Posted on 12/13/2023 8:33:06 AM PST by jimjohn
Leave The World Behind - A Free Republic Movie Review
By J. Johnson
When I read the first reviews from this forum it appears that most folks couldn't get past the executive producers (who shall not be named in this article). My thought was well at least someone has to watch it to give an honest review and take on this movie. So last night, I decided to “ take one for the team”, and donate 2 hours and 21 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Here goes…
Before grading, let’s start with that infamous line in the movies that you’ve all heard (paraphrasing), “You can’t trust anyone - especially white people”. Now, this is in no way defending this movie, but the criticism of that line is the book definition of taking something out of context. Without doing the ‘spoiler alert’ thing, the statement needs to be looked at in the context of the current situation in that movie at that time; which by the way becomes a virtually moot point later in the first. With that said, if my fellow Real Americans wanted to trash this moving, we can do so long before that line is even uttered.
Three things that stood out to me the most from this film:
a) too many musical scores in the beginning and they were too loud.
b) the too obvious LACK of extras in the film (e.g., you can't hit a beach on Long Island on a hot summer day where there is not a crowd). This movie revolved around 7 characters. The only extras I recall seeing are a little girl peeking through a window, and a woman that did not speak English. (a translation would have been nice, but I got the point with what little Spanish I could extract from her desperation).
c) Somehow, it appears this movie seems to either cut off before it should have, or someone edited the plot in post production. Perhaps budget cuts? A rush to get it out the door?
Example: There were several ‘acts’ in the movie, including one called ‘The Flood’. But I saw no flood. Perhaps I was mistaken.
The movie starts with this author deliberately covering the screen during the pre-movie credits so I would not see the names of the executive producers. What follows is that 2 seasoned actors (Juila Roberts & Ethan Hawke) decide to take their 2 foul-mouthed children to a house rental on or near a Long Island beach for a quick planned getaway. Shortly thereafter, all hell breaks loose. They later meet the character played by Mahershala Ali, which is pretty much where the movie truly begins.
Among the criticisms was the woke messaging throughout the movie, examples of which included the so-called ‘racist’ character played by Julia Roberts. I can say that I did not detect any racism in the movie, but a healthy distrust among all the adult characters in the beginning. But then again, with the networks down, no information coming through, and you’re in an unknown environment, the natural tendency is to become untrustworthy until trust can be gained, which did occur during the movie.
In fact, as far as any racist angle, there were a couple scenes in the movie among the adults where a viewer would begin to ask, “hey, where is this going?”. In other words - just the opposite of racism. Without going into detail, I would guess these were the points in the movie that included heavy script edits (giggle).
For an apocalyptic movie, this one was pretty soft. They were not in the cities, and had no visible signs of mass chaos. Yes, there was an issue with Tesla Motors, but no one pointed a finger at the company’s CEO, just the driverless technology. Clearly, the movie was not anti-gun.
Overall, I’d give the movie a C; mainly for the overhyping of a low budget movie that left gaping, unexplained holes (e.g. internet goes down, but not the power grids) . And if there were any ‘woke’ lessons I could take from this movie, here they are:
My wife and i watched this. It had many failed opportunities to make points. Was a boring, lousy movie so far much that i dozed through part of it.
(e.g., you can’t hit a beach on Long Island on a hot summer day where there is not a crowd).
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Off topic
There is a 1941 movie called The Devil and Miss Jones where one scene takes place on a coney island beach and the people covered every square inch of the beach. I did not think that was real so I did a search for a photo of the beach in 1941 and discovered it was in fact possible as you could not see the sand for the people.
I thought Kevin Bacon was in this movie?....................
I watched the movie not knowing anything about it, it was incredibly poorly made and written.
Ethan Hawke was terrible and never managed to fit into the movie, Julia Roberts was good and the teen boy gave an impression he could act if the right film showed up, the black girl gave the same impression, she was unlikable in this film but she showed talent, nothing made any sense at anytime, anywhere in the film, it was just bits and pieces that didn’t fit.
Random pieces that never fit, never made sense, and everything was incoherent like a committee was taking turns writing and directing, no pay-off, no explanations, contradictory directions and scenes, and plenty of woke and subtle and overt anti-white racism.
Watched it this morning. The “don’t trust white people” is just the flip side of Scott Adams’ “there is no fixing this.” I had no problem with it.
Dan Bongino talked like it was the scariest thing he had ever seen. There was nothing new in it if you have any familiarity with SHTF and what comes next.
It had high production values, decent dialog, reasonable character development. The end worked for me though it seems to bother some people. Life will go on for the survivors.
When all is said and done, it’s just a movie.
Right. The movie was over and didn’t explain whether was it an attack. Or was it an alien invasion? How did the elites know it was coming?
Thank you. Christmas vacation, its a wonderful life, a christmas story, jingle all the way, Christmas with the cranks, the grinch, and I’m sure I can find my copy of diehard to watch instead.
In short the waste of a good cast, but they got paid.
“[on Jaws: The Revenge (1987)] I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.” - Michael Caine
I intend on watching it, I like post apocalyptical stories so I am disappointed you gave it a C.
Figured it was a turd that would drop from Obama’s butt, but I will give it a chance.
He is. And he is the only real man character in the flick, though he is portrayed as the evil white prepper. “Get off my porch”
(I am not arguing with you. I am just throwing my thoughts out there.)
What difference does it make? The end result is the same.
How did the elites know it was coming?
Some of them didn't, like the Thorne guy who owned the house with the secret bunker that Rose broke into. All his preps were going to be used by somebody else, because wherever he was, he was not going to make it back to his bunker.
“”””I thought Kevin Bacon was in this movie?....................””””
The Kevin Bacon scene was like the rest of the movie, broken pieces that contradicted themselves and made no sense.
He is the local survivalist and has some unexplained pills to cure an unexplained (and like everything else, unimportant) illness of the teen boy, his character wasn’t convincing, but after playing the perfunctory scene where having a shotgun and standing on his porch proves he is the survivalist, he bizarrely sends them to an unknown rich neighbor’s unused survival shelter that appeared be in the 1 to 2 million dollar range that, of course, Bacon and his family had no use for or interest in all the magical goodies of global communication and advanced electronics and vast food stores of the rich, palatial survival bunker.
kevin bacon plays the reasonable man... he has prepared and had every right to off the guy who pulled a gun on him on his property...
that being said, i loved the ending... it just didn’t come as quickly as i had hoped.
Does anyone know what the Spanish woman was wailing about?
I have the weakest Spanish in America, but from what I picked up, there was someone sick back at her house.
Anyone else?
Sounds like that other Obama production, “The Biden Administration.”
“””” The movie was over and didn’t explain whether was it an attack. Or was it an alien invasion? “”””
It settled on an EMP attack, but never explained the movie’s building scenes of the supernatural that the movie would show and then abandon to try something else.
The end was fitting, the world goes up in nuclear fire and the kids are worried about how Friends ends. That describes the younger gens to a tee.
“...though he is portrayed as the evil white prepper...”
Permission to slightly disagree...
In a situation such as that, you may have gotten that response for ANY real man protecting his home and family. Note that white guy immediately recognized the black dude, but more suspicious of the white guy he didn’t know.
Fact is, Kevin Bacon’s character could easily become that neighbor next door or down the street if folks aren’t on the same page - or get desperate.
just my $0.02
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