Reviews

It did occur to me that this movie was akin to "Scarface" except that Jackie's character had been more selfless and had more integrity and heart. It was interesting to see an illustration of some moral principles like - once you have interfered with one's life - you are responsible for what happens to that person later. On one instance Jackie's character admirably succeeded and in the other did not make a big enough effort and horribly failed. Another bit is about having to pay your debts. You can also see differences and similarities in how all sides understood honor, duty and responsibility for those who depend on you. It's not an exceedingly deep movie in itself but it's very well done, pretty and it does not necessarily dictate how one should understand it. Feels a little sad at the end but at the same time there was not really a better way to end it. Last - when they show how guest workers would steal stuff from street vendors and say what chumps those vendors are for not watching their stuff carefully - it kind of makes your skin crawl. Even if you're a good hearted mobster, you're still a mobster, and the bottom line is that there are almost always victims to your crimes.

*** This whole comment is a giant spoiler and a bile induced rant, I promise it won't be useful for anyone but I watched this move last night and I'm still annoyed with it in the morning ****

Forget what kind of disaster it was, I just could not care less about what will happen to characters. Have to concede that Viggo played the role of the broken man very well and you can't fault his acting. They were not really skinny though. May be compared to people who are used to super-sized meals... Acting aside, it's a story I had a problem with. There was a single good line in the move uttered by 90 year old man in response if he ever though of committing a suicide. Basically he answers along the lines that in these times you cannot think of luxuries. It was good to see that at least someone has enough strength to make a joke. It would be more interesting to make a movie about the life of those who banded into cannibal gangs. Surely they're people too and despite being "bad guys" they still have some thoughts and feelings and there are some life lessons that can be learned there, surely... Instead we are treated to the blatant product positioning - yeah Coke is an ultimate treat, and pineapples and Spam keep for decades and do not develop botulism. That people stock up on chips and Cheetos instead or freeze-dried foods. That despite sunshine and obvious presence of grasses and insects people still have nothing to eat. How about growing something? No it's much easier to just roam around and shoot and kill others and eat them. By the way ammunition does not grow on trees so firearms would become useless quite soon in the absence of bullet making factories. Recently I read 'Lucipher's Hammer' by Larry Niven - this is a much better book of what happens to different fractions of society when a disaster hits. It's a bit of a slow read but much more thoughtful though not without going overboard at times. I'm seeing all those 10 star reviews and wondering what I missed, but for me there was no message in the movie. You'd think that two people traveling cross country and facing such adversity daily would harden. Instead the kid was whining all the time and he looked and acted so much like a girl that there was no other way for him but the soup pot once his dad was not around. Which brings me to the next point - he was left completely unprepared for the first person who met him once his dad was gone. It was just his dumb luck to meet a happy family. By the way what did they feed that dog with? He did not look particularly skinny either. I was hoping for something happen that would either cause an epiphany in me why this movie is so great or something that would jolt those two into having some purpose instead of being a waste of oxygen. Alas. But I'm glad that at least some people really enjoyed it. Can't say I did.