Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is walking the American desert when she gets kidnapped by cannibals. She manages to escape but only after losing an arm and a leg. Her path meanders around this techno wasteland inhabited by Miami Man (Jason Momoa),The Dream (Keanu Reeves),The Hermit (Jim Carrey),and others.
This has some interesting ideas and a few interesting actors but it is limited by many aspects of the film. First, I doubt that Suki will turn into an acting great of our age. She's a pretty model with some skills but her acting range is limited. The heart of this story needs to be the relationship between Arlen and the little girl Honey. The best way to do that is to give them plenty of screen time together. Only I doubt they could have done much with it even if it's given. I wonder if most of it ended up on the cutting room floor. This is passable. With a more impressive actress, this could have been interesting.
The Bad Batch
2016
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Romance / Sci-Fi
The Bad Batch
2016
Action / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Romance / Sci-Fi
Plot summary
THE BAD BATCH follows Arlen (Waterhouse) after she's left in a Texas wasteland fenced off from civilization. While trying to navigate the unforgiving landscape, Arlen is captured by a savage band of cannibals led by the mysterious Miami Man (Momoa). With her life on the line, she makes her way to The Dream (Reeves). As she adjusts to life in 'the bad batch' Arlen discovers that being good or bad mostly depends on who's standing next to you.
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Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is placed into a land of misfits behind a fence any Mexican could get through. The desert area is divided up and Arlen ends up in a city of cannibals which costs her an arm and a leg before she manages to escape on a dolly and picked up by a guy pushing a shopping cart through the sand with ease. She ends up in a town run by Keanu Reeves where everyone smokes pot and does acid.
The film was not the Mad Max action film I was expecting. It was far more drama and I am still not sure of the whole point of the film or the ending. She found her dream? That's weak. Keanu Reeves had a small but important role. Suki Waterhouse was the star of the film. Jason Momoa grunted most of his lines.
Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.
The Bad Batch is Not A Good Catch
Writer & director Ana Lily Amirpour came up with an interesting premise, but "The Bad Batch" scratches out long before its 118-minute runtime ends. To call this movie slow would be an understatement. The cast and lenser Lyle Vincent's widescreen cinematography are to die for. Each shot is artfully composed. I'm not sure what Amirpour wanted to do with this unappetitizing epic where the heroine has both her right arm and leg hacked off by cannibals. Mercifully, Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) escapes but the moment when she steals a skateboard to roll her across the desert made me want to burst out in laughter. I mean, here's a drop-dead gorgeous chick laying supine on a skateboard with only one arm to propel her forward. It isn't like she knows where she is going either as she stares into the brassy white hot sky. Eventually, Arlen escapes from the flesh-eaters, recovers, and acquires a fake leg. She gets pretty good with a gun and kills Miami Man's (Jason Momoa) black wife Maria (Yolonda Ross),kidnaps his daughter Honey (Jayda Fink of "Under the Bed") and takes her back with her into a safe zone where the cannibals aren't allowed to venture. Jim Carrey must have been bored out of his skull to want to play the Hermit who cannot talk. He is in the film maybe 10 minutes and he is virtually unrecognizable. Keanu Reeves wears his sunglasses well as the chief villain, The Dream, who keeps people high on drugs and searching for 'The Dream.' Arlen loses Honey to The Dream, but it takes her a while to track her down. Meantime, Miami Man enters the desert to find his wife and daughter, but finds only the wife. The shot of a vulture feasting on her eye socket looked cool. Arlen shot.
Ana Lily Amirpour's screenplay didn't make a lot of sense either. Arlen saves Honey from the desert, loses her and then trudges back into the desert and runs into Miami Man. He gets the drop on her and takes her prisoner, informally speaking, and then on the way back, she watches an African-American dude shoot him in the left side of his chest. Predictably, Miami Man survives the shooting and The Hermit picks the right time to find him before he dies so he can nurse him back to health.
The cast is excellent and so is the cinematography, while the movie struck me as sluggish and half-baked.