UK 2016 90m Directed by: Tom Large. Starring: Thomas Coombes, Gillian MacGregor, Akie Kotabe, Rufus Wright, Sid Phoenix, Marc Baylis, Alice E. Mayer, Simeon Willis, Laurence Saunders, Richard J. Danum, Steve Weston, Adele Keating, Joseph Baker. Music by: James Summers.
In the not too distant future, the population has risen to dangerous numbers and a deadly disease has gripped the world. To combat the death toll rising, 'Arcadia' has been built as safe disease-free haven for the privileged, where life expectancy is more than 130 years. Outside Arcadia, the average life lasts merely 40 years - unless they can earn a place amongst the elite. Charlie is 39 and living in London, with little time left he works every day to get him and his daughter into the safe haven. When asked to capture a government target, Adam Black, a member of resistance movement 'Free Care', Charlie take this opportunity to guarantee them a place inside Arcadia.
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The concept behind the movie is one that's been done many times. It's easy to make it interesting and exciting. And yet this movie still failed. The characters and setting is flat and underdeveloped. And the ending is just... bad.
The biggest problem is the first hour or so is just bland and boring. We get a brief introduction to the main character and one person he cares about for a couple minutes and then it skips ahead six years and we're left to figure out what happened on our own through clues. Basically the whole movie relies on the idea that you already know and care about these characters and their situation... except you don't. And they aren't interesting. The only interesting characters are side characters... and they aren't that interesting either.
But I digress. After an hour of nothing really, the movie picks up a little. But then we have these two major events happen that could lead to some interesting things. At the very least we should get a glimpse of what happens after to the main character and society. But we don't. We get a very confusing scene of a woman watering plants for about a minute and it's over. There's no conclusion. It feels like the end of the first episode to a series where there is supposed to be so much more and this was just the introduction. Except it's not. It's a movie. And there should be more.
Basically, it feels like they just ran out of actors and money and time and... everything? So they just shot this and decided that was good enough to put out.
The concept isn't bad. But unless you like sitting for a hour of boredom before getting somewhere and then not even getting an ending, it's not worth it. I'd probably be giving it one star except I'm a bit of a sucker for the concept and I did manage to watch the whole thing..
Review by kelandry-27735 from the Internet Movie Database.