As Horas Finais

Wow, I was taken by surprise with this one. What a beautiful film! This may well be the best apocalyptic film I have seen..

The film was loaded with great imagery and concepts from the very start... I believe it had its own unique take on the apocalypse which was terrifying and believable.. There is a great unique narration as the film progresses that lets you in on how little time is left..

The acting was superb from the two leads, even the child actress was fantastic.... The film made me think how important any meeting or bond can be between us humans regardless of time...

This film deserves your attention and to do well...

Overall: Beautiful. Add it to your watch list its one of the best films I've watched this year....

Great, absorbing, understated apocalypse drama.

Reasonably original plot. Set in Perth, Australia, the world will end in less than 12 hours. A man (played by Nathan Phillips) heads out to an End of the World party. On the way he saves a little girl (played by Angourie Rice) from the clutches of some kidnappers. Now his priorities and degrees of compassion are tested...

It's certainly not your average apocalypse drama. Focuses mainly on relationships and what matters most, rather than the usual survival- type stuff. Quite emotional at times.

Well-directed too. Small budgets tend to bring out the best in directors, as they have to rely on good old-fashioned camera angles and the like, and the audience's imaginations, rather than special effects. This movie is no exception: director (and writer) Zak Hilditch uses the camera well, and relies on the audience to fill in some of the details.

Fairly unknown cast put in solid performances. The standout is probably Angourie Rice as the little girl. Very convincing, especially for someone her age.

Production is a bit rough around the edges, but in some ways that helps, as it makes it feel more real.

There are some special qualities in this end-of-the-world enactment. The main plus is that this is a large scale fable of the last days on earth that moves well. It never gets stuck on one theme, except the disruption of the leading character's relationships, which also signals the end of what is known about 'personal' life under would-be normal circumstances. There really is a fully owned dramatization of the total dislocation of normal society - & this is possibly among the best of such dramatizations. There is a faithfulness to the screenwriter's vision that's pretty awesome. Also awesome is some really good acting from the leading man, who gets convincingly tearful at the prospect of being parted from a 7-year old girl who'd become his charge through the course of the story's development. The imminent end of things near and dear is very well brought across, with hardly any mucking about in minor sub-plots.

Not knowing anything about it, I decided to check "These final hours", and I am glad I did.

It's a rather powerful drama about the end of the world. Meteorite had hit North America and firestorm is spreading from there, destroying most of the world. Australia only has few hours left before firestorm finally hits it's territory, destroying entire world completely.

Movie fallows James, a man with troubled past, man filled with loneliness and emptiness in his life. He is accompanied with little girl looking for her dad. What fallows is series of event that eventually lead James on the path of his own redemption and realization of what wrongs he did in his life, but, as time is running out, he races with time (or firestorm) to right the wrongs of his life, or at least some of them.

There could be some theories why he picks up little girl, but it's most likely that his "fatherhood" instinct kicks in after saving little girl Rose, since at the beginning of the movie we find out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and since world will end in just a few hours, Rose ends up being his surrogate daughter.

It should be noted that while movie deals with apocalyptic theme, it also gives a fair amount of hope for viewers as well as it's characters, via character (or rather voice) of radio host who informs people when firestorm is going to hit. It's a nice element, since radio host is basically a narrator of the movie.

Music is terrific and rather beautiful, especially at the end. Great acting from Nathan Phillips, Jessica de Gouw and Angourie Rice.

Marketed as an end-of-days thriller, this Aussie production is better described as a sombre, thought- provoking drama that just so happens to precede an impending apocalypse. Nathan Phillips plays a self-obsessed man intent on spending his remaining time on Earth under the influence of cocaine, alcohol and self-pity. After he saves a young girl (Angourie Rice – amazing) from an unspeakable act, though, he reluctantly allows her to tag along and his journey takes a new shape. Played as a two hander between Phillips and Rice, who share remarkable chemistry together, These Final Hours is outstanding. Their unique partnership is built so carefully, intelligently and organically over the course of the movie that when their affecting and poignant climactic moment arrives, it is completely earned. Writer-director Zak Hilditch errs with his supporting players though, particularly in the middle act where we're introduced to three outlandish, imbecilic and downright aggravating characters, all of which are overplayed to the hilt by local actors. That this sequence is at least 20 minutes long is a huge misstep from Hilditch, but thankfully it doesn't spoil the overall progression of the central relationship. Bonnie Elliott's cinematography deserves a special mention too; her Perth is searing, grimy and harsh, yet somehow entirely beautiful at the same time. A flawed but worthy film that deserves to be on your 'to see' list.