Island of the Dead (2000)

Lack of good storyline.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I just watched this thing on Flix. I won't recap what others have said on plot, just my reactions. To paraphrase Ed Wood (who seems like Cecil B. DeMill compared to this movie) "There's been a movie made - and someone's responsible!" I don't know if this really contains a spoiler or not, but if you make all the way through the film waiting for the 'good part' or 'the explanation' you will be sorely disappointed. The only thing decent about the film is the acting - all the primaries make you believe they think they are in a serious movie. If you like long, tedious and meaningless shots of skyscrapers and kids skipping rope edited in willy-nilly, then grab your popcorn and settle in. I guess this was supposed to give it some sort of artsy quality but it just bores you to tears.

Really. I love decaying villages and buildings, wastelands and deserted landscapes. That's what was hoping for, even when I knew the movie itself would be bad. "A ghost town" there is, on that island. Maybe some eerie film footage? Laughable, the whole movie, the story, the mood, everything.In the "Ghost village" they enter one building. About two minutes later they are back in that cheap house, where they keep returning to half of the movie. The flies... well okay I knew how this aspect would turn out... just horrible. There's rarely any plot, and still there are holes in it that were perplexing at best. Why would the flies "kill" those other people when you get the conclusion? Why is Malcolm's character blowing up something all of a sudden? Avoid this peace.

How can movies like these exist? Why did this script get a chance to become a movie? What were the producers thinking when they sat down and watched the final editing?: "This was a really good movie! It's so cool the way we cut off the sound at times, like when two old guys are talking in slow motion, and put in some gangsta hip hop over it instead! And people will love this idea of flies killing people for no reason at some times, and sometimes not! But hey, don't write on the back of the box that it's flies killing them, make it seem like it's zombies killing em so that we don't spoil it for the viewers! They're in for a pleasant surprise after watching about an hour without any horror and just are waiting for something horrible to come alive, that's when we release the flies!"

I was at my cousins house a while ago and he had this box of DVDs he was borrowing from a friend. We'd seen pretty much everything in the box except this, and so we decided to try it out.The only reason I'm writing this review is so maybe somebody out there will decide not to see it and save themselves from an excruciating amount of pain.So pretty much the movie is about McDowell (a heartless businessman type) and a bunch of other people (including Mos Def) who some how get stuck on an island where McDowell's company plans to build something (I don't know exactly but that's pretty much the idea) and eventually there is some half-ass-ed dialog about corpses being buried or dug up or something. so like I said they get trapped there and for about eight ninths of the film you expect some zombies to pop up. Well what really happens is these flies begin attacking everyone,picking them off one at a time. And, I have no idea why, there are constant flashbacks to some children playing jump-rope which I think is supposed to be scary or something (I s--t you not, the writers seem to think Jumpropes are horrifying.)And that is pretty much the entire film. Kinda stupid huh? well its even worse on film.This movie is so bad it becomes painful. It then becomes so painful it becomes tiring. Then by the last five minutes you're too tired to think and can't help but laugh at how idiotic the film is and how you were somehow tricked into watching all of it.Even if you get a chance to see this for free, I'd recommend avoiding it.