It almost feels like someone adapted Shakespeare to a movie set in the near future where the economy had gone to hell and the US is almost without water. The film is slow, really slow, so that in two hours you don't see much. Paradoxically, some of the important scenes are rushed through, while others, related to character emotions are prolonged.

To me it felt both as a well done movie and a boring one. The practical effects, the acting, the shots, they were all excellent. The pacing and the story, on the other hand, a bit disappointing. I guess you have to be in the mood and you have to like the technique of film rather than just look for a story to entertain you.

Bottom line: Hard to call it a bad movie in any context, but only part of the viewers will be glad to have seen it. Let it go at its own pace, watch it from start to end, try to grasp the vision of the writer/director. Hope it works for you.

YOUNG ONES is an entirely routine and dull post-apocalyptic drama shot in South Africa. Somehow they managed to get together no less than four Hollywood actors, but I'm not sure why they were so eager to take part because the script is hardly scintillating. A budget film like this needs really good writing and direction to work; THE ROVER is a particular favourite of recent years, but this one falls short in many ways. Michael Shannon plays the usual gruff patriarch, residing over an all-grown-up Kodi Smith-McPhee from THE ROAD and LET ME IN and a typically annoying Elle Fanning. The underrated Nicholas Hoult shows up for some low rent conflict, but it's all drawn out and highly pretentious, one of my biggest pet hates in film. Amusingly this was retitled BAD LAND: ROAD TO FURY to cash in on Hoult's role in the outstanding MAD MAX: FURY ROAD.

Ernest (Michael Shannon) lives in a dust bowl, a home made out of Sealands. His farm is dried up, as is much of the US. He hauls items for sale and barter to the construction crew laying pipe and drilling for water. His boring son Jerome (Kodi Smit-McPhee) helps him while his daughter Mary (Elle Fanning) takes care of the house chores. She would rather be with Flem (Nicholas Hoult). He has a motorcycle and is perhaps the only boy she knows. Mom (Aimee Mullins) is away in a home. She is part robot.

The story combines products that are here, but not readily available along with old technology. The family has the option to leave and go where there is water, but it is one of those attached to the land things. There is some treachery in the story, but for the most part the dialogue is predictable and boring. After a while I found myself speaking lines word for word before actors could say them. The film appeared to be character driven, except they made very boring characters with Jerome making me want to watch the wheat grow instead.

This film wasn't for me.

Parental Guide: F-bomb (at least 2). No sex or nudity. Elle's naked feet for Tarantino.