Sunday, January 4, 2015

These Final Hours (2013)

Director: Zak Hilditch
Writer:    Zak Hilditch
Cast:       Nathan Philips, Angourie Rice, Sarah Snook


A self-obsessed young man makes his way to the party-to-end-all-parties on the last day on Earth, but ends up saving the life of a little girl searching for her father. Their relationship ultimately leads him on the path to redemption.

The event that happened to cause the apocalypse is impact of some sort in North Atlantic, probably an asteroid or something. It caused some sort of Tsunami of volcanic ash wiping out both the Americas and Western Europe in no time. The Western coast of Australia (Perth) will be hit in twelve hours and the film is set there during that interval. The redemption that is being spoken of is him going back to his pregnant wife to face the end instead of being coked up senseless. Am not really a fan of these kind of melodrama and the actions being taken by him looks so out of character. Maybe that exactly is the point of the film but I just don't buy it. The character played by Sarah Snook, who was excellent in Predestination, just takes the cake. It has got Sepia filled cinematography except just for one bunker scene. Overall it is watchable at best and the ending sequence was great.

I found the rest of the Australian films that have been lauded last year (The Rover, Predestination, The Babadook) to be great but this one was an utter disappointment. 'The Rover' was post-apocalyptic as was 'The Road' and Michael Haneke's 'Time of the Wolf' and it is much more common in films to depict events after the apocalypse than the apocalypse itself. I haven't actually seen 'The Road' but have read Cormac McCarthy's book which was excellent. Lars Von Trier's 'Melancholia', which I loved was, about how people deal with an impending Apocalypse'.

Rating: 2/5

No comments:

Post a Comment