The Day

Greetings again, the movie that I'm going to review tonight is "The Day" that has some very similar aspects to The Road for example. I must say that the beginning was very promising, excellent acting, very good cinematography and nice visuals, the movie had a very interesting premise although it never fully develops into something meaningful. The main problem with this one is not the tone that is set up in the beginning but the dramatic change in pace it takes places later. There is no warning of this, we change from suspense thriller to disgusting violence in less than a minute and then, after the torture since in the middle, the whole movie goes in a downward spiral of insanity, brutal murder, children murders and so on.. All of this is totally unjustified. I could tolerate violence if it serves a purpose in telling a story or if it helps develop it's main characters, none are present in this movie. The character that we should be rooting for is the most vile human being possible that uses "revenge" as an excuse to kill everyone, all the rest are no better, they all do show the worst human qualities through the film and this are supposedly the good guys so, you can pretty much imagine how the bad guys will be. There is no excuse for brutal violence if it's there just for the sake of it. I do not like it, it's out of place and probably will be good for someone who is sick or really enjoys seeing people getting torn apart, tortured or killed for no reason, it's not my taste of a good movie. But, seeing as it is the world right now, this movie follows the trend of the other gross and unwatchable "The Divided". If you want a good SCIFI stay away from this horrendous piece of crap. Movies like this shows that we have some really mentally disturbed directors who actually are successful because other mentally disturbed people watch their movies, oh, you don't believe me, stay with the movie until you see the ending... If you like violence with a purpose and like to be told a good story, please, do yourself a favor and watch "The Walking Dead", a series that this movie somehow tries to imitate in some scenes but came out incredible short.

Saw this movie in Toronto and loved it! It's not your typical post-apocalyptic thriller. There is a lot of action - as the previous reviewer said it picks up after about half an hour and the adrenaline is pumping from there on out. But it also has pretty deep character development and some emotionally intense scenes. The cast has some recognizable faces (Sossamon, Monaghan, etc.) but no huge stars or clichéd action heroes that detract from the characters. I thought the tension and emotion seemed really authentic. It was also shot in a really cool way. All in, it had everything I was looking for in an action film but was more unique and memorable than I was expecting. Can't wait to see it again on the big screen!

The synopsis makes this sound like some kind of post-apocalyptic siege movie. Bunch of friends in a remote area have some kind of weird predator types descend upon them. Sounds good on its surface, who doesn't like a good siege movie? The question, however, is who likes a BAD siege movie? It takes an eternity for the action to begin. Endless pointless talking and "mood" and a bunch of wholly uninteresting characters. Then, some action, then more moody time-diddling until you forgot what is going on and could care even less. The most dislikable character is this short- haired woman with a strange complexion with the filthiest mouth you'll ever see on a chick. Revolting. There's some decent action toward the end but the problem is by then you won't GIVE a flying...

Although I heard a few negative comments towards this film, I still had expectations that I would like this more than comments mentioned. However I felt let down by this one. To start with, the positives. The director has done a very good job at creating a post apocalyptic feel! The colouring is very dull. So dull that it could almost pass as a black and white film in some scenes. I thought it helped capture a sense of pure dread and hopelessness. I thought the soundtrack was very decent also, being very similar to that of 28 Days Later. On top of all of this, the acting was top notch as well. So fortunately it does come with positives. However, having said that, the negatives outweigh them in my opinion. The story just seems to shallow. Basically a "Last stand" type of film, paying homage to classics such as "Zulu" and also to that of a recent British Horror Film called "Dog Soldiers". Showing us the courage that outnumbered parties must have in order to survive with impossible odds. The problem lies in the fact that the director seemed more interested in making it as violent as possible, instead of focusing on character development. We don't know too much about the characters and we don't know too much about the backstory, so questions will be raised, such as "how did the world come to how it was now". Another negative is the CGI'd special effects. The gore looked too fake and as a result, was nowhere near as brutal as it thought it was. Then we have an ending that I thought was pretty cool! I wasn't expecting what happened, so that's always a good way to finish up. Unfortunately the ending and the positive visuals in the film, couldn't prevent it from being a disappointment.

In a completely destroyed world inhabited by cannibal mutants, the human Rick (Dominic Monaghan) leads a group formed by his school friends Adam (Shawn Ashmore) and Henson (Cory Hardrict) and the women Shannon (Shannyn Sossamon) and Mary (Ashley Bell) expecting to find a safe place to settle down and Rick brings seeds with him. When they reach a dilapidated farmhouse, they decide to stay for a while since Henson is very sick. However they activate a trap in the basement with an alarm system and soon they are under siege of a horde of mutants. Further, they discover that Mary is also a mutant. However, she tells the story of her life and she stays with the survivors to fight against the mutants in a doomed battle. "The Day" is a dramatic horror movie developed in very slow pace with an unoriginal storyline and unpleasant characters. In basically half of the boring story nothing happens but Rick's group walking and staying in a farmhouse. The action begins with a despicable torture that ruins the movie. The conclusion after a conventional battle between humans and mutants is also nasty, with betrayal. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "24 Horas para Sobreviver" ("24 Hours to Survive")

"You have fortification and you know they're on their way and you have me...I'll kill them all." After the apocalypse the world is a wasteland. What started off as a large group has now become 5 and the 5 are looking for food and supplies. While on their a road they spot a farmhouse and decide to check it out and think they have a place where they can rest, get dry and regroup. Things change quickly. Going in I was expecting this to be along the lines of "The Divide" where a group is locked in somewhere and they have to band together to get out alive. This is more along the lines of "The Book Of Eli" where it's a group against another. The movie is pretty graphic and gory in parts but it's nothing really over the top and most people should be able to handle it OK. For a movie like this the cast is pretty well known and while the acting isn't amazing it is very good and fits the movie. This is nothing that is Oscar worthy but for a movie of this subject it is actually pretty entertaining and better then I expected. I liked it more then I thought I would. If you are into movies like this then you will really enjoy this surprise. I give it a B.

I have to disagree with the majority of the reviews of this movie suggesting that it's wonderful, good, or even average. It is terrible. It's as if it is trying to gain the critical success of The Road by jumping on its coat tails, yet with none of the story writing, cinematography or acting skills. The story writing is dull, shambling and disjointed. The acting ranges from wooden to just plain awful. The poor camera work and almost constant, low-contrast, low-impact black and white (why does the apocalypse always seem to affect the colour processing part of our brain?) really don't help things. The result is a film that is pretty much impossible for the viewer to invest in and leaves you craving something good to watch just to counter it.

Caught "The Day" at midnight madness during TIFF. The survival plot is subordinate to the characters, and the film's physical lack of saturated color is offset by the richly developed auras of the cast. We all know what to expect in a post apocalyptic film, but the story line of this film only serves as a backdrop to masterful development of each individual character's personal and interactive actions, reactions and motivations. The film starts off slowly, but it takes a while to understand the deeper aspects of each character's personality. The tempo picks up dramatically once the viewer comes to know each character and the intense action that follows leads to a memorable - truly memorable - conclusion. The writer, director and cast are youthful and perhaps some of this youth shows through from time to time in the film, but the film's effect on me was more real than unreal with questions about humanity that linger.