I really wanted to love this film - Ivan Sen did such an amazing job with Mystery Road and Goldstone. However Loveland/Expired is all style and very little substance unfortunately. It is essentially Blade Runner crossed with Lost in Translation but with none of the brilliant substance of either.
The dialogue tries hard to be profound, but is essentially lacking in much meaning.
Hugo Weaving's role in this film is so token that one wonders what drew him to the film. It seems like a huge waste of his talent.
Ryan Kwanten plays a two-dimensional character who shows permanent consternation but very little else, even though the film is meant to be about feeling emotions. He reminded me of George W Bush when he tried to be very deep and meaningful.
Although I applaud the fact that 'the future' is depicted with most of the present still in place - crowded dirty roads in Hong Kong, even some retro CRTs and 90s style desktop PCs to confuse the timeline a bit, the appropriation of Bladerunner is a bit strong, with the sound of the disembodied female promotional voiceover ever present on the streetscape and similar electronic vehicle horn sounds to Bladerunner. Unfortunately unlike Bladerunner, the special effects are fairly low budget and laid on rather too regularly - the twinkling coloured lights of drones overhead (of which we get very little insight into their significance ... other than a hint that they are somehow protecting certain people associated with a dodgy biotech company experimenting on humans.)
Finally, the ever present strawberries in the film. What on earth were they about? At the brothel-esque karaoke bar, a plate of strawberries is always provided but never eaten; in the love scenes at home, a punnet of strawberries is produced and then eaten by a rat. I don't know what that was all about. So much of this film was attempting to be profound but unfortunately was just a bit confusing.
The dialogue tries hard to be profound, but is essentially lacking in much meaning.
Hugo Weaving's role in this film is so token that one wonders what drew him to the film. It seems like a huge waste of his talent.
Ryan Kwanten plays a two-dimensional character who shows permanent consternation but very little else, even though the film is meant to be about feeling emotions. He reminded me of George W Bush when he tried to be very deep and meaningful.
Although I applaud the fact that 'the future' is depicted with most of the present still in place - crowded dirty roads in Hong Kong, even some retro CRTs and 90s style desktop PCs to confuse the timeline a bit, the appropriation of Bladerunner is a bit strong, with the sound of the disembodied female promotional voiceover ever present on the streetscape and similar electronic vehicle horn sounds to Bladerunner. Unfortunately unlike Bladerunner, the special effects are fairly low budget and laid on rather too regularly - the twinkling coloured lights of drones overhead (of which we get very little insight into their significance ... other than a hint that they are somehow protecting certain people associated with a dodgy biotech company experimenting on humans.)
Finally, the ever present strawberries in the film. What on earth were they about? At the brothel-esque karaoke bar, a plate of strawberries is always provided but never eaten; in the love scenes at home, a punnet of strawberries is produced and then eaten by a rat. I don't know what that was all about. So much of this film was attempting to be profound but unfortunately was just a bit confusing.