I watch a lot of films, and this would have to be one of the worst I've seen in several years.Not only does this movie suffer under the burden of a terrible script, a total lack of direction, bad editing and average sound editing, it is also riddled with cheesy clichés, terrible acting and really bizarre happenings that just don't make a lot of sense.In places this movie got so bad I actually found myself laughing out loud at what I was seeing.Ultimately I think the major flaws in this film are:1. It's simple and potentially interesting plot was made unnecessarily complicated and boring by the way the story was structured, executed and edited (just consider the number of bad guys and subplots involved in this film - when it should have had a very clear antagonist, and a very straight-forward plot, with maybe one or two minor subplots thrown in to pad out the story)2. More plot holes than you could poke a stick at, i.e. -Why did the bulletproof vest suddenly work at the end of the movie when it's earlier colossal failure was one of the key plot points? -Who was the guy at the beginning who gave him the Bible? -How did his wife end up becoming a prisoner in the first place? -How did the tongueless prostitute escape, and why did she have a bandage over her mouth? -How did the United Provinces even come into existence? -If food is "impossible to find" (as the DVD cover proclaims) why does every character look well fed, with many actually being overweight -Why do we never see the 'deadlands' which are a central part of the plot? -What are the pills the plague victims are taking, and who made them? -Why does "money hold no worth" (as proclaimed by the DVD cover) even though there is a functioning system of government? -Why don't the people who live in the fertile forest, with lots of clean fresh water, grow their own vegetables, or farm meat, etc?3. A poorly crafted script riddled with terrible dialog and absolutely no character arc4. Bad acting. The key issue here was the fact that the main protagonist couldn't actually act very well at all, and this dragged the whole film down. The actress playing the wife didn't do too bad a job, and William Katt's cameo was not bad, however the acting from Gary Weeks was just cringe worthy, and as a result the whole film collapsed - he was the Jar Jar Binks of this production.5. This movie lacked realism - in the sense that it didn't realistically portray the apocalyptic world that it claimed to be all about. The entire film takes place in a lush and fertile forest, with well fed characters and people who don't actually seem that dissatisfied or distraught by the supposedly "all is lost" world they are living in. Even the great evil of forced prostitution doesn't seem to be that big a deal for the characters. It's hard to accept the core premise of this movie (that it's supposed to take place in a bleak and hopeless post-apocalyptic world ravaged by chaos and suffering) when there is actually a strong system of structured government in place - and without that core premise there is no threat to the characters, and therefore no real drama, and ultimately there is no plot.This movie was just plain terrible, and I can't help but suspect that the one or two glowing reviews it has received here were actually written by members of the cast and crew - or maybe their mothers.

As my summary states, the beginning of this film creates a lot of expectation. OK, I am a fan of nuclear holocausts and post-apocalypse (or, well, used to be, since the latest releases -the book of eli, the road, deadland...- have been quite disappointing). This said, a quarter of an hour into the movie I found myself looking through the window instead of at the screen. The search of the man's woman becomes tedious, slow, boring and lacking action or direction. I like the Asian looking character who befriends him, although his weird attitude doesn't really save the film. Then I decided to watch it at double or triple the speed since I had a bad feeling of wasting my time. I set the speed back to normal towards the end, however the "climax" was nothing of sorts and the overall feeling when the end credits started to roll was that of what have I done with my life for the past hour. Considerable attempt that stayed in failure.

Deadlands isn't a great movie. I'm a big fan of the post-apocalyptic genre but despite this being sold as such, its more akin to deliverance than anything else.The plot is really un-inspiring, centering purely around the main character trying to find his estranged wife. He goes on a plodding journey meeting poorly acted, cardboard characters along the way, through what looks like a bland, bulk standard north-American forest, completely untouched by any sort of catastrophic nuclear war.I had to struggle to get through this movie, there wasn't an ounce of depth or truth to any of the characters throughout the entire movie. I don't know why but for me the strongest example of this was when the main character+1 stumbles across a nice little cabin in the middle of the woods, occupied by what turns out to be a 'favours' girl, who mistakenly greets the two intruders with something like 'what will it be this time boys, schoolgirl or nurse?' in playful tones, only to discover they're two randoms, pulls a piece, a few seconds of wooden banter later and they're friends, she explains why the officers keep her out and how its nicer here and shes quite happy all considered (this IS a nuke- ravaged, plague-ridden, fascist-run, war-torn place after-all, I mean understandable you gotta do what you gotta do to get by right...) Then, some said officer's show up, main character+1 jump out the window and we're shown her interaction with one of them. She's wincing at his touch, verge of tears, shaking with fear... ummm, she was good enough at her job they they took her out of a slave camp,holed her up alone in a cabin, with a nice bed, food, coffee even, oh and fresh fruit, because y'know, nuclear war and the decimation of any semblance economy doesn't mean your local super-market wont be able to stock all your needs.. Yet she acting like this is the first time and she's being forced to give it up. By the way, to a man she even knows his first name, a first name he's sensitive about, which might possibly suggest him having opened up to her at one point... All in all don't bother with this low-budget self-indulgence, these guys playing at being film-makers. Bad dialogue, bad acting, lackluster direction, lame motivation, half-arsed attempt to add some religious symbolism, crappy faux-twists that can barely be classified as such, heavy handed moralization all add up to a wasted 107mins. Oh, and for the record, just leeching the colour out of a film doesn't make it 'post-apocalytic'.

The relatively low rating (4.5, as of my review) led me to lower my expectations on this low budget, independent movie. I thought it could do with a little more editing and a tighter script, maybe with a bigger payoff at the end. After watching for nearly two hours, the subdued climax wasn't very filling.Anyways, the meat of the movie concerns a muscle guy looking for his estranged wife, who left him just before World War III broke out. Strangely enough, the muscle guy is supposed to be cubicle worker, I think, and he never really does much hand-to-hand fighting. That leaves me wondering exactly how to classify this movie. I was expecting a scifi/martial arts/adventure movie, like JCVD's Cyborg or Universal Soldier, but this seems to have some pretensions toward being a scifi drama. Unfortunately, the story never really goes anywhere very exciting or interesting, though it kept my attention. If there had been more fight scenes and better stunt work, it would have been a good, poor man's JCVD movie. With a more intelligent script and better direction, it could have been a good, poor man's John Carpenter movie. In the end, we're left with what it is -- entertaining, yet not quite fulfilling. I was admittedly a bit generous in giving it a 7/10, but I think it was good attempt, even if it doesn't quite live up to the potential.