Quick Movie Recommendation: Children of Men

I have a real follow-the-leader mentality when it comes to movies. I want to see everything that movie “historians” recommend as important films. So in my high school/college days, I tried to watch a bunch of AFI’s Top 100 Movies of All Time. You know what I quickly found out? A lot of those movies are unwatchable. I’ve been so exposed to larger-than-life action, dramatic cuts, and other shenanigans, that I fell asleep about 6 times trying to watch “Lawrence of Arabia”. I challenge anyone to start watching that movie at 10pm and make it through. Can’t be done. Also, I hate when some movies are ruined before you ever watch them. I watched “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Princess Bride” long after everybody else saw them. So I went into both with unrealistic expectations and both films have forever been ruined for me. So I’ll try not to ever do that with a movie review. Without further ado:





Children of Men instantly became one of my favorite movies of all time. It begins with an interesting premise: In the future, because of unknown reasons, women are no longer able to become pregnant. Worldwide chaos ensues. We follow Clive Owen and his attempt to make sure a random pregnant miracle girl safely reaches a group of scientists. This would hopefully save mankind.
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The story is by no means flawless, but I’m recommending this more for the style it was shot in. There are countless scenes were director Alfonso Cuarón uses long uninterrupted tracking shots. You really feel as if you are a bystander instead of just a viewer at your house. Check out this link to see a nice documentary of how some of this stuff was done. Instead of the director editing together a ton of footage, he trusts his actors to accomplish ridiculously intricate scenes.

The plot is very compelling, but the way this film is shot makes it incredible.