BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Roedy Green This movie is 3 hours long. It has a cast of tens of thousands (at least it feels that way.) I think Sebastian Spence was about the only Canadian actor _not_ in it. I exaggerate a tad. Much of it appears to have been filmed in the Canadian parliament buildings in Ottawa, 24 Sussex Drive (the PM's residence), military bases and other places that would have required endless bureaucratic pandering to get permission to film. The movie overuses some of this footage. "It cost us a bundle, and you are damn well going to appreciate it."It deals in more substantial way than you would expect with Canadian political themes: separatism, water, bullying by the USA, fear of terrorists, NAFTA, political union with the USA.The dialogue is quite wooden. I think it was all written by one person. It needs to be re-written to be more idiosyncratic for each character. The mother with her drinking is a little too one-dimensional. But I think that was partly deliberate. Everyone LIES, especially to the public. Because they are not good liars, they are unconvincing every time they open their mouths. It is thus quite a cynical look at political intrigue and under the table deals. Every public speech says the exact opposite of what the character said in private earlier.One of the strangest things about the movie, there are no clear good guys and bad guys. Your loyalties shift back and forth. Some people you just can't decide. Others you know are bad, but can't figure out who they are working for or what they are attempting to accomplish with their mayhem.The relationships and true motivations are MURKY, worthy of the machinations in an English murder mystery.I am pretty sure I will watch it again, hoping with foresight to figure more of the movie out. I also wondered just what facts form the framework of this story. It feels like a historical reconstruction (though it takes place in a fictitious 2004). The smug, power-crazy, plump, young Prime Minister played by Paul Gross bears a strong resemblance to the actual P.M. Stephen Harper. He even has the same articulate reverence for lying.

Corvus-9 A taut and topical political thriller that, unfortunately, goes off the rails.In its defense, the basic premise is plausible, the writing is tense and dramatic, and the acting and direction are professional. Other posters have complained about implausibilities in the plot, and the wrong names used for things. A political thriller must have some unexpected twists or there would be no story, and we can assume that the "H2O" world has different names for things like the RCMP and War Measures Act.The series, however, goes off the rails in the third hour. We can accept one or two extremely implausible events if the story requires it, but when near-impossible events happen again and again, with a new one each few minutes, credibility crumbles. Worse, earlier crises are left unresolved before the next one hits.I'll give an example. An assassin is killing anyone, no matter how powerful or insignificant, who threatens the conspiracy. One of the major characters is a police detective who is about to unravel the plot. The assassin traps her, spills clues about the conspiracy, and then lets her go. This is an absurd Hollywoodism, like something from an old Flash Gordon serial. There are even bigger howlers in the series, and I know what happens later, but this is the one that made me want to throw something at the TV.The series plays like it was written by a committee, and each member wanted to get their plot twist in whether it made sense or not. The ending is a disappointment too; there is yet another plot twist in the last few minutes and the story just stops. All the viewer is left with is a huge number of unresolved plot twists.

iang-3 Having just watched this on tape I have to was both shocked and in awe at the magnitude of this mini-series.We know for a fact that the American water supply is dwindling, and their first port of call for a refill will be north of the border, so why not make a movie about it ?As political junkie, I can tell you yes a candidate can be elected in a by election, have a leadership race, win it and then become defacto PM, unlikely but possible [which is the basic premise for this whole movie].Acting was excellent, sets were above average, some scenarios was jaw droppingly plausible, especially the playing of Quebec and First Nations off each other. The idea of solicitor general as being a national hero was a bit of a stretch. However, once the war measures act was dropped he was about the only person in the country that could have done what he did. The mis-use of absolute power under the act played equally in to the hands of both sides here, the sight of tanks on parliament hill was scary enough.I think this is a plausible future, not much different than the millions of Austrians who were a little shocked when Germany annexed them prior to WW2.The scenario I would like to see played out would have been what next ? The annexation of Canada by the USA would lead to what ? I envisioned WW3 with Europe and the UK coming to the aid of Canada and a conventional WW3 being fought right here in North America.

rps-2 After a few decent stabs at producing good Canadian movies, CBC has laboured mightily and brought forth a turkey this time. The scenario is absurd. The acting is overwrought. The production is pretentious. The facts are shaky. What is this "Canadian Federal Police?" Do they perhaps mean the RCMP? And what is this emergency power thing that this young whelp of a pm invokes. I thought it was called The War Measures Act. Nor does the office of "deputy prime minister" have any constitutional standing. He (or she) does not automatically take over as does the US vice president if the big guy dies in office. It would be a matter to be resolved by the Liberal party and/or the Governor-general. And a black US president??? Not in our lifetime! This is really a stupid movie that reflects our insecurity, our naivete and our incompetence at making movies. We're very good at snowmobiles. And beer. Not movies.