Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Better Late Then Never

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Blistering performances.

A downbeat post-WWIII film that has practically no soundtrack; there is an old pop hit being played on a record player, and some of the characters briefly sing a bit, but basically there is no music. A very silent, calm film which takes a little while (10-20 min.) to get interesting. The gloom isn't realized with dark scenes and depressed faces; it's realized with the lack of music, the miserable living conditions of the characters, and by the events.Whether it's realistic or not depends on how you look at it; it's realistic enough within the framework of the world that is envisioned here. However, at least 20 years have passed since the Armageddon, and people still live like rats which is an underestimation of humankind's ability to re-organize. I mean, all that the group of people (the ones Glen & Randa belong to) in the movie do is collect cans of food. Also, there is a ridiculous scene where Randa holds a piece of raw fish and lights it briefly with a match, then eats it! Surely, even cave people would have more culture than that. Surely, Glen and Randa - as super-naive as they are shown to be - at least ought to know that fire is used to prepare meat.But otherwise the realism achieved is far greater than in most post-apocalyptic films, and there are no other exaggerations that I can think of.After seeing the fish-hunting scene (literally "hunting fish") it's safe to say that the movie can make no claims that "no fish were killed during the making of this film".

Saw this when it came out and was deeply affected by it. It is a powerful tale of a second genesis, the titular characters being Adam and Eve. I recall the first shot shows a beautiful "garden of eden" grove with a huge tree trunk in the center. The camera pans up as we hear the voices of Glen and Randa playing innocently. Thirty feet off the ground we find them -- in the wreck of a car blown into the tree's branches. Glen is behind the wheel pretending to drive. So the first image is a twisted amalgam of start and finish together that only becomes more obvious and compelling as the film unwinds. Glen comes to embody the flip-side urges of exploration and egotism that got us to the point where the movie starts -- the aftermath of the end of civilization. And it becomes clear that it will happen again. Sorry if I'm not clear enough. The film is much more eloquent in a completely organic way. there's no preaching or messaging. The picture is very funny at times and never overbearing. I'd love to see it again.

I thought this was a really interesting antidote to all of the mow-hawked and black leather-wearing silliness that seems to occur after the apocalypse in every other movie of this type. There are no marauding gangs of motorbike riders here. The innocence and ignorance of the titular characters is alarming enough; seeing them foolishly expend all of their wooden matches because its amusing to them before they attempt to cross what looks like the Cascade Mountain range is painful to watch! I happen to think that if anyone ever did survive an Extinction Level Event,they might behave something like Glen and Randa; what has destroyed the world is never explained; no mention of nuclear war is made and when the characters stand at what is obviously the west coast of either Oregon or California and explain that ..."about ten miles that way there used to be a city called Boise!" you realize that whatever happened, it was massive;nuclear warheads don't re-shape the coastline! The found sets--wrecked cars sunk in sand, mobile homes that look as if Godzilla stomped on them, a rusty derailed train half submerged in a river--lend a sense of surrealistic realism to the film, if that makes any sense. This movie moves at a slow pace but i was captivated by it, wondering what would happen next. I think one of the most powerful aspects of this film is the fact that there are NO characters who provide a sense of sanity and strength; all of the older characters seem to have been driven into a sort of semi-schizophrenic absent-mindedness by whatever it was that slammed the crap out of the old civilization and the 2 youngsters seem so ignorant and unaware of the inherent dangers of their travels that you seriously worry about their safety as they tramp barefooted thru the mountains, across deserts, etc etc. I would recommend this film as an example of what can still be done with the post-apocalyptic genre. This one was a breath of fresh air.

Unjustifiably ignored sci-fi indie is a lovingly handled little gem, and provides one of cinema's less trenchant visions of post-apocalyptic Earth. Glen and Randa are young lovers, born years after the nuclear decimation of worldwide civilization. The nth-generation of a handful of survivors are tribal, searching daily for life's most basic essentials. Glen has seen a tattered Wonder Woman comic book, and believes that the fictional city of Metropolis in its pages does, indeed, exist. With his curiosity piqued, he and pregnant Randa embark on a journey to find it.Not an action-packed film by any stretch of the imagination, GLEN AND RANDA is an otherwise very solemn, thoughtful film which won't be appealing to everyone, but will leave some to chafe inwardly. I was personally quite moved by it, and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone looking for a unique film born miles away from the questionable influence of Tinseltown. 6.5/10