Oh dear!

Rating: 2/10 (15 June 2010)

I've read the first page on IMDb of, mostly ecstatic, reviews of this movie and I'm wondering if I watched a different movie. "Children of Men" is simply unbelievable. The book is far, far better and totally different from the movie. The idea of such a dystopian future is believable,after all the Patriot Act (such a detestable title) is already with us in the U.S., but the whole idea that "Theo" and "Kee" could survive to the final frame despite a whole Armour of ammunition being fired in their direction by almost an entire army of both soldiers and rebels is ludicrous, as is the idea that their little rowing boat could miraculously find itself at the right place at the right time despite thick fog and a complete lack of navigation aids. All you could say is that the English Channel can turn into the millpond it was portrayed as, in such weather conditions. I won't comment on the fate of Theo other than to say the scene was, for my wife and I, straight out of some local am-dram. Then there was Theo and Kee's escape from the hideout of The Fishes in a vehicle that had to be repeatedly jump-started. Totally unbelievable! There should have been far more emphasis on the despair felt by the population at the inability of mankind to reproduce than shots of London buses bearing adverts for "Quietus" suicide kits and "Jasper's" handling of and contemplation of the use of one of those kits. The book emphasizes the use of child substitutes such as the baptism of kittens and puppies but the movie focuses almost solely on shoot-'em up violence. Bruce Willis does this sort of thing much better. But who am I to judge; the senior movie critic of "The Guide" section of the Sydney Morning Herald, Doug Anderson, recently voted it his Movie of the Week when it was shown on a local TV channel last week. And David Stratton & Margaret Pomeranz, two of Australia's most respected movie critics both gave it 4 out of 5 stars. My wife and I must have missed something but for us it was a waste of our DVD-rental money. The only movie that I can think of that is more ludicrous is "Face/Off", the John Travolta/Nicholas Cage movie. I turned that off after 10 minutes so stupid did I think it was.