Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)
by Alfonso Cuar?n
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DVD details
Actor: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Pam Ferris, Peter MullanDirector: Alfonso Cuar?n
Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
Composer: John Tavener
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; German (Original Language); Italian (Original Language); Romanian (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: The most violent yet impacting pro-life I've seen yet
Summary: 5 Stars
Now, did I just proclaim this movie to be pro-life? Uh... yeah, despite its intense and prolonged sequences of futuristic war (which, in their own right, if they were the only things in the movie, would make it totally enjoyable), it's got a very beautiful pro-life message with how one man will go so far as to even sacrifice himself to make sure the last baby to be born in almost 2 decades to be brought to safety. Not too many "dads" would say they'd do that these days. So "kudos" to Clive Owen's character for that selfless act.
The other thing completing the 5-star rating in my mind is how the movie's structured- it's rare to see any shot lasting less than 5 minutes, so it's pretty good for people with ADD who won't to have better attention span (I think a couple shots were at least 10 minutes, I could be wrong).
DVD Review: One of the great films in recent years. A must on Blu-ray!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll say right up front that this is not the kind of film that will appeal to everyone. Many people apparently found it "boring," though I was deeply moved and found it gripping throughout. The film's setpieces, especially the ambush in the forest and the street battle in the refugee camp, are amazing pieces of cinema that people will be talking about for years to come. They're not just virtuoso displays--they really pack emotional punch. The performances were uniformly excellent, but I was especially impressed by the production design and cinematography. Emmanuel Lubezki's camerwork is his best to date and really the best I have seen in years, with its subtle gradations of light and astounding long takes. There is no one more talented than him today.
I can't imagine watching this film on cable, or frankly even on DVD, because so much of its impact derives from its immersive, tactile quality. I saw it twice in the theaters, and will only watch it again on Blu-ray. It will never appeal to everyone, but I believe that in time it will be recognized as a modern classic.
DVD Review: Beware the two-disc special edition
Summary: 3 Stars
"Children of Men" was film of the year for me. It was clever, thought-provoking, action-packed and brilliantly acted by seasoned performers. Particularly amazing were the two chase scenes that were filmed in one continuous shot. So you would think that if the filmmakers went to the trouble of releasing a two-disc edition of the film, they would explain how those two key sequences were filmed. Wrong.
Instead, much of the space that could have been devoted to this was wasted on the verbal meanderings of ... Slavoj Zizek, an over-earnest "cultural theorist" who had nothing whatever to do with the making of the film. Zizek is one those fashionably oblique academics given to making sweepingly counter-intuitive statements in broken English. My favourite is his definition of a good film:
"It simply make reality the more what it already is".
On and on he drones, chicly quoting Hegel while explaining that "the film gives the best diagnosis of ideological despair of late capitalism" or that the movie instantiates "the paradox of what I would call anamorphosis" (as opposed to "what I would call the paradox of anamorphosis"). At one point he refers to Michelangelo's "David" as "a statue of Michelangelo or whatever". But what else should we expect from the man who recently appeared on "Democracy Now" to declare that "let's everybody in the world, except US citizens, be allowed to vote and elect the American government"? Sigh ...
So: caveat emptor. The movie itself is truly brilliant, but the second disc is a let-down. I didn't want to hear a block of "theory": I wanted to know more about the making of the film. I suspect that others who really adored this film feel the same way. That means the two-disc edition loses two stars for me.
DVD Review: Realistic dystopian vision, but lacks focus
Summary: 2 Stars
At first, this film seemed to be a sci-fi film noire in the mold of Blade Runner. It portrays a dystopian society in which women lack fertility. Indeed, unlike a lot of sci-fi films nowadays, "Children of Men" does not shy away from making dystopia realistic and grisly. Key characters are killed suddenly, the color palate is mainly grey, and all of the key characters have traits that make them less than admirable. In one chilling scene, an important character is last shown being taken away by troops with a hood over her head, which is the last we see of her.
The film could have really been a sci-fi hit had it not been so pointless. It lacks focus and the plot never really grabs the viewer's interest. A lot of important relationships and plot twists are left unexplained. We never learn why women become infertile or why immigrants are treated so badly, except perhaps that this is a dystopia. Unlike Blade Runner, the movie had no insightful moment or moral revelation. Rather than provoking thought, the film's end seems too hollywood for the genre.
I like the style of dystopia, the basic idea by P.D. James, and the cinematography, but the plot (which should be the heart of the film) is just not strong enough. I found myself bored during the film and frankly not caring about the characters or the outcome. I would give the director another shot at a sci-fi dystopia, but with a tighter story-line.
DVD Review: TERRIBLE - Can't understand all these great reviews!
Summary: 1 Stars
I don't want to give away the story or anything for those who will watch this, but the movie is boring... Nothing happens, and nothing gets resolved in the end. Seriously one of the worst movies I've seen in a while. :(
Description of Children of Men (Widescreen Edition)
Children of Men envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into anarchy on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world's youngest citizen has just died at 18 and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction.Runtime: 109 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating:?R UPC:?025193251329 Manufacturer No:?61032513Presenting a bleak, harrowing, and yet ultimately hopeful vision of humankind's not-too-distant future, Children of Men is a riveting cautionary tale of potential things to come. Set in the crisis-ravaged future of 2027, and based on the atypical 1993 novel by British mystery writer P.D. James, the anxiety-inducing, action-packed story is set in a dystopian England where humanity has become infertile (the last baby was born in 2009), immigration is a crime, refugees (or "fugees") are caged like animals, and the world has been torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism, and political rebellion. In this seemingly hopeless landscape of hardscrabble survival, a jaded bureaucrat named Theo (Clive Owen) is drawn into a desperate struggle to deliver Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the world's only pregnant woman, to a secret group called the Human Project that hopes to discover a cure for global infertility. As they carefully navigate between the battling forces of military police and a pro-immigration insurgency, Theo, Kee, and their secretive allies endure a death-defying ordeal of urban warfare, and director Alfonso Cuaron (with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) capture the action with you-are-there intensity. There's just enough humor to balance the film's darker content (much of it coming from Michael Caine, as Theo's aging hippie cohort), and although Children of Men glosses over many of the specifics about its sociopolitical worst-case scenario (which includes Julianne Moore in a brief but pivotal role), it's still an immensely satisfying, pulse-pounding vision of a future that represents a frightening extrapolation of early 21st-century history. --Jeff Shannon
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