Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starslots of problems, but not quite awful
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2018
I'm generally in agreement with the other reviewers here, that this movie is not well done, though I think it has SOME value, at least for hard-core dystopia fans.
(1) There are lots of logic problems with the plot, including the fact that the "bomb 'em" solution, which most of us evil-corporation-hating viewers were routing for even as most of the protagonist characters fought hard against it, was unlikely to succeed anyway, given the cross-matrixing in corporate knowledge systems.
(2) There is lots of bad dialog in the film, some of it almost laughable. The phone call telling the female exploit she was infertile (besides being irrelevant to the plot) was so badly written and acted as to make it feel like an SNL skit. It was also disappointing that the film did not work in interesting historical and spiritual angles into the characters' running argument on killing as a necessary means to an end, rather than the repetitive "yes, we must" / "no, that's not us" blarney we got.
(3) There is lots of bad acting across the board, including Michael Madsen. One exception: Simon Phillips' portrayal of the relentless "kill them all" character worked -- his desperate intensity felt genuine to me. As for the others, I will say that even a good actor can sound bad when the dialog is crap to begin with.
So, overall, caveat emptor. There was enough here for 30 minutes, not three times that. But if you can watch the film while doing something else, I give it a resounding "maybe." Also note that the original name of the film is "Mad World," so if nothing else, I am in complete agreement with the original title, however meaningless that is.
As for people complaining that Amazon includes too many amateurish moves, I feel that sometimes, too. Then again, they at least let potential viewers see the average user rating -- which in this case is low enough to clearly warn a person. Conversely, Netflix has stopped displaying ratings entirely. So, let's at least give Amazon credit for not trying to trick its viewers into watching crapola, as Netflix does.
