Narcopolis (2015)

I decided to watch this film, on a wet and windy day. Much as i tried it was very difficult to hear the dialogue, and this common problem persists with many films, on offer on film packages ( sky movies etc ). What makes this problem so frustrating, is that numbers of films are allowed to be made with this handicap. I gave up after 20 minutes, as it looked interesting. H B O or Home Box Office create wonderful drama programmes, and unfortunate mugs like me, suffer from great expectations, all because we believe that being able to hear the spoken word.should be possible Rating ....4

I struggled from the beginning.Even if you can cope with, Legalised all drugs idiocy, (we would self destruct within a year if all drugs were legalized. There is a reason why no one in any form or authority should be on drugs, whether that is someone driving, to the leader of a country....all drugs legal... really?), but yes getting pass this premise. Its like all common sense left the scientific adviser.Car number plates with bar codes? Oh my. You can see it now, local law enforcement, "Excuse me ma'am, can you tell me the car number plate from the robbery."...."Sure, it was a thick line, with small space, followed by a thicker line, no...that's not right, it was a thinner line." Again, no common sense.Oh and his cool visor that sees temperature of the corpse....he moves around to see it from different angles, then cuts back to him having not moved at all.Sad to say, i couldn't get through this film......

SPOILER ALERT! Eh? How in hell would you spoil this film? It's doing fine on it's own. It would be like taking a pooh on a pooh. (not bear on bear action there, just trying to sideswipe the no swearing rule)SO: Last weekend me and a few friends listened to:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmQ7RsNAE423 times in a row, laughing our tits off, and wondering "why?"My guess is this film is a low rent version of that record, and without it's wit or humourSomebody somewhere had a love of science fiction, a lot of bad drugs, too much money, and decided to build this folly. Unlike Ringo the result wasn't pleasurable in any way (i'm being over dramatic for effect - the camera is occasionally lovely, that's why this review isn't merely a complaint about why IMDb doesn't offer a drop down 0 out of 10) but still the same question remains; "why?"Did you see my last sentence? Did you see how it didn't quite work? Maybe it was because the brackets were too long, maybe it was irrelevant, maybe it was a smelling error, maybe it was just time travel or i've been a terrible father messing things up for no reason, maybe it was that I'M NOT A WRITERThat's this film. It doesn't work on any level at all. it's a bit like someone with too much money and drugs just went "i've got this bag of half-erst science fiction thriller memes, let's just place them artfully in this vase", but the vase was made of Ketamine so when they opened the bag the memes just went EVERYWHERE at random, and the money would have been better spent on a flower arranging course.WHY? You can work the equipment, but as my friend Gregory always said "musicians should make music, plumbers should do plumbing" Whoever made this: Film- making is not your skill. Well done for trying, but maybe take that flower arranging course.

***EDIT 55 out of 93...?Seriously, did I do THAT badly...?*******This is a very different, character driven type of Science Fiction film. In the reviews that I read before watching this, they threw around terms like "A cross between 'BLADE RUNNER'" and other Dystopian Sci Fi films, but that is not altogether quite true. I listened to the director's commentary, so I was able to gain a lot of insight into what he was trying to do and what his focus was in making this film. What I got from this is that he was HEAVILY focusing on the Dramatic elements of the characters more than anything else. Not to say that the Science Fiction elements are not good too, but that is not really the true focus of the film (it IS in the sense that the ultimate revelation in the story is primarily Sci Fi oriented, but the main thrust of the film along the way is not)Clearly, the director and everyone involved poured their hearts into the making of this film. The performances are quite good. It's an interesting touch that the boy and the Mother in the film are in actuality the wife and son of the director. The boy is particularly good in his role, and although not really having much experience in heavy duty acting, he really did an outstanding job, especially in his scenes with his screen Dad.The cinematography was also very good with some nice shots of futuristic looking buildings from different countries in contrast with some rather stark UK interior shots. Apparently, they had VERY little money to work with, but considering that, I thought they did a very good job of putting this movie together. The editing and pacing are good. I particularly liked the sound design. I thought that it fit the scenes really well with a nice mix of Industrial sounds and moody backgrounds that were quite effective.The director mentions in his commentary that he deliberately left the last act and ending rather ambiguous, which is fine. I don't mind ambiguous endings at all. BUT... and this is just my own lowly and wretched opinion... I probably would have rather seen him kind of 'Punch up' the Sci Fi aspect of the story a little more, instead of weighting it so heavily towards Drama. Don't get me wrong, the characterizations and interactions with his family were done really well. It just seems to me personally that if you have a real Kick@ss concept, then it would have been nice to have a BIT more of that Kick@ssedness on the Sci Fi part of the story and film, rather than leaving it QUITE so vague and ambiguous. In other words, I don't mind an 'Up in the air' ending at all, BUT... being a real avid Lover of Science Fiction, I would've liked to have seen a more powerful Science Fiction element in the outworking of the story which I feel would've given more weight to it's resolution and would have hit home more effectively. Not giving anything away, but I really DID like the very last scene and felt that that was a great way to leave it, BUT, I would have liked seeing a bit more of an effective 'Punch' leading up to it. A good example of what I mean is the excellent French film 'CHRYSALIS' (2007) which was more of a slightly Science Fiction flavoured Futuristic Crime Thriller, but I felt that the Sci Fi elements in that movie were more effective than in this film.So, going into this movie, I would say that if you are expecting a really HUGE, epic Sci Fi Blockbuster (like the Awesome 'BLADE RUNNER') this movie isn't about that. The look, cinematography, and style are very nicely done, but the Sci Fi elements are very downplayed and low-key. So, you might not get quite as worked up as you would for other Science Fiction films, since this one is more concept and character driven. BUT... with that said, when the Sci Fi part of the story kicks in about half way through, although a bit vague and maybe not quite as realized as it could be, still, the concept and story are quite intriguing and the film definitely DOES leave the audience wondering and asking themselves what the hell is going to happen next...I gave it a '7', which is maybe a LITTLE generous, but that's because I felt that, generally as a MOVIE, it was put together well. However, purely as a Science Fiction film, though, I would probably give it a bit more towards a '6'...