Reminds me of war footage from Bosnia.

Funny you should say that, it reminded me of a movie I saw about the search for a missing photojournalist in Bosnia called Harrison's Flowers. Not a bad movie by the way, not a great one but has a lot of talent in it.

I plan on seeing it this weekend.

This (semi-)realistic view of the future is amazingly directed by Alfonso Cuaron. It is an exciting, emotionally compelling and visually engaging movie with fine performances. I won't give this an A, but an A-, just because I feel something was missing.

Yep I've played Call of Duty, that was the one I had in mind.

Well, im officially on the Children of Men bandwagon.

What an f'in film. Im sooo glad I didnt give in and just watch it on my computer, it truely deserves to be seen on the big screen, just breathtaking. Really, Cuaron doesnt just deserve to be nominated, he deserves a win. If it wasnt for his incredible directing skills and the amazing cinematography, the not so fleshed out storyline would've probably been an issue. After leaving the theater, I really didnt feel it was much of a problem though, I mean these days you get overly long films that have too much detail to them and leave nothing to the imagination, here we get a film that just sucks us in to this time and place and never lets go. One of the most unique and enriching experiences i've gotten from a film.

If Kubrick was here today, he would stand up and applaud.

Grade - A

I need closure and feel like I got none (or i'm too stupid to understand it).

This movie had the cache effect on me. B+ until right before the ending. C+ as a result of the ending. I'm going to try to read all these posts to see if maybe i missed something, or if closure wasn't the end all and be all.

One of the best of the year? You bet.

A quick question that I had after watching the movie was why did animals not become infertile? Did I miss the reason as to why humans became infertile or did no one know??

Because there not human. Genetic difference's. Otherwise you could easily expect people to get myxomatosis. No they don't give any definative reason why.

Any expansion packs scheduled yet for this film?

A

Good movie, the black Hawk Down style action war of it really was interesting for me. All the leads were very good. One of the best of the year easily. Though I dont think Clive, while I love him, to stretch his acting that much, so I dont think he'll win anything, but the film could be a contender.

Increased background cosmic radiation levels...

That's it? That's the review I've been waiting on the edge of my seat for?

For shame...

I'm still debating on the grade and where it ranks on my top 10 list, so I'll have some more thoughts later.

who let Final Fantasy in here?

Yep, ahead of Dreamgirls, but don't think it will pass U93.

It has to be the best at this stage. Seriously whats got better raves? LMS maybe.

Not on a scale this big. Yes they would have if they were released now but most people on the site only review and grade recent movies. I think i'd be accurate if i said this has been KJ's best reviewed movie in the release span since KJ started

Only 2 days till its DVD release. I hope for some kick ass extra's

Hmmm Yes Clive could use some Gilette quick, and how the whole thing looks like a bad photoshop composite job. (Love the way their always to lazy to print seperate copies for Ireland and England hence the duel ratings)

lmao @ art work.

yikes?!

The most intense and emotional film I've seen of this year. Everything and everyone involved in the film was fantastic. #1 of 2006? I gotta give it a night to rest on.

-A (+?)

Wow, hard to put thoughts into words when it comes to this film, but let me try.

This movie strikes me as a film that has a multitude of intentionally vague religious themes mixed in with very overt, yet ambiguous, political themes. Neither theme, religious or political, is explored in depth, rather it is left to the viewer to make their own assumptions. In this regard, the film is extremely thematically diverse, but I feel far to many people are misinterpreting it as a philosophically deep film, which it is not.

Children of Men does not have any impactful deeper meaning, and it never tries to. At it's center, the film takes a sci-fi world and uses it to create an intensely humanized film, a film that focuses on the fragile, unprotected elements of life, coupled with what a loss of any and all hope can do to a civilization. To do the theme an injustice: what happens when there is no Tomorrow?

Every major character and a vast majority of minor characters gives up their own life toward the salvation of mankind. It's powerful. It's intense. It's Real. It all goes back to the religious themes and the suffering that some must endure for the salvation of many. The real beauty of the film is that it's able to draw us into a world which is so far fetched. It does so through elements of our own every day life: terrorism, war, corrupt government, etc.

However, the film is not without it's problems. Watching the soldiers all lay down their arms in utter awe, cease fire and part like the red sea, only to seconds later act as if they never saw the baby the moment shots are fired from the Fish ... it was a bit much. None of the soldiers were compelled to protect the child? In such a government controlled state, no one thought to even watch where the only baby born in 18 years wandered off to? Heck, no one even thought enough to tell a superior not to bomb the living crap out of the place where the youngest living human was. For a civilization which has painted this baby as a god, the scene just didn't make sense.

That said, the concept of the salvation of mankind being born in a world of complete chaos, violence and war was filmed to perfection. As mentioned by others, the cinematography is amazing and the action and war scenes are top notch. The continuous scenes are unlike anything I have ever seen and the motorcycle attack scene was as intense as they come.

It would have been nice to know a little more about the world outside of England than we are shown, but that's generally unimportant in the giant scheme of this film.

When Apocalypto came out I said it came very close to being a masterpiece, but was never able to make the leap because Gibson never achieved the larger theme he was aiming for. Children of Men is absolutely outstanding, but I have a hard time calling any film a masterpiece when it doesn't aspire to some deeper theme. As I said above, this film has a giant multitude of themes in play, but it literally refuses to give any depth to any of them. This was a choice that was made. The only theme in this film which was explored in any depth is what happens when a civilization loses all hope.

The difference between this film and Apocalypto is that it never fails to reach a theme it attempts to convey. Children of Men earned what it set out to earn, and sprinkled so much more into the eyes of viewers.

It isn't an A+ film. But it is a solid A and the best film of the year, barely nudging out The Departed.

I should note that Children of Men and The Departed are so close in grade for me that they will undoubtedly flip back and forth on my top 10. Two outstanding films in the same year, I consider myself blessed!