You know that my interest has been drawn when I watch a movie with these two actors. I am not a fan of Nicolas Cage or Selma Blair. This is definitely a black comedy, but I'm not sure where the comedy part comes in? Not to mention one of the biggest plot holes I've seen in a long time.
The story focuses on one family, the Ryan's, a typical family living in suburbia. Brent Nicolas Cage) is loaded with the pressure of being middle aged and a failure in his own eyes. Kendall (Selma Blair) is the housewife who gave up everything to become a mother. Then you have the teen daughter/rebel, Carly (Anne Winters) and her annoying little brother, Josh (Zackary Arthur).
This particular morning, however, everything is not as usual. Something is driving the parents of this community to have the uncontrollable urge, to kill their own children!!! The urge seems to be traveling over broadcast airwaves, because the parents only develop these urges after hearing the radio or watching the television. And each parent only wants to kill their own kids, not all kids.
As the Ryan's set off to start their day, young Josh is left in the care of the housekeeper, Sun-Yi (Sharon Gee) and her daughter. Within moments of the families departure, Sun-Yi murders her with a meat tenderizer. Sun-Yi then proceeds to calmly clean up her mess. Kendall, while taking to her private school, tries to connect with her daughter, who is busy texting her boyfriend, Damen (Robert T. Cunningham). Damen is taking a pre-SAT test at his public school, and they are making arrangements to see each other. Luckily, this has kept Kendall from turning on her car radio.
As Damen finishes his test, he, and his teacher notice that there are a large number of parents waiting for their children to finish texting. As Damen exits, he accidentally provides an entrance for the rabid parents to attack their children.
Meanwhile, Carly and her classmates have noticed a rather large number of students being called to the office, before realizing that the school is under attack! The school guards and teachers attempt to keep the parents from the children, but to no avail. Carly escapes to find Damen and then to try and rescue Josh.
While at work, Brent mentally relives an occasion in his youth that involved a cheerleader and his convertible Camero. The passing of this time in his life is what seems to cause him the most inner turmoil. We get a lot of these types of flashbacks, none of them really essential to the story.
Eventually, Brent and Kendall both become "infected" and race home to try to kill their children. Of course, Carly and Josh won't give up as easily. With the help of Damen, the kids manage to fight off their parents in a series of inventive ways.
Now, one of the main reasons for my hatred for Nicolas Cage as an actor, is his need to over act everything. And, of course, this film is no different. Selma Blair, she just kind of reminds me of the original version of Kristen Stewart. Just that same, brain-dead stare. No real emotion. Again, this performance is no different. My biggest problem with this movie lies in the description. The description says that the urge only lasts 24 hours. However, not one time in the film does it mention this fact, nor does the film extend past the 24 hour limit to show the effects wear off. So how do we know it ever ends?
I never really picked up on the comedy aspect of this "black-comedy" other than the main premise of the film. I'm a huge fan of the genre, but I wouldn't put this film in that category. It was an easy movie to watch, and I enjoyed it. I just honestly think it could have been a lot better.
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