Reviews

The first two thirds of the film are lifted almost directly from Robert Fiveson's CLONUS (aka PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR), an almost forgotten film from the late seventies. It's all there: the isolated compound, the diets and exercise, the indoctrination, and the clones bred to be simple and compliant and not to question authority. The biggest difference is the budget and the scale.

In this version, Ewan McGregor is the lone voice who starts to question his existence and yearn for something more than the regimented life in a world that looks like a cross between an antiseptic prison and a socialist compound overseen by a seemingly benign Big Brother, who manages everything from clothing to diet to the lottery that sends the lucky winners to "the Island."

The final third is pure Michael Bay, however: a half-baked plan that stretches credulity and maximizes on screen destruction.

Fiveson should sue.

Interesting, bleak depression-era story of man whose life swings back and forth from success to horrible tragedy. A lot like WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD, another great but weird slice of depression era bleakness directed by William Wellman. Here, Richard Barthelmess survives WWI only to get addicted to morphine, rises to the top of the business world before he's cheated out of his work, and that's just the beginning of his troubles. The portrait of labor strife, Bolshevik organizers, and violent oppression by the cops presents a far more political portrait of the depression from the perspective of the poor than usually seen in these films. It's a schizophrenic but fascinating film, bouncing between goofy comedy, heavy tragedy, and gritty, grim resolve. The armies of homeless men tramping the rails and the countryside is an image that won't go away soon.