The Humanity Bureau

Another straight to DVD Nicolas Cage movie, I have absolutely no idea what's going on with this guys career.

The Humanity Bureau tells the story of a government agent whose job it is to establish who is contributing to society and who is not. Those deemed "Not" are sent to a place to live out there days away from civilization.

I actually like the idea, I like where the story goes and thought it was very thought provoking and scarily realistic (I could actually see something like this happening in the near future).

The trouble is the idea isn't fully utilized, the movie should have been better but instead comes across rushed, with chronic pacing issues and doesn't embrace the concept quite as tightly as it should have.

Cage phones in an average performance once again and everyone else except Hugh Dillon are instantly forgettable.

Some pretty scenery going hand in hand with some great ideas save it to an extent but it should have been so much better than this.

The Good:

Great visuals

Hugh Dillon

Unpredictable

Fantastic concept

The Bad:

Pacing issues

Wasted potential

Lifeless cast

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

"It's easier to build fear than build a wall" That term is oddly relevant at time of writing

Somehow, someway, despite everything, I'm still a Nicolas Cage fan

It seems many of the movie greats have become straight to DVD fodder now. They have all gone down the Lance Henriksen, Ron Perlman, John Cusack route and I am very sad to say we have to add Nick Cage to the list of has beens. Is it because they are too old? Well, No I certainly don't think so; Nick and John Cusack both seem to be dying their hair with boot polish these days but at least Nick hasn't had too many face lifts like John Cusack (seriously have you seen him in CELL & SINGULARITY - He looks like a woman). Nick looks half decent for a guy in his 50's so why why why are they not being offered decent roles?

This was really cheap from the very opening scene with the drone next to his car it looked so bad it wasn't even good enough to appear in a home made video. The cars were supposed to be smartphone computer controlled and it is supposed to be the future but they were all ordinary cars with nothing scifi about them except the Humanity logo - very, very poor show old chep!

The movie lurched from one cheap ___location to another as a different reviewer pointed out quite correctly to save money obviously. The guy with the eye patch - what can i say but cringe, cringe, triple cringe!!!

The acting was wooden and plodding as though they were all just picking up a cheque and the artistic integrity mattered not. The story really was like a retread of an old tired cliché and the poor effects just made the whole thing seem like another pointless exercise. I though singularity was poor but this is actually worse.

Scifi channel movies are better than this - if that doesn't give you the SP then nothing will!

Noah Kross (Nicolas Cage) works for the Humanity Bureau and they try to get people to go to the city to enjoy a better life. The land is a desert the results of climate warming and water has to be boiled to be able to drink if you can find it. There are no rivers or lakes anywhere. Many people reject the government plan to move them because they do not trust the government. This disturbs Noah.

Noah comes across a woman, Rachael Weller (Sarah Lind) , who he didn't know, but did know Rachael Weller and she is not her and she has a son Lucas (Jakob Davies). It turns out this Rachael took the real Rachael's identity and cared for the real Rachael's son, Lucas, as if he were her son. The real Rachael died and this Rachael took her identity to prove the birth of Lucas. Noah is supposed to insure that Rachael and Lucas leave, but delays their departure.

So Noah, Rachael and Lucas take off and try to go to Canada where the waters are still there or so they want to believe. Agent Westinghouse (Hugh Dillon) is on their trail and he believes Noah is going Rogue.

This could have been a better story if it were more developed, but sometimes when you write a script while on roller skates, there isn't much time and you are afraid of crashing. So we are left with an outline of a story. One day Nicolas Cage will pick a good script. We just have to wait. The Nicolas Cage Impersonators are hoping for a better script too. They need more material. Ha!

Not such a good cat and mouse game and the ending will surprise. I supposed most of you already know what the government did to those people who they conned into leaving. (5/10)

Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: None. Language: Brief small stuff only. Rating: C

This film is better than I expected. The story is quite suspenseful, and I find the characters engaging and sympathetic.

This feels a little retro: think Soylent Green. The story is the point here, and the descent of humanity following it's devaluation by a government that no longer cares. It is exactly what it seems to be and it isn't pretending to be anything else.