The Fix

South Africa's "The Fix" is one of those movies that, had it a better cast, director and script, it might've been interesting at least. But as it is, I was confused throughout, and I don't know if it was caused by my boredom or if my boredom caused the confusion. In any case, I really didn't get it.

Had the actors been better-let's say Cate Blanchett in the lead instead of Grace Van Dien-the charisma and ability to comprehend emotions and bring a competent script to life would have done wonders. And how about deCaprio as the scheming scientist? Let's add a director like, say, Christopher Nolan to make exciting scenes exciting and dramatic scenes dramatic. And the script...egads, let Christopher pick. I trust him. Because honestly, I think this film had promise as a big budget whatever genre this was. But as a lower budget effort with only one seasoned actor (Clancy Brown in a small role), it just couldn't pull off what it was trying to accomplish.

I give it 4 stars for effort, but gosh it was a jumbled mess that I had no desire to rewatch in order to attempt to understand it.

In the near future, toxin in the air is killing the world. People need to wear respirator masks to survive. Big pharma Aethera has created AIRemedy which is the only known antidote against the toxin, but there may be a limited supply which must be taken constantly. Ella McPhee is the face of AIRemedy advertising. She is depressed over her mother and the world in general despite having a secure supply of the drug. At a party, she takes an overdose of a new drug without knowing the consequences.

This is a South African sci-fi. It is obviously referencing the recent pandemic. Some movies hit that note too hard making it fall flat. This is one of those and it's weird that the toxin has no name. The story is a bit messy. At one point, the movie turns into The Fly including the ear, but then it turns into something else. It wants to be bigger, but it doesn't get there.

The synopsis and plot description sounded similar to Limitless (2011) but this film deals more so with a drug which they aren't certain of and in a seemingly dystopian future world. The entire plot revolves around the lead taking the entirety of this drug in which we don't know why. She didn't know what it was yet thought it was apparently a good idea to consume the entirety. Then was surprised that there were obvious side effects and bizarre happenings.

The film is somewhat engaging but moves at such a rapid pace and at times feels off. We don't necessarily know much about the lead character to truly cate, besides her being a model/ actress in commercials who seemingly was being cheated on by her virtues wort her best friend.

The action and overall tone feels like a teen novel but it's apparently an original concept by the director. The ending was also seemingly setup to set a sequel which came rather abruptly and left with questions unanswered. In the end, it's a film concept which we have seen a lot better in the last but there's still somewhat of an engaging factor.

The scenes were rushed. The acting was subpar. I couldn't connect with the main character, and her yelling a lot didn't make me feel anymore for her or what she was going through. It was the same for all the other characters. The whole thing felt superficial. Like the movie wasn't well thought out, they just took an idea and ran with it. The story had no real point to it and felt immature. The ending was very unsatisfying and the twist it presented was laughable and made me roll my eyes internally. There were attempts to add action scenes, but the metal music was cheesy and the action was mediocre. Besides a few pretty shots of the landscape, there was not much to enjoy, other than being amused at how terrible the plot and acting was.

It's a decent flic, probably produced on a lower budget, definitely a 6 or 7, maybe a 5 if you don't like the concept, definitely worth a watch.

I wouldn't normally review films but it appears like something else is going on given the number of 1 star reviews. A scale of 1 to 10 it's a relative measure from the worst film ever to the best, which can be slightly be influenced by the reviewers preference and film watching experience. THIS IS NOT A ONE STAR film, it's so far away from that it's just insulting. I would argue against any 3 star reviews, there are so many rubbish films out there that you can't possibly put this as 3.