Okay folks, I've pretty much told'ya that although I like movies that are thought provoking, I don't appreciate preachy propaganda flicks at all. I try not to be too obnoxious on my website about it; maybe just a few snarky comments and you can think whatever you want (as always!). Originally I wasn't going to review this film after seeing it, I was so disgusted and disappointed with it. But, what the hell, it just pissed me off so much that I have to dig out the old soapbox again. For you lefties out there, you may want to just skip the review at this point because I'm now going to offend your sensibilities.

This movie is left-wing propaganda tripe. You'll know by watching the first five or ten minutes EXACTLY what it is. The opening scenes firmly establish the criteria for a hero: A hero is a current or former left-wing activist. The right (or everybody else for that matter) is either completely uncaring or a bunch of racist animals without conscience. Except of course the single old-school police officer Syd. He’s the friend of Michael Caine’s character Jasper, the former journalist turned pot-dealing hippie. And of course he’s also Jasper’s client and crazier than a bedbug. So I guess his lack of sanity has some redeeming social value, in the most progressive sense, of course.

This overall plot of this film has been compared to "After the Fall of New York" on a few other boards . If only it were that good! The working-out of the initial premise of the movie really just doesn't make any sense at all. People can't have kids anymore, so apparently the human race is toast and doomed to a slow decline. So what do people do? Well, they eject any non-natives from their country for one. What the ….???

Hmmm…. Let's look at this a little closer: You have a population that is slowly dwindling due to a biological crisis, and what do you do? You start getting rid of people. You think that you'd probably want to keep as many people alive for as long as possible, with manpower becoming increasingly in short supply, and pour your society’s energy into researching a solution to the crisis at hand. At that point it wouldn't matter where you're from - you'd need people, any people, to keep society running! BUT NO! They're rounding 'em up into squalid refugee camps so that the director can get really cool shots that look like today's news clips.

As for the "Suicide Kits" that are issued to everyone, those were really dumb. Maybe the Guv’mint might make folks like welfare recipients work like dogs on farms supporting "the effort" or something like that, but official "kits" to do yourself in are pretty damn stupid unless you have a crisis-level surplus of people.  Try SOYLENT GREEN for a more interesting story about that particular subject.

What do you expect from a bunch of "intellectual morons" ( see book reference here ) who basically see humanity as planet earth’s "disease" (see the DVD extras to be "enlightened" on this point)? You see into the inner workings of their beliefs, that’s what! "Suicide Kits" are something only their minds could come up with. The idea of humanity just giving up in the face of disaster rather than fighting like hell to move mountains strikes a chord with them. Me, I wanna live! But hey, if you’re gonna give up on everything else that’s worthwhile, like your own civilization and culture, then why not just go for broke? Endless appeasement and "giving in" has defined the meaning of your life, so why not your death, too? If those inconvenient PEOPLE would just, you know, GO AWAY QUIETLY, well then, the ultimate goal of world peace will have been achieved – permanently!  And think how great it would be for the environment!

There were even a few shots of little old German ladies rounded up in cages. I don't know if the producers saw this as some sort of sick "poetic justice" or if Germans have finally become redeemed and fashionable once again in legitimate roles (i.e., ones other than evil nazis).

They could've gone in different directions with it - scientific dissection of the mother and child and the mad dash away from that horrible fate, or maybe the child is going to be a normal one in a mutated world (or the reverse) or some other interesting plotlines possibilities to explore. But they didn't. These are apparently insufficient for the purpose of promulgating left wing ideas about how our present supposedly works. If you are a leftie and have dared to read this far, you will probably enjoy the flick a LOT because it plays right into your world-view like a well-crafted key into a lock. Prepare to be SHAMELESSLY PANDERED TO!    I'm not one of those, and I find this movie to be a somewhat frightening exposition of how the far-left thinks and what it believes. A world-turned-upside-down viewpoint has produced a world-turned-upside-down movie. Kinda follows, doesn't it?

So finally, for you folks out there who are oh-so-progressive and think yourself so intelligent and evolved (unlike the rest of us dumb schmucks), here’s some cud for you to chew on:

If folks like or dislike this movie based mostly on their political leanings, as evidenced by reviews on other boards, then what the hell is the point of it anyway? IT’S ALL JUST FREAKIN’ WINDOW DRESSING! Just go and re-make "Woodstock" or something.

What's in it for the Gamer: I’ll give the Devil his due: The visuals are pretty good, but you can get the same by watching any news show. Other than that, it’s just a piece of boring nonsense.