Loveland (2022)

2022 R 102 Minutes

In an uncharted future, two hardened souls meet and confront each other with the things they have done and what they have become.

Overall Rating

2 / 10

Verdict: Awful

User Review

d_riptide

2 / 10

You guys remember Kate, a film that involves a hitman that gets infected by a disease and has to find the cure before she dies while protecting someone? That’s literally what ‘Expired’ (or Loveland, whatever it’s called) tries to be….. just with a lot more subtle ambition with almost nothing else to back it up outside of perpetual grumbling (pun definitely intended).

This film tries to be deep and meaningful with a distinct Blade Runner skyline and ambience interspersed with real, busy street scenes, a great use of Hong Kong footage and an attempt at a story with a deeply personal take on evolution and how every living creature needs love to survive but a decent looking backdrop trapped in the midst of a presentation that’s sleep-inducing at best and frustrating at worse BY DESIGN isn’t the best way to draw in an audience, especially if the content focuses more on condition rather than plot. Blade Runner could pull it off; this one cannot.

The movie's cinematography and editing are well made with the familiar neon lighting, but without a straight plot, both the script and direction have to carry the weight of the load to make every scene stand for itself: feats that do not hold water for very long. Though the dialogue seeks philosophical depth, they lack refinement, constantly throwing me out of the suspension of disbelief. Soundtrack may not be anything to write home about but the glacial pacing and special effects are: the former trudged the film out to an excruciatingly slow grind while the latter have the kind of effects that, while not as cheap as Inhumans, are clearly hamstrung by the low budget regardless. None of the main actors share any chemistry whatsoever or even look like they’re interested in what they’re involved with, not one single character moves the needle towards being respectable and any interesting ideas that could’ve been detrimental to the tiny nuggets of story that it DID have don’t mean anything.

Yet another project where nothing happens and nothing matters.

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