Customer Reviews

20 Years After

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I was hoping to bank in on the horrid cover and back panel as I picked this guy up off the shelves of my local Blockbuster. However, I discovered after about 45 seconds of viewing that this was not going to be a shlock-fest as I'd hoped. However, it did turn into a wonderfully enchanting independent film about a group of people making sense of themselves and of a world that has fallen to pieces around them. The backgrounds of the main characters are slowly unveiled while their journey pushes them forward, following the only thing they can; the voices they hear over radio waves.

Again, don't be fooled into thinking that 20 YEARS LATER (should be titled Like Moles, Like Rats) or the tag-line of 'AFTER THE BOMBS. AFTER THE PLAGUES. BEFORE THE UNKNOWN' has anything to do with the movie. It's not Planet of the Apes, it's not Soylent Green, it's not I Am Legend, and it's not Children of Men.

Some serious time and love has been put into this film, and it deserves respect.

Bad post-apocalyptic movies and pregnancies are very similar. They're both slow, deliberate, and excruciating. For pregnancy, there are drugs - legal drugs - that can dull the pain, and there are procedures that can speed the process. For horrible movies without a real premise set after a nuclear war, there is no reprieve.

When resources are scarce, with water and food nowhere to be found, it's every man for himself. When Samuel Singleton meets two women squatting in his house - Margaret and Sarah (eight months pregnant) - they decide to take a trip to a spring-fed lake in order to save their lives. Along with a radio host named Michael, they meet up with a colony of survivors living in a system of caves. From there it's a bunch of poorly done hocus-pocus amidst a poor attempt at some sort of pseudo The Road Warrior meets Raising Arizona, as a character similar to Morgana from Excalibur attempts to steal the only baby born in the last 15 years.

It's slow, disjointed, poorly acted, and tediously irritating. The dartboard timing of the soundtrack borders on unnerving, like cats screeching while you're reading. The transitions are abruptly inappropriate, like a cage match breaking out at a kindergarten. The characters have a noxious combination of preposterous acting talent and the ability to elicit angered contempt from the audience.

The plot, characters, and situations are all loosely connected. Like a drugged spider in a futile attempt to weave a web, there really is no chance at saving the movie or the viewer from the inevitable pain that is sure to be worse than child-birth. It's just too bad there wasn't a second nuclear war about 15 minutes into this affront to cinema.

Zillions of logical flaws--people are way too clean, trimmed, and civil. Mostly, they're just too plump--are supplies running low or not? Was there or was there not a nuclear cataclysm so great that it totally destroyed society and blighted agriculture, and if so...?

As the other reviewers have said, "Post-Apocalyptic" nearly requires the adjective "bad". This is even worse than that. In addition to an absolutely nonsensical plot thread (and associated stock caricatures--insane sisters/adopted daughters of "wicked witch")we also have actual fairyland style magic with a psycho-mystic twist courtesy of a cheesy Black "shaman". Imagine Lionel Richie blathering platitudes in Morgan Freeman's very blandest voice.

And for all that, Tara Nevins' rendition of "Stars Fell on Alabama" is worth the rental.

I enjoyed this movie from start to finish. Azura Skye portrayed her character well & had us empathetic with her struggle to survive & succeed. I found the acting by the doctor to be superb; his character was adoring, yet we were left with a tragic ending for him. The storyline was, nevertheless, excellent, and the directorial debut by Jim Torres was outstanding. This is a well-made, scripted & directed movie for those who care to see a movie with good character development and a story that will be remembered because of the struggles experienced by these characters.

I should have known better after reading the back of this DVD I rented at Blockbuster than to rent it. My hopes that I would be wrong were dashed when I found out this movie is just another poor attempt by bankrupt movie makers to cash in on popular box office hits. Dedicated end-of-times enthusiasts may take this poorly written prediction of the future to heart but, of course, some people will believe anything. Low budget movies like this have the advantage of being filmed in a junk yard.

Not really what I expected. Didn't following 28 weeks later like I thought it might, but not bad overall. Not worth a movie ticket but not bad on low-price DVD.

Look it you are a sci-fi fan then you will like this movie. I personally saw it many years ago and it stuck in my head because it was unique. No huge stars but a great story. It's a must for a sci-fi fans collection, other people...not as much.

It's hard to tell which one was the bigger bomb: the nukes or this movie.

Who knew that people would be fat and have perfect nails after the apocalypse?

I was expecting a bad horror movie but that's not what this movie is at all. It's ultimately a sweet and hopeful movie about people trying to survive in a world that has been ravaged by war and disease. There are a few plot points that didn't make a lot of sense to me but overall the acting and scenery were spot on. The sets were realistic and the scenery was at moments serenely beautiful and at others desolate and lifeless. I also have to comment on the soundtrack. The music was wonderful. If a CD was available, I would definitely buy it. So, don't let the really bad cover scare you away from a real treat of a movie.

If you have two brain cells to rub together you won't like this movie. I like Azura Skye and I wanted to like this movie but it just didn't make a lick of sense:
-it seemed like the black guy said he lived in a basement under the basement?
-black guy has magical powers?
-seems like everyone has claimed their little square of land and pretending that they're the last ones left by not leaving their hiding place
-how did the crazy miss havisham-esque lady with wierd lips find out about the pregnant chick when the pregnant chick was hiding in a basement?
-the make it seem like such a huge journey when people leave one place for another and yet it seems like they make it to the next place with ease and just a few hours of walking
-how is it that one grp of people can make it to a place by walking in about the same amount of time as it takes another to drive when it was supposed to be an incredible journey? and how did they all know to go to the same place?
-what the hell is the corridor?
Those are just a few of the holes in the logic of this movie.
This was a very poorly told story with incredibly shoddy editing. You will have more fun watching white paint dry in low light.