These Final Hours

Wow, I was taken by surprise with this one. What a beautiful film! This may well be the best apocalyptic film I have seen.. The film was loaded with great imagery and concepts from the very start... I believe it had its own unique take on the apocalypse which was terrifying and believable.. There is a great unique narration as the film progresses that lets you in on how little time is left.. The acting was superb from the two leads, even the child actress was fantastic.... The film made me think how important any meeting or bond can be between us humans regardless of time... This film deserves your attention and to do well... Overall: Beautiful. Add it to your watch list its one of the best films I've watched this year....

Marketed as an end-of-days thriller, this Aussie production is better described as a sombre, thought- provoking drama that just so happens to precede an impending apocalypse. Nathan Phillips plays a self-obsessed man intent on spending his remaining time on Earth under the influence of cocaine, alcohol and self-pity. After he saves a young girl (Angourie Rice – amazing) from an unspeakable act, though, he reluctantly allows her to tag along and his journey takes a new shape. Played as a two hander between Phillips and Rice, who share remarkable chemistry together, These Final Hours is outstanding. Their unique partnership is built so carefully, intelligently and organically over the course of the movie that when their affecting and poignant climactic moment arrives, it is completely earned. Writer-director Zak Hilditch errs with his supporting players though, particularly in the middle act where we're introduced to three outlandish, imbecilic and downright aggravating characters, all of which are overplayed to the hilt by local actors. That this sequence is at least 20 minutes long is a huge misstep from Hilditch, but thankfully it doesn't spoil the overall progression of the central relationship. Bonnie Elliott's cinematography deserves a special mention too; her Perth is searing, grimy and harsh, yet somehow entirely beautiful at the same time. A flawed but worthy film that deserves to be on your 'to see' list.

If you are still seeing anything above a 4 on these ratings, then you are being duped by staff. These Final Hours is just a blatant waste of money, time and resources, I cannot figure out why it was even made when you have nothing new to add, and there are so many far superior apocalyptic themed movies, I shake my head. The acting was lame and unrealistic at best, it was like a pack of new grads going for an Oscar in every scene, but clearly missing the mark on their delivery, the female roles were particularly annoying and over the top, lacking vision, and direction. I would like to add that the young girl was probably the shred of decency in this film, although, it's a bit like saying the radio works in an otherwise wrecked car. Trying to shoot an end of the world drama on a low budget is almost an impossible task on a low budget, I rest my case right there. The outdoor scenes were few and far between, mostly tightly cropped vision of tree tops, only one long shot of a skating center car park, which they were clearly chuffed about and used as long as they could, close up of houses, some burnt out cars, but in other areas, seemingly unaffected suburbia. And of course, as in every cheap ass Aussie flick, the car of choice is a 1970s Ford falcon, even in 2014(hmmm okay)and the obligatory gratuitous sex scene with the male ass going for it right at the start. The plot was not believable, rest of the world was wiped out except for Australia (by a number of hours) and yet, so many had apparently chosen to kill themselves and their families on a lovely sunny day before anything had actually happened, yeh right. Yet, others were sitting around drinking wine, smoking cigarettes chatting about family like nothing was happening. There was no consistency, and I was reminded of this poor attempt at convincing me it was really happening thru the whole film. It completely failed to attach any emotion, while films like 'The Road' still stay with me years later. There was one scene where the young girl was being kidnapped by some suburban bogans, and it became a personal dilemma to rescue her, or take the car, and that was the only time we cared as a viewer, rest of the time I was ready for it to finish, just a train wreck. I shudder to think why in so many contemporary Aussie movies recently, we are displayed as utter dickheads, singlet wearing, ute driving, raping, brainless, mad max type, drunken useless drug taking scum. Why do film makers want to project that representation of Australian culture, it's boring and no longer shocking or artistic, just cheap and easy to replicate bogans.

source: These Final Hours

These Final Hours pulls no punches. Within the first minute you are imprisoned in a world that has been hit by a KILL SHOT asteroid, that will totally wipe out all of mankind, and the earth. Those SHTF(sh*t hits the fan) devotees will be in 7th heaven watching this, but be aware, there is no comfort in thinking you can find a place to hide, so huge is the destruction. Also don't think this movie is going to be like a similar movie 'On The Beach' that saw one waiting out the final end over months. If that is your reason for thinking I can see this later on DVD then you will be missing a treat. This movie is relentless, decidedly brutal, shocking in content and perhaps unsettling for portraying the awful truth like X-rays expose bones inside. There is no fat or scenes that are insignificant. This compares well with Australian movies like MAD MAX that show rawness that appeals. Like I said before, because it pulls no punches, and time is short, it is even more amplified. You owe it to yourself to see 'These Final Hours', as the final minutes of this movie is worth the ticket alone. It imparts such a heightened emotional impact, the acceptance of the inevitable in the face of total destruction, and has a strange surreal beauty making one feel an otherworld sense of completeness. Unbelievable.

I did not see a good Australian film, I am not sure for how long. Finally a great film comes by. I enjoyed it very much. Great cast of characters, great acting, especially by the principal actor. Story is interesting, although I saw many apocalyptic films on the same theme before. That idea is as old as the film itself. I am glad that film is set in Perth, it is one of great Australian cities, although a little bit isolated. Editing makes Ice arena and Library close by, although they are not in the reality. I strongly recommend that you see this film. Good Australian films are few and far between. Not only because of that, but if you are interested in the apocalyptic films, this one is definitely for you!

As often is the case with low budget films of this genre, the cause of the apocalypse is left vague. This is so the action won't detract for the pseudo intellectual aspects. With this film, we never know what caused the world's end...a solar flare as in the much better flick, Knowing? All we have is a weak road film of guy looking for a child's father and encountering anti social elements along the way. There's supposed to be the protagonist's redemption at the end. Yet we never really feel he as any thing to be saved from. Compared to most others in the cast he seemed an honest and thoughtful person. These Final Hours suffers mainly from a badly written script and rather absurd cheap non effects,

Great, absorbing, understated apocalypse drama. Reasonably original plot. Set in Perth, Australia, the world will end in less than 12 hours. A man (played by Nathan Phillips) heads out to an End of the World party. On the way he saves a little girl (played by Angourie Rice) from the clutches of some kidnappers. Now his priorities and degrees of compassion are tested... It's certainly not your average apocalypse drama. Focuses mainly on relationships and what matters most, rather than the usual survival- type stuff. Quite emotional at times. Well-directed too. Small budgets tend to bring out the best in directors, as they have to rely on good old-fashioned camera angles and the like, and the audience's imaginations, rather than special effects. This movie is no exception: director (and writer) Zak Hilditch uses the camera well, and relies on the audience to fill in some of the details. Fairly unknown cast put in solid performances. The standout is probably Angourie Rice as the little girl. Very convincing, especially for someone her age. Production is a bit rough around the edges, but in some ways that helps, as it makes it feel more real.

If you're a zombie/apocalypse deadhead then this "Another End of Earth" film will fill your junk food addiction. So, even though I list all the reasons why it's so junky - it won't make a dead nail bit of difference. Synopsis: Meteor hits the north Atlantic creating a firestorm that within the day will eventually engulf the world. I'm all for media dumbing down America but ... 1. It shouldn't be a meteor but an asteroid if it's to have any chance at all at being such a bad boy. Second it would have been seen and dealt with by a whole host of currently available technologies to render it a nonexistent threat. 2. Hitting the ocean (known to have water in it - duh!, would have extinguished any supposed firestorm) and fire does need fuel besides O2. 3. Of course, with only a day left, the story needs some tragic love - that's called creative writing. So our central figure is off searching. 4. The usual scattered bodies spaced logically so as to fill the screen with well placed bits of blood indicating self inflicted wounds. Strange I didn't see any animals feasting on the newly placed food sources. 5. A few well placed fires; the usual burning tires and a few CGIs of buildings. 6. Usual long slow cinematic time-lapse scenes of clouds and flocks of birds (they are flocking because they have an ominous sense it's the end). Also a dead crow; it too must have also sensed the end and took its own life. 7. Usual abandoned cars, some trashed, some lined up askew on a roadway. 8. Usual couple of fight scenes. Why? It's the end of the world! 9. For some reason, for most of the movie, we only see one person driving in the whole city of Perth - our protagonist. 10. Usual helpless stranger is rescued by our protagonist. How original! 11. Our driving protagonist is constantly complaining of low petrol so why doesn't he just siphon any of the many abandoned cars? 12. Wouldn't be a good ending unless we had a group of people deciding that a party was in order - of course, sex and drugs. 13. Forgot, for most of this creative endeavor there is someone doing a radio broadcast voice-over - as if we needed to know what's going on! 14. Usual misleading DVD cover - we don't get to see anyone getting crisped at the end. Too bad, that would have been an easy cheap CGI. 15. It is an Aussie film, with WellGo and other notoriously cheap studios backing its production. All they needed was to add some Mexican, Hollywood & N.Y. studios to really dumb it down.

Not knowing anything about it, I decided to check "These final hours", and I am glad I did. It's a rather powerful drama about the end of the world. Meteorite had hit North America and firestorm is spreading from there, destroying most of the world. Australia only has few hours left before firestorm finally hits it's territory, destroying entire world completely. Movie fallows James, a man with troubled past, man filled with loneliness and emptiness in his life. He is accompanied with little girl looking for her dad. What fallows is series of event that eventually lead James on the path of his own redemption and realization of what wrongs he did in his life, but, as time is running out, he races with time (or firestorm) to right the wrongs of his life, or at least some of them. There could be some theories why he picks up little girl, but it's most likely that his "fatherhood" instinct kicks in after saving little girl Rose, since at the beginning of the movie we find out that his girlfriend is pregnant, and since world will end in just a few hours, Rose ends up being his surrogate daughter. It should be noted that while movie deals with apocalyptic theme, it also gives a fair amount of hope for viewers as well as it's characters, via character (or rather voice) of radio host who informs people when firestorm is going to hit. It's a nice element, since radio host is basically a narrator of the movie. Music is terrific and rather beautiful, especially at the end. Great acting from Nathan Phillips, Jessica de Gouw and Angourie Rice.