Os Escolhidos

The film feels fleshed out as it steadily plods along.

The actors are convincing in their various roles and the dialogue and direction is decisive and uncliched. However, the "twist" is broadcast a little too clearly and a little too early to really be surprising. Furthermore, after the big reveal at the end of act two, the film loses most of its momentum and descends into mere exposition.

Some visceral reaction to the revelations of the final act would have provided much needed energy. Instead the film limps unsatisfyingly into the closing credits.

I was just lying in bed, trying to find something to put me to sleep, when I came across this interesting, if a bit overused, premise that comprises this movie. I figured it would be a low budget so and so sci-fi but I was surprised to find a well-acted, nicely shot, atmospheric dystopian suspense thriller.

There is a pandemic, and World Health Organization claims we are all doomed. Still, they have a plan. They will make half a million bunkers where lucky lottery winners will stay until the plague disappears. How long they'll have to stay inside? Could be decades!

After this opening set up we are following some of the lucky ones who made it to these small safe heavens. Dialogue is serviceable and not cringe worthy and the characters are interesting (some more and some less) while the atmosphere of the whole containment deal is pretty well presented. There are some clever ideas as to the ways those people choose to interact and keep a straight head during this unpleasant, but necessary lock up.

The film kept me interested to the very end. Some of the ideas come across as original (even if they are not really) which is very much appreciated from my side. Unfortunately, some of the actions of particular characters do seem strange and out of place which does leave a stain on the whole experience but it might be a bit unfair to hold it against the creators.

Interested to see what the Director/Writer has in store for us next. Small budget didn't keep him from making a solid first full length feature.

7 out of 10 from me.

Slow burn suspense with a good twist at the end. Didn't love it, but wasn't terrible. The acting wasn't terrible.

Watchable once. Do not think to re-watch it someday. On a similar topic, Moon (2009) was way better.

Goof : One of the character is learning French. At 37', we see him reading an article about the French Revolution on the computer. The article is plagued with grammar mistakes.

For a small budget film, this is a great achievement. For the viewer at home, it's a well acted, interestingly told story that was good enough to keep me from reaching for my phone and "half watching" like many of us do when the film isn't very good but we still want to see what happens at the end.

Ironically, the ending would be one of the weaker points here, and I think the explains some of the scathing reviews as the first two acts of he film are quite predictable but it wound up ending in a way that takes you off guard.

None the less, it wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination and is a very worthy lockdown watch.