It's not a groundbreaking film, but I liked the gritty feel of it. It's a small, little movie that manages to be thought provoking enough for me to recommend it.
Day Zero (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 19
Fresh: 4
Rotten:15
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, sexual content, some violence and drug use.
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Jan 18, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Set in the near future when the draft has been reinstated, DAY ZERO explores the thought processes of three young New York men as they grudgingly prepare to go off to war. The events of the film,... Set in the near future when the draft has been reinstated, DAY ZERO explores the thought processes of three young New York men as they grudgingly prepare to go off to war. The events of the film, which takes no single political side, happen over the 30 days leading up to the send-off, and follows each friend on a separate path toward making the most important decision of their lives. Elijah Wood plays Feller, a nerdy young writer more accustomed to hunching over an iBook than working out. To Feller, war seems a distant concept, and one he's nowhere near ready for. More than anything, he's scared he'll not physically survive the grueling training that awaits him. Dixon (John Bernthal) comes from a different philosophy. The most working-class of his friends, he sees serving in the military as a duty he is proud to fulfill--an eagerness that comes in part from the fact that he has little else going on in his life. A slacker cab driver not living up to his potential, Dixon only starts to question how he feels about the departure once he starts dating a girl he actually has feelings for. Meanwhile, high-powered attorney Rifkin (Chris Klein) panics over the prospect of being shipped off, calling it "bad timing" and enlisting his politically connected father's help to avoid what, for everyone else, is inevitable. DAY ZERO offers several possible scenarios without ever preaching a message. While some parts of the story are stronger than others, the film does a good job of showing New York from the perspective of three people from drastically different social levels who are forced to face a harsh truth. By making the world of the film so like reality, director Bryan Gunnar Cole suggests that this scenario could happen any day. [More]
Starring: Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, Jon Bernthal, Ginnifer Goodwin
Starring: Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, Jon Bernthal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Elisabeth Moss, Ally Sheedy, Sofia Vassilieva
Director: Bryan Gunnar Cole
Director: Bryan Gunnar Cole
Screenwriter: Rob Malkani
Producer: Anthony Moody
Composer: Erin O'Hara
Studio: First Look
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Reviews for Day Zero
...an engaging little drama that benefits from the stellar performances of its various actors.
no one will mistake this earnest try for Medium Cool. Maybe just Smallish Cool.
Through portraits of these three men, [director] Cole uses the possibility to explore themes of loyalty and duty, masculinity, class conflicts and a youth culture gone soft and spoiled, at times slipping into political rhetoric.
For a hot-button issue movie with a lot of potential for character development, it’s slower than Christmas and disappointingly sluggish.
Presents characters as concepts rather than actual people, and deals much more with the theoretical consequences of war rather than the actual human toll.
A film that revels in defeatism and hyperbolized dystopia; a would-be political statement that is more insipid than insightful.
The film's relentless focus on the personal shortchanges the larger issues and ultimately reduces Fellner, Rifkin and Dixon to sociopolitical stereotypes.
Proves that even the most controversial of topics can be the basis for the dullest indie films.
If the abysmal reception so far for films about the war in Iraq is any indication, Day Zero is the last thing movie audiences will want to consume.
As the pals, Elijah Wood, Jon Bernthal, and especially Chris Klein mope around noncommittally, as if it were an upcoming trip to the in-laws' they were dreading -- not a potentially one-way ticket to a war zone.
A flat and poorly written drama about three buddies who are drafted and have 30 days to report.
Sabotaged by trite political dissertation and the presumption of novelty, the story forces Klein to shoulder much of the film's white-male-hetero paranoia.
Proves that Hollywood doesn't have a monopoly on ponderous, ersatz-thoughtful war dramas.
An implausible story centering on three characters whose differences in social class and temperament make the proceedings less than involving.
The semi-plausible Day Zero, a rather formulaic male buddy saga, asks hypothetical questions about the impact of a reinstated draft on three vastly different amigos, well played by Klein, Wood, and particularly Bernthal.
It's purely amateur hour here; a laughably produced elegy for the common man facing war time blues, placing substantial dramatic weight on the shoulders of one of Hollywood's larger professional question marks, Chris Klein. Ouch.
Latest News for Day Zero
January 26, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
January 17, 2008:
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This week at the movies, we've got monster mayhem (Cloverfield, starring Michael Stahl-David), marital mishaps (27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl), and heist hilarity (Mad... More...
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