Deadland

Damn where do they get this crap from? Terrible acting, over used storyline, directed and filmed by nobody's, and poor William Kat, had not seen him for years, he must be short of cash. Overall very poor B grade stuff, and I would give it a zero if I could,and I am running out of things to write, this is so lame and tame and a waste of your viewing time. I will copy and paste the above as I just can't add to this horror of a film.

Damn where do they get this crap from? Terrible acting, over used storyline, directed and filmed by nobody's, and poor William Kat, had not seen him for years, he must be short of cash. Overall very poor B grade stuff, and I would give it a zero if I could,and I am running out of things to write, this is so lame and tame and a waste of your viewing time. I will copy and paste the above as I just can't add to this horror of a film.

As my summary states, the beginning of this film creates a lot of expectation. OK, I am a fan of nuclear holocausts and post-apocalypse (or, well, used to be, since the latest releases -the book of eli, the road, deadland...- have been quite disappointing). This said, a quarter of an hour into the movie I found myself looking through the window instead of at the screen. The search of the man's woman becomes tedious, slow, boring and lacking action or direction. I like the Asian looking character who befriends him, although his weird attitude doesn't really save the film. Then I decided to watch it at double or triple the speed since I had a bad feeling of wasting my time. I set the speed back to normal towards the end, however the "climax" was nothing of sorts and the overall feeling when the end credits started to roll was that of what have I done with my life for the past hour. Considerable attempt that stayed in failure.

This is one of those films you'll either love or hate. I obviously thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a certain B movie quality to it, but I have always been a fan of films of that level. B movie or not, it has been put together very well, and only suffered a few weak performances from very minor characters.

The performances of the key characters was faultless, in my opinion, and made me see the character and not the actor. Some of the lesser characters could have done with a little coaching to make them more believable, and stop me from viewing them from the actor's perspective rather than the character's.

All effects, scenery, and props were also without fault, and nothing looked out of place, taking the film subject into consideration.

The relatively low rating (4.5, as of my review) led me to lower my expectations on this low budget, independent movie. I thought it could do with a little more editing and a tighter script, maybe with a bigger payoff at the end. After watching for nearly two hours, the subdued climax wasn't very filling.

Anyways, the meat of the movie concerns a muscle guy looking for his estranged wife, who left him just before World War III broke out. Strangely enough, the muscle guy is supposed to be cubicle worker, I think, and he never really does much hand-to-hand fighting. That leaves me wondering exactly how to classify this movie. I was expecting a scifi/martial arts/adventure movie, like JCVD's Cyborg or Universal Soldier, but this seems to have some pretensions toward being a scifi drama. Unfortunately, the story never really goes anywhere very exciting or interesting, though it kept my attention. If there had been more fight scenes and better stunt work, it would have been a good, poor man's JCVD movie. With a more intelligent script and better direction, it could have been a good, poor man's John Carpenter movie. In the end, we're left with what it is -- entertaining, yet not quite fulfilling. I was admittedly a bit generous in giving it a 7/10, but I think it was good attempt, even if it doesn't quite live up to the potential.

Deadland is proof that you don't need a big budget in order to tell a compelling post-apocalyptic tale. Sure, special effects may help depict the terror that will undo the world, but if it's a post-apocalyptic tale you're telling, the emphasis should be about what happens after t...( read more)he destruction. And this movie does so very well.

Don't be fooled by its shoe-string budget or cast of unknown actors. The movie is full to the brim with great action, suspense and drama. The story of a man in search for his long-lost wife after the seeming decimation of society is a classic tale of overcoming adversity.

It's no "Road Warrior" neither in it excitement nor originality, but I imagine this would have been a very successful big budget film had it ever gotten that chance, not great, but worth watching.