Full Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Arty images, brilliant performances, boring story
ikkegoemikke - wrote on 11/02/2017
"You should never stop thinking about a life you've taken. That's the price you pay for taking it."
Now this was a really bizarre movie. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that it's a terribly slow film with a brilliant soundtrack. After watching "Chef" I was starving. After watching "The Rover" I was very thirsty. It's obvious that this film, which is set in Australia in a post-apocalyptic period, will automatically be compared with "Mad Max". And despite that there are many elements of excellent quality, it's just a dead simple storyline which is blown up out of proportion in a bombastic and rather pretentious way so the artistic moviegoers will give it a standing ovation.
The whole movie can be summarized as follows: a trio of criminals are on the run for something they …
Rating of
3/4
A Harsh Future
Chris Kavan - wrote on 09/14/2014
The Rover takes equal parts The Road and Mad Max in providing a post-apocalyptic tale that is both bleak and uncompromising. We aren't told what happens - only that the world has suffered from some economic collapse. Eric (Guy Pearce) finds his car taken by a trio of criminals Henry, Caleb and Archie (Scoot McNairy, Tawanda Manyimo and David Field) and immediately sets about getting his one final possession back. It doesn't work out like he wants - and finds himself knocked out - but he won't give up that easily.
Soon he comes across a wounded man, Rey (a stubbly Robert Pattinson) and when he learns he is the brother of one of the men he is after, takes him along in order to find the men and get his car back. The Rover is punctuated by sudden acts of violence - a lot of sudden …
Rating of
2.5/4
A Disappointment
SIngli6 - wrote on 07/06/2014
On the surface, The Rover is a winner. It’s beautiful to look at, contains some strong performances, and deals with confronting concepts. But scratch away that surface and what you ultimately have is a slow, empty, aimless picture that mistakes its misanthropy for a profound insight into the human condition. You can watch only so many scenes of people shooting other (often defenceless) people in the face before you question the whole purpose of the endeavour.
The movie’s post-apocalyptic setting, at first intriguing, soon loses its novelty when it becomes clear that the film is more interested in dissecting the impenetrable psyche of its protagonist, played by Guy Pierce, than of finding something interesting to do with the idea of the end of the world. Normally I welcome …
Rating of
2/4
Boring, But With Good Acting
Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 06/22/2014
The Rover is frustrating in its illusiveness. It’s one of the more literally pretentious movies, I’ve ever seen. The characters arcs never really seemed fully developed or even existent, and the movies message, if there is even intended to be one, is held at bay by the movie insistent refusal to not be interesting in the least.
The movies characters are poorly defined or stereotypical. This is a forgivable sin, but The Rovers pace is slow and plodding, and never really fluctuates. the result s that the audience has little to do throughout the running time but watch the boring lead characters stair at each other intensely or partake in some of the most boring gunplay sequences you will ever see. Nothing ever builds up; it’s the most ho-hum feeling R- rated post apocalyptic …
Rating of
2.5/4
The Bleak Outback
Unknown - wrote on 06/22/2014
A slow, bleak, and very realistic road movie. '10 years after the collapse' is the only thing we know about the crumbled society of the Australian outback. Quite frankly, we don't need a backstory. The harsh and dirty atmosphere explains enough. This is a place where no one has much besides their cars, guns, and shirts on their backs. It's a desolate area with little to no order. People are shot over the smallest of things. It's a real survivalist setting. The (nameless) main character internalizes his struggles, saying few words and flipping a violent switch at those who attempt to stop him in his path. He shares some past pain in two scenes and the ending shows the emotional attachment that comes with retrieving his car. The rest is not the most engaging, I will say. The …
