The Thinning (2016) Reviews

• Short, Simple, & Average

  blacktigerleader2016-10-22

  To summarize my review in advance; The Thinning is a dystopian science fiction movie that has some superb moments, but lacks the wholeness of a truly great or good movie. To begin, The Thinning is about a dystopian society that takes place sometime after a major global warming event that left the Earth's landmass much too small for it's population. In response, the nations of the world came up with different ways to reduce the growth and size of their population. While other countries resorted to ending the lives of those of old age or limiting family size to one child, the U.S. decided to adopt a program that would only allow the smartest children to survive. Right after this introduction is where the movie began to fall apart. The backstory for the characters was interesting, however it did not successfully help the viewer "attach" to the story of the reader. When tragedy strikes near the beginning of the movie, it's hard to feel the characters emotions. I did not feel connected with the characters, only amused by them. There are also many minor details that fail to bring this movie up to par. You have to wonder why many students take a backpack to simply take a test on a notebook. You also wonder why the students (before and after) seem to be either lackadaisical towards the test and it's consequences or extremely anxious. They seem very emotionally inconsistent about the fact that many students will be put to death a mere hour or so after the test. Another thing I found annoying about this movie was the poorly written script. It was quite simply... simple. There were no memorable lines and everything was quite frankly something you've heard before. I should note something important here... a movie does not need memorable lines; it needs emotionally relevant and imaginatively excellent lines. At many points, the lines were simply "decent," and at more rare parts of the movie, the lines felt like reading the words "good" or "bad" in an English essay. Now on to some of the things I enjoyed. I enjoyed a few moments where the acting was on par with the importance of the scene. When the students had just taken the test, you can see their anxiety, relief, and unique responses to show their emotions. I also enjoyed the color pallet used in the movie. It was relevant and consistently aided to the intensity of the movie. The last two things I enjoyed were the camera shots, which were not exceptional, rather simply nice. The editing and music also aided to the importance of the story. I did enjoy parts of this movie, however these parts were the minority of a more-often-than-not simple and dull movie. (NOTE: I believe in completely fair reviews. I am against giving 1 or 10 star reviews based on the current rating and my personal belief if it is too high or not. I encourage everyone to have someone check their rating against their thoughts about the movie to see if they align. That is how you should properly rate a movie. Share the word!)

• Utter Crap...

  omendata2017-09-15

  I don't normally swear but by god after i had watched this abysmal effort i had to so please forgive me IMDb its not my normal modus operandi. Terrible acting especially by Napoleon Dynamite clone Logan Paul - apparently he is some sort of vine social media z-list celebrity but he is butt ugly and has zero persona and acting skills and actually made me want to turn it off in the first 5 mins but due to my OCD i had to watch it to the end! The movie copies what has already been done to death with Hunger Games and The Purge = It seems the movie scene these days is all about either copying what has already been done or remaking old classics badly! Zero originality - all these producers have to do is pick up a copy of 2000AD comic from the 80's and make a movie like BLACKHAWK, WOLFIE SMITH, ROGUE TROOPER, FIENDS OF THE Russian FRONT, MELTDOWN MAN OR PLANET OF THE DAMNED - There are literally hundreds of good ideas from that era waiting to be made! Seriously if you are going to make a Scifi movie like this you really need to spend a little more than 100k and it shows.The whole movie looks like it was filmed in the corridor of my old school for 50p and a bag of monkey nuts!!! The main baddies looked like the Vinnie Jones thugs from the Arnold and Stallone movie Escape but a hundred times worse and i never thought i could say that about Vinnie "the untalented" Jones but they make him look average. And who was the main bad guy doing his bad attempt at a Danny Trejo impression - JEEZ. This is seriously ordure and shouldn't have been made its that bad! Apart from the overtly politically, leftist, limousine libtard bias we seem to see in every film these days and which really makes me mad but what is even more annoying is they seem to be catering so much for "THE 100" yoof viewers low intelligence and bland story lines - its actually a tragedy for the movie industry if this is what going to the cinema is to be replaced with Amazon, Netflix, Youtube rubbish like this - this would probably have fitted into being an episode of Black Mirror...Maybe but it certainly didn't deserve to be made into a movie. I gave it 1 only because of the rather excellent end credits music and for the relief that is was finally all over!

• Terrible story, stupid plot - UTTER NONSENSE, bad acting...

  thisisdavidscott2017-12-17

  I swear this is the worst movie I have ever EVER seen! I thought the story sounded good, but the writers made this into an unbelievable boring cheap looking dated piece of trash! Nothing makes sense. The story does not fit into the events. It is so unbelievable and I found myself hating it all the way through the 30 minutes I endured! ...after that I switched off. The actors were awful and the director must of been some hyper video blogger who became famous through YouTube. Just because it was produced by 'YouTube Red original movies' I think this poorly made movie got more credit than it deserves. I reckon most of the extras and cast were probably top video bloggers from YouTube, instead of real actors who have a soul. This movie was soulless - you might like it, if you are some dumb teenager though.

• I think this movie wanted to make a political statement...

  shinnstoneer2016-12-13

  There are definitely spoilers that follow. The requirement to suspend one's disbelief is large in this film. It also seems to be written by a strong left leaning liberal mind but that's almost a certainty in our entertainment culture in the US. First, one must accept that the United Nations has grown to a point where it can dictate to all nations an annual 5% reduction in population as a response to Climate Change. Then it must be accepted that Americans have willingly approved a system that executes a large number of school age children one every year for low test scores. This starts with children in the 1st grade. As if The Purge isn't out there enough already this film includes the execution of what appears to be more than 5% of each school's class when you look at the class size and number of students executed...starting with 5 year old children. I'm not sure if this is supposed to make us fear Climate Change or politicians more as it is implied this is very popular with the Texas government and its Governor who will run for President. Obviously this couldn't have happened in California, right? The big twist at the end is that a huge global business is behind it all and the kids aren't actually being executed...they're being forced to work at the factory making the tablets the students use for the annual test. It didn't show any younger or older children at that point so maybe they work for one year and then they execute them...hard to know...what is certain is that even 5% of every child taken every year would be way more tablet assemblers than required. They take 5% every year from 1st to 12th grade...essentially only 54 of 100 survive to graduate high school. Here is another thing that must be accepted...the parents who allow their children to go to school one day knowing 1 in 20 won't return home also do not demand their body to have a funeral..to bury. These are just a few of the major things you must accept to begin enjoying this movie...a low budget is not responsible for a nonsensical story plot.

• For a land of smart people, why is everyone so stupid

  duanekimball2017-03-28

  Just a few nitpicky things that will drive you nuts. 1) This is a thinning of the population via testing scores. So why are all the security guards so stupid. Also, who is going to want to work at Burger Queen? 2) A test this important that can easily be cheated or manipulated..not likely 3) No funerals for the people killed? 4) I was gathering from the dialog that Texas has this test but other states may not. Why live there? (or in the USA if it the only testing country) 5) Did I mention the guards... not only are they stupid, they can't fight either 6) There is no twist at the end because wouldn't there be fewer people to take the test each year, hence no need to make LOTS of testing machines?