The Colony (1995)

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I thumbed through the channels and came up with " The Colony " After watching for awhile and thinking it might turn out to be a good wet Saturday movie, I realized it was just like living in a gated community here in Boynton Beach, Florida. Fortunatly we can leave whenever we wish. However, there are associations who tell you what color your homes should be painted, what kinds of plants are acceptable, who is entitled to play on the tennis courts,who can swim in the pool etc,etc. We have our own COPS core. CITIZENS ON PATROL.They patrol the streets in an official police car. They do not carry guns, cannot issue traffic tickets. I am thankful to have this type of security. As far as the movie, It was better than expected.

I stumbled upon this movie on Lifetime channel while I was channel surfing. Why oh why had I never heard of this movie before? It was fantastic!!John Ritter did a wonderful job as Mr. Benson, and Hal Linden did a magnificent job as the head of the colony.The deeper meaning of this movie is that Big Brother is watching you. The scene in which the control booth can use cameras to look in individual bedrooms may not be far from reality.Scary, eh? Reminds me of the Rockwell/Jackson song: I always feel like, somebody's watching me.

Looking beyond my fabulous title for this review, we have-had-will have- in front of our eyes, which are often connected to narrow minds, a blank movie, with blank characters and with a blank intrigue. Actually that means it's...not too good, right? Sure, the idea is all there might ever be to this movie, an idea which I would like to analyze a bit further on. But except the idea, what does this movie have? Not much, really, but enough, enough to be decent...unlike others. SPOILERSLet me put it this way: this is very much a movie made for children, which sadly and unsuccessfully tries to be for grown ups. Especially regarding the acting, the plot and the way the plot develops. And even more just by looking at the idiotic security officers. They could actually be placed on a movie poster for this "creation". The story at hand is about a family which moves to "the perfect place", a community which its members like to regard as flawless. Surely, though, the dream of human perfection starts falling apart day by day and frame by frame. Yet I think this special society is how our world will soon look like. Democracy might very well be terribly diminished and all there might be left from this idea will be a vague shadow. We are already being controlled through the internet and just think that with the satellites we humans have launched into orbit, we can spy on each other(or better to say we can be spied upon) regardlessly of our feelings and desires. I just fear that this total control (which should be for our good) will actually lead man kind to a terrible dark age sometime in the future. We never like to be told what to do, do we? And humans should never be perfect, because then they there would exist Gods among humans. Sure, this movie might be fun to watch, sometime, after midnight, when you're really bored and don't have anything else to do(as it was in my case) but it will never ever gain a mark higher than 6.5.

This could have been a good movie, except it was too tame. Not enough menace in the menace, if you know what I mean. If you want to at least read it done right, read a novel called The Association, by Bentley Little. It's almost the exact same concept, but it actually makes you fear the big boogey man.