Powerful

Crappy film

best movie i've ever seen.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

In trying to "humanize" the story, unprofessional behavior takes place between a couple of the key psychiatrists, in small as well as large occurrences, that remind one of soap opera reality: 'emotionality as a substitute for dramaturgy. Too, the difficulties filming science-fiction cheaply are having visual loose ends take place that imaginative (or merely competent) directors take care of as a matter of course because of budget largess. Sci-fi writers are obsessive and brilliant and cannot brook 'loose ends'; if a story includes observable 'state' surveillance everywhere, for example, then between production design and computer effects, you will see it on the screen. "Final's" budget shortcomings unfortunately prevail and sink the story's need for a airtight, highly controlled production design. Emphasis on the word controlled. With the possibility of human survival at stake, would there not be complete surveillance of what's taking place.....everywhere in the facility, since there are only two unfrozen humans available? Security was highly negligent throughout the institution.I also wondered why they would cast an actor such as Dennis Leary? His personality is so abrasive and unlikable. Bill doesn't have to be a dullard but he shouldn't alienate the viewer. Goodness, once his eminent demise was spoken of I on several occasions wished the toxins would start dripping into an IV. (Hope Davis's Dr. Ann at least showed some human attractiveness within her quandary about participating in the harvesting of this guy's body for medical science and/or the race's survival.)Five stars because some of the story's main and imaginative ideas survived to keep me interested.

I saw this movie twice, in a theater. I saw it the first time due to my fondness for both stars, and ended up loving it so much I went back 3 days later. There's not much sign of Leary's usual persona- he's excellent as a dazed & confused but maybe not all that delusional patient. I liked Hope Davis in it, too, but Leary was really the center, and the film keeps you guessing as to how accurate his memories are, and his paranoia. The end is so simple and yet one of the most emotionally powerful & devastating I've ever seen. It's a pity more people haven't seen this. It shows what you can do with a bare minimum of scenery/sets but also a great script with actors up to the task....

The Good: Given the Bad (see below) this film is surprisingly good at hooking you. If only it had carried through. Also, from reading the other comments, it appears that fans of Denis Leary can't stand Hope Davis and visa versa - yet they both have excellent moments, if you're a fan of either, you might want to see this film just because.The Bad (SPOILERS!): The story and its staging promise dark complexities, revelations and an emotional ride. It does not deliver -- worse, it doesn't really try. The story is illogical on almost every front. Illogical Plot 1: The patient wakes from a coma with 'delusions' that are in fact what's really going on. But how does a coma patient know what happened while he was out? (we never find out). Given that this is not an action or mystery film - what are these delusions supposed to be setting up?Illogical Plot 2: Perhaps we're supposed to be asking ourselves "is he sane or isn't he?". Yet the truth is revealed in a straight forward manner over the course of several scenes 2/3 of the way through the film. Denis Leary does a decent job with the material, but the script and the director portray his character as exactly what he is - an average person who's heavily disorientated and distrusting in a situation that, what do you know, induces disorientation and distrust. {He's also emotionally disturbed by the personally trauma that led to his being in a coma - but that's another thread that is never fully explained or incorporated into the plot.} So where's the tension in a documentary like presentation of a distressed patient who bares no emotional secrets and who's broadcasting the end of the film in his first scene?Illogical Motivations: The patient was frozen three years into his coma, and is then thawed 25 years later, specifically so that his body's natural immunity can be used to fight a horrible plague. Naturally, this requires a medical procedure that will kill the patient. So why do the doctors spend weeks trying to cure his delusions? Especially as they know he's not actually delusional? Why don't they chop him up day one? Its never explained.By the way, you'd think what with the plague and the intent of killing their patient and all, there would be lots of emotional complexity with the staff, right? And that the patient (who dies more or less willingly) would have a complex internal dialog going on, right? Particularly in a film that uses the style of a dramatic character study, right? Wrong. It's not that they attempt it and fail - its not even in the script.I wish there had been some big revelation in the end. Even a really bad one. Some justification for my staying up an hour past bedtime to see this film through.

****POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT**** I've just finished watching this on DVD. I got it as part of an auction lot some time ago...I just never got around to watching it. I wish i hadn't bothered. It seems that some guy (Denis Leary) walks up in some psychiatric institution. He is convinced he was cryogenically frozen and is about to be killed with a FINAL lethal injection. His doctor (Hope Davis) tries to help him with his unstable mind, trying to convince him it is still 1999 and he's just been in a coma. How he initially ended up in the coma is hinted at, but never really explained. What we ultimately find out (after a solid HOUR of NOTHING but tedious doctor/patient chit-chat) is that (GASP) he was frozen and they are going to kill him to take something out of his brain stem to save the world! HUH? Why BOTHER "waking him up" and then go to all of the trouble to make him believe it's 1999---just so they can turn around and kill him? Since he is/was clinically dead to begin with, couldn't they just thaw him out and harvest what they needed withOUT waking him and going through the whole elaborate theatricals of it being 30 years earlier? Someone else on here compared it to a long episode of "THE TWILIGHT ZONE"...I agree, I suppose... It is VERY LONG (zzzzz), and would be much better formatted to a half-hour in length. But the difference between this and "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" is that "THE TWILIGHT ZONE" is/was GOOD! This was NOT that involving or interesting, sorry to say... Someone needs to cryogenically FREEZE this movie and make sure it is NEVER revived! BLAH!