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: 03/27/2007 Starring: Clive Owen Julianne Moore Run time: 116 minutes Rating: Pg13

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

This is an intriguing film that has you going one way, and then turns you around the other way. As the film goes on it is bloody and horrible how the fugees are treated.

I would suggest watching the short interview film under features before watching the movie. That will give you more of a sense of what the film is about and it helped in my understanding. I was not going to necessarily watch this film again because of the violence but after seeing the interviews, I will watch it again in a new light... a new beginning.

Jackie

The movie tries to be Very Relevant And Topical by littering the scenery with terrorists and mistreated immigrants. The director obviously took a how-to-film-a-bleak-dystopia course at a community college, so the mise-en-scene is properly gray and gritty. But the movie is enough of a hack job, the premise dull and the characters hollow, that my internal alarm "this movie is never going to get anywhere" started ringing really loud after ten minutes. When that happens I give it ten more minutes to show some promise. It didn't. *click*

If you are a 12-year-old know-it-all, an addle-brained leftist or just simple, you'll probably think this movie is all that and a bag of chips.

If you have ever given the weighty issues of the day a moment's true consideration, however, you'll find yourself quickly losing patience with this screed. This is a worthless bit of tripe. It is anti-human and anti-civilization. It is truly abhorrent.

That it was well received indicates nothing more than the shocking degree that self-loathing has overtaken the human experience.

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.

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.