The Philosophers - Wer überlebt?

A bunch of kids who all seem to have arrived from the same toothpaste or shampoo commercial turn up for their last day at school ever. The teacher decides to run a philosophy role-play as a kind of review session. What follows are momentous life-and-death decisions with huge consequences for the fate of the human race.

Or not, as it turns out - because it is a classroom exercise. All the exotic settings, CGI explosions, and crisp cinematography cannot distract us from the fact that all that is at stake here is an A, B or C grade. There isn't even a mention that someone might FAIL the class - the stakes are that low! The teacher threatens the lead girl with losing her A+ in a manner that, if taken seriously, would see him fired for power harassment and incompetence. Are we meant to fear for her in this ludicrous moment? Unfortunately, that is as dramatic as this film gets.

The so-called philosophy is preachy and immature. The pupils all kind of blend into each other as characterisation is one-note. And absolutely nothing of value is tested or put at risk here. It's like The Breakfast Club was never made.

How this screenplay made it to the top of anyone's pile is a crime that should be investigated. Two stars - one for the cinematography, the other for the huge drinking game potential.

I admit I had very high expectations for this movie, simply because I love riddles and movies that stimulate one's brain. Sadly, it was a huge disappointment.

At the beginning, the movie seemed pretty promising and I rather enjoyed it till about the middle. That's when things started taking the turn for the worse. For all the logic that movie tries depict, it truly lacks that very same logic badly. There were so many absolutely illogical and dumb scenes I can't even begin to name them. What was a highly interesting scenario with great potential became just another one of these movies you are likely to forget pretty soon.

I enjoyed it while it lasted, with the exception of the ending (I'd rather they just deleted it all together), and the acting was pretty great, too. Over all, it's entertaining to a certain degree but don't expect anything mind-blowing. The movie doesn't live up to what it promises.

I liked the first half hour a lot actally. I wish it was just a short film becouse it would have been way better that way. That is all I have to say. It should have ended after they played out the first scene. (By the first scene I mean the first time they died in the bunker. Becouse everything after that was just complete BS. It was like they decided that they didn't actually want the story and the plot to make any sense and they flashed it down the toilet. And than there is the actual ending. It wasn't even worth watching becouse it had no relation to the story. It was about as bad as when the author decides they don't know how to finish a story and just says that it was all a dream.

The beginning is interesting, I would say until the second half. Nothing wildly exciting, has some nice little twist in there but very minimal. It is shot in a dreamy kind of atmosphere. For some completely non-constructive and no where plot related reason the class is in Jakarta (pronounced Yanky style Djakardda) and you can tell this by the teak hardwood furniture and the crickets in the back (duh). The second half is hopeless. All the close ups of clearasil clean pouts, island shots and fuzzy broken sunlight (a lot if it) can't disguise the mouth-breathy throaty delivered "philosophy" to be no more than pretentious romanticism. The ending is a joke. Or maybe it is 'so deep' we all didn't get it. I give it a 5 for the first half.

As other people have detailed more completely than I care to, this movie is mediocre at best if you're looking for a movie about philosophy. If you try to watch the movie from this point of view it's downright infuriating and deserves the single star that so many reviewers gave.

Watching the movie as a drama, it's passable. The teacher claims that they're doing a thought experiment but in actuality I would say they were playing a bad role playing game (think Dungeons and Dragons). Imagine a really nasty DM (the teacher) empowered to force others to play his game by use of his position of authority. He does most of the things that a bad DM does and for reasons consistent with most common role playing game drama. This doesn't really pull together to make a fantastic movie but it's decent.