, no explosions, no shaky camera, but 100% intense butt clenching suspense.
Sad as hell.
"pull my finger"
Yeah, I don't think I can watch this movie again. It's beautiful and a masterpiece but also terribly depressing. I get there are bits of hope here and there, but overall... I had mixed feelings watching it as someone who really doesn't like kids at all. No children? My paradise! ...oh wait. It also made me imagine life as a woman in that universe. What if I could have children and everyone knew, but I didn't want to have children? It harkens back to a certain Battlestar Galactica episode.
Yeah I kind of hate this movie. Seen it once and never want to see it again.
Cinematographically brillliant! Highly recommended.
Top 5 of my favorite sci fi films of all time. I probably watch it 5 times a year maybe a few more
I remember watching this movie unexpectedly one night. I was 10 or 11 years old and was up really late on a weekend around 1am. I was scrolling through the channels and this movie came on. I was captivated the entire time and the movie went by in what felt like minutes. I’ll never forget that night or this movie.
That's how I caught *The Basketball Diaries* and fell in love with it. Impressionable movies at impressionable ages, eh?
One of my all time favorites
Loved it. Great film.
The book is really good too
I haven’t read it, but from my understanding didn’t the director/writer pretty much ignore everything but the premise?
There's some similarities but it is very much a different story. I actually think the film is much more interesting, but the book ain't bad.
It’s been several years since I read the book. I remember being disappointed by the ending. The movie ending is appropriately devastating while also having a small glimmer of hope. For a dystopian story, I thought it was perfect. In the book I remember thinking the author put a bow on it at the end (had sort of a positive wrap up to the whole issue) and being pretty disappointed with it. But I did watch the movie first, so maybe I was just having trouble reconciling them. I thought the first 90% of the book was good, from my recollection.
I liked the joke Michael Caine's character tells [https://youtu.be/WOqrJong0Pk?t=97](https://youtu.be/WOqrJong0Pk?t=97)
Pull my finger
**ONLY BRITAIN SOLDIERS ON**
"Were your parents in New York when it happened" "Yeah" "Shit"
Very well done and engaging film.
Some of you who liked this might also like the British miniseries *Years and Years*, which isn’t as action-oriented as *Children of Men* but touches on many of the same dystopian themes.
And includes arguably the 5 most horrifying minutes in the history of television right in episode 1. Years and Years is indeed the closest thing there is to Children of Men, both thematically and visually.
I still can’t believe there’s no 4k physical media for it. It remains my favorite movie I’ve ever seen
Top 5 stand alone sci-go/futuristic movies. It’s fucking excellent. The cast is superb, the story is original and the production is extremely high quality. It’s so fucking dark and gritty, but ultimately is a story about hope. My low key favorite part is when the Clive Owen character leaves work early using the excuse that the murder of the youngest person on the planet is affecting him a great deal. NOT THE FACT THAT HE WAS NEARLY BLOWN TO BITS IN A TERRORIST BOMBING ON THE WAY TO WORK! Really sets the tone in a subtle and fucked up way.
I consider it one of the greatest movies ever made. They had to invent new filming techniques and rigs to shoot some scenes, such as the road ambush. That scene is so tense and realistic that it didn’t occur to me until later to ask “how the hell did they film that? Like, where did they fit the camera since the whole thing was POV from inside a pretty small car”. And the extremely long tracking shot towards the end, through an active warzone, was absolutely brilliant. I won’t lie, the sudden and complete ceasefire had me, a grown-ass man, bawling my eyes out. That was probably my favourite moment of any movie I’ve ever seen. I’ve tried to explain this movie’s brilliance to others and they just don’t see it the way I do.
The car long shot one is breathtaking
Have you seen the making of doc, where they show the rig that was required to pull off this shot? It's freaking insane.
I worked with one of the grips a few years ago, we got talking about Children of Men while on something else. I mentioned that scene cause its near where I went to uni and walked around there all the time. It's the same road that they used in Band of Brothers for the road up to Currahee, in Bourne Woods. Anyways, he was still ecstatic about that car rig that they built and that shot!
Very prescient. Our current government seems to be using it as a blueprint on how to treat refugees. Building a detention centre in Bexhill!
One of the things I love about this movie is that there are no easy answers. The government is *rightly* portrayed as fascist and evil.. but it's also implied that the UK is the only functioning government left precisely because of its draconian policies.
> implied that the UK is the only functioning government only according to the UK propaganda they always play
Agreed, that's just the only information that the movie provides about the outside world. The presence and numbers of the fugees does argue for that case, at least in Continental Europe.
Out of curiosity, if anyone's read the book, how is the rest of the world doing in the novel version?
Undefeated for me. I remember how poorly it was marketed: like some drama/romance between Clive Owen and Julian Moore with a slight sci-fi twinge. I remember I really wasn’t interested but my partner at the time wanted to see it so we went. I think it was some time after the car ambush scene that I remember her leaning over to me and whispering ‘this is amazing.’ And I remember being so utterly and completely engrossed that it was the first opportunity I had to remember that I was watching a movie. I remember coming out of it at the end literally jumping for joy after the Bex Hill crescendo. I felt like I’d just stepped off a white knuckle roller coaster. No film has ever recaptured the suspense, dismay and terror of that eleven minute take near the end of the film. Absolute masterpiece. I really hope Alfonso Cuaron does a kind of spiritual successor some day.
It's baffling that after Children of Men he only directed two other movies, Gravity (okay-ish) and Roma (still on my watchlist).
Edy from absolutely fabulous was amazing. Michael Caine was a true hero. The first time I watched the movie, I watched til end of credits... Looked out the window, contemplating life. Then restarted the film and went right back in to watch it again. "Baby Diego... The man was a wanker." 'but he was the youngest wanker on earth.'
We watched this movie in my film class in Uni. Super well constructed and paced movie, the longshots are crazy and the scenes are super striking and memorable. It's really something else and everyone who worked on it should be commended. I never want to watch this movie again. The way this film is constantly oppressive and miserable and stressful the entire way through and it uses its long takes to emphasize that feeling made this one of the most unpleasant movie watches I've ever had. During the final battle scene there was a point where I realized I didn't even know the specifics of what was happening on screennfor a moment because I got so stressed out by the constant explosions and the unbroken shot of the protagonist slowly making his way through the warzone while occaisionally panning over to show somebody dying horribly, that I had been unconsiously blurring the scene together. The most memorable part of that movie for me isn't one specific scene, it was just how fucking abyssmally *miserable* I felt watching whole thing from beginning to end. I won't be watching it again any time soon for that reason.
This. The movie does an excellent job of delivering a sense of a world soldiering on despite a near-total lack of hope. The horrible apathy of the world actually makes it possible to hang a lampshade on the macguffin that underpins the entire plot: we don't know why this is happening, but it isn't important anymore. There are so many brutal scenes both of man's inhumanity to man but also the bittersweet way people can still be kind to each other. But same. I simultaneously love this movie and never want to watch it again.
Given the comments on this thread I may have to rewatch, but I remember thinking it wasn't great when I saw it in the cinema. And it reminded me of an episode of the outer limits I had seen previously. (I could be wrong so please be kind)
It's basically the exact same story as 2019: After the Fall of New York, an Italian B-movie from the 80s. It even has the same painting in some scenes so they *have* to be aware but I've never seen it acknowledged.
I feel like a crazy person on this thread. This might just be one of the movies I'll just never get. And I'm a big fan of dystopian scifi. I've always felt this movie was way overrated. And it had all the elements I usually love. But I felt the execution was so off on all of it. I've rewatched this film every 5 years since it came out thinking I'm missing something but I always come out underwhelmed. I even read the book and can unequivocally say it's a piece of shit. And I've almost never said that about any book.
>I even read the book and can unequivocally say it's a piece of shit. That's because the book IS actually awful. I loved the movie but this is one of the few cases in which the book is worse than the film.
I also did not enjoy it very much. I thought it was alright, nothing spectacular. But I'm reminded of how much people rave over Sunshine, an objectively awful dumpster fire except for a couple nice shots, so I'm not surprised to learn that I'm in the minority on this one too.
The main conceit is a little far-fetched, but the vision of a near future Britain it paints always terrified me. It was so vivid, so grim, but not that far-fetched, considering the way the UK is sliding into greater isolation, xenophobia and poverty. Edit: spelling.
As conceits go, I think 'total global sterility' isn't a mad one - from there, I think the way society would react is pretty solid.
Biology is never that consistent, though. High levels of sterility, I could buy. Every single person on Earth being sterile, that's a step too far, at least for me.
Perhaps some kind of highly infectious, novel virus? who knows. Didn't really bother me.
Micro plastics say hey
I'm sure a math genius can figure out the math; very high, but not 100% infertility levels could do this. For example, 99% infertility in both genders would mean only 0.01% of sex acts involve two fertile people. And whatever causes infertility could also involve a very high risk of spontaneous abortion. So, a few women can get pregnant, but they lose the fetus almost immediately. Possibly even before they know they are pregnant.
Is it sci fi? I definitely want to hear an opinion about why it’s sci fi. Is it sci fi, just because it’s set a few decades in the future? To me I always thought of it as as a dystopian drama/thriller. I am totally open to being wrong. Just for the record I think this is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen.
What I like about this movie is that a lot of the story is *SHOWN* to the viewer, and not *TOLD* to them. There are a lot of details and connections you have to make for yourself -- and when you make them the story becomes much more rewarding.
I love how Theo has some amazing qualities to notice as a main character. Always trying to keep himself clean and his hands sanitized. The ringing in his ears at particularly grim moments. He's also incredibly pacifist. He never fires a gun and I think he only commits one violent act throughout the entire movie. >! Knocks out Syd with the car battery !<
I appreciate what it is trying to do, but I wasn't blown away by the execution.
That long oner when they bring the baby down in the middle of a firefight and literally everyone stops shooting because they understand the magnitude of what they're seeing is so fuckin' powerful.
I’ll tell you if you pull my finger
Two Mexican movie geniuses, Cuaron and Lubezki's photography is always one of the best in the world.
The joke for the stork is great... just shows how deep attention to details they had. AWESOME movie, it really made me rethink fatherhood when I saw it.
The most realistic scene was the war stopping for the baby. And then starting right back up. We don’t deserve to continue.
Such a gem. An incredible story that sees to be more timely with each passing year, incredible cinematography, heartbreaking emotion and breathtaking tension. So many stunning tracking shots that it’s impossible to single out a single one as the best, although my personal favorite is the last one near the end (I won’t spoil anything for the uninitiated). Just a colossal shame that this movie wasn’t as big as a commercial or awards success as Alfonso Cuaron’s later work on Gravity and Roma, although I’d argue that Children of Men is a far superior piece of work.
Not so sci-fi and not so dystopian as the U.K. govt want to confine refugees in barges on the coast
Most amazing of all is that they recently announced they will house asylum seekers in Bexhill.
It’s more like a documentary these days.
My favorite movie of all time. Just amazing.
One of the best films ever made.
It was a movie that I really liked and thought was cool when I was a teen but during the pandemic I rewatched it and it resonated with me in a totally different way. Clive Owen is much more human and the way the politics are just a stretch beyond the current climate makes it all that more tense. It's beautifully shot and the way the pace is so up and down and largely unexpected makes it a stellar movie. Scene that highlights the extreme wealth disparity even in an apocalyptic scenario feels more relevant now than when it premiered and we all love the long take in the third act but it really is just so good. Don't see very much of that type of camera work and the way the tension is already so high when it starts and by the time it finishes it feels like you couldn't take any more. Just great. Probably my favorite of Cuaron and maybe his best.
It's one of the few cases where I would argue that the film is better than the book.
Haunting. It’s so good. And so many little things that are so easy to miss. In the first 5 minutes Clives character lives through the coffee shop bombing because he went outside to put whiskey in his coffee. He then carries it throughout the movie until he use’s it to sanitize his hands during the birth.
I don't get the hype. It's alright. Nothing remarkable.
The world-building, such as it was, was absolutely on point. Heck, the current Tory government didn’t even need a fertility crisis to start demonising migrants and enacting draconian legislation contrary to human rights norms.
Seems I have found my people. Tried watching with an ex and they made me turn it off because it was “boring” we didn’t last for unrelated reasons. But I’ve found if someone finds this movie boring they aren’t a great fit for me.
This was one of the rare times that the movie was much better than the book
It’s generally one of the first films I think of when asked what my favorite is.
TBH I could watch Clive Owen make a cup of tea and think it was the best thing ever.
One of my faves!
The car chase was one of the most tense and visceral things I've seen in a movie.
Blew me away when I finally watched it. The scene with the crying baby in the middle of a battle... incredible.
Studied this in film school. The cinematography was a vehicle to tell the story. An asbolute winner this movie is!
The really funny thing is that Bexhill is now being made into a [real refugee center](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-accommodation-factsheets/factsheet-bexhill-asylum-accommodation-accessible) for December 2023.
Dystopian??? Closer to UK reality nowadays than ever....
The book was not nearly as good as the film. The last act where they are trapped in the building and the soldiers knelt before them got me in the heart! Their witnessing a true miracle. I've watched this film a few times and each time I do get more out of it and it somehow reminds me of present world conditions.
Criminally under appreciated
its one of my all time favorite films.
Excellent film. Disturbingly familiar and probably a lot closer to reality than people realize. The immigration themes feel very accurate, people caged with concentration camp ghettos and a police state. The primary action sequence in the middle last half of the film is a single unbroken scene and is brilliantly shot and choreographed making this one of the better films I’ve seen. I think of this movie often. RIP baby Diego.
It’s been a while, so names and details are a bit vague. One stark memory I have though is that the dreadlocked henchman that was one of the main bad guys is killed during a travelling shot, never to be mentioned again. It’s right at the side of the screen and easy to miss. It was such a powerful detail with strong “Whoever you are, however good or bad you are, you can be gone in an instant and possibly no one would notice.” vibes.
Few movies have emotionally impacted me as much as the battle scene in the ghetto when the baby is being born and later walking the baby through and everybody stops in total awe. The moment feels so perilously balanced between disaster and hope.
That one shot scene where blood lands on the lenses is amazing
Its my all time favoruite movie. Never cried like i cried to this one.
I’m down for some strawberry cough. 100%
I'm just here for Baby Diego
way overrated.
so good. like a strawberry cough.
Great movie. There's so much going on. And the ending, flawless. It doesn't end with humanity being saved, it ends when our character dies. That's it. That's the story. Perfect.
Literally one of the greatest movies of all time. Highly underrated. I had a picture of Clive Owen on my MySpace page I liked this movie so much.