Movie Review: Goodbye World

What would it take for you to realize just how important the people in your life are to you? In April 2014, we watched as clarity was found through fear.

Directing this 99 minute comedy/drama is Denis Hennelly.

Saying goodbye to the world is: Adrian Grenier as James, Gaby Hoffmann as Larura, Ben McKenzie as Nick, Mark Webber as Benji, Kerry Bishe as Lily, Caroline Dhavernas as Becky and Scott Mescudi (Kid Cudi) as Lev.

James always knew one day the world would fall apart. That one day everything we as a civilization had built would collapse down around us. Knowing this day would come is why James and his family live "off the grid". They have a life that's completely self sufficient. What started out as a getting together of friends soon
turns into a more serious situation. Apparently the country was hit by a huge cyber attack, a mass text message was the only warning anyone got before everything started to fall apart. After a couple more friends show up on James' front door, everyone is quickly brought up to speed on the chaos going on around them. What was once a quiet little paradise James called home, is now a place of survival for him and his friends.
                                             

When I read the description for this one I was pretty curious and had to check it out. Then again, I'm always curious about watching people in pressured situations and how they will act as a group. For the most part it's an ok movie but I can't say much about it was really news worthy by any means. I did like how the world was thrown into chaos this time, but the film really doesn't show that much of it. Instead it's focus is on the group and their interactions, which lead to a slow and lacking playthrough.

All the right elements where there, the storyline was wide open for possibilities. Instead, they used most of the time to turn the film into a fun little sleepover with everyone having personal issues to deal with. I think even writers Denis Hennelly and Sarah Adina Smith realized how slow and seemingly pointless the script was getting and tried to spice it up a bit, which by then didn't help... at all.

Really I guess it's partially my fault, I didn't notice the comedy tag it had. I didn't catch that till I sat down to write the review. I knew what this one was about and thought "Man this should be a good drama to watch!". Had I known that directer/writer Hennelly was doing a comedy (which there wasn't that much of) I'm sure I would have liked this more. Actually, no, no I wouldn't have.

The cast was ok, it wasn't the worst acting I've seen by far and a few of them really did well. Again I'm afraid the cast was some what handicapped by the script more than their own acting skills. Really what can you do when they hand you a shallow character, or don't give you enough of a role to be productive to the whole. They tried to make sure there was conflict with the characters but some of it seemed more like forced dialogue.

When I started this movie I was stoked to watch it, the longer it went on, the more I found myself stoked to watch the credits. Overall, it's not a bad movie... really. I just have better things to do, like laundry, dishes or to watch something a little more interesting. Some where out there in movie land I'm sure someone will question this review and wonder how I missed all the coolness this movie has to offer. When you find the coolness let me know.

It's rated NR (not rated) but does have language and violence.

2 stars for a film... with, some nice camera work.


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