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Reviews
STAR RATINGS EXPLAINED
Unmissable 5 Stars
Excellent 4 Stars
Good 3 Stars
Poor 2 Stars
Tragic 1 Star

FILM DETAILS
Certificate
TBC
Cast
Tony Blair
Mikhail Gorbachev
Jimmy Carter
Valerie Plame.
Directors
Lucy Walker.
Screenwriters
Running Time
91 minutes

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Countdown To Zero
The real Judgment Day


Plot
The shadow of nuclear annihilation is ever present in Lucy Walker's examination of proliferation, terrorism and deterrence.

Review
Countdown To Zero
On the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s famous anti-proliferation speech, Lucy Walker’s follow-up to her Academy Award-nominated documentary Waste Land brings the nuclear debate into the 21st century, marshalling an impressive array of talking heads and archive footage to reignite an issue which, despite sabre-rattling in Iran and North Korea, and the recent tragedy in Japan, hasn’t been a ‘hot button’ topic since the ’80s. Here, Walker’s customary aversion to voiceover narration works against her, giving the whole enterprise a distracted, unfocused feel. With another month or two in the edit suite, this could have been genuinely incendiary: An Inconvenient Truth for the anti-nuclear lobby.


Verdict
Walker was Oscar nominated for Waste Land this year, and while this occasionally unfocused doc doesn't hit those heights, it's still a valuable and scary film that should be seen.


Reviewed by David Hughes

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Your Reviews

Average user rating for Countdown To Zero
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RE: Re: Countdown to Zero

L: groovyfokker David Hughes has been reviewing for Empire magazine since Issue 2. Who are you? sp; First post since registering in 2009...dn't be the person perchance who's currently being patronised by David Hughes...or his mum? Worth asking I suppose. ... More

Posted by demoncleaner at 12:27, 23 June 2011 | Report This Post


RE: Re: Countdown to Zero

David Hughes has been reviewing for Empire magazine since Issue 2. Who are you? ... More

Empire User Rating

Posted by groovyfokker at 11:34, 23 June 2011 | Report This Post


Re: Countdown to Zero

Stunningly obtuse review from David Whos (pardon me) Hughes there. I know! Me neither... I know enough now (yes, I admit, even through personal experience) that being embittered about Empire reviews is incredibly touchstone behaviour for trivial stupidity but having seen this film I honestly think the complacency any non-committal review would engender in a potential viewership should be raised as a matter in PMQ's. It would be a shame Empire couldn't make a higher contribution to ou... More

Empire User Rating

Posted by demoncleaner at 22:31, 21 June 2011 | Report This Post



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