Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Keira Brennan The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Thomas Aitken I watch a lot of films, and this would have to be one of the worst I've seen in several years.Not only does this movie suffer under the burden of a terrible script, a total lack of direction, bad editing and average sound editing, it is also riddled with cheesy clichés, terrible acting and really bizarre happenings that just don't make a lot of sense.In places this movie got so bad I actually found myself laughing out loud at what I was seeing.Ultimately I think the major flaws in this film are:1. It's simple and potentially interesting plot was made unnecessarily complicated and boring by the way the story was structured, executed and edited (just consider the number of bad guys and subplots involved in this film - when it should have had a very clear antagonist, and a very straight-forward plot, with maybe one or two minor subplots thrown in to pad out the story)2. More plot holes than you could poke a stick at, i.e. -Why did the bulletproof vest suddenly work at the end of the movie when it's earlier colossal failure was one of the key plot points? -Who was the guy at the beginning who gave him the Bible? -How did his wife end up becoming a prisoner in the first place? -How did the tongueless prostitute escape, and why did she have a bandage over her mouth? -How did the United Provinces even come into existence? -If food is "impossible to find" (as the DVD cover proclaims) why does every character look well fed, with many actually being overweight -Why do we never see the 'deadlands' which are a central part of the plot? -What are the pills the plague victims are taking, and who made them? -Why does "money hold no worth" (as proclaimed by the DVD cover) even though there is a functioning system of government? -Why don't the people who live in the fertile forest, with lots of clean fresh water, grow their own vegetables, or farm meat, etc?3. A poorly crafted script riddled with terrible dialog and absolutely no character arc4. Bad acting. The key issue here was the fact that the main protagonist couldn't actually act very well at all, and this dragged the whole film down. The actress playing the wife didn't do too bad a job, and William Katt's cameo was not bad, however the acting from Gary Weeks was just cringe worthy, and as a result the whole film collapsed - he was the Jar Jar Binks of this production.5. This movie lacked realism - in the sense that it didn't realistically portray the apocalyptic world that it claimed to be all about. The entire film takes place in a lush and fertile forest, with well fed characters and people who don't actually seem that dissatisfied or distraught by the supposedly "all is lost" world they are living in. Even the great evil of forced prostitution doesn't seem to be that big a deal for the characters. It's hard to accept the core premise of this movie (that it's supposed to take place in a bleak and hopeless post-apocalyptic world ravaged by chaos and suffering) when there is actually a strong system of structured government in place - and without that core premise there is no threat to the characters, and therefore no real drama, and ultimately there is no plot.This movie was just plain terrible, and I can't help but suspect that the one or two glowing reviews it has received here were actually written by members of the cast and crew - or maybe their mothers.

makku_briz Deadlands isn't a great movie. I'm a big fan of the post-apocalyptic genre but despite this being sold as such, its more akin to deliverance than anything else.The plot is really un-inspiring, centering purely around the main character trying to find his estranged wife. He goes on a plodding journey meeting poorly acted, cardboard characters along the way, through what looks like a bland, bulk standard north-American forest, completely untouched by any sort of catastrophic nuclear war.I had to struggle to get through this movie, there wasn't an ounce of depth or truth to any of the characters throughout the entire movie. I don't know why but for me the strongest example of this was when the main character+1 stumbles across a nice little cabin in the middle of the woods, occupied by what turns out to be a 'favours' girl, who mistakenly greets the two intruders with something like 'what will it be this time boys, schoolgirl or nurse?' in playful tones, only to discover they're two randoms, pulls a piece, a few seconds of wooden banter later and they're friends, she explains why the officers keep her out and how its nicer here and shes quite happy all considered (this IS a nuke- ravaged, plague-ridden, fascist-run, war-torn place after-all, I mean understandable you gotta do what you gotta do to get by right...) Then, some said officer's show up, main character+1 jump out the window and we're shown her interaction with one of them. She's wincing at his touch, verge of tears, shaking with fear... ummm, she was good enough at her job they they took her out of a slave camp,holed her up alone in a cabin, with a nice bed, food, coffee even, oh and fresh fruit, because y'know, nuclear war and the decimation of any semblance economy doesn't mean your local super-market wont be able to stock all your needs.. Yet she acting like this is the first time and she's being forced to give it up. By the way, to a man she even knows his first name, a first name he's sensitive about, which might possibly suggest him having opened up to her at one point... All in all don't bother with this low-budget self-indulgence, these guys playing at being film-makers. Bad dialogue, bad acting, lackluster direction, lame motivation, half-arsed attempt to add some religious symbolism, crappy faux-twists that can barely be classified as such, heavy handed moralization all add up to a wasted 107mins. Oh, and for the record, just leeching the colour out of a film doesn't make it 'post-apocalytic'.

zinglorion Alright so while it is lacking in some things we've grown accustomed to in a story as expansive as Post-apacolyptic worlds, ie., BIG CGI, extravagant fight scenes, etc., I do think they had a pretty decent story going, if not the budget. I thought the acting was pretty good for the most part. Probably most impressive was the cinematography, some beautifully panned scenes. I would definitely agree with one of the other reviewers and say this is more of a sci-fi drama than action flic. A lot of the scenes were meant to take you into a post apacolyptic world full of despair and angst, this however feels a bit staged since many of the people interacting in the film are in good shape, clean/new clothes, etc. All in all, not a terrible movie for a rainy day and some popcorn on your couch.

hoiair Deadland is proof that you don't need a big budget in order to tell a compelling post-apocalyptic tale. Sure, special effects may help depict the terror that will undo the world, but if it's a post-apocalyptic tale you're telling, the emphasis should be about what happens after t...( read more)he destruction. And this movie does so very well.Don't be fooled by its shoe-string budget or cast of unknown actors. The movie is full to the brim with great action, suspense and drama. The story of a man in search for his long-lost wife after the seeming decimation of society is a classic tale of overcoming adversity.It's no "Road Warrior" neither in it excitement nor originality, but I imagine this would have been a very successful big budget film had it ever gotten that chance, not great, but worth watching.