Young Ones

[TNGTony]

[CONTAINER][MOVIE1]Title: Young Ones

Tagline: In a future without water vengeance will rain.

Genre: [GENRE]Action[/GENRE], [GENRE]Drama[/GENRE], [GENRE]Science Fiction[/GENRE], [GENRE]Western[/GENRE]

Director: [DIRECTOR]Jake Paltrow[/DIRECTOR]

Cast: [ACTOR]Michael Shannon[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Nicholas Hoult[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Elle Fanning[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Kodi Smit-McPhee[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Aimee Mullins[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Christy Pankhurst[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Alex McGregor[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Robert Hobbs[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]David Butler[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]David Clatworthy[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Liah O'Prey[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Carel Nel[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Gideon van Schoor[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Andy McPhee[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Benny Horowitz[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Rachel Wood[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Charles Tertiens[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Vlam Beukes[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Barry Armitage[/ACTOR], [ACTOR]Karen Snyman[/ACTOR]

Release Date: [RELEASE]2014-01-18[/RELEASE]

Runtime: [RUNTIME]100[/RUNTIME]

Plot: [PLOT]In a future where water is scarce, a farmer (Michael Shannon) defends his land and hopes to rejuvenate his parched soil. However, his daughter's boyfriend schemes to steal the land for himself.[/PLOT][/MOVIE1][POSTER1]

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[TNGTony]

Young Ones is a hard movie to peg. It's definitely set as a sci-fi, but it's part crime drama, part melodrama, and mostly a western in a very thinly veiled disguise.

Young Ones takes place sometime in the future where sustained drought has laid waste much of the western US. Those who stay on in these drought-stricken lands are hard people just trying to survive. Some may see it as a post-apocalyptic movie, but it's not. Society hasn't collapsed. Just the local economy has been decimated thanks to the decades-long drought. People are desperate and do desperate things. But that is all the backdrop to the story which slowly unfolds.

It's very difficult to discuss this movie without giving parts of it away. Our main character, played by Michael Shannon. Some will recognize him as the fallen FBI agent in Boardwalk Empire. He is a man devoted to his land and trying to raise his two teenaged kids and keeping them safe from marauders. Though the story centers on Shannon's character at the beginning, this story is more about the younger generation.

I want so much to explain more about the plot in order to entice anyone to give this movie a shot, but it would give away vital parts of the movie. But if you have seen the westerns of the 50s and 60s, this movie will be very familiar. You have the town bad-boy, the girl in love with him, the boy who has to become a man before he should, the unforgivable crime, and the retribution. It has some great twists along the way to keep you on your toes.

Is this a great movie? No. It is an above average story told in an entertaining, and different way. I still highly recommend it. I thought the pay-off was worth sitting through a western in disguise. And those who know me, know my general dislike for the average western.