a5c7b9f00b Lincoln Six Echo is just like everyone else - he's waiting to go to the Island, the only place left in the world to actually live a life. Thousands of people stay at a facility waiting to go to the Island. It all sounds like paradise, but Lincoln Six Echo soon discovers that there's actually a sinister purpose going on at that facility and that he must escape - but not before stopping the sinister plan. A man living in a futuristic sterile colony begins to question his circumscribed existence when his friend is chosen to go to the Island, the last uncontaminated place on earth. As big action-blockbusters go, "The Island" isn't bad, and deserves a better life on video than it had at the box office. I'd hardly call it great, but like all good science fiction, it has it's basis in ideas, and this movie holds to its ideas well.<br/><br/>"The Island" is reasonably entertaining, with some fun (if over-the-top) action sequences, and the production design has some interesting ideas of how we'll live in the future (hint: a LOT of us will apparently be driving Chrysler 300's, especially the police). The "value of life" argument is developed reasonably well, and the characters manage to hold your attention.<br/><br/>Bear in mind that Micheal Bay directed "Armageddon". I might not be saying that much, but "The Island" really is better. Skittering along at a rapid clip, "The Island" is ridiculously enjoyable. It seems rather silly to catalogue the film's inconsistencies--the whole brainless, derivative adventure is designed to be a thrill-ride, and serious film-buffs would be well advised to check their b.s.-detectors at the door. After the world has apparently been contaminated, survivors are rescued and taken to an underground, totalitarian society where men and women are virtually separated, dressed in all-white, and given droning jobs; they are also entered into a lottery which promises to whisk the lucky winners away to an island paradise to live out their lives in splendor. Naturally, one male "product", a deep thinker, challenges the rules, asks a lot of questions, and quickly comes to believe the whole set-up is a fraud. High-tech updating of "Logan's Run" (with perhaps some overtones of "Coma" as well) could be subtitled "There Is No Sanctuary!" There's an amusing preamble, but one senses early on that director Michael Bay cannot wait to dispense with the pesky formalities--he just wants the guy and his girl out on the open road with helicopters swirling overhead and bullet-ridden cars piling up on the freeway. The plot is actually worked out rather neatly, but Bay's scenario is crassly junked up with violent action and stunt work--so much so that we lose touch with these characters (this is a movie where it's easy to lose your bearings, as the whiplash editing keeps plowing ahead until not even the surroundings make sense anymore). Strictly as a popcorn fantasy, the film has its pleasures; there are funny bits spread about, and also the occasional wipe-out line (as with Ewan McGregor asking 'himself' if he's still a virgin). Incredible special-effects, an engrossing set-up, fine performances and a satisfying finale make "The Island" decent fare, but can anyone really recommend it without smiling out of shame? **1/2 from **** The Island begins with a whimper of interest as a cool-hued, cautionary exploration of the ethics of cloning, and ends, in a hail of product placement, with a dumb bang. The shooting script provided by IMSDb (dated 1/13/04) states his first name is BERNARD. Other scripts give different answers, but this seems to be the definitive one. Starkweather Two Delta's sponsor, Jamal Starkweather, was a professional football player. During the escape attempt, Starkweather ran full force into a guard, knocking him aside in much the way that the real Starkweather would during a football game. Most of the guards, likely big fans of the real Starkweather, found the collision hysterical because it looked like the real Starkweather playing football.
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