THE SURVIVALIST (2021) Review: Nope... Not Worth My Time

THE SURVIVALIST (2021) Review: Nope... Not Worth My Time


The Survivalist stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, John Malkovich, Jenna Leigh Green & Ruby Modine... in a film directed by Jon Keeyes.

I'm going to lead with the premise that the film got a 3.4/10 on IMDb, so if you want to stop reading now, you won't miss much because I don't have much to say... Another huge clue about the quality of the film is the lack of images provided to IMDb for a film. Instead of the usual 45-hundreds of images, this film has ten.  Ouch.

When I saw the previews for the film with Jonathan Rhys Meyers & John Malkovich I thought, 'Cool! I like Malkovich.' But oh, was I in for a disappointment!

The tag line says:
'A year and a half after the fall of civilization due to a viral outbreak, a former FBI agent finds himself forced to protect a young woman who is immune to the disease, from a dangerous gang leader hunting her.'
The film starts out with two people being pursued by some crazy folks with the intent of shooting the man and catching the woman... the man's last words to Sarah (Modine) were to find his friend, Ben (Meyers), who was an FBI agent, for protection.

The people chasing the girl are led by a religious zealot named Aaron (Malkovich) who mysteriously recovered from this deadly virus. This sets him on a path of righteousness, as he chases down this one girl who supposedly is immune to the virus. He wants to breed her to save humanity. Whether she likes it or not.

Sarah finds her way to Ben's place, the family farm, only to find out he was just some kind of computer tech guy for the FBI, not an action-oriented agent. But on the bright side, his father, and hence by virtue, relation, are survivalist, prepared for the worse.

Sarah finds Ben, Aaron find Sarah and hence Ben and the standoff commences!!!

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This film is seemingly the harbinger of upcoming films, basing their post-apocalyptic worlds off of the worst that Covid could do to us if we were all chest-beating, non-mask wearing freedom for rights advocates.

In this case, most of the world is dead with barely a few surviving and those that have survived are a bit off in the logic department. 

People like Aaron and his RV full of followers are hell bent on doing what they think is the best for humanity... 

The story had potential but the execution had a lot to be desired. Inconsistent characters. Characters with little or no motivation, just acting out a role. Then the cinematography was OK but there was just so much that fell short with this film that it bordered just barely above being a Syfy channel movie. Those aren't bad... with enough beer and friends to mock them.

But I wouldn't go out of my way to see this film.





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