Movies Main
Movies-to-View
Movie Database
Trailer Database
 Close Screen 
 Close Screen 

Anomaly, The
Anomaly, The (2014) Movie Poster
UK  •    •  97m  •    •  Directed by: Noel Clarke.  •  Starring: Noel Clarke, Ian Somerhalder, Brian Cox, Alexis Knapp, Luke Hemsworth, Niall Greig Fulton, Michael Bisping, Ali Cook, Art Parkinson, Reuben Dabrow, Kumud Pant, Jozef Aoki, Paul Blackwell.  •  Music by: Tom Linden.
        Traumatized ex-soldier Ryan Reeve wakes up in the back of a moving van next to a young boy who has been kidnapped, he attempts to free the boy, but blacks out. He is forced to work out what is happening in bursts of time no longer than ten minutes, before his mind is taken over again. He teams up with the mysterious "Dana" as he battles a conspiracy known as "Anomaly" led by Harkin Langham, and learns that the bioweapon is the same mind control that has allowed its creator to take over his body.

Trailers:

   Length:  Languages:  Subtitles:
 Trailer #1
 1:20
 
 Trailer #2
 1:09
 
 Trailer #3
 1:37
 
 

Review:

Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
Image from: Anomaly, The (2014)
A guy wakes up in a room. There's a flashlight. He finds a kid chained to a wall. He frees him. They tinker with a wall and turns out they are inside a moving armored vehicle. No problem, they just push the door open and jump out when it stops and walk away. They are in London in the future. Well, the guys in the front aren't happy and start chasing them. The two escape to a cemetery where the kid tells him that men in red masks killed his mom. When the bad guys arrive, it turns out that Ryan has some fighting skills and he beats one of them. The other guy knows him. When Ryan starts going through his own pockets he finds a gun and a red mask. But suddenly something strange happens.

Now he wakes up several days later in a room with books and with some type of plan on the wall. The bad guy is there as well. He talks to Ryan as if they work together on some project. We learn more about Ryan. He was military and confined to an institution for PTSD, panic, and anxiety. The boss and researcher there is Dr. Langham who took care of him. The bad guy is working on something that involves the kid.

Again something jarring happens and Ryan wakes up having sex with a prostitute in New York days later. He remembers the kid and decides to take the prostitute with him, but first he has to go through her Russian pimp. More fights ensue. He promises her freedom of she helps him find the kid. Good thing he remembers information from the previous episodes and he notices that each time he has about 10 minutes to get things done before he's transported elsewhere. They escape but the Russians are in pursuit and they also run into the police.

Next he wakes up in a room where a guy is being waterboarded by police. He's there as some physician who OKs whether to continue or stop the "interrogation". The victim is some researcher named Leonid. The two manage to escape. But at every turn the bad guy appears.

Through more of these episodes we discover that Ryan has received some implants by a corporation run by the good Dr. Langham who now has the kid. The aim is through these implants to control people. The problem is that Ryan's implants have a connectivity issue with the satellite which is why he gets these 10 minutes where he gets to be himself. During the other times his body is controlled by Langham. Ryan with the help of the prostitute will try to stop the Langham project to control all humanity and to rescue the kid. He'll have to confront Langham and the bad guy who always shows up and is actually Langham's son.

The Anomaly is interesting and a bit original. It mixes science with futuristic sci-fi with a fight action movie and all told in these short episodes. The science is the strongest aspect. There are also some interesting ideas about humanity and control. I wouldn't recommend looking for plot holes though because there are plenty. The weakest are the fights. Oddly enough it seems that the filmmakers knew the fights were weak too, and how could they not, however instead of trying to mask the weakness they further enhanced it with tricks designed to make good fights look good. Here instead we have several poor fights that looks even worse. They used some jumping camera work and Matrix-like slow-mo editing, which works when fights are fast at normal speeds. But if you have slow and weak punches to begin with and slow them down, well, the result is nothing to brag about. Another problem is the completely uncharismatic lead and a dry villain. You do end up disliking the bad guy mostly because he's a bit annoying and because his role isn't thought out well, but you certainly don't care at all for the hero. Things improve casting-wise once the lovely Alexis Knapp appears, unfortunately she doesn't get enough to do.

The Anomaly is an intriguing, good looking movie that creates more expectations than it fulfills.

Review by TdSmth5 from the Internet Movie Database.

 

Off-Site Reviews:

Oct 8 2015, 23:15
Reviewing ''The Anomaly''.
Jul 6 2014, 09:21
Film Review: 'The Anomaly'.
Jul 5 2014, 12:51
The Anomaly review.
Release Anniversaries
Movie Database
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Other
Movies By Year:
Go
About Us
Copyright Statement
Give Feedback
Report Errors
Contact Us