Children of Men 10th Anniversary Edition UK Exclusive Steelbook Limited Edition Blu-Ray Region free

Some intense edge of your seat gun fights, emotional heart string pulling, leaves you willing certain main characters to survive.

loved it. good adaptation of the book. highly recommend

On the surface, this seems like yet another depressing, dystopian, near-future nightmare sci-fi, about a dark and dirty world gone very, very wrong..And it is..But on closer inspection years later (literally frame by frame), this has some of the best attention to detail world building outside of Marvel or Black Mirror. It’s also close to being the kind of cult movie where just it’s name alone is becoming a kind of slang or short hand for a very specific possible future scenario..I also loved that, at first, we are made to think that one of the main characters (a heavily pregnant young black immigrant with a very strong accent) is possibly a bit stupid, or at least incredibly naïve. But after a while, we get to see that despite her youth and situation, she has a wicked sense of humour, and even her own brand of wisdom. That feels so “now” in a film that’s nearly 20 years old..

An oddity in that it's a very British film made by a Mexican director, Children of Men is to me one of the greatest works of 21st Century cinema so far.The near-future dystopia created by Cuaron is incredibly convincing and well-realised - and is now very near indeed, given that the film is set in 2027. The story is compelling, the action gritty and incredibly immersive, and the cinematography technically astonishing. The extremely long shots (actually cleverly stitched together from some still-very long takes) add a documentary feel that defies you to say that this isn't really happening and you're not really in the middle of it. Interspersed with the sequences of pulse-pounding excitement are some superbly written and performed domestic scenes, and there's interesting imagery throughout, notably a recurring theme involving animals.Alongside his visual prowess (and credit here of course to celebrated director of photography Emmanuel Lubezki), Cuaron also knows exactly how to use music - and more importantly when to stop using it.All of the performances are good. Even Clive Owen, who I tend to hate in everything, seems perfectly cast here.Be warned that Children of Men might not be for everyone. For the most part, it is a pretty grim watch, although no less gripping for that. There are occasional moments of humour and hope to offset the bleak tone. You may well not enjoy it if you're strongly right-leaning or anti-immigrant, since its politics are bold and unapologetic - perhaps even unsubtle - but otherwise you'll find it a powerful representation of an all-too-possible future.If you enjoyed Gravity and consider yourself an Alfonso Cuaron fan as a result, I urge you to watch this film. To me, Gravity was a visually fantastic dead duck. Children of Men is the full package, and is his masterpiece.

It’s like marmite love it or hate it. It’s a bit scary looking in to the future.

There are certain directors who make what is essentially the same film time and time again (think John Hughes), but then there are those directors who steadfastly refuse to make films that are in any way similar to anything they have done before (think Kubrick and Gilliam). Thankfully Alfonso Cuaron falls into the later category, and as a result of this, the man behind Y tu mama tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban now gives us this remarkable and prescient picture. Set in the very near future (2027 to be exact), the film deals with one of the most nightmarish visions of the future that I think has ever been committed to film. Society has all but collapsed, the planet is going to hell in a hand cart, and just to make matters even worse, no woman has given birth in over twenty years. As a result of this, the human race is destined to die out in the not to distant future. We are quickly introduced to Theo Faron (Clive Owen) another faceless drone in a grim and gritty London, which like the rest of the country is now a repressive police state, a state where illegal immigrants, fleeing the vicious wars in their own country's, are rounded up and put into cages before being forcibly deported. It is clear from the outset that Theo is numb to what is going on around him (the bombing of a café from which he has just purchased a coffee by parties unknown elicits nothing more than silence from him). However things are about to change for him, when his old flame Julian Taylor (Julianne Moore) turns up with an offer for Theo. As it turns out, Theo and Julian used to be hard core activists, and although Theo has left that life behind, Julian has not, and needs Theo's help. In exchange for some monetary recompense, Julian needs Theo to pull some strings with government contacts he has in order that she might smuggle an illegal immigrant girl out of the country (I won't spoil it by telling you why she needs to get out). From here on this is a no holds barred piece of action cinema the likes of which I haven't seen in a long while, as well as being a superb piece of believable sci-fi and a very thoughtful piece of socio-political drama all rolled into one. From the bomb blast that opens the film, to some stunningly shot battle sequences that close it (and obviously owe a huge design and stylistic debt to Saving Private Ryan), the intensity of the action never lets up for a second, but this does not detract from either the plot or the development of character. Indeed, Clive Owens transformation from dead eyed opportunist to rumpled protector of the dying Earths best hope of salvation is a joy to behold, with his actions never descending into the obvious action hero role, as Theo uses his only weapon, his brains to outwit his pursuers. Indeed, Theo gives little away to anyone else, it is only through others that we come to understand what turned Theo into what he has become, and what drives him to make the choices he does. The film is also littered with excellent supporting turns, from Julianne Moore's brief appearance, to Michael Caine as Jasper, an ageing hippy and Theo's best friend, to Chiwetel Ejiofor as another of Moore's activist colleagues whose commitment to the cause goes above and beyond the call of duty, to Peter Mullen as Syd, an unbalanced border guard that Theo must contend with. But it is Claire Hope Ashitey as the girl Kee that is the real find of this film. Cuaron directs with skill and control, particularly in the extended single takes that litter the film and are at times breathtaking (particularly the single take battle sequence towards the end of the movie). But other images indelibly mark themselves in the viewer's mind (caged refugees on London's litter clogged streets guarded by heavily armed Police as just one example), with some of the quieter scenes being the most telling, in particular one sequence set in a abandoned school, which does not really hit you until you realise that the reason the school is abandoned is because with no kids being born, there is no longer a need for schools, and this is a particular shocking thought. That the film manages to cram in such diverse themes as the treatment of illegal immigrants, the dangers of a police state, the destruction of the planet, racism, terrorism, freedom, and even a nice little aside about the very nature of what it is to be a celebrity without it being detrimental to either character or plot is nothing short of miraculous, but then this is that kind of film.