After (2012)

Very well executed

Too much of everything

Sick Product of a Sick System

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The initial tableaux: Nurse Ana and graphic novelist Freddy ride an almost deserted bus back to their common home town of Pearl. As it turns out, both live on Canon street. There's an accident, but both seem to wake up the next morning. The kicker is that there is no telephone service and no other people.Delineation of conflicts: The protagonists have to realize that they are dead. The two leads here are more stupid than most. Instead of being an 18 minute film, this dog lasts for 90 minutes.This is an old horror cliché dating back at least to the Twilight Zone, the early version in black and white. More recently, The Frozen (also 2012) did it again.Early in their explorations of Pearl and environs, they see a storm that surrounds the town on all sides. It moves in at 0.08 miles per hour, so they have about two or three days total. Attempts to penetrate the slow dark storm are rebuffed soundly.Resolution: Do they find an escape? Be sure to watch the final 3 minutes.

I just watched the movie After on Netflix. I don't recall having heard anything about it previously, no reviews or anything of the sort. I was pleased with what I saw.It's difficult to discuss the movie without giving anything away and there are other movies with similar premises, but this one was well-executed.Two strangers from the same town meet one another on a bus, with a bit of abbreviated and failed flirtation, shortly before there is a severe accident. The next thing we know they are the only two people apparently alive and active in their town. There are no corpses and no signs of life beyond the two of them. Surrounding the town is a wall of black, swirling mist with lightning and thunder active within it...and the wall is closing in.It doesn't take altogether too long before the two protagonists discuss the possibility that they might both be dead, so they aren't as stupid as the characters in a lot of movies along these lines. We get to know them both pretty well along the way, through surprisingly natural conversation and glimpses into the past, without a lot of unnecessary exposition.I won't go into any further details, you'll need to watch it yourself if you want those, but the acting is good and the production quality is high enough that it doesn't feel like a low budget movie at all. It's always kind of nice to go into watching a movie without any idea what to expect and to be pleasantly surprised.

I usually never write any movie review. But had to take the trouble for this one. This movie is just a waste of time, with no sense in the story line. Wasted my ~1 hour watching this defective piece of movie... Regrets..... i wonder how the girl gets to wakeup, leave home, drive all the way to the hospital, and Then to find out that she's all alone and nobody around...? still wondering how the movie title (After) corresponds to the story described... In summary, the movie as a whole is very disappointing. i'm currently running out of critics to describe, but need to fill the 10 lines required by IMDb to post this review. But certainly the movie is full of bad parts. Do not watch it!

Two lonely people in the valley of the shadow of death struggle for freedom.Lots of praise for this - acting, pace, and it looks good. A two-hander, with the lead male particularly good, and dialogue excellent in parts. I liked the scene on the bus, and the analysis of the bedroom - "You sleep alone, always on one side, pillow on the other side - keeping your hopes in". Not enough humour, though.Story-wise it's difficult to criticise. A bit sci-fi, a bit allegory, bit psychological, symblogicaltastic. But definitely romance and not a horror, despite the CGI monster. I preferred to see it as a pragmatic pact between doomed depressives, but there was a load of back story suggesting fate brings lovers together, which was confirmed by the swelling strings in the slightly over-cheesed ending. Do individuals seek the one size that fits us all? I guess the answer divides optimists from pessimists. Overall this is Josh Wheedon style.I likesed it, but left feeling a bit confused.