A driven, unpleasant, marketing professional (Julia Roberts) books her family to a weekend house stay on Long Island. The husband is a fairly weak character, a lecturer of media studies. The two children are stereotypical screen dominated.
They get to the fancy house, but by chance this is the day an undetermined enemy decides to launch a cyber attack on the US and all communications are lost. Late in the evening a man and his daughter arrive at the house claiming to be owners of the house. There is a bit of suspicion caused partly by the man's unclear demeanor and the daughters arrogant behaviour. The fact that they are black also contributes to the suspicion. However they do turn out to be the owners, fleeing from the city that they know is going to erupt- as he is a finance manager who had a client who had intimated such a thing was about to happen.
So the scene is set, but the film dies not venture much beyond this point. Self driving Teslas crash. Planes crash. Propaganda leaflets in Arabic (??) stating Death to America are dropped from the air. Some people become very edgy and we see New York in flames in the distance. Animals behave oddly, there is a very loud noise. The son is sick and his teeth fall out. A prepper neighbour (Kevin Bacon) refuses to help. The young daughter finally gets to see the last episode of Friends that she has been longing for.
The financier explains the enemy's strategy is to rely on a weak country to destroy itself.
So this is the message : the US is in such a febrile state of decline that it is in danger of being extinguished. The two families are typical of soft, neurotic, self obsessed Americans dependent on technology. They are all unlikeable. Julia Roberts and her family like to swear a lot. They are prime candidates for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy B Ark.
It is unfortunate the film did not go further. The odd animal behaviour was an unnecessary addition - and the gratitituous swearing, especially from Julia Roberts, was uncalled for - unless we are to take it that the typical American family does behave in this way, in which case they deserve everything coming to them.
They get to the fancy house, but by chance this is the day an undetermined enemy decides to launch a cyber attack on the US and all communications are lost. Late in the evening a man and his daughter arrive at the house claiming to be owners of the house. There is a bit of suspicion caused partly by the man's unclear demeanor and the daughters arrogant behaviour. The fact that they are black also contributes to the suspicion. However they do turn out to be the owners, fleeing from the city that they know is going to erupt- as he is a finance manager who had a client who had intimated such a thing was about to happen.
So the scene is set, but the film dies not venture much beyond this point. Self driving Teslas crash. Planes crash. Propaganda leaflets in Arabic (??) stating Death to America are dropped from the air. Some people become very edgy and we see New York in flames in the distance. Animals behave oddly, there is a very loud noise. The son is sick and his teeth fall out. A prepper neighbour (Kevin Bacon) refuses to help. The young daughter finally gets to see the last episode of Friends that she has been longing for.
The financier explains the enemy's strategy is to rely on a weak country to destroy itself.
So this is the message : the US is in such a febrile state of decline that it is in danger of being extinguished. The two families are typical of soft, neurotic, self obsessed Americans dependent on technology. They are all unlikeable. Julia Roberts and her family like to swear a lot. They are prime candidates for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy B Ark.
It is unfortunate the film did not go further. The odd animal behaviour was an unnecessary addition - and the gratitituous swearing, especially from Julia Roberts, was uncalled for - unless we are to take it that the typical American family does behave in this way, in which case they deserve everything coming to them.
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