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Friday, April 6, 2012

[4.50/10] The Divide (2012)


The Divide (2012)

Brief review: "The Divide" is about nine strangers, all tenants of same apartment building, who manage to escape a nuclear attack by hiding in a bunker-like basement. The movie starts out intriguing enough with an opening scene of chaos and confusion, where people are running scared trying to find a shelter, but as soon as the nine strangers get into the basement, the movie turns into a talky, monotonous bore, where nervous, frustrated people are either yelling at each other or doing nasty things. Another problem with "The Divide" is that it often feels somewhat repetitive, probably due to the the limited setting and the sluggish pacing of the film. There are moments when it seems like the exact same scene is playing over and over again, and that makes the film a rather tedious experience, leaving the viewer in anticipation something to happen. It does, later on, but it's ugly, unpleasant and revolting. With "Frontier(s)", French director Xavier Gens showed us that he likes his movies graphic, brutal and violent, and "The Divide" is no exception - torment, murder, rape, gore, you name it, it's there. Although the performances range from decent to convincing, there's not a single likable character in the entire movie, nor one you could care about at least a bit. On a positive note, the final sequence is so brilliant and visually depressing, it makes "The Divide" worth-seeing for this very memorable scene alone.

Overall summary: Some passable acting and a beautifully bleak final act aside, "The Divide" is a graphic and violent, but quite dull apocalyptic thriller, that tries very hard to shock us and make us feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic, but instead it successfully put us to sleep.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Shame to hear The Divide ended up so repetitive. I hate movies like that. I was hoping for a truly psychologically disturbing film, I mean the apocalypse and a basement, how cool is that? But it sounds like it fell flat. Maybe I'll skip to the end and spare myself the torture you went through. ;)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'll mark that one as a skip.
And glad you are doing the blogfest! I really do try to make them accessible to everyone. Hopefully the idea appeals to many.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Mel, it wasn't repetitive, but it FELT repetitive. And that's not a good sign at all.

Well, I've seen worse, but it wasn't that good either. The last scene was phenomenal, I loved it.

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Alex, don't waste your time on this one.

I loved the idea for the blogfest and I can;t wait to participate.

Maynard Morrissey said...

Early festival reviews were raving and praised it to the heaqvens - but after its official release more and more mediocre reviews came in.
Hard to say if I'm gonna like it: the plot sounds interesting but the trailers didn't impress me at all

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

It wasn't what I expected, Harry. It was a bit disturbing, but not particularly implausible. The entertainment value was also low.

Kaijinu said...

Just as I always say in my business: if the plot's shit, let the gore in!

I love Frontier(S) so you can imagine me being hyped to see this one!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Kaijinu, I loved Frontiers too, but this one is not nearly as gory. I rather doubt that you're gonna like it.

Kaijinu said...

oh how bad can it be? T T, I'mma gonna try it! Wish me luck!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Kaijinu, it's not terrible, but it's quite bad. LOL.

Crack You Whip said...

Wow, thanks for the review. Sounds like a passer-up!

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

Crack You Whip, yes don't waste your time and money on this one. It's not worth it.

James said...

The Divide was The Pitts

George Beremov [Nebular] said...

James, haven't seen The Pitts, but as you say so.. :)