Estado de Calamidade

I gave this a 5-rating for one simple reason: It kept me sufficiently interested to watch it to the end. No, it wasn't enthralling and, no, it wasn't exciting. The characters were poorly developed and no thought or creativity went into the single snowy mountain scenery. Plot holes abound, but I ended up not caring because I never had that suspension of disbelief that great movies inspire.

As a storyline, it had potential. But occasional glimpses of "what might have been" left a deep feeling of wanting so much more than was delivered.

Ultimately, the ending had a genuine feeling of "Oops, we spent too much time and money, so let's finish it quick". Very disappointing, but it did keep me watching (silly me).

This feels a little retro: think Soylent Green. The story is the point here, and the descent of humanity following it's devaluation by a government that no longer cares. It is exactly what it seems to be and it isn't pretending to be anything else.

This film is better than I expected. The story is quite suspenseful, and I find the characters engaging and sympathetic.

It seems many of the movie greats have become straight to DVD fodder now. They have all gone down the Lance Henriksen, Ron Perlman, John Cusack route and I am very sad to say we have to add Nick Cage to the list of has beens. Is it because they are too old? Well, No I certainly don't think so; Nick and John Cusack both seem to be dying their hair with boot polish these days but at least Nick hasn't had too many face lifts like John Cusack (seriously have you seen him in CELL & SINGULARITY - He looks like a woman). Nick looks half decent for a guy in his 50's so why why why are they not being offered decent roles?

This was really cheap from the very opening scene with the drone next to his car it looked so bad it wasn't even good enough to appear in a home made video. The cars were supposed to be smartphone computer controlled and it is supposed to be the future but they were all ordinary cars with nothing scifi about them except the Humanity logo - very, very poor show old chep!

The movie lurched from one cheap location to another as a different reviewer pointed out quite correctly to save money obviously. The guy with the eye patch - what can i say but cringe, cringe, triple cringe!!!

The acting was wooden and plodding as though they were all just picking up a cheque and the artistic integrity mattered not. The story really was like a retread of an old tired cliché and the poor effects just made the whole thing seem like another pointless exercise. I though singularity was poor but this is actually worse.

Scifi channel movies are better than this - if that doesn't give you the SP then nothing will!

Another straight to DVD Nicolas Cage movie, I have absolutely no idea what's going on with this guys career.

The Humanity Bureau tells the story of a government agent whose job it is to establish who is contributing to society and who is not. Those deemed "Not" are sent to a place to live out there days away from civilization.

I actually like the idea, I like where the story goes and thought it was very thought provoking and scarily realistic (I could actually see something like this happening in the near future).

The trouble is the idea isn't fully utilized, the movie should have been better but instead comes across rushed, with chronic pacing issues and doesn't embrace the concept quite as tightly as it should have.

Cage phones in an average performance once again and everyone else except Hugh Dillon are instantly forgettable.

Some pretty scenery going hand in hand with some great ideas save it to an extent but it should have been so much better than this.

The Good:

Great visuals

Hugh Dillon

Unpredictable

Fantastic concept

The Bad:

Pacing issues

Wasted potential

Lifeless cast

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

"It's easier to build fear than build a wall" That term is oddly relevant at time of writing

Somehow, someway, despite everything, I'm still a Nicolas Cage fan