XoWizIama
Excellent adaptation.
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
wlake62
I worked in the Georgetown area of Seattle during the WTO riots. This movie was hard for me to watch. It is sympathetic to the "protesters", which to this day, I don't understand. I don't know what they were protesting? Why did they have to vandalize personal property of those they don't even know? It's not the first time this has happened here.The rioters attacked my city unprovoked, yet this movie focuses on the plight of the so-called protesters. Woody Harrelson's character was portrayed as a crazy cop, hell bent on killing every protester in sight. Then he is seen apologizing to the lead protester in jail. The mayor is a milquetoast who doesn't have a clue (okay, that part is true). In one scene where the rioters are being booked into jail, a woman says, "Who's going to get us out?" Well, they should have thought about that before they started a street war. I'm glad the police beat the crap out of them.Other than the twisted point of view and editorial license, the acting is marginal at best. There is no chemistry between Woody and Charlize Theron. Disgusting, GenX "I Win" movie for thugs and wannabes.
hendry-robert
I had never heard of this movie until it came on the TV the other day. It would have been better if it had remained that way.You don't get real idea of what the protesters were protesting about. Very much like the real protesters who were a mish mash of anarchists, drop-outs, ravers/party goers, manic depressives, attention seekers, show offs, chancers, and total dreamers. None of whom have any idea of reality because they cannot use logical thought processes.Anyway, Charlize Theron spends most of the movie crying in bed ignoring her husband Woody Harrleson who plays one of the riot police officers. I had high hopes for Theron when I first saw her years ago but she sure knows how to pick bad scripts and I do think her career is suffering from it. Woody (like Theron) will have been drawn to the project because of his environmental background and on paper he must have thought it would be a good move to accept the role. He, and Theron are both lucky the movie didn't finish their careers off. Ray Liotta plays the Seattle Mayor. The Mayor seems like a decent trusting guy but is essentially betrayed by the protesters rampage. Liottas performance, as well as Theron and Harrleson were mediocre at best. I don't blame them though. Clearly the director has absolutely no idea how to coax a performance from actors and if I were to hedge a bet I would say the director was personally caught up (emotionally) due to his obvious political views. Nothing wrong with putting your case forward in a movie, but you have to do it right and provoke a reaction from the audience, make them think. This completely fails to do that. The man completely forgot he was making a movie and like most extreme leftists the idea is always better than the reality. As you watch you will care nothing for any of the characters in the movie. Your constantly hoping something will happen, it never does because quite frankly very little actually happened in Seattle over those few days. A few protesters running around smashing windows will not give anyone the ammunition to make a full 90 minute movie.Its quite telling that since the movies release two years ago it only has around 40 reviews on IMDb. Just goes to show that no one, not even the protesters give a damn about this movie. They are probably to embarrassed.The favourable reviews of which there are far to many can only be from a few dreamers and those with an agenda. But seriously, pay them no attention because this is a really bad movie no matter what side of the political spectrum you come from.Avoid at all costs.
ponyfan
People panned this on the grounds that it was too much of an entertainment or drama piece. There _was_ that element in this movie, that given the introduction, was obviously made with the goal of promoting critical evaluation of the WTO and the resulting 'G'meetings and that's hardly a bad thing; it's not as though this movie was meant to benefit hard core anarchists (or rusted on far-right wing nuts). In any case, the drama and depiction of emotions helped to complement the film. It did a great job in portraying the myriad of the forgotten dynamics that exist in these protests- most humans involved in these situations in real life have all kinds of dramas going on, which massively colour their perspective, relation and reaction to these events- the cops, the protesters, the politicians, the journalists, the bystanders and the myriad of lobbyists all come from a variety of backgrounds and have different values and motivations; be they noble, malevolent, ignorant, informed, reserved, reactive, robotic, rebellious or downright confused; they all have their backgrounds, baggage and loved ones and it's all in flux. Excellent cross section of demographics and their interactions with good acting to boot. Superb casting and utterly convincing acting all round with Andre Benjamin (aka Andre 3000 from Outkast) a revelation. Without being minutely detailed, it was informative and allows for a broad observation of a massive chain of events that demand further consideration. Highly watchable and given the historical context and the seriousness subject matter, not very sentimental or romanticised at all, nor cynical. If this movie doesn't make you want to get off your ass and do something positive in the world, you have serious problems. Loved it.
the___force
If you like socialism, this is the movie for you; a boring exercise in leftist propaganda. A badly acted, badly made movie that will only appeal to people who actually support these nonsensical protests against capitalism.What's so annoying about these pseudo-documentaries is that they are so in line with the politics of Hollywood. Who, when they read the description of this movie, did not immediately realize that it is just another propaganda piece by the elites in Hollywood, designed to propagate their personal political agenda.I thought art was about being radical, not about blind conformity to the prevailing philosophy of the time. Will we ever have a mainstream movie about an abortion protest?Never. That would be TRULY radical. When are the people on the left going to realize that they are no longer counter-cultural? Their ideas are boring and non-compelling, which is why movies like this never succeed in spreading their ideology. Let's move on.
