The Collapsed (2011) Reviews

• Something different, despite it's low budget....

  kafkandy2011-06-20

  Probably going to polarize critics and viewers, since I'm not sure that I have seen a flick with this kind of pacing and structure before. I'll admit now that I've known about this for a while, since I caught the director's last film (a documentary called WORKING CLASS ROCK STAR) a few years ago and check in from time to time.. was curious what he'd do with a narrative. While the film is far from perfect, it's a good time and enjoyable. The camera-work and score are top notch, the lead is very good, and the rest of the cast does a serviceable job considering the budget. Most of all, I really liked the different take on the end of the world... I'm not so sure I fully understand what "it" was, but I definitely get what "it" does, so by the end it's clear what has happened. By the end, it all makes sense. I've read a bunch of reviews online, and they seem split. Some really like it, some outright hate it... I'd have to say judge for yourself. It's a good movie if you're open-minded and don't go in expecting THE ROAD or something like that (considering this was made for a fraction of that flick's catering budget). I really liked the atmosphere most of all... some really great tense moments brought up because of it. Check it out - you probably won't be disappointed.

  More

• Crap movie Warning

  peterp-450-2987162014-05-07

  I had a sleepless night, so I thought, lets watch a movie my wife certainly doesn't want to see ... It would have been better if I stayed in bed. There's a beginning and an end, and that's it. Just one absurd moment in the movie I want to share : four members of a family are on the run for "I don't know what" because "I don't know what" has happened to the world. Anxiously they are running and stumbling through the woods. And then the daughter needs ... 10 minutes privacy TO SHAVE HER LEGS ... Go figure ! That was the straw that broke the camel's back. A worthless shitty movie of the year! More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

  More

• Worthless would be too kind.

  mhorg20182016-03-11

  I read some of these reviews and I wonder if A)These people saw the same movie I just wasted my time with or B) The family and friends of the people who made and starred in this wrote them. This is one of the worst films I've seen in the Apocalyptic genre. Just a terrible, boring, badly shot, badly acted, poorly plotted mess of a movie. The way these people are (and no, I'm not expecting every survivor to be Rick Grimes and company), they shouldn't have survived the first ten minutes of this disaster. They are careless, and constantly do silly and dangerous things. The world is collapsing, they find a dead kid in a car and take the time to care for the body? Who gives a damn. In the apocalyptic world, dead is dead. Move on. The acting was so wooden that it seemed Gepetto carved these people out of a tree. Want to see a good movie? Don't start here.

  More

• I was rooting for this one ...

  mecheart2013-06-27

  'The Collapsed' is movie where nothing of very interesting substance occurs for the first seventy or so minutes out of an eighty-two minute run time. That is truly a shame because I enjoyed John Fantasia's performance as a father and husband who seemed to be more than he appeared. I also (mistakenly) thought that the slow burn - indeed never ending burn - was some kind of intelligent setup design for a powerful payoff at the end. Essentially, a family of four must survive the collapse of society - that is the gist of the plot. In order to do that, Fantasia's character leads his wife, daughter and son out of their native city on a journey to reach his second son's home in a place the movie makes you suspect is a remote rural location. The four main actors get somewhere, experience hardships, there are deaths and tragedies, but the plot/director treats each loss or speed bump as such a minor affair that the viewer can only nod at a character's demise and assume something more interesting is waiting to be seen in a later act. For a relatively short film, 'The Collapsed' is very slow paced making it seem like a two hour time investment. Again, very little happens and as a consequence, very little tension is built and what suspense does arise is quickly expended by highly annoying music and scenes that end in nonsensical dead ends. The viewer of this film must be patient - willing to watch an actor run around with a bolt action rifle, pointing it at nothing, cleaning it and charging it again and again - for over an hour. Simply nothing happens that hints or eludes to what the film is really about until the last few minutes. By that point I was both bored, mentally numb, and my leg had fallen asleep. Truly I did want to positively review this one, I was rooting for it to become something interesting throughout my viewing of the film. If nothing else, perhaps John Fantasia's performance will catch the eye of someone at a large studio and he'll get a shot in front of a wider audience. I cannot recommend 'The Collapsed' to anyone really - unless you're a fan of Mr. Fantasia - and even then it'd be a hard sell. The plot ends up being a common enough one and in an attempt to make it work, the film lies to you with scenes that did not really happen. I've never liked nor approved of such devices in books and movies, they feel too much like a sucker punch in the reader or viewer's gut. Steer clear of this one, unless you're incredibly bored or patient or you're scouting for undiscovered talent.

  More

• Another Post-Apocalypse Film

  gavin69422012-05-30

  In the wake of the end of the world, a family of four desperately tries to survive. Taking to the forest, they soon discover the other survivors may be the least of their worries. My first question is, do we need another post-apocalyptic movie? For the most part, no. The genre has been done to death and very few actually excel. (The same could be said for zombie films.) Want to see a good post-apocalyptic film? Check out "Dead Weight". If this film excels at anything, it is stretching a budget. The film could reasonably have been made for a very, very low sum. There are practically no special effects, no big-name actors and all outdoor settings. I suspect the equipment would be the most expensive part, and McConnell probably had some or most of that from previous films. Where it falls short is dialogue delivery. Some of the lines are bad, but they are compounded by the poor delivery. It just does not seem to come out as very natural. In all fairness, the father and son interact rather well. It is the daughter and especially the mother who fall flat. I am a bit confused why the father has an accent and no one else does, but that is not unheard of. Should you see this film? Probably not. It is not terrible, but is not really all that great, either. The best part is probably the soundtrack. Watch it to learn how to make low-budget film, if you wish, but as for entertainment -- it provides very little.

  More