Dark Future

It's so bad, a fake "American" film that's very obviously not American made. You can tell by how they're styled, their standards of beauty, their expressions and behaviors, etc. I could tell they were either Russian or German (The glasses guy with the strong accent is CREEPY!). The way it's shot, the sets, the costumes, the writing, the everything--wrong! Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, shot on VHS, looked better, was better acted, and was far more interesting on what was probably a smaller budget.

This film takes place in the future after a plague has devastated humankind leaving only a relatively few number of people enslaved to cyborgs who use them for their own pleasure with absolutely no regard for whether they live or die. For their part, the people have been conditioned to not only accept their station in life but to also believe everything they have been told by their cyborg masters. So, after being brainwashed into believing that they are all sterile, the birth of a child creates an immediate problem for the cyborgs who realize the impact this would have on the overall nature of things should this development ever be brought to light. Now rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I had some hopes that this might turn out to be an interesting sci-fi movie, all things considered. Unfortunately, it didn't take very long for me to realize that this would not be the case as the low-budget nature of this movie came into full view almost immediately--with bad acting, weak scripts, cheap-looking sets and everything else one might imagine. That being said, although this was clearly not a good movie, I liked the basic plot for the most part and for that reason I cut it some slack and rated it a little higher than it probably deserves.

OK: it's not very good (as others have made abundantly clear) -- but it's NOT a one-star or two-star film. Shots are reasonably in focus, the pacing is approximately good, and there are visuals of reasonable interest. The central idea is stretched a bit thin, however ... about as thin as LOGAN'S RUN, but somehow less convincing. The static ball entrance is actually pretty good -- really the only memorable thing in the whole film -- and the gun-zaps look good as well. But when the plotting runs thin and the scripting does likewise, we can't help wishing for at least someone charismatic to hold our interest. The closest we get is flaming barrels and Andria Mann crawling head-on in a low-cut top, which together essentially sum up the whole movie.

This thing is so bad that I can't be bothered to come up with my own plot summary. Here's the one from IMDb: "In the 21st century, most of mankind has been wiped out by a plague. The few remaining people are forced to live in an underground world, serving as prostitutes and slave to cyborgs that now control them. When the first baby in 30 years is born, a bartender leads a revolt against the part-man, part-machine creatures that seek to capture the baby for their own ends."

Dark Future is complete and utter garbage. Everything imaginable is about as bad as you'll find in a movie. Acting - bad. Plot - bad. Special effects - bad. Music - bad. Cinematography - bad. Sets - bad. You get the idea. I'll bet that even the catering was bad. Director Greydon Clark made some reasonably enjoyable trash during his career (Final Justice and Satan's Cheerleaders for example), but with Dark Future, he hit rock bottom. It's absolutely horrible.

There are two things that keep me from raring Dark Future a 1/10. First, there is at least one interesting idea involving using the baby to somehow keep some old dudes alive. Of course, it's not fleshed out and it's handled poorly, but the idea is there. Second, I'm trying to limit the number of movies I rate a 1/10.

2/10

In this made-in-Russia, un-polished, B-quality film I'm left with a feeling that it should have been better. If this story had stayed as a short story (in printed form) it would have been more enjoyable, but in this screen rendering, it falls flat. The directing, acting, production quality, and overall feel is not one of quality. I rate video's by the $7.00 test. I would have felt cheated if I had payed $3.00 to see it at a theater let-alone $7.00......Mike