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Movies / On DVD / Day Zero
Day Zero

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Day Zero (2008)

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Reviews Counted:19

Fresh:4

Rotten:15

Average Rating:4.1/10

Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Set in the near future when the draft has been reinstated, DAY ZERO explores the thought processes of three young New York men as they grudgingly prepare to go off to war. The events of the film,... Set in the near future when the draft has been reinstated, DAY ZERO explores the thought processes of three young New York men as they grudgingly prepare to go off to war. The events of the film, which takes no single political side, happen over the 30 days leading up to the send-off, and follows each friend on a separate path toward making the most important decision of their lives. Elijah Wood plays Feller, a nerdy young writer more accustomed to hunching over an iBook than working out. To Feller, war seems a distant concept, and one he's nowhere near ready for. More than anything, he's scared he'll not physically survive the grueling training that awaits him. Dixon (John Bernthal) comes from a different philosophy. The most working-class of his friends, he sees serving in the military as a duty he is proud to fulfill--an eagerness that comes in part from the fact that he has little else going on in his life. A slacker cab driver not living up to his potential, Dixon only starts to question how he feels about the departure once he starts dating a girl he actually has feelings for. Meanwhile, high-powered attorney Rifkin (Chris Klein) panics over the prospect of being shipped off, calling it "bad timing" and enlisting his politically connected father's help to avoid what, for everyone else, is inevitable. DAY ZERO offers several possible scenarios without ever preaching a message. While some parts of the story are stronger than others, the film does a good job of showing New York from the perspective of three people from drastically different social levels who are forced to face a harsh truth. By making the world of the film so like reality, director Bryan Gunnar Cole suggests that this scenario could happen any day. [More]

Starring: Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, Jon Bernthal, Ginnifer Goodwin

Starring: Elijah Wood, Chris Klein, Jon Bernthal, Ginnifer Goodwin, Elisabeth Moss, Ally Sheedy, Sofia Vassilieva

Director: Bryan Gunnar Cole

Director: Bryan Gunnar Cole
Screenwriter: Rob Malkani
Producer: Anthony Moody
Composer: Erin O'Hara
Studio: First Look

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Reviews for Day Zero

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1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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It's not a groundbreaking film, but I liked the gritty feel of it. It's a small, little movie that manages to be thought provoking enough for me to recommend it.

Full Review Source: Sin Magazine | comment Comment
07/22/08
Austin Kennedy
Austin Kennedy
Sin Magazine

...an engaging little drama that benefits from the stellar performances of its various actors.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
03/05/08
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

no one will mistake this earnest try for Medium Cool. Maybe just Smallish Cool.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
02/25/08
Norm Schrager
Norm Schrager
Filmcritic.com

Through portraits of these three men, [director] Cole uses the possibility to explore themes of loyalty and duty, masculinity, class conflicts and a youth culture gone soft and spoiled, at times slipping into political rhetoric.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
01/24/08
Annlee Ellingson
Annlee Ellingson
Boxoffice Magazine

For a hot-button issue movie with a lot of potential for character development, it’s slower than Christmas and disappointingly sluggish.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
01/23/08
Rex Reed
Rex Reed
New York Observer

Presents characters as concepts rather than actual people, and deals much more with the theoretical consequences of war rather than the actual human toll.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
01/22/08
Katey Rich
Katey Rich
Film Journal International

A film that revels in defeatism and hyperbolized dystopia; a would-be political statement that is more insipid than insightful.

Full Review Source: Christianity Today | comment Comment
01/18/08
Brett McCracken
Brett McCracken
Christianity Today

The film's relentless focus on the personal shortchanges the larger issues and ultimately reduces Fellner, Rifkin and Dixon to sociopolitical stereotypes.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
01/18/08
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Proves that even the most controversial of topics can be the basis for the dullest indie films.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
01/18/08
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post

Truth to be told, it's hard to care.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
01/18/08
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News

If the abysmal reception so far for films about the war in Iraq is any indication, Day Zero is the last thing movie audiences will want to consume.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
01/18/08
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As the pals, Elijah Wood, Jon Bernthal, and especially Chris Klein mope around noncommittally, as if it were an upcoming trip to the in-laws' they were dreading -- not a potentially one-way ticket to a war zone.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
01/17/08
Gregory Kirschling
Gregory Kirschling
Entertainment Weekly

There's very little that rings true.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
01/17/08
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday

A flat and poorly written drama about three buddies who are drafted and have 30 days to report.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
01/16/08
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Sabotaged by trite political dissertation and the presumption of novelty, the story forces Klein to shoulder much of the film's white-male-hetero paranoia.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
01/15/08
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Village Voice

Proves that Hollywood doesn't have a monopoly on ponderous, ersatz-thoughtful war dramas.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
01/15/08
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

An implausible story centering on three characters whose differences in social class and temperament make the proceedings less than involving.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
01/08/08
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

The semi-plausible Day Zero, a rather formulaic male buddy saga, asks hypothetical questions about the impact of a reinstated draft on three vastly different amigos, well played by Klein, Wood, and particularly Bernthal.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
01/07/08
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

It's purely amateur hour here; a laughably produced elegy for the common man facing war time blues, placing substantial dramatic weight on the shoulders of one of Hollywood's larger professional question marks, Chris Klein. Ouch.

Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
01/07/08
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
DVDTalk.com
 
 
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Day Zero

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