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quietearth [Celluloid 03.03.08] post apocalyptic movie review scifi

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Year: 2007
Release date: Unknown
Director: William L. Stewart
Writer: Ignatius Fischer
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7 out of 10

The story is about two convicts who are held in an orbiting detention facility (which unfortunately we never get to see) who are sent to earth to salvage something, and in doing so will one will win time off his conviction and the other will be able to walk. While this movie is out in Japan (as well as Russian I believe) it still hasn't receieved US distribution, so the copy I got was an 88 minute "tv version" via the sales agent, Lonely Seals Releasing. I don't know if this will differ from an eventual dvd release, but I have to say this low-budget PA scifi flick is on the caliber of Event Horizon, and while both may be lacking in the storyline department, it's ingenuity will ensure it's history as part of underground sci-fi classics for a long time to come.




The Men Who Fell starts with a breathtaking intro sequence of a shuttle entering the earths atmosphere and crash landing with a big explosion in the desert. Pulling out from this scene we see our two main characters had ejected and are only 10 klicks from their objective. We follow them through the wasteland to a place filled with techno-looking spires where they are attacked by "nomads", sort of like mad max rejects, and they end up having to kill one of them. One of the cons thinks they are "organleggers" and need them alive, so they can bring them to a nearby city (which again, we unfortunately do not get to see). On the run now, they eventually find the underground entrance to their objective in the middle of a stadium sized depression with the nomads friends watching in the distance.



Once in the underground maze, the picture takes a much darker turn as part of their orders state to watch for biohazards, specifically chemical agents which can cause hallucinations, both visual and auditory. Right off they start hearing things, and eventually come to the piecemeal corpse of one of their convict comrades who was sent on a previous mission to the same place. His tattered remains are under a huge bloodstain on the wall which sets the tone for the rest of the film. Now I can tell you they reach their objective, only to find it wasn't exactly what they were expecting, but I have to stop here as this would ruin the rest of the film.



Taking a look at the post-apocalyptic aspect, this is implied with the story synopsis, but never addressed in the film beyond the desert and the nomads. This was quite a disappointment considering it is billed as "PA" and with the stunning CGI design in the film, I really would like to have seen more. On the CGI aspect, most of it was flawless, but there were a couple of shots that were obvious bluescreen, our characters nothing more then little gingerbread cutouts. Overall I enjoyed this film and while comparing it to Event Horizon, it is only very loosely (hint). I don't think you can ever really go wrong with a film that has a live, dna sequence key.


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agentorange (3 years ago) Reply

Wow, I just watched the trailer. I've gotta get my hands on this. Hopefully this gets a wider distro soon.

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quietearth (3 years ago) Reply

Sorry MC, but this is a film site, not a pirate site.

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MrCairo (3 years ago) Reply

Well I'd certainly rent or buy it IF I could find it anywhere...

I can't even find the Japanese dvd (as Biohazard) for sale anywhere, I'd think that some would be on e-bay by now???

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k (3 years ago) Reply

where the heck do you get to buy one of these??? is the distributor sabotaging this?

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Arianna (1 year ago) Reply

For now, the movie is only being distributed in Japan, my teacher knows the two men who made this movie, and he was also an assistant to the set, helping out with whatever they needed, like moving walls, fog machine, etc. We just recently watched it at my school in AZ, because him being friends with the director was able to get it. But it won't be long before it hits the U.S


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