Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I found this to be an extremely moving film. It's an unflinching and honest look at the work that is involved when a john doe is found. I admired the lengths that these county workers had to take to give each person a name and to handle their affairs, if any were left. I felt that the workers did a very good job. i imagine that a certain amount of stoicism would be necessary to be able to see complete strangers at their most vulnerable. the film is very visceral and graphic in how we see the journey of each body from beginning to end and it was shocking to see how many bodies passed through the cremation process, and not just the three that the filmmakers followed. i was very sad to see the belongings of Mr. tanner sitting anonymously at the auction. there was a desire to be able to speak up and give the belongings a name and a history from where they came. i admired the way that they took the time to shred all of his checking account papers, to give him some protection, even after death. it's a very very admirable film and i would highly recommend it to anyone who wonders what happens when someone dies alone.

Filmmakers Grover Babcock and Blue Hadaegh have given us a brilliant, gritty, no-frills examination of a subject that not many people think about, or want to think about: what happens to people who die and nobody steps forward to claim their bodies?'A Certain Kind of Death' follows several of these 'John Doe' cases. We get personal 'glances' at these profoundly alienated people, who apparently lived their lives feeling alone and detached from society. It is the existential literature of Sartre or Camus translated into real life.There are no gimmicks in this film, very little music, and most of it is done in cinema verite style. We see investigators from L.A. County methodically plowing through the effects of the deceased, and we see them trying hard to find people who care enough to come forward and make funeral arrangements. In one striking and disturbing scene, we see the contents of a decedent's apartment totally removed. The camera lingers on the emptiness, with outlines of where wall hangings used to be. All that remains of the dead man are outlines -- he is already being processed for cremation. We then see the apartment's contents being auctioned off to the highest bidder. The man remains a commodity long after his death. Babcock and Hadaegh deserve high praise for an offbeat and important film about a story that needed to be told. Social disconnection and alienation are major problems, particularly in large urban areas, yet we hear little about them in our absurd pop-cultured world. In L.A. County alone, there are apparently about 1,600 unclaimed bodies every year. Not everyone is surrounded by caring families, not everyone knows the good life.

Sometimes unsettling but rarely boring documentary answers an interesting, unexplored question: What happens to people who die with no next of kin? Producers followed the men and women in Los Angeles who are handed the task of trying to track down somebody -- anybody -- with relation to the deceased. Hundreds of unrelatable corpses slowly move through a process of storage, cremation and ultimately mass burial.Obviously such a topic deserves to be handled with sensitivity, and "A Certain Kind of Death" does just that. While the film never holds back -- we see our share of slowly-decaying bodies and red-hot roasting skulls -- but none if it ever comes off as exploitive. This is a mature film made by serious people. If you think the premise appeals to you, so will the film.

I recently saw "A Certain Kind of Death" on Sundance and it literally blew my mind away. It was captivating because this documentary actually makes one appreciate life a lot more."A Certain Kind of Death" explores as to what happens to the unclaimed dead (the deceased with no RECORDED next of kin)when their corpses are now the care of the government (which in this case is LA county). Maybe many people have an idea what happens to the deceased John and Jane Does' of the world but this explores the nitty, gritty details as to what happens. I will not spoil it here or go into too much detail, but there are people whose job it is to take care of the unclaimed dead corpses and to them it's business as usual, but the images from their jobs will stick with you and I have, at least, learned to appreciate my family and most importantly my life after watching this story (in other words, don't take everyday life for granted for you never know....) This isn't a cheery documentary. It does make you think and feel. Some viewers have complained that the people in the film aren't passionate about their jobs. Well, since when processing corpses on a daily basis (mind you, some of these corpses are in pretty AWFUL shape) invokes passion??? This is what essentially happens when you die folks, there's no way around it. Some have pretty mahogany coffins with satin lining, others have 24k gold urns for their ashes, but their are many out there not so fortunate but in the end we all end up the same: ashes to ashes, dust to dust.I highly recommend this film.