steve-lucas63

This movie has every stereotype you can imagine; males; fast cars; gamers; teenagers, petrol heads, it's got them all. The script is shallow and generally poor. The actor's performances do little to compensate.

The racing sequences don't look quite right. There's lots of CGI but mostly they don't look 'real'. You'd wonder if they ever looked at onboard footage from actual racing.

Oddly enough, there's a slight polish to the production that actually makes it possible to stay with the story, all the way to the end. Regrettably, once over the finish line, this movie does not win, or even podium. Generally I'd suggest you avoid it if you can.

I think I may have seen this movie pre when it first came out - but I'm not sure. In 2024 I watched and expected the 1980's vintage of the movie would have dented its impact. I was very wrong. It's horrifying in ways I wouldn't have expected. The special effects are certainly dated and even for the day, fairly rudimentary. The horror lies in how the story unfolds by focusing on at first, the very ordinary lives that are depicted, with subtle escalation of world tensions being news-story side shows. This makes it real. People at first give the possibility of conflict very little thought. Their 'world' is in focus. Soon, government advice is being broadcast in case of conflict. Some people are startled, other dismiss it. It's exactly what would happen.

Then the attacks occur.

In an instance, EVERYTHING about life on earth is on a different level. The new reality is grim and unrelenting. You realise that 'help will not come'. You understate that to survive, you must do things for yourself. There is no food, fuel, power, order. Healthcare doesn't exist. The time shows the decline in the UK Population to medieval times. There is little "hope" in the world. In documentary style the timeline measures the decline.

The Americans had The Day After. It had its moments but grim as it was, they couldn't bring themselves to come close to what could happen. Threads absolutely does.

Watch. Learn.

Please.

This is an extraordinary film. More is said in silences and expressions than in words.

A young girl is sent away from her family group in which she struggles to be seen, let alone heard. Her new hosts are distant family who open their home, hearts and minds to her, and hesitant at first, responds in kind. The gift she has is a second chance to engage and prosper, and as it turns out, it's a second chance for her temporary new guardians as well.....and there's the thing; she must return to a reality that must seem more grim than the one she left.

Beautifully captured on film, the Irish countryside is breathtaking. All of the cast present totally believable performances. Not a lot actually happens but the story draws you in and the spaces, expressions and silences gifts you the opportunity think and absorb.

Totally rewarding.