SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

lmweatherbee As anyone who enjoys Films / TV Shows / Books (maybe not so much books,) about the dismantling of society as we know it has surely noticed, mainstream media has taken a shift away from telling the story of every day survival, and has instead adopted a soap operaesque, cookie cutter, nitty-gritty narrative of dramatic, back stabbing, "real housewives," type story line for every production.This film is different.As this film progresses, the viewer is captivated by characters who go through profound self-realization, acceptance of how their world has and is changing, and (as many post-apocalyptic lack) a glimpse at the struggle to adjust, and thrive in their new world.No film is perfect, there are some dramatic things going on between the characters, but it doesn't stoop to the level of most, when the characters are upset at one another, it is for good reason. The producers really kept a good balance of true content, character development, and riveting situations.I would recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys a strong story, with actors who can back it up.

maplestar-828-672435 The ludicrous plot of Goodbye World makes Sharktopus seem plausible. Who's to know how a bunch of twenty-something's would react if the world found itself in the wake of a text-initiated terrorist attack (seriously?!), but I'm pretty sure this film serves as a record of how it wouldn't go down. I'm giving Goodbye World 2 stars: The first star is to acknowledge the half decent production quality. If only the filmmakers had had a decent script to work with, they may have come up with something worth watching. The sheer brilliance of creating such an abhorrent film deserves some sort of recognition in itself, and this is why I'm allocating Goodbye World a second star. Bravo!

kellylhartman Roughly, a bunch of beautiful bougie college buddies converge upon the Xanadu-esque cabin owned by one of the clique after order breaks down in the world following a cyber attack. Mostly, the whole "end of mankind" thing becomes a plot device to keep them all in the house so they can smoke weed, get drunk, have hot tub parties, hook up with each other's spouses, and generally bask in their own narcissistic and insignificant little interpersonal dramas. The true terror and stress that would, in a real situation, accompany the realization that society and everything and everyone we previously knew is probably gone, is not a theme that is dealt with in this film. It is an annoyance that nonetheless doesn't stop them from carrying on like a bunch of snotty rich kids staying in the family ski cabin. So, aside from being completely implausible, it was a decent reunion film. There are some very pretty actors and actresses, some witty banter, and some great screen chemistry from a few decent actors. And if you find yourself for some reason feeling cynical about humanity's ability to come together in times of social decay, fear not. Somehow, even though it may seem like the message that the filmmakers were trying to make throughout the entire film is that people are essentially anti- social and selfish, somehow it ends (SPOILER ALERT!!!) with everybody literally gathered together in a slow motion montage depicting the joy of community. A surprise happy ending out of the blue. Maybe that's the twist, I don't know... Or maybe the whole thing just went over my head.

jhk655 Contains minor spoilers/allusions to events in the movie that might give some parts away.First the bad: I'd like to start off by saying I really had higher hopes for this movie and the story it was trying to explore. There are tons of post-apocalyptic movies, but usually they are about people in dire straights, doing whatever it takes to survive in a world with dwindling resources. The promise of this story, at least the promise I gleaned from the description on Netflix, is that it would explore how people with a "sustainable agriculture" type of lifestyle weather the Apocalypse. What I found was a story that is tainted with unrealistically optimistic expectations of a post rule-of-law world.The writers' idea of what would happen in this scenario is incredibly naïve and foolishly optimistic. In times of desperation, civil discourse goes out the window, and the worst of humanity is revealed. People are not willing to share or compromise in these situations. Even if cooperation has the promise of greater reward, in times of panic people will almost always choose the "Right here, Right now" option. Clearly the writers either do not understand this or they must not be paying attention to what's happening in less fortunate areas of the world. The most unrealistic thing about this movie is its character's expectation of security/safety. One of the first things most people would do in the event of the breakdown of society would be to locate and secure at least one weapon (preferably firearms). The more the better. After all, sooner or later supplies are going to run out and the neighbors are going to start strongly insisting on the concept of sharing. Unfortunately for the main characters, the general consensus seems to be that guns are "scary" and they prefer not to have them around at all. In fact The only gun they have is a revolver brought by one of the group members against the others' wishes, and is therefore kept unloaded. While in some circles this may be a noble attitude of anti-violence, it has no place in a post rule-of-law world. Their moral high horse is quickly knocked out from under them when armed thugs raid their stockpile at gunpoint, and molest one of the group members. While I applaud them for at least getting the fact that they got robbed right, I have to say that it happens much too late in the story to be believable. In reality, they would not have simply been robbed and groped, and after being asked nicely to boot. The locals would have been there much sooner, with guns, and without asking. Being robbed and groped would be extremely preferable to what would really happen. Their aversion to weapons seems like wishful thinking and not representative of most of America. Let's just say if that scene had taken place in my neck of the woods, those two thugs wouldn't have simply walked away after the trespass they had just made, apocalypse or not.With the whole defense issue being ignored on moral grounds, you would think they would have plenty of other survival based issues to dwell upon. Such as, What do we do when we run out of food? What happens when are solar power/water pump system breaks down? Since we have decided to forego weapons how are we going to keep peaceful relations with our armed and dangerous neighbors? Instead, the problems and arguments the group choose to dwell upon are for some reason, still those of a developed first world nation. They worry far too much about how happy they are in their relationships and how much they hate each other for shallow insignificant character flaws. they do this even after they are robbed of their resources at gunpoint. In what world is the most salient problem how happy you are with your partner when you have no real sustainable source of food? Oh yeah I forgot about their garden, which looked capable of feeding one person out of ten for a few days. This again just shows how ungrounded and shallow the writers are. I guess they have never heard of Maslow's hierarchy of human needs. How can one worry about existential fulfillment when they don't have food/water/shelter/security? They can't, and it makes much of the dialogue in this movie absurd.Because of these points, I felt the dialogue and events of the movie were just flat out unbelievable. Without a believable infrastructure it comes off as an idealistic college kid's expectation of the consequences of the collapse of society. The good:In spite of the fact that the dialogue wasn't believable for the setting, it remained intelligent and informed. They talked about the kinds of things you would expect to hear from your pseudo-intellectual friends at a party. Imagine the "politically aware drunk college guy/girl" at a party, age them 10 years, then imagine they've mostly got their life together, this person is ever main character in the movie.Conclusion: While the events of the movie itself are absurdly unbelievable, if you suspend disbelief, the movie has just enough suspense and character development to keep you entertained. Just don't expect a realistic portrayal of the break-down of society. the events are more in line with what would happen in a town that lost power for 2 weeks.