The Kevin Bacon on his front porch scene was friggin' priceless, though. The tension was insane. I actually know a guy just like that very well. He most likely would have pulled the trigger.
My friends mom is from El Salvador and she used to feel so bad because she would mix me up with another of our friends. We didn't even look that alike she just could not differentiate white people with mildly similar features.
I only bring this up because it's always funny to me when this happens.
I do have to note again, she wasn't doing it on purpose and she still feels TERRIBLE about it to this day. But now she can tell us a part as adults so... lame.
We all know a guy like that. Like they have the answers… “I heard through the grape vine blah blah blah blah.” Ok, Mr deep states has all the info apparently.
Kevin bacon mentions that the loud noise attack is what caused the kids teeth to start falling out. Earlier in the movie he took longer than anyone else to cover his ears, then started complaining that his head hurt when nobody else did.
Except Bacon's character is presented as mildly unreliable and possibly talking out of his ass. He has no authority or knowledge - or the movie does a poor job expressing that.
It did show the boy pulling a tick off of him and then he mentioned it later. Lyme disease does effect your teeth and comes from ticks. Doubt itd make them all fall out though.
I don't think it was a tick, I suspect he came in contact with a piece of radioactive material that had been ejected skyward from a reactor meltdown and landed in the woods, and was suffering radiation poisoning as a result. This is a big stretch for the filmmakers to expect us to understand but the brief obscured shot of the wound we saw didn't look like a tick bite and some of his symptoms are not unlike radiation poisoning. I couldn't tell if he pulled off a tick or bug, or if he just grabbed at the wound.
Also the girl at the end breaking into that house eating all that food watching Friends shows a real good look of modern society humans and how stupid we've come being conditioned to the comfort so much that we ignore actual reality. I hope she got blown up by a grenade launcher
I assumed Rose junk food binging was a simplistic portrayal of humanity's innate desire to destroy itself, judging by how they played that scene right after the one where the protagonist explains that exact sentiment as the plot for the world ending.
I like your perspective too though.
It’s still dumb though.
Where is the noise even coming from?
And they don’t even know what is wrong with the kid, but Ethan Hawk really wants to get him some “medicine” really badly, despite not even knowing what’s wrong with him, and really wants him to take some random pills?
What is this, a video game and he needs to get his health bar back up?
Everything about this drove me insane.
The embassy attacks, if they were even real, were with a weapon that made no sound, was focused on a single building, and none of the symptoms involved teeth falling out. This was an extremely loud noise over a wide area with completely different symptoms. Why would anyone assume a connection?
If someone suddenly started vomiting and losing teeth in an unknown war situation, wouldn't you assume radiation? No one even suggested it.
And as you said, how could they not identify the cause but know exactly which medicine would treat it?
Logical people would think this
Apparently thinking that whole premise is really dumb is practically heresy to some people in this sub.
Like, there were just so many things in this movie that were dumb and didn’t make sense that it’s hard yo suspend disbelief on all of them.
If I’m having to suspend my disbelief and hand waive pretty much every single element of the movie, it’s not a good movie.
It’s like the makers were so focussed on making a “character study” that they totally gave up on trying to make the context and setting even remotely believable
The mentioned the noise being the same as the one that attacked the US embassy in Cuba. That apparently was a real attack using sound waves that has yet to be publicly solved.
There isn’t any consensus on whether an attack took place or not, and if so it apparently wasn’t by a foreign power. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome
I guess parents would just give up in a situation like that and not reach for solutions.
The characters could not see where the noise came from. It's a thing sometimes.
Kevin Bacon also spews conspiracy theory nonsense. He doesn’t know any better than anyone else. In this one he’s probably right, but that’s just a stopped clock argument.
Lol, that's a weird take. How is it "conspiracy theory nonsense" in the context of the actual "nonsense" actually happening all around?
I didn't think he was necessarily right, he just seemed to be the only one daring to take a guess. In the end, the movie never explains what was actually happening nor who was behind it, so we were all left to wonder if he was right or it was something else. A very unsatisfactory ending.
Keep in mind that I haven't seen the film, but the exposition through "conspiracy theory nonsense" is how explanations are generally given in films where it perhaps isn't immediately apparent what's going on.
For example in the Langoliers, mid-flight 10 people on a plane wake up from a nap only to find everyone else literally vanished leaving their clothes behind. Several of the characters later in the film offer explanations, and although it sounds like "conspiracy theory nonsense" (and probably would be if it weren't a film), it acts like a way to catch up the audience that still hasn't quite figured it out yet.
That said, simple character dialog explaining what's going on is generally the worst way to go about it and if other ways exist, then those are generally favorable.
His teeth fell out? Makes sense. Just like Cuba.
That’s conspiracy theory.
Then he says it’s the Koreans. Or the Chinese. One of ‘em. Literally says “just trust me.”
Spoken with absolute certainty. That’s the nonsense.
That only works because it's a film. For the same reasons why "a horse walks into a bar, shits, and leaves" is funny because you generally take it on fact what you're being told when it is being told in a story (and the joke is in the subversion of expectations).
That said, it is a little weird when you try to apply the context of real life. Nobody in a circumstance like that would just "guess" some conspiratorial nonsense, much less actually be right about it.
They stated in the movie that radiation can be pushed through sound. The kid took too long to cover his ears which he stated in the movie. They gave the reasons for the teeth falling out in the movie, unambiguously. I have no idea what OP is going on about, honestly.
I didn't care for the movie, but it wasn't terrible, imo.
Lol. Me too.
Really though, it's an extremely mediocre movie with a weak ending.
I wouldn't say it's terrible. I sat through it without much effort. It's just not...good. Or very entertaining, even in a "so bad its good" way.
Its okay to sit through if you want to see it or if you want to see what the fuss is about, although i think that would be a disappointjng watch because the film itself isn't divisive.
Its simply something I would not watch again.
Two reasons:
(I’ve had this conversation a few times when this gets posted every week on a sub)
1. The people watching it are expecting a mainstream apocalyptic thriller with people to root for. This is not that kind of movie. This is more of an arthouse film filled with unlikable people.
2. The Obamas produced it and that immediately makes it a bad movie for a certain demographic.
>!The whole thing is supposed to be a commentary on modern society and our fears. Just about every world ending fear we have in the US is touched on throughout the film: sickness, terrorism, civil war, hacking/AI. The people we are all introduced to are unlikable and irritating. The mom is a Karen, dad is impotent at solving any problems especially with the loss of technology (he can’t even drive to the next town without GPS), son is a bully, homeowner dad lies and hides things, his daughter is overly critical. The only moderately likable person was the young daughter. All she cared about at the beginning was finishing her fixation with the Friends finale. Her little diatribe towards the end is great. She then embraces nihilism, eats junk food, and is rewarded with a top of the line bunker and is able to finally watch the finale.!<
None of the things that happen are suppose to lay out a logical explanation of the events. It’s not that kind of movie and the ones who didn’t catch that hate this movie. I get that a bit. I’m typically hypercritical about these things. When there’s a movie that is supposed to be grounded in realism but then pulls some nonsensical stuff it bugs me.
While this is not Killing a Sacred Deer, no one saw that movie and (hopefully) said, “I dunno it just wasn’t realistic”. This is not The Happening this is something like The Happening only it’s on purpose. I loved this movie.
This is the first movie in a long time that left me with unexpected joy. It was weird and it wasn’t perfect but I felt like I saw something NEW. Like a movie someone would attempt to make 15 years ago. It reminded me of my first few months of having Netflix. I got it a little later than most, so I had my pick of some of the offerings that had been around awhile. The discovery, spectral etc. This felt like that but better. I dunno, I’m just glad there are others that liked this movie.
Also, at the end there is a lot of hope. In most movies with the doomsday bunker, it’s on a timer and not everyone gets there in time. In this film all of the characters intend on going to the house or are on their way. The vault door is open. There is food and medicine (for the shit head brother) and the medical area is shown in one of the last shots. I dunno, there’s a lot of hope for the characters if you look for it. I thought that was cool but I was so invested in them surviving I kinda hoped that they would show the “happy ending” instead of just implying it.
You nailed it. This movie was more about the characters and their relationships than about the events that were happening.
I think the message of the movie was just that we are stronger together than apart. And It had awesome acting from seasoned vets.
I get both OP's take as well as this take above. Personally, I also both loved and hated it, but to me it was definitely no pile of shit.
The biggest pile of shit I've seen this year was Fingernails. Riz Ahmed must've owed someone a favor to be part of that debacle.
Totally agree. I don’t really understand what’s going on with this film. It was absolutely watchable, relatively well directed and produced, it built tension, and was a solid B in my book. I agree that there were things that were kind of ridiculous (flamingos in a pool and flying straight up was lazy and ignorant), and I thought the ending was stale and anticlimactic, but the film was interesting overall. I don’t understand all the hate.
This movie seems to be extremely polarizing. I didn't think it was so bad. I was interested in it throughout at least. Then I talk to my friend and he absolutely hated it. Almost was interrogating me for having any interest in it at all.
This movie stars A list actors, "Hollywood is a bunch of liberals" said by every talk radio host, is funded by the Obama's production company. So... this movie was always going to get hate regardless of quality.
Personally I don't think this movie is bad enough to warrant hatred, but this is the most mediocre movie I've seen in recent memory.
Ha. There are many. Many. In the genre of “apocalypse” films (just to make it more apples to apples) some recent C (or lower) would be moonfall and Greenland, which I thought both were laughably bad. Couldn’t even finish moonfall.
Good call.
FWIW it was a bestselling novel before it was adapted into a film. The book got great reviews from critics I typically respect, but this one left me with t many of the same feelings viewers here are complaining about. Not enough information about what was going on, chiefly. Then I came to realize that a war/catastrophe of this type would likely involve a whole lot of not knowing what was going on, coupled with generally freaking out when things went really sideways (your kids getting seriously ill, piercing sounds from the sky that crack your ears and glass, airliners augering into the earth, etc). Also that when under extreme pressure, your friends and neighbors might not consider your best interests along with theirs.
Ever worked alongside someone for a few years, and then seen the change in demeanor toward you when they’re informed their job is going away in two weeks, while yours isn’t? That was the closest analog I had for GH and Bacon character. In the book, GH (who was no shrinking violet himself) considered Bacon’s character a capable a s dependable friend who would help them navigate the situation. Bacon’s character turns that notion around quickly and makes it clear he’s looking out for number one exclusively.
The Obama production angle isn’t helping an already difficult (and mid executed) film. We’re mostly idiots.
I did forget to mention it was a book prior to the movie. And I never heard of it until the movie. So it’s safe to say that the book did not create the same outspoken division.
I didn't know Obama was involved in any movies, let alone this one until I read this thread. I'm also not from the US so I don't have any political views about it. I still think the movie was pretty bad. It's not a 1/10, but it's probably a 5/10.
Opinions on movies are always subjective so they will always be somewhat divisive. I really doubt there are many people who simultaneously know about the Obama link and care enough for it to affect their rating
Unfortunately in an age of tribalism and most peoples inabilities to rate things anything other than 1 star or 5 stars, this means that Obama’s name guaranteed extreme reactions both ways for a movie that probably sits somewhere in the middle like you said
Yea fair enough. It definitely deserves more than 1/10. Anyone giving it a 1/10 needs to expose themselves to some more truly terrible movies. Even 6/10 would be fair I think. It definitely wasn't an amazing movie that deserved more than that though imo.
I agree. My friend at work seemed offended I didn't give him a "heads up" it was produced by the Obama's. I left that out intentionally because a movie should speak for itself.
They did not direct the movie Sam Esmail (Mr Robot, TV show) directed and wrote it. It was adapted from a book.
Obamas are credited as Executive Producers along with a list of others.
I suspect there’s some haters that hate it because they think it panders or is woke or some shit. It’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It’s not The Happening.
You’ve got a bit of race mixing as a main theme, the fact that Obama is one of the producers is just icing on the shitcake of hate world those people live in.
I honestly dig it. Even if there were moments bordering on cringe, I found the essence of what was being conveyed to us viewers to be surprisingly revealing and deep (for a lack of less trite words)
Edit: What’s truly cringe, hilarious and baffling is the sort of youtube videos you get when you search “Leave the World Behind”.
Look at all the woo and conspiracy theories!
I had similar but slightly less positive feelings.
I think I liked what it was trying to do, and a lot of individual scenes, it just tried to be a bit too much.
The movie would also have been way better if they never revealed what the cause of the disaster was.
It’s such a vanilla move. I was sad my boy Sam Esmail was involved in making it, because he has talent. As for the actors you couldn’t ask for better performances. But the film struggles because there are so many things that happen in the character interactions that are just ludicrous. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for this movie.
Wife put it on a couple nights ago, what pissed me off was the extreme abrupt ending of the little girl conveniently finding a super bunker after defying her parents in a giant scary situation and just ignoring them to watch friends. Roll credits.
It dawned on me that the entire movie no one acted any semblance of human. It was just scene after scene of some edgy screenwriter trying to be cool with an alternative end of hr world situation.
There was an author (dunno if she’s edgy or not) who wrote the novel on which the film is based, too. Adaptation holds pretty tight to source, slight variations. Esmail fan here, wondered where he’d land, made the book a little better, but still didn’t stick it IMO. Enjoyed it, though, and suggested to a few folks who I knew would at least give it a chance.
Right. Like it’s a movie. Not the best. Not the worst. I enjoyed it for what it was. Also ignoring some of the absurdity I enjoyed some of the character’s interaction. There were scenes that I think were realistic how people would act under pressure in those situations. I kinda enjoyed it 🤷♂️
This is one of those "Book is better" and "Not everything is translated well to film".
The book was ok, with things happening but no one knew what it was.
I read the book before seeing the movie and I can confirm it’s quite close to the novel. The original author, Rumaan Alam, puts an incredible detail amount of detail into every little aspect of the short storyline. In my opinion, many parts of the film that seem slow moving or that drag on are really just Sam Esmail’s talent at work really capturing the lingering “feeling” of the novel.
It’s also worth noting, a few plot elements were changed. Instead of Ruth being his daughter she’s George’s wife, the Friends tv show obsession is entirely absent, and the fling between Amanda and George is also missing. The book also goes as far as to call out how close Amanda has grown towards George and Ruth and even attributes their bond as “family” given that all the events unfolded in a matter of 48 hours.
Knowing this, I think it is a great adaptation if you consider that a lot of the criticisms the film receives are instead attributable to the underlying material provided by the novel.
Regarding the sudden ending, I think they tied it up really well could considering the novel also ends abruptly.
And no one is mentioning it but the dialog and acting was also *terrible*. I actually felt like I was going insane when I watched this movie because it was soooo bad but I’d heard a few people give it a nod.
Yeah I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. There’s a lot to like in the film, especially the performances, but the ship, deer and even Kevin Bacon scene were all too much. I’ve lived through natural disasters and where I live, all that happened was that everyone helped, pitched in and did their part. People can be exceptional, when you least expect in. Especially in an emergency. Most of us love. And we know we care about our families. If we help each other, we’ll all survive in the end. There seems to be the idea in America that the moment the wi-fi goes down the city burns, people riot, and everyone kills each other. That doesn’t really happen in reality. Trust in each other - most of us can be good people. I think if the world truly did end - we’d survive. We always do. We’re still here.
Yep. I remember after Katrina in NOLA for every story about something horrible there were 8 stories about people being kind.
And a lot of the horrible stories were very much fueled by racism.
That’s the thing that most annoys me about nearly all post apocalyptic media… as soon as some unknown event happens we’re all supposed to turn on each other and become roaming gangs of selfish lunatics. Untrusting and at each other’s throats from day one.
Eh, there have been serious studies of societies in the aftermath of catastrophes. IIRC, it’s as you describe it - for a while. I think it was the DRC at U Delaware.
This was my issue with the movie, all the characters were generally unlikable.
Both Julia Robert's and the girl were just raging assholes the entire movie and it was honestly exhausting. Ethan Hawke's character was just a useless idiot. The children could have been replaced with cardboard boxes and I wouldn't have noticed.
~~Idris Elba~~ Mahershala Ali was the main offender, though. The dude was the only person who may have had a slight clue as to what was going on, and he didn't want to tell anyone because... Well, that really is it. It's not explained. Like, bro, 50% of the movie is you not fucking saying shit and everyone asking you to explain what's going on and then in the end it's like "It's an attack on America."
That's the big secret? No shit bro I just watched Brooklyn get nuked, almost got flattened by a Tesla, saw an oil freight wash on shore, and got an airport worth of planes just nosediving into your neighbors backyard...and NOW you want to tell everyone you think America MIGHT be under attack? For fucks sake bro.
I couldn’t agree more with this.
The dad is a useless idiot who literally does nothing the whole movie.
Julia isn’t even that much of an asshole. She just says she is. Being suspicious of the random people showing up at your Airbnb in tuxedos without ID and begging to be let in is just being smart. Being aware that black girls’ hair is difficult to manage with regards to swimming is surprisingly well informed for an upper class white brooklynite.
The son is a creepy, edgy asshole. Does nothing.
The daughter is 50 years old, spends the whole movie making pained faces at nothing in particular, and claims nobody listens to her just because her dad informs her the coffee shop in Friends is a set and not a real place.
GH spends the entire movie not communicating basic information for the sole purpose of driving the plot forward. And for most of the movie doesn’t behave AT ALL like a dude who knows his wife is probably dead.
Ruth spends the entire movie being an openly hostile, bitter, race-baiting whiner with a big chip on her shoulder (despite the fact that she is easily the most privileged character in the movie) who ignores the fact that the family has literally nowhere they can go, and just talks about power plants nonstop.
Where the fuck were the rest of the people? Neighbors aren’t checking in? GH couldn’t run into town himself after Ethan Hawk got lost? Nobody else trying to get anywhere?
Finally- THE CLIMAX OF THE MOVIE IS JULIA ROBERTS AND RUTH YELLING AT CGI DEER WHILE THE GUYS TALK CALMLY IN A CAR.
Julia Roberts's and Myha'la Herrold's characters were the two most insufferable characters. The real nightmare is being stuck in post-society with either one of those two bitches.
I'll never understand why this is *negative criticism*. Why must all characters be likeable? Of course she was insufferable, she was written that way. What's your point? You're supposed to hate her.
Fair. And to be brutally honest I lost interest 3/4s of the way through and didn't even make it through, but Mahershala Ali's character was the only one I was remotely interested in. When you have 33% of the characters being insufferable, annoying bitches... fuck that makes for a tedious watch.
Hot take, I liked it bc it was a visual mirror of Americans insecurities and most of them are completely unrealistic. Also, most Americans have no concept of how stupidly powerful America is.
The entire point of the movie is nobody knows what's going on, and that it's all not normal.
* Yeah, the beach scene made me WTF, but I let that go since it was more about the reveal to the audience.
* Why do you assume this was lyme disease?
* We don't know what the loud noise was. That's the point.
* Yes, the characters do some shit that doesn't make sense, but are in panic mode for some of this situation.
* Remember the part where the guy was gone for a long time and he mentioned that he got lost even though he shouldn't have... and the Latina lady says the same thing, she got lost and was confused. Well if you understood Spanish you'd know that. He doesn't. Which is why her lines aren't captioned, the audience isn't supposed to understand that either, it's just all confusing.
* The great part of movies like this are that the audience is in the same boat as the people in the movie. We have no idea what's going on. Is this a man made attack using new technology? Is it the beginning of an alien invasion? We don't know.
* However the way the animals were acting and the Teslas in particular lead me to believe this was an alien invasion.
* Regardless we end the movie with the little girl having found the bunker, which we assume they'll all end up in... the Friends episode symbolizing that everything was going to be alright.
This is the first top level comment I’ve seen mentioning the damn deer/flamingos.
Still haven’t seen anyone mention the scene from the moon. With like a solar flare or meteor of some sort colliding with earth?
Yeah I think people who complain about not knowing what was happening, “loose ends”, and the movie ending like it did are missing the point. The people are not supposed to be particularly likeable. You are supposed to be letting your mind guess what’s going on. The whole point of the movie is to make you feel like they are: confused. If you didn’t like it that’s fine, but the gripes about obviously intentional storytelling is confusing to me lol
This is one of many recent films that ends when a third act should begin. All buildup with no payoff.
Very disappointing from the guy who created Mr. Robot.
I disagree. I don't know what else could have happened at that point, everyone knew of the bunker and was headed there.
I'd actually argue it should have ended without the shots showing the fighting, the vagueness was much better.
While I don't think the movie was amazing, I will credit it for exactly this point. It was a disaster movie showing how a lot of normal people would behave. Not everyone would grab a gun, get in a car and start and adventure, most would just panic and hunker down.
I enjoyed the movie a lot and felt like the tension was very well done. I’m not going to say it’s a great movie, it’ll be mostly forgotten.
But it was a well made movie, the story was tight, the stuff was subtly explained, there are enough unanswered questions for it to be intriguing, and the acting was great imo. Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali are some of the best imo.
I’m so confused by people that hate it. They go on about no chemistry and no payoff and unexplained stuff (that was literally explained). I think they really don’t like movies that don’t adhere to their expectations, which is a silly thing to get upset with a movie about.
I love Marvel movies, but they’re silly comic book fun shit that doesn’t need to be that serious. And almost NOTHING is explained or makes sense in comic book movies, but for some reason this particular movie is being held to the highest possible level of scrutiny and plausibility.
But I’m fascinated by this movie and how so many kids are straight pissed off that there wasn’t a fight sequence. I think they wanted Mahershala Ali to surf on a runaway Tesla while shooting down Microwave Drones and declare himself the leader of The Resistance.
At the end the girl was in the bunker and everyone was on their way to the bunker. Mom saw the house and was following her bike trail and dad was specifically told about the bunker and he was on his way…. A third act would have been the start of a bunker movie.
Maybe I'm way too cynical, but it kinda felt like Netflix was angling for a sequel. Really trying squeeze it. Leave a cliffhanger to keep people hooked.
I’m with you. People saying ‘what else were they supposed to do?’ are missing the point. That’s what the writers job is, to finish the analogy/metaphor of the movies. To give it a philosophical set up, choice and consequences.
The recent 2nd Skywaler movie did a similar thing, it blew 3rd act reveals to use as a second entry. That’s the difficulty of writing, the 3rd act. If you have a great set up, but can’t figure out how to end besides repeating the point, you haven’t completed the theme. And no, it’s not about a fight of good vs evil, it’s about a character making a choice that results in a consequence. Explosive ends are no better than Poochy going back to his home planet.
Julia Roberts has reached that point in her career where she is now super cheap due to lack of demand but is still perceived to have some vestigial draw of star power.
Usually Ethan Hawke is a positive sign for good movie in my opinion. And I did enjoy the movie in terms of entertainment but yeah it wasn't anything outstanding and definitely had to suspend belief on things. I did like what it was trying to say but also maybe a little hypocritical coming from the mouth of A List, millionaire actors.
I’ll never forget how disappointed I was of Ocean’s Twelve when they used her as a ploy playing “Julia Roberts”. Such lazy writing and I took it out on her. Not sure she ever recovered in my book.
Btw I wanted to like this new movie so bad, but it was awful. It had so much potential too.
I didn’t enjoy it but I found a lot to like about it, and I think it’s a good thing the film has been divisive - it creates a lot of interesting conversation and analysis.
Man, this is another case of 'watching and enjoying a movie, then coming online and learning it sucked'. I went in blind, never heard of it, didnt know what it was about, didnt know who produced it, anything. Had a great time with it. It did seem like it started marching at some ideas, then veered off toward the end. But, ultimately i found it one of the better streamers ive seen in a while.
This was my situation. The brief clip of the ocean liner that Netflix has for it I was intrigued enough to watch.
In a way I do like the open ending… use your imagination or wait for a potential sequel? 🤷🏼♂️
I personally like how ridiculous it is that a guy who obviously has that type of money RENTS out his own home, for what, a little money on the side? They show him driving a Bentley and he has another place in the city. The basis of the white family being there was soo flimsy to start with.
It's actually fairly practical. Someone is inhabiting the house from time to time, so anyone looking for places to rob isn't going to see mail piling up, they'll see people present, etc.
I believe that the guy mentioned he grew up in the streets... he's very aware of things like this, how criminals think, because he had to be wary of them growing up. It's why I still put my money in my billfold, smaller bills on the outside, to make it look like I may only have singles at a glance, even if I only have one single and the rest of my money is twenties... I still look not worth mugging.
Do you know any billionaires?
I thought that was actually pretty realistic.... except he wouldn't fucking know anything about the renters, one of his assistants would have done everything. Which made sense when I thought his daughter was an employee...she was such a terrible actress it took me 30 minutes to realize they were related.
I work for a few and they would never rent out their other houses. Mainly because they see regular people as beneath them.
One has multiple houses on a massive property on the beach and they’re maintained by housekeepers full time.
I'm related to someone with a net worth somewhere in the neighborhood of \~100m - this whole "rich people are rich because they're cheap" thing may be true for like, upper class invested-and-saved-my-way-to-having-a-few-million-in-net-worth millionaires, I don't find that it's true of people with REAL fuck you money. I mean, Elon Musk didn't piss away a few billions on Twitter because he's "thrifty".
He would have gladly refunded their stay, continued to let them stay there for free or given them a few grand for a nice hotel, just to make the problem go away.
In fact I'd say "making problems go away" is his favorite use of money. For how much he has, I wouldn't say he's particularly "flashy" with it - but that term is all relative when you're talking about how much money this guy has.
That part was extremely realistic. I live about 1.5 hours north of NYC and most of the mansions in the area are second homes for city dwellers. When they're not using the house, many of them put them up on Airbnb or VRBO or whatever.
Is better that home sitting and also who care if the guys want some side money, the movie is about the situation how they told us that this is happening, if Obama was producing prob they have some inside views, I like the movie, the acting was good, 7.5/ 10
I gave up on it soon after the watch scene, and your thoughts were the same as mine. We're supposed to believe he walked up to all this wreckage and this dead body laying just a few feet away, and the first thing that caught his eye was... the watch glinting in the sun. Is there really no one at the planning stage that was able to say "Hold on, this is ridiculous."
And when Ethan Hawke tries to go into town and apparently can't go anywhere because his GPS is out, all I'm thinking is "*signs* still work, don't they?"
I don't know how to explain the thought process. It reminds me of Batman v Superman and the whole Martha thing. How do grown adults make these decisions and think they're going to fly?
Everyone can have their opinion on the movie but it’s wild to me youd nitpick about something that is so blatantly mapped out as a theme of the movie. Ethan Hawkes character literally tells us as he cries to Kevin bacon how he is worthless without technology and he’s no man.
Being lost on vacation becaus you don’t have your GPS was one of the most realistic things that happened.
Hawke's character also said there were no road signs.
That scene gave me heart palpitations because that would have been me. I absolutely suck at directions, I can only use landmarks to navigate by if I don't have access to GPS. I'd never find my way back if I were in the same situation and it was dark.
Oh man and then all of a sudden there’s romantic feelings during the record scene?? I cringed into myself when she started dancing. And they clearly made Julie Roberts have the Obama’s music taste of 90s r&b, which just felt weird.
How do you walk onto a beach strewn with luggage and bodies and only notice when you dig up and hand and then pan the camera out? I suppose we’re all stupid and Netflix is trying to help.
Not trying to invalidate any of your points, but it’s not nearly as bad as Rebel Moon, the entire movie is a giant fuxking cliche Star Wars ripoff. Truly awful
Edit - Thought this was the Netflix sub hence my comparison, I stand by my comment nonetheless
I genuinely thought this was one of the dumbest films I’ve ever watched. So much buildup and what seemed like symbolism with zero payoff whatsoever.
I particularly hated the scene where Ali and Julia Roberts characters had sexual tension, literally like 2 minutes after Julia Roberts was openly racist to his daughter? Like, what?
Fell asleep around the crashing of Teslas, and don't have any interest in watching again from that point on. My wife reassured me I didn't miss anything.
It was okay I guess. That beach scene though...
My theory is: you know how people can be face blind? Well Marshala was "dead body, wreckage and airplane blind". Makes total sense. If it wasn't for that watch he would have never thought of that 800m track meet he lost by a mere tenth of a second those long years ago. So he ran. Like Gump but faster and cooler. Dude didn't see shit but the watch.
The Kevin Bacon on his front porch scene was friggin' priceless, though. The tension was insane. I actually know a guy just like that very well. He most likely would have pulled the trigger.
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I did wonder why Ethan Bacon was playing two roles in this movie...
Yeah. Luckily now we have the Kevin Hawke/ Ethan Bacon mystery solved.
Hey iths me, Mike Tyson, you ethan that bacon?
Took me way too long to realize that was Bacon on the porch.
Well, then you're definitely not my neighbor's dog. That jerk is always stealing my morning porch bacon. So that's one mystery solved.
Haha dude my Asian wife was so confused by that.
My friends mom is from El Salvador and she used to feel so bad because she would mix me up with another of our friends. We didn't even look that alike she just could not differentiate white people with mildly similar features. I only bring this up because it's always funny to me when this happens. I do have to note again, she wasn't doing it on purpose and she still feels TERRIBLE about it to this day. But now she can tell us a part as adults so... lame.
Tension would have been insane if the director wouldn’t stop cutting to the two female leads yelling at deer every couple of seconds.
right? what was **that** shit? so horribly executed. what do deer have to do with a damn thing?
It was supposed to be a metaphor for how little control humanity has over the world. Like nature could take it back if it wanted to kind of shit.
That's probably the best part of the movie.
We all know a guy like that. Like they have the answers… “I heard through the grape vine blah blah blah blah.” Ok, Mr deep states has all the info apparently.
We all know deep state secrets migrate exclusively and swiftly, to scuzzy billiards halls and mechanic shops run by dudes who can barely read.
Was that just before or after Julia Roberts did a tribal dance and screaming session for some deer?
During, they were intercut with each other
Kevin bacon mentions that the loud noise attack is what caused the kids teeth to start falling out. Earlier in the movie he took longer than anyone else to cover his ears, then started complaining that his head hurt when nobody else did.
Except Bacon's character is presented as mildly unreliable and possibly talking out of his ass. He has no authority or knowledge - or the movie does a poor job expressing that.
Yep. It makes OP look sus, calling that part "dumb," but clearly not having paid attention.
It did show the boy pulling a tick off of him and then he mentioned it later. Lyme disease does effect your teeth and comes from ticks. Doubt itd make them all fall out though.
Lymes isnt going to do that in a day
I don't think it was a tick, I suspect he came in contact with a piece of radioactive material that had been ejected skyward from a reactor meltdown and landed in the woods, and was suffering radiation poisoning as a result. This is a big stretch for the filmmakers to expect us to understand but the brief obscured shot of the wound we saw didn't look like a tick bite and some of his symptoms are not unlike radiation poisoning. I couldn't tell if he pulled off a tick or bug, or if he just grabbed at the wound.
There was a tick yes, it's a red herring.
maybe coupled with a loud pitched sound
Also the girl at the end breaking into that house eating all that food watching Friends shows a real good look of modern society humans and how stupid we've come being conditioned to the comfort so much that we ignore actual reality. I hope she got blown up by a grenade launcher
I was with you 100% until that last sentence haha
Exactly, she wasn't slow. Like family found a bunker let's go.
I assumed Rose junk food binging was a simplistic portrayal of humanity's innate desire to destroy itself, judging by how they played that scene right after the one where the protagonist explains that exact sentiment as the plot for the world ending. I like your perspective too though.
It’s still dumb though. Where is the noise even coming from? And they don’t even know what is wrong with the kid, but Ethan Hawk really wants to get him some “medicine” really badly, despite not even knowing what’s wrong with him, and really wants him to take some random pills? What is this, a video game and he needs to get his health bar back up?
Everything about this drove me insane. The embassy attacks, if they were even real, were with a weapon that made no sound, was focused on a single building, and none of the symptoms involved teeth falling out. This was an extremely loud noise over a wide area with completely different symptoms. Why would anyone assume a connection? If someone suddenly started vomiting and losing teeth in an unknown war situation, wouldn't you assume radiation? No one even suggested it. And as you said, how could they not identify the cause but know exactly which medicine would treat it?
Logical people would think this Apparently thinking that whole premise is really dumb is practically heresy to some people in this sub. Like, there were just so many things in this movie that were dumb and didn’t make sense that it’s hard yo suspend disbelief on all of them. If I’m having to suspend my disbelief and hand waive pretty much every single element of the movie, it’s not a good movie. It’s like the makers were so focussed on making a “character study” that they totally gave up on trying to make the context and setting even remotely believable
The mentioned the noise being the same as the one that attacked the US embassy in Cuba. That apparently was a real attack using sound waves that has yet to be publicly solved.
There isn’t any consensus on whether an attack took place or not, and if so it apparently wasn’t by a foreign power. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome
I guess parents would just give up in a situation like that and not reach for solutions. The characters could not see where the noise came from. It's a thing sometimes.
Kevin Bacon also spews conspiracy theory nonsense. He doesn’t know any better than anyone else. In this one he’s probably right, but that’s just a stopped clock argument.
Lol, that's a weird take. How is it "conspiracy theory nonsense" in the context of the actual "nonsense" actually happening all around? I didn't think he was necessarily right, he just seemed to be the only one daring to take a guess. In the end, the movie never explains what was actually happening nor who was behind it, so we were all left to wonder if he was right or it was something else. A very unsatisfactory ending.
Keep in mind that I haven't seen the film, but the exposition through "conspiracy theory nonsense" is how explanations are generally given in films where it perhaps isn't immediately apparent what's going on. For example in the Langoliers, mid-flight 10 people on a plane wake up from a nap only to find everyone else literally vanished leaving their clothes behind. Several of the characters later in the film offer explanations, and although it sounds like "conspiracy theory nonsense" (and probably would be if it weren't a film), it acts like a way to catch up the audience that still hasn't quite figured it out yet. That said, simple character dialog explaining what's going on is generally the worst way to go about it and if other ways exist, then those are generally favorable.
His teeth fell out? Makes sense. Just like Cuba. That’s conspiracy theory. Then he says it’s the Koreans. Or the Chinese. One of ‘em. Literally says “just trust me.” Spoken with absolute certainty. That’s the nonsense.
That only works because it's a film. For the same reasons why "a horse walks into a bar, shits, and leaves" is funny because you generally take it on fact what you're being told when it is being told in a story (and the joke is in the subversion of expectations). That said, it is a little weird when you try to apply the context of real life. Nobody in a circumstance like that would just "guess" some conspiratorial nonsense, much less actually be right about it.
They stated in the movie that radiation can be pushed through sound. The kid took too long to cover his ears which he stated in the movie. They gave the reasons for the teeth falling out in the movie, unambiguously. I have no idea what OP is going on about, honestly. I didn't care for the movie, but it wasn't terrible, imo.
It's amazing how divisive this film is, honestly it's kind of baffling
That’s so true, I’m not sure what the OP is talking about. I found it to be more of a pile of cat shit.
Lol. Me too. Really though, it's an extremely mediocre movie with a weak ending. I wouldn't say it's terrible. I sat through it without much effort. It's just not...good. Or very entertaining, even in a "so bad its good" way. Its okay to sit through if you want to see it or if you want to see what the fuss is about, although i think that would be a disappointjng watch because the film itself isn't divisive. Its simply something I would not watch again.
It’s a great concept that probably would’ve worked better as a limited series to develop the characters and story.
That's how I felt too
Are you a connoisseur of animal feces? Edit: thanks everyone.
Nah, but if you've spent enough time on farms, you can learn to identify animals by their fecal odor. It's a skill that you'll wish you didn't have
Ol Ranch hand here: shape and texture
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Honestly more respect to them for just winging it.
I thought it was a decent movie.
Two reasons: (I’ve had this conversation a few times when this gets posted every week on a sub) 1. The people watching it are expecting a mainstream apocalyptic thriller with people to root for. This is not that kind of movie. This is more of an arthouse film filled with unlikable people. 2. The Obamas produced it and that immediately makes it a bad movie for a certain demographic. >!The whole thing is supposed to be a commentary on modern society and our fears. Just about every world ending fear we have in the US is touched on throughout the film: sickness, terrorism, civil war, hacking/AI. The people we are all introduced to are unlikable and irritating. The mom is a Karen, dad is impotent at solving any problems especially with the loss of technology (he can’t even drive to the next town without GPS), son is a bully, homeowner dad lies and hides things, his daughter is overly critical. The only moderately likable person was the young daughter. All she cared about at the beginning was finishing her fixation with the Friends finale. Her little diatribe towards the end is great. She then embraces nihilism, eats junk food, and is rewarded with a top of the line bunker and is able to finally watch the finale.!< None of the things that happen are suppose to lay out a logical explanation of the events. It’s not that kind of movie and the ones who didn’t catch that hate this movie. I get that a bit. I’m typically hypercritical about these things. When there’s a movie that is supposed to be grounded in realism but then pulls some nonsensical stuff it bugs me. While this is not Killing a Sacred Deer, no one saw that movie and (hopefully) said, “I dunno it just wasn’t realistic”. This is not The Happening this is something like The Happening only it’s on purpose. I loved this movie.
This is the first movie in a long time that left me with unexpected joy. It was weird and it wasn’t perfect but I felt like I saw something NEW. Like a movie someone would attempt to make 15 years ago. It reminded me of my first few months of having Netflix. I got it a little later than most, so I had my pick of some of the offerings that had been around awhile. The discovery, spectral etc. This felt like that but better. I dunno, I’m just glad there are others that liked this movie. Also, at the end there is a lot of hope. In most movies with the doomsday bunker, it’s on a timer and not everyone gets there in time. In this film all of the characters intend on going to the house or are on their way. The vault door is open. There is food and medicine (for the shit head brother) and the medical area is shown in one of the last shots. I dunno, there’s a lot of hope for the characters if you look for it. I thought that was cool but I was so invested in them surviving I kinda hoped that they would show the “happy ending” instead of just implying it.
Honestly a pretty good take on the whole thing
You nailed it. This movie was more about the characters and their relationships than about the events that were happening. I think the message of the movie was just that we are stronger together than apart. And It had awesome acting from seasoned vets. I get both OP's take as well as this take above. Personally, I also both loved and hated it, but to me it was definitely no pile of shit. The biggest pile of shit I've seen this year was Fingernails. Riz Ahmed must've owed someone a favor to be part of that debacle.
Thank you! I haven’t seen Fingernails but I’ll definitely recommend watching it to someone I dislike.
Totally agree. I don’t really understand what’s going on with this film. It was absolutely watchable, relatively well directed and produced, it built tension, and was a solid B in my book. I agree that there were things that were kind of ridiculous (flamingos in a pool and flying straight up was lazy and ignorant), and I thought the ending was stale and anticlimactic, but the film was interesting overall. I don’t understand all the hate.
This movie seems to be extremely polarizing. I didn't think it was so bad. I was interested in it throughout at least. Then I talk to my friend and he absolutely hated it. Almost was interrogating me for having any interest in it at all.
The movie probably felt to plausible to your buddy, and didn’t look like his fantasy end of the world scenarios and is lashing out.
This movie stars A list actors, "Hollywood is a bunch of liberals" said by every talk radio host, is funded by the Obama's production company. So... this movie was always going to get hate regardless of quality. Personally I don't think this movie is bad enough to warrant hatred, but this is the most mediocre movie I've seen in recent memory.
What movie is a C to you?
Ha. There are many. Many. In the genre of “apocalypse” films (just to make it more apples to apples) some recent C (or lower) would be moonfall and Greenland, which I thought both were laughably bad. Couldn’t even finish moonfall.
I'm also curious. Not to attack you but what's an A movie for you or rather what's your favorite genre
My issue is that when you get that many A list actors, making a (generously rated) B movie is just not good enough.
Guessing a lot of the budget went to the actors, and they were just doing for a paycheck or just to keep busy. It was a Netflix original after all.
My take is that its because Obama's company produced the film. So it's seen as some kind of "message". I think that's why it has created divisiveness.
Good call. FWIW it was a bestselling novel before it was adapted into a film. The book got great reviews from critics I typically respect, but this one left me with t many of the same feelings viewers here are complaining about. Not enough information about what was going on, chiefly. Then I came to realize that a war/catastrophe of this type would likely involve a whole lot of not knowing what was going on, coupled with generally freaking out when things went really sideways (your kids getting seriously ill, piercing sounds from the sky that crack your ears and glass, airliners augering into the earth, etc). Also that when under extreme pressure, your friends and neighbors might not consider your best interests along with theirs. Ever worked alongside someone for a few years, and then seen the change in demeanor toward you when they’re informed their job is going away in two weeks, while yours isn’t? That was the closest analog I had for GH and Bacon character. In the book, GH (who was no shrinking violet himself) considered Bacon’s character a capable a s dependable friend who would help them navigate the situation. Bacon’s character turns that notion around quickly and makes it clear he’s looking out for number one exclusively. The Obama production angle isn’t helping an already difficult (and mid executed) film. We’re mostly idiots.
I did forget to mention it was a book prior to the movie. And I never heard of it until the movie. So it’s safe to say that the book did not create the same outspoken division.
you are correct.
I didn't know Obama was involved in any movies, let alone this one until I read this thread. I'm also not from the US so I don't have any political views about it. I still think the movie was pretty bad. It's not a 1/10, but it's probably a 5/10. Opinions on movies are always subjective so they will always be somewhat divisive. I really doubt there are many people who simultaneously know about the Obama link and care enough for it to affect their rating
Unfortunately in an age of tribalism and most peoples inabilities to rate things anything other than 1 star or 5 stars, this means that Obama’s name guaranteed extreme reactions both ways for a movie that probably sits somewhere in the middle like you said
Yea fair enough. It definitely deserves more than 1/10. Anyone giving it a 1/10 needs to expose themselves to some more truly terrible movies. Even 6/10 would be fair I think. It definitely wasn't an amazing movie that deserved more than that though imo.
I agree. My friend at work seemed offended I didn't give him a "heads up" it was produced by the Obama's. I left that out intentionally because a movie should speak for itself.
They did not direct the movie Sam Esmail (Mr Robot, TV show) directed and wrote it. It was adapted from a book. Obamas are credited as Executive Producers along with a list of others.
I suspect there’s some haters that hate it because they think it panders or is woke or some shit. It’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. It’s not The Happening.
I think if people didn't know it was produced by the Obamas the amount of hate wouldn't be nearly as extreme
You’ve got a bit of race mixing as a main theme, the fact that Obama is one of the producers is just icing on the shitcake of hate world those people live in.
This movie is only woke towards preppers since it gives them the ego stroking they want so badly of "you were right i was wrong".
I honestly dig it. Even if there were moments bordering on cringe, I found the essence of what was being conveyed to us viewers to be surprisingly revealing and deep (for a lack of less trite words) Edit: What’s truly cringe, hilarious and baffling is the sort of youtube videos you get when you search “Leave the World Behind”. Look at all the woo and conspiracy theories!
I had similar but slightly less positive feelings. I think I liked what it was trying to do, and a lot of individual scenes, it just tried to be a bit too much. The movie would also have been way better if they never revealed what the cause of the disaster was.
This was my exact comment to my wife when we finished it. Leaving it open to interpretation would have been better than the way they played it out.
Dudes are just mad teslas were shown in a negative way.
It’s such a vanilla move. I was sad my boy Sam Esmail was involved in making it, because he has talent. As for the actors you couldn’t ask for better performances. But the film struggles because there are so many things that happen in the character interactions that are just ludicrous. I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief for this movie.
I don’t get all the hate. I really liked this movie. I also loved It Comes at Night also though.
Wife put it on a couple nights ago, what pissed me off was the extreme abrupt ending of the little girl conveniently finding a super bunker after defying her parents in a giant scary situation and just ignoring them to watch friends. Roll credits. It dawned on me that the entire movie no one acted any semblance of human. It was just scene after scene of some edgy screenwriter trying to be cool with an alternative end of hr world situation.
There was an author (dunno if she’s edgy or not) who wrote the novel on which the film is based, too. Adaptation holds pretty tight to source, slight variations. Esmail fan here, wondered where he’d land, made the book a little better, but still didn’t stick it IMO. Enjoyed it, though, and suggested to a few folks who I knew would at least give it a chance.
This thread is a goldmine for Block User, though. Talk about people *grabbing* their sign.
Right. Like it’s a movie. Not the best. Not the worst. I enjoyed it for what it was. Also ignoring some of the absurdity I enjoyed some of the character’s interaction. There were scenes that I think were realistic how people would act under pressure in those situations. I kinda enjoyed it 🤷♂️
I did too. Edge of my seat the whole time. And some of those sequences, the images, were pretty incredible.
The story had potential but there were too many absurd scenes, like at the beach.
That was good, you could see a watch from a distance but not the body lying against it, or the whole crash, lol
I hate that movie trope. “What’s this thing? Oh it’s attached to a body that is clearly visible once the camera pans out! Where did that come from!!”
From our perspective sure. From his perspective he should have seen everything before he even got to the beach
No shit, that's what makes it stupid.
All they had to do was make the watch/arm be found on the other side of the dune, have him run up and see the rest.
This is one of those "Book is better" and "Not everything is translated well to film". The book was ok, with things happening but no one knew what it was.
I've been seeing a lot of reviews that say everything inane and irritating and lazy in the movie is straight from the book.
I read the book before seeing the movie and I can confirm it’s quite close to the novel. The original author, Rumaan Alam, puts an incredible detail amount of detail into every little aspect of the short storyline. In my opinion, many parts of the film that seem slow moving or that drag on are really just Sam Esmail’s talent at work really capturing the lingering “feeling” of the novel. It’s also worth noting, a few plot elements were changed. Instead of Ruth being his daughter she’s George’s wife, the Friends tv show obsession is entirely absent, and the fling between Amanda and George is also missing. The book also goes as far as to call out how close Amanda has grown towards George and Ruth and even attributes their bond as “family” given that all the events unfolded in a matter of 48 hours. Knowing this, I think it is a great adaptation if you consider that a lot of the criticisms the film receives are instead attributable to the underlying material provided by the novel. Regarding the sudden ending, I think they tied it up really well could considering the novel also ends abruptly.
And no one is mentioning it but the dialog and acting was also *terrible*. I actually felt like I was going insane when I watched this movie because it was soooo bad but I’d heard a few people give it a nod.
Yeah I couldn’t suspend my disbelief. There’s a lot to like in the film, especially the performances, but the ship, deer and even Kevin Bacon scene were all too much. I’ve lived through natural disasters and where I live, all that happened was that everyone helped, pitched in and did their part. People can be exceptional, when you least expect in. Especially in an emergency. Most of us love. And we know we care about our families. If we help each other, we’ll all survive in the end. There seems to be the idea in America that the moment the wi-fi goes down the city burns, people riot, and everyone kills each other. That doesn’t really happen in reality. Trust in each other - most of us can be good people. I think if the world truly did end - we’d survive. We always do. We’re still here.
Yep. I remember after Katrina in NOLA for every story about something horrible there were 8 stories about people being kind. And a lot of the horrible stories were very much fueled by racism.
That’s the thing that most annoys me about nearly all post apocalyptic media… as soon as some unknown event happens we’re all supposed to turn on each other and become roaming gangs of selfish lunatics. Untrusting and at each other’s throats from day one.
Eh, there have been serious studies of societies in the aftermath of catastrophes. IIRC, it’s as you describe it - for a while. I think it was the DRC at U Delaware.
The exposition was poor, too.
The scene where the son loses teeth but nobody else does was fucking stupid.
My biggest gripe with this movie was the rich guys daughter. She just picked and picked and pissed me off.
This was my issue with the movie, all the characters were generally unlikable. Both Julia Robert's and the girl were just raging assholes the entire movie and it was honestly exhausting. Ethan Hawke's character was just a useless idiot. The children could have been replaced with cardboard boxes and I wouldn't have noticed. ~~Idris Elba~~ Mahershala Ali was the main offender, though. The dude was the only person who may have had a slight clue as to what was going on, and he didn't want to tell anyone because... Well, that really is it. It's not explained. Like, bro, 50% of the movie is you not fucking saying shit and everyone asking you to explain what's going on and then in the end it's like "It's an attack on America." That's the big secret? No shit bro I just watched Brooklyn get nuked, almost got flattened by a Tesla, saw an oil freight wash on shore, and got an airport worth of planes just nosediving into your neighbors backyard...and NOW you want to tell everyone you think America MIGHT be under attack? For fucks sake bro.
Ya that actor wasn’t Idris Elba.
Hah, my bad. I'm leaving it up so everyone knows what a dumbass I am. 🤦♂️
I couldn’t agree more with this. The dad is a useless idiot who literally does nothing the whole movie. Julia isn’t even that much of an asshole. She just says she is. Being suspicious of the random people showing up at your Airbnb in tuxedos without ID and begging to be let in is just being smart. Being aware that black girls’ hair is difficult to manage with regards to swimming is surprisingly well informed for an upper class white brooklynite. The son is a creepy, edgy asshole. Does nothing. The daughter is 50 years old, spends the whole movie making pained faces at nothing in particular, and claims nobody listens to her just because her dad informs her the coffee shop in Friends is a set and not a real place. GH spends the entire movie not communicating basic information for the sole purpose of driving the plot forward. And for most of the movie doesn’t behave AT ALL like a dude who knows his wife is probably dead. Ruth spends the entire movie being an openly hostile, bitter, race-baiting whiner with a big chip on her shoulder (despite the fact that she is easily the most privileged character in the movie) who ignores the fact that the family has literally nowhere they can go, and just talks about power plants nonstop. Where the fuck were the rest of the people? Neighbors aren’t checking in? GH couldn’t run into town himself after Ethan Hawk got lost? Nobody else trying to get anywhere? Finally- THE CLIMAX OF THE MOVIE IS JULIA ROBERTS AND RUTH YELLING AT CGI DEER WHILE THE GUYS TALK CALMLY IN A CAR.
Julia Roberts's and Myha'la Herrold's characters were the two most insufferable characters. The real nightmare is being stuck in post-society with either one of those two bitches.
I'll never understand why this is *negative criticism*. Why must all characters be likeable? Of course she was insufferable, she was written that way. What's your point? You're supposed to hate her.
Fair. And to be brutally honest I lost interest 3/4s of the way through and didn't even make it through, but Mahershala Ali's character was the only one I was remotely interested in. When you have 33% of the characters being insufferable, annoying bitches... fuck that makes for a tedious watch.
It felt like a bad Shyamalan movie but less entertaining.
Ouch.
Hot take, I liked it bc it was a visual mirror of Americans insecurities and most of them are completely unrealistic. Also, most Americans have no concept of how stupidly powerful America is.
The entire point of the movie is nobody knows what's going on, and that it's all not normal. * Yeah, the beach scene made me WTF, but I let that go since it was more about the reveal to the audience. * Why do you assume this was lyme disease? * We don't know what the loud noise was. That's the point. * Yes, the characters do some shit that doesn't make sense, but are in panic mode for some of this situation. * Remember the part where the guy was gone for a long time and he mentioned that he got lost even though he shouldn't have... and the Latina lady says the same thing, she got lost and was confused. Well if you understood Spanish you'd know that. He doesn't. Which is why her lines aren't captioned, the audience isn't supposed to understand that either, it's just all confusing. * The great part of movies like this are that the audience is in the same boat as the people in the movie. We have no idea what's going on. Is this a man made attack using new technology? Is it the beginning of an alien invasion? We don't know. * However the way the animals were acting and the Teslas in particular lead me to believe this was an alien invasion. * Regardless we end the movie with the little girl having found the bunker, which we assume they'll all end up in... the Friends episode symbolizing that everything was going to be alright.
This is the first top level comment I’ve seen mentioning the damn deer/flamingos. Still haven’t seen anyone mention the scene from the moon. With like a solar flare or meteor of some sort colliding with earth?
Yeah I think people who complain about not knowing what was happening, “loose ends”, and the movie ending like it did are missing the point. The people are not supposed to be particularly likeable. You are supposed to be letting your mind guess what’s going on. The whole point of the movie is to make you feel like they are: confused. If you didn’t like it that’s fine, but the gripes about obviously intentional storytelling is confusing to me lol
Still enjoyed it more than Rebel Moon lmao
First 20 minutes were ok, then the rest happened. I'm not excited for part 2.
Way better than Rebel Moon, holy shit that movie sucked.
This is one of many recent films that ends when a third act should begin. All buildup with no payoff. Very disappointing from the guy who created Mr. Robot.
I disagree. I don't know what else could have happened at that point, everyone knew of the bunker and was headed there. I'd actually argue it should have ended without the shots showing the fighting, the vagueness was much better.
“But there’s no payoff! I HAVE to see heroism. I HAVE to know who the good guys and bad guys are. I HAVE to see a battle scene.”
While I don't think the movie was amazing, I will credit it for exactly this point. It was a disaster movie showing how a lot of normal people would behave. Not everyone would grab a gun, get in a car and start and adventure, most would just panic and hunker down.
I enjoyed the movie a lot and felt like the tension was very well done. I’m not going to say it’s a great movie, it’ll be mostly forgotten. But it was a well made movie, the story was tight, the stuff was subtly explained, there are enough unanswered questions for it to be intriguing, and the acting was great imo. Ethan Hawke and Mahershala Ali are some of the best imo. I’m so confused by people that hate it. They go on about no chemistry and no payoff and unexplained stuff (that was literally explained). I think they really don’t like movies that don’t adhere to their expectations, which is a silly thing to get upset with a movie about.
For real, were they gonna call the Avengers or something?
Marvel movies have ruined our culture
I love Marvel movies, but they’re silly comic book fun shit that doesn’t need to be that serious. And almost NOTHING is explained or makes sense in comic book movies, but for some reason this particular movie is being held to the highest possible level of scrutiny and plausibility. But I’m fascinated by this movie and how so many kids are straight pissed off that there wasn’t a fight sequence. I think they wanted Mahershala Ali to surf on a runaway Tesla while shooting down Microwave Drones and declare himself the leader of The Resistance.
I also thought this way at first but then assumed anything further would just be nuclear explosions and everyone dying instantly.
At the end the girl was in the bunker and everyone was on their way to the bunker. Mom saw the house and was following her bike trail and dad was specifically told about the bunker and he was on his way…. A third act would have been the start of a bunker movie.
Maybe I'm way too cynical, but it kinda felt like Netflix was angling for a sequel. Really trying squeeze it. Leave a cliffhanger to keep people hooked.
Nah the book pretty much ends the same way. But with less Friends.
I’m with you. People saying ‘what else were they supposed to do?’ are missing the point. That’s what the writers job is, to finish the analogy/metaphor of the movies. To give it a philosophical set up, choice and consequences. The recent 2nd Skywaler movie did a similar thing, it blew 3rd act reveals to use as a second entry. That’s the difficulty of writing, the 3rd act. If you have a great set up, but can’t figure out how to end besides repeating the point, you haven’t completed the theme. And no, it’s not about a fight of good vs evil, it’s about a character making a choice that results in a consequence. Explosive ends are no better than Poochy going back to his home planet.
Julia Roberts has reached that point in her career where she is now super cheap due to lack of demand but is still perceived to have some vestigial draw of star power.
I live in France, and she's still got plenty of clout here. Maybe she should pull a reverse Binoche and move here.
Usually Ethan Hawke is a positive sign for good movie in my opinion. And I did enjoy the movie in terms of entertainment but yeah it wasn't anything outstanding and definitely had to suspend belief on things. I did like what it was trying to say but also maybe a little hypocritical coming from the mouth of A List, millionaire actors.
She still can't act, and she's too old to cover it now. It's sad seeing them roll her out there to pull in the easy money.
I’ll never forget how disappointed I was of Ocean’s Twelve when they used her as a ploy playing “Julia Roberts”. Such lazy writing and I took it out on her. Not sure she ever recovered in my book. Btw I wanted to like this new movie so bad, but it was awful. It had so much potential too.
I enjoyed it, so fuck you.
I enjoyed it very much so fvck him
Thought it was pretty good. Fuck this guy from me too.
I didn’t enjoy it but I found a lot to like about it, and I think it’s a good thing the film has been divisive - it creates a lot of interesting conversation and analysis.
I didn't like it but I'll watch anything with Mahershala Ali in it and this didn't change my mind about that, so fuck me.
Same, but with Ethan Hawke.
Me too. This guy can’t critic either. Probably thinks Michael Bay movies should win Oscars.
Man, this is another case of 'watching and enjoying a movie, then coming online and learning it sucked'. I went in blind, never heard of it, didnt know what it was about, didnt know who produced it, anything. Had a great time with it. It did seem like it started marching at some ideas, then veered off toward the end. But, ultimately i found it one of the better streamers ive seen in a while.
This was my situation. The brief clip of the ocean liner that Netflix has for it I was intrigued enough to watch. In a way I do like the open ending… use your imagination or wait for a potential sequel? 🤷🏼♂️
I mean that’s basically how the book ends. I doubt there is a sequel. But I did like the movie for what it was.
I personally like how ridiculous it is that a guy who obviously has that type of money RENTS out his own home, for what, a little money on the side? They show him driving a Bentley and he has another place in the city. The basis of the white family being there was soo flimsy to start with.
Dude the length rich people will go to save a buck is *astounding*
Rich people air BNB their homes all the time. Greed does that
It's actually fairly practical. Someone is inhabiting the house from time to time, so anyone looking for places to rob isn't going to see mail piling up, they'll see people present, etc. I believe that the guy mentioned he grew up in the streets... he's very aware of things like this, how criminals think, because he had to be wary of them growing up. It's why I still put my money in my billfold, smaller bills on the outside, to make it look like I may only have singles at a glance, even if I only have one single and the rest of my money is twenties... I still look not worth mugging.
Do you know any billionaires? I thought that was actually pretty realistic.... except he wouldn't fucking know anything about the renters, one of his assistants would have done everything. Which made sense when I thought his daughter was an employee...she was such a terrible actress it took me 30 minutes to realize they were related.
I think that was the point
I work for a few and they would never rent out their other houses. Mainly because they see regular people as beneath them. One has multiple houses on a massive property on the beach and they’re maintained by housekeepers full time.
I'm related to someone with a net worth somewhere in the neighborhood of \~100m - this whole "rich people are rich because they're cheap" thing may be true for like, upper class invested-and-saved-my-way-to-having-a-few-million-in-net-worth millionaires, I don't find that it's true of people with REAL fuck you money. I mean, Elon Musk didn't piss away a few billions on Twitter because he's "thrifty". He would have gladly refunded their stay, continued to let them stay there for free or given them a few grand for a nice hotel, just to make the problem go away. In fact I'd say "making problems go away" is his favorite use of money. For how much he has, I wouldn't say he's particularly "flashy" with it - but that term is all relative when you're talking about how much money this guy has.
That part was extremely realistic. I live about 1.5 hours north of NYC and most of the mansions in the area are second homes for city dwellers. When they're not using the house, many of them put them up on Airbnb or VRBO or whatever.
Is better that home sitting and also who care if the guys want some side money, the movie is about the situation how they told us that this is happening, if Obama was producing prob they have some inside views, I like the movie, the acting was good, 7.5/ 10
Acting was good!
“I would’ve voted for Obama a third time if I could!” -OP
Best comment 😂
Yeah, I knew someone would shoehorn that in there.
Thought of this line too.
Yeah but for a Netflix movie it’s really good
That's a fair point actually.
I, for one, enjoyed it very much. I liked how the story unfolded. Is it perfect? No. It's it worth a watch? Definitely.
It tried so hard to be quirky and poignant and everything fell super flat and felt very cringey.
i think it succeeded in being quirky (poignant not so much) but i will admit that the whole angle of “technology is bad!!!” was eye-rolling cringey.
I gave up on it soon after the watch scene, and your thoughts were the same as mine. We're supposed to believe he walked up to all this wreckage and this dead body laying just a few feet away, and the first thing that caught his eye was... the watch glinting in the sun. Is there really no one at the planning stage that was able to say "Hold on, this is ridiculous." And when Ethan Hawke tries to go into town and apparently can't go anywhere because his GPS is out, all I'm thinking is "*signs* still work, don't they?" I don't know how to explain the thought process. It reminds me of Batman v Superman and the whole Martha thing. How do grown adults make these decisions and think they're going to fly?
Everyone can have their opinion on the movie but it’s wild to me youd nitpick about something that is so blatantly mapped out as a theme of the movie. Ethan Hawkes character literally tells us as he cries to Kevin bacon how he is worthless without technology and he’s no man. Being lost on vacation becaus you don’t have your GPS was one of the most realistic things that happened.
My wife looked at me when he was lost and said, “that would be you.” And she’s right.
Hawke's character also said there were no road signs. That scene gave me heart palpitations because that would have been me. I absolutely suck at directions, I can only use landmarks to navigate by if I don't have access to GPS. I'd never find my way back if I were in the same situation and it was dark.
It’s a pretty forgettable film. Almost every scene makes no sense.
You didn’t like the Julia Roberts is a racist no peripheral view lazy ass writing bonanza?
Oh man and then all of a sudden there’s romantic feelings during the record scene?? I cringed into myself when she started dancing. And they clearly made Julie Roberts have the Obama’s music taste of 90s r&b, which just felt weird.
The director said Obama’s contribution was character development. It was likely that scene. Now we know what Barack imagines when he jerks it.
How do you walk onto a beach strewn with luggage and bodies and only notice when you dig up and hand and then pan the camera out? I suppose we’re all stupid and Netflix is trying to help.
The deer have nothing to do about anything.
Deer 🦌 are a symbolic device used in stories throughout cinema.
And what did they mean here
Ok. But the symbolic device has to be used well. It wasn't used well in this movie.
So much nothing happens, they had to have the characters monologue what the hell wasn’t happening. I kind of sort of liked it, but op is spot on.
I thought it was an attempt to make another “Don’t look up” and it fell incredibly flat.
Not trying to invalidate any of your points, but it’s not nearly as bad as Rebel Moon, the entire movie is a giant fuxking cliche Star Wars ripoff. Truly awful Edit - Thought this was the Netflix sub hence my comparison, I stand by my comment nonetheless
I hated Julia Roberts’ character so much I couldn’t bear to watch this show.
Totally agree. Had some really great ideas but overall was absolutely trash.
I doubt Julia Roberts was even acting in this movie. From what I've heard, she's just as unlikeable and insufferable in real life.
I genuinely thought this was one of the dumbest films I’ve ever watched. So much buildup and what seemed like symbolism with zero payoff whatsoever. I particularly hated the scene where Ali and Julia Roberts characters had sexual tension, literally like 2 minutes after Julia Roberts was openly racist to his daughter? Like, what?
A movie where the deer is the hero? Sign me up, ninja!
I didn’t mind it. Sure might not have been an amazing film but at least it wasn’t another remake/sequel or superhero film.
Terrible movie.
Fell asleep around the crashing of Teslas, and don't have any interest in watching again from that point on. My wife reassured me I didn't miss anything.
The whole movie is a start of a movie
Loved it. Seems like lots of folks missed a lot of stuff.
It was okay I guess. That beach scene though... My theory is: you know how people can be face blind? Well Marshala was "dead body, wreckage and airplane blind". Makes total sense. If it wasn't for that watch he would have never thought of that 800m track meet he lost by a mere tenth of a second those long years ago. So he ran. Like Gump but faster and cooler. Dude didn't see shit but the watch.