Zero Contact

A movie made during the Covid pandemic by first time director Rick Dugdale. If he had not secured the services of two time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, I doubt I would have been watching it.

Hopkins plays mysterious megalomaniac Finley Hart. He has died but he left his final project unfinished. 'The Quantinuum Initiative.'

This project was a source of controversy which led to a family feud within his company and left him ousted.

Now a group of people have been summoned for a video chat where they need to enter a secret code.

Easier said than done as they are being killed off by an intruder. One person in the video chat is Hart's estranged son who is suddenly contacted by a familiar face.

Although the makers claim that the movie was shot in multiple countries. It was in effect shot on smartphones in living rooms or offices or someone's backyard. There is a glimpse of the Burj Khalifa from one participant's window.

This is a zoom movie with the action taking place on computer screens. The plot is silly as all manners of excuses are summoned up not to punch in the codes as the killer looms nearby.

Hopkins pops up here and there with some musings about life, even playing the piano at one point. He manages to deliver some charisma that the rest of the movie is lacking.

A strange film. Shame Mr Hopkins put hsi good name to this "film".

Save yourself the time and the mental taxation by trying to follow what is going on.

Starts off with a long, boring philosophical soliloquy by Anthony Hopkins. Once that tedium is over the movie begins and gains a little traction with 5 people being summoned to a critical conference call, each taking it from their home. We learn that they are being asked to sign off on finalizing a highly secret and scary futuristic machine. With that little bit of interesting dilemma, the movie showed promise. But it goes downhill in nearly every respect. Featuring Anthony Hopkins, I figured it had to be good. Five loosely connected individuals all of whom had a close relationship with a tech genius (Hopkins) who recently died. Quickly we learn that they are brought together to provide the go-ahead of a cutting edge device that can lead to teleportation. The project poses risks to the continued survival of the Earth. But it's not clear if turning it on fully or not will be the trigger for a cataclysmic doomsday. Meanwhile there are strange happenings during the call and we suspect there is a 6th menacing participant. The whole movie occurs as part of a few one-on-one video calls and the majority of the movie takes place on a video conference and the audience gets views of covert texting or calling discretely between participants on the video . This novel style is the only "edge" of interest. The movie never really pulls together, and the cutting edge secret project is barely discussed. It does wrap up, but it makes little sense. Not only does the main conference call gets old fast, but the side communications often add no value whatsoever. The sets are idiotic. Even though each person was among the closest business associate with the dead top 5 tech billionaire, they all appear (except for the son that moved into the billionaire home) to have homes that are nice but not "high end." It's as if while the billionaire makes a $100+ million a year,, his closest righthands make a few hundred thousand.a year. Not likely!

Academy Award winner? Absolutely not. But I do not understand why all of the hatred with this film.

It was a challenge to make this movie during the COVID-19 pandemic, so that alone is a type of cinematic breakthrough and the film and directorial/production staff should get a positive acknowledgement for trying something different.

Is the plot line a bit sloppy? Absolutely. Tricky to follow at times? Yup. But movies are supposed to be a form of escapism. This qualifies as that. Different type of story with a unique production value and let's not forget Sir Anthony Hopkins....always a pleasure.

Personally these are my views.

1. Anthony Hopkins is a phenomenal actor and I have such a high respect for is acting skills no matter what film he is in. A fan of his work through and through. There has not and most likely will not be another actor of his calibre in years!

2. The film was filmed, produced, managed throughout Lockdown. Kudos to the entire team for being able to take on the challenge and still succeed in producing a film!!

3. Yea the storyline is a little "wavey" and you feel a little unfinished however! Just for the pure ethos behind it being filmed during a worldwide pandemic makes me still rate this as a 10!

We are all entitled to our opinion. I feel the lower rates are forgetting the other side of film making here. What a challenge! Good to see it unfold whilst sitting in their own places.