| Children of Men (Widescreen Edition) | 
 enlarge | Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Actors: Michael Caine, Pam Ferris, Julianne Moore, Peter Mullan, Clive Owen
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $12.98
Buy Used: $2.21
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Avg. Customer Rating:  414 reviews
Sales Rank: 922
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), German (Original Language), Italian (Original Language), Romanian (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 110
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: MCAD61032513D
UPC: 025193251329
EAN: 0025193251329
ASIN: B000N6TX1I
Theatrical Release Date: January 5, 2007
Release Date: March 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In 2027 as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her childs birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/09/2008 Starring: Clive Owen Michael Caine Run time: 110 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Presenting a bleak, harrowing, and yet ultimately hopeful vision of humankind's not-too-distant future, Children of Men is a riveting cautionary tale of potential things to come. Set in the crisis-ravaged future of 2027, and based on the atypical 1993 novel by British mystery writer P.D. James, the anxiety-inducing, action-packed story is set in a dystopian England where humanity has become infertile (the last baby was born in 2009), immigration is a crime, refugees (or "fugees") are caged like animals, and the world has been torn apart by nuclear fallout, rampant terrorism, and political rebellion. In this seemingly hopeless landscape of hardscrabble survival, a jaded bureaucrat named Theo (Clive Owen) is drawn into a desperate struggle to deliver Kee (Clare-Hope Ashitey), the world's only pregnant woman, to a secret group called the Human Project that hopes to discover a cure for global infertility. As they carefully navigate between the battling forces of military police and a pro-immigration insurgency, Theo, Kee, and their secretive allies endure a death-defying ordeal of urban warfare, and director Alfonso Cuaron (with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki) capture the action with you-are-there intensity. There's just enough humor to balance the film's darker content (much of it coming from Michael Caine, as Theo's aging hippie cohort), and although Children of Men glosses over many of the specifics about its sociopolitical worst-case scenario (which includes Julianne Moore in a brief but pivotal role), it's still an immensely satisfying, pulse-pounding vision of a future that represents a frightening extrapolation of early 21st-century history. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews: Read 409 more reviews...
 A Classic Dystopian Film. Sadly underappreciated November 30, 2008
I remember seeing some previews for this film, and thinking that it looked interesting. I'm a big Clive Owen fan, and aside from what I saw in the trailer, I didn't really know much about it. Had never read the book, hadn't seen any promo for it aside from the aforementioned trailer.
As I was watching it I found myself realizing I was watching something special. I viewed it on the train ride from the east coast to the West coast, and was thoroughly captivated and drawn into this well made film.
Clive Owen is great in this, as is just about everyone in here. How this film got overlooked for Best Picture is beyond me. Three of the best films of 2007 were all made by Spanish Directors (Children of Men, Pans Labyrinth and Babel), and in my opinion Children of Men was definitely given the shaft when it came to Oscar time, only being nomimated for screenplay and cinematography, winning neither.
If you like good movies that are intelligently made, and have a lot of replay value, buy this movie. You won't be sorry.
Possibly the best SF movie in a decade November 17, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really can't think of a better science fiction movie in the last decade. It isn't about the standard story of how we bring about our own demise, or the immediate aftermath. In fact, we don't even know why people stop having children. Instead, we look at the world twenty or so years from now, and see how people have learned to deal with it.
What really makes this a superb movie is the way in which the story is told. Long, single shots make this a beautiful movie in its own right. Most things are shown, not told, and whenever I watch it I see something new (watch for the worn out London Olympics 2012 sweatshirt!). Technology has progressed in a believable way, and is there not to show off the latest in special effects but to draw you in to the realism. Each little thing sums up to an amazing movie.
Every time I watch this movie, I imagine how it might have been as done by another director. And every time, I'm very, very thankful.
 A medieval miracle tale cast in the year 2027, with a fine performance by Clive Owen November 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I suspect that if one agrees with what appears to be director Alfonso Cuaron's premise, that humankind's basest instincts for selfishness, fouling its own nest, violence toward each other and the acceptance of authoritarianism when faced with fear can be met by the redemptive power of hope and love, then one will accept Children of Men as a film of emotional power.
For me, Children of Men is a movie in which Cuaron tries to stuff in far too many actions. He seems to aiming for the kind of allegory that can change the way we feel about our lives, but he winds up making many of the compromises that movies force upon some directors as they find themselves with big budgets to work with and the need to sell tickets to justify the investment.
The story, as has been pointed out by others, is one big Macguffin. It's 2027 and civilization has fallen to its knees. The world is nothing but chaos, terrorism, a rotting environment and death. Britain has managed to survive as a nation state by becoming a horrendous dictatorship, needing immigrants for menial work and turning them into outcasts, periodically rounding them up along with the fugees, the refugees from the world's chaos who managed to slip past Britain's barriers. Concentration camps are filling up, laws are enforced with ferocity, there are no civil rights and the government has become the greatest killer of them all. In exchange, the British have order.
And it has been 19 years since a baby was born, anywhere in the world. Humankind has mysteriously become sterile. The point of the movie is that a frightened young woman is discovered to be pregnant. In an instant she becomes the center of the movie...will she be used by rebels to try to undermine the government? Will she find a way to escape by sea to some almost mythical group of scientists who are searching for peace and an answer to humankind's infertility? Will she and her baby be killed? Will they survive? It seems her only hope will be a burned-out, used-up functionary who once tried to change things, years ago. From the time this man first meets this scared girl-child and realizes that she's pregnant, to the end of the movie in a small rowboat waiting to see if mankind has a future, we're on a medieval journey through the terrors of hell as the girl and her protector deal with hatred, avarice, brutality, imprisonment, death and war.
The question for me was: Is all this Macguffining well done enough to be interesting? If it is, is the story itself worth it?
You'll have to make up your own minds. Simply as a story, I think whatever success Children of Men has had has depended on Clive Owen. He's the protector and he's in just about every scene. Owen is a fine actor. Unlike many actors who have made it to the top, he is most effective reacting. He seldom indulges in flashy heroics in his movies and doesn't do so here. At first, he's uncertain, confused and cautious. When he commits himself to the journey, he doesn't have all the answers, just a willingness to take advantage of opportunities and to risk his life because he's come to believe in what he is doing. It's a first-rate performance.
But then we have Julianne Moore as a rebel leader and Owen's former wife. In my view, she's too big a name for the size of the part, and the part is too large for the story. Michael Caine has a juicy role as Owen's older friend. He's gotten up to look like Brent Spiner in Independence Day. Caine does a nice job, but both he and Moore infect the movie with "star" presence. I think both roles would have been better for the movie if played by little known but good actors. Chiwetel Ejiofor is excellent as a dedicated and even ruthless rebel leader. But the movie only needs Owen, and he delivers.
Cuaron, in this medieval miracle tale, has given us a great look at the hell humanity has made for itself. At times, for me, he lingers on and expands this view the better to sell tickets. The whole extended urban battle at the end of the movie seemed to go on and on for no great purpose than to show us how a well-crafted urban war can be presented. Most of the movie's horrors, in fact, are so carefully framed and photographed, so well and ingeniously lit, that I was always aware I was watching a movie. Most movie-ish of all was that heavenly voice wafting down on us as humanity's redemption is resolved by a young mother and her baby.
This is one of those movies that, for me, needs to be taken seriously simply because a talented director with serious themes has made it. In this era of endless comic book movies and films with the old ultra violence, Curaon deserves our respect. So does Clive Owen.
Try Owen in Croupier. To see Julianne Moore at her finest, try Vanya on 42nd Steet. And for a taste of near sighted ur-dystopia not to be missed, read David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries.
 "You look good. The picture the police have of you doesn't do you justice." October 24, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
The dark future of Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men" is a stifling one. Bleakness so pervades every corner of this world that the light of hope cannot help but be extinguished.
Theo Faron (Clive Owen) is drawn into the web of rebel group who have an important task for him. He is told by his ex-lover, Julian (Julianne Moore), that he must accompany a woman named Kee (Claire-Hope Ashitey) out of England and deliver her to a sanctuary run by "The Human Project." What makes Kee so special is that she is pregnant - a miracle in a world where the female population has become sterile. Yet, Theo's task is far from easy as government factions and a rogue element within the rebel group want Kee for their own purposes.
"Children of Men" does have its share of positives. It does not shy away from addressing many hot-button issues regarding immigration, assisted-suicide, and totalitarianism. Also, the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is astonishing. The future world he captures on film is frightening and is all the more disturbing because it could easily be seen as prophetic in light of the numerous troubles plaguing the real world at this moment. Yet, the film overall is ultimately unsatisfying. The story turns out to be uninvolving and even borders on the boring after the film's premise is established. As it unfolds, "Children of Men" devolves into nothing more than a prolonged chase that tries to keep matters interesting by sneaking in some social commentary every now and then. Cuaron undoubtedly set out to make a film with higher aspirations but only succeed in making one with squandered potential written all over it.
 Too many plot devices September 13, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Okay, I am the first to admit that the only thing I know about cinematography and its art is what I happen to like. That being said, I have to say that I was very much impressed with the visual side of this film. To my taste, it was a little dark, which worked quite well with the dark story line. I don't think I understood why the camera was always working as it was, but it was neat. Frankly, the first thing that drew me to the movie was its premise, and I still happily say that is the finest thing about this film--in opposition to the concern of overpopulation the film discusses what it would be like if this threat was very much gone and the end of humanity was instead looming over our heads. Then a miracle of a pregnant girl comes about and the situation of the story is how can she be protected. The story is a little extreme, but then again I bet society would crumble. The problem is that it's also contrived, with too many plot devices for my taste. I happen to prefer a character-driven tale rather than this example of situation upon situation. Still, this is a surprising poignant little film that should be appreciated by the right audience.
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