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Buying Time
UK 2024
produced by Andy Blithe, Kris Smith for aturn films, Television Bandits
directed by Kris Smith
starring Andy Blithe, Ryan Enever, Mark Wells, Estelle Long, Jules Maxine, Adi Thompson, James Crawley, Paula Boyle, Duane C Tucker, Nick Elliott, Joseph Betts, Kris Smith, Tom Moore, Brooke Lay, Jim Turner, Jason Kercher, Mark Nash, John Powell, Maz Usman, Leonardo Martin, Paul Bradford, Kristina Lafser, Sam Heydon, Simon Michael Morgan, Moira Hickson, Arianna Gasperini
written by Andy Blithe, music by Motion Array
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Not too far into the future: The world's plagued by various diseases,
but the Lifeline Corporation run by Victor Harrington (Mark Wells)
promises relief with the Delta Chip, that once implanted is to
prolong one's life by years. Prime Minister Jane White (Jules Maxine) is
so impressed by this that she promises the chip to everyone who chooses to
have it implanted. But then the Lifeline Corporation makes uipgrades to
the chip that are only available to those who can afford it, that is the
elite, and soon after, people only chipped with the standard version start
to die. People like the wife and daughter of Daniel Avery (Andy Blithe),
which after a flirt with alcoholism leads him to do some research on the
Lifeline Corporation on his own, only helped by his friend Shaun (Ryan
Enever). However, his leads usually end up dead or prove to be dead ends -
until he meets an old friend from school, Tess (Estelle Long), who's in a
position very similar to his, having lost her chipped loved ones, who
drops a lead that leads him to ultimately conclude that the first version
of the chip must have been implanted to siphon off life energy from the
lower classes to feed the elite. For his findings he receives a sound
beating from the Lifetime Corporation's henchmen, but this also gets him
in touch with a resistance group Tess is a member of, which isn't only
long aware of what Daniel has only just found out, they also plan to take
down Lifeline in one single strike - problem is, the group counts only
four members (Long, James Crawley, Duane C. Tucker, Nick Elliott), and
they've chosen Daniel to get into the line of fire ... Now this
little cyberpunk thriller was obviously made on a budget, so don't expect
to be smothered by overwhelming imagery and the like - which is of course
also a good thing, since being somewhat restricted in funds, both script
and direction put clever storytelling first, choose fleshed out
characterizations over bland spectacle, and dare to go philosophical from
time to time. That though is not to say the film's a bore, as the contrary
is the case: Buying Time is well-paced, features many interesting
twists and turns while remaining engaging throughout, and the action
setpieces are all competently handled. And a very solid cast on top of
that helps make this pretty cool genre entertainment.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
demons and potholes, cuddly toys and shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill Your Bones to is all of that.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to -
a collection of short stories and mini-plays ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle,
all thought up by the twisted mind of screenwriter and film reviewer Michael Haberfelner.
Tales to Chill Your Bones to
the new anthology by Michael Haberfelner
Out now from Amazon!!! |
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