Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Excellent, a Must See

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Secretly I'm a fan of low-budget movies.Firstly, because sometimes there are surprising things to see in this niche market. Occasionally you'll encounter a rough diamond that would be a real gem if it was better cut.Secondly, the authors usually aren't really concerned about the public opinion and there is no fear to step on someones toes and go against the grain.This is also the case with "Dragon Day".They have ensured that actually most of the moviegoers will avoid this film.First,the American public really won't be happy about the outcome of this film.Usually a movie ends with an epic, grandiose victory where the "We will prevail" and "God Bless America" ​​slogans are chanted ad nauseam.In this film they surrender and they align themselves on the side of the invader.And secondly,the Republic of China won't give this film a standing ovation,as they are portrayed as sneaky intruders,bringing the American society on the merits in a devious way.With low-budget films there are always some certainties (of course there are exceptions). Usually the performances are pretty pitiful to downright terrible. And the special effects won't blow your socks off. Usually it looks amateurish, with pale camera images and a downright bad timing. There is usually no impressing soundtrack. The only thing that usually keeps a low-budget film afloat, is an intriguing and clever put together storyline, that will keep your attention.Eventually I found this "Dragon Day" fairly successful in that area and I could sit through the whole movie without any problem. Despite the fact that there are here and there some shortcomings.Even the end surprised me.Duke Evans is an NSA analyst, who is suffering a huge financial burden and eventually fired. Apparently he inherits a country-house somewhere in the mountains (by the way, architecturally it's a nice cottage) from his grandfather and moves with his family to this area. Arriving there, they discover that there is a Mexican renting and maintaining this house for some time. While the police removes this intruder, a plane crashes down in the immediate vicinity. Slowly, everything starts to fail : cars, electricity, water, communications, television broadcasting, ... Turns out there is an invasion performed by China because the U.S. has a trillion debt to this country and don't want to pay it back. China claims the right to occupy the USA. And, this is simply done by use of the millions of chips that are incorporated in electronic devices with "Made in China" on it. Through a back-door, a virus is released in the American society after which everything is thrown back in time 30 years.Don't expect impressive images of a imploding White House as in "Independence Day" or continuous action as in "White House Down". The special effects are limited to a few ugly plumes of smoke that insinuates a plane-crash. And a panoramic view of an American city in ruins. The emphasis in this movie is placed on the collapse of a society where human values ​​are pushed to the side and the survival instinct comes up, resulting in debauchery and cruelty. "Invasion Day" shows the desperation because of the lack of basic needs such as food and water. Perhaps the idea that an entire continent can be paralyzed, by disabling its electronic network, is a bit excessive. Yet this is not inconceivable since we are depending on that entire network. In this age of hackers,spam,viruses,spy-ware,Stuxnet(a virus designed to sabotage industrial processes from nuclear plants in Iraq, cyber-stalking,DDoS attacks,phis-hing and e-Fraud,such a scenario isn't unlikely.Obviously not on such a large scale, but still disastrous enough.I read on Wikipedia:"The federal government of the United States admits that the power grid is susceptible to cyber-war. In April 2009,according to current and former national security officials,there's reported that China and Russia had infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind computer programs that can be used to disrupt the system.".Seems to me it's not really fiction anymore.Ethan Flower takes the lead on his behalf. For me, a totally unknown person (like most of the cast) who eventually performs well enough even though he sometimes acts like a dull vegetable. All in all a pleasant and convincing performance.Asa Wallander is something else. She annoyed me from the beginning.Terrible overacting and sometimes downright bizarre reactions (which of course is a bit the fault of the script) like when she gets angry at Duke because he spends not enough time with them and he doesn't do his best to get them out of this situation. Personally,I would have used a sledgehammer on her. The best performances were (for me) Eloy Mendez as the resident Mexican and William Knight as the elderly neighbor Albert Grimes, who really looks forward to killing some communists again.Despite the interesting story, there were still some implausible facts. There are some passenger planes crashing and Duke has immediately the brilliant idea that it's an invasion. After shattering several cellphones and seeing chips with "Made in China", he immediately concludes that China is responsible.If you are asked to fill a bath with water,and there is no bath, then the decision to just fill one small can is apparently the logical thing to do. I know that potatoes contain electricity. I'm sure that they had "Duracell" potatoes, because they lasted very long. How the bracelets exactly could determine the identity is phenomenal and the way they liquidate persons who commit an offense, is also exceptional.All in all a pleasant surprise that had some strong content but visual wasn't that overwhelming. Duke however is fortunate that the device he used in the end didn't have any Chinese chips in it.Otherwise, it would be an extremely grave situation for him.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

Let me start by saying I joined IMDb today just to leave this review. I decided to do this after I noticed that 70 something people gave this film a rating of 10. Clearly these people are the cast/crew and their friends. You people have no shame. This movie is terrible, I haven't seen the like since Troll 2. It is amazingly terrible, although it was incredibly hilarious for me to watch, and I may do it again. The first thing I noticed was that the cinematography was akin to surveillance footage or an old home movie, and it was clear the camera operator had no clue what he/she was doing. I was then rudely interrupted by the blank expressions, and forced dialog between the characters. In one scene the little girl and her aunt are watching the city burn. I believe the intention here was to have the girl cling to her aunt for comfort so you could see the vulnerability of the young girl. What I saw instead was the girl looking very uncomfortable being forcefully pressed against the body of a stranger.Everything I've mentioned so exists in tons of movies, especially ones about America collapsing. I would have never felt the need to leave this review if it weren't for the most glaringly terrible thing about this movie. The writing. I could sit here and tell about you some hilarious quotes from the movie, but there are so many, and really you should just watch it for yourself. The plot however, is amazing. It's based on some sort of misplaced paranoia about Chinese electronics. What happens is the Chinese government decides to collect on our "debt" to them, and they do this by shutting down all electronics that have Chinese chips, which the author assumes are in every vehicle or device manufactured since 1976. First let me say this is impossible even if the Chinese were putting back-doors on their chips. Second we don't owe China anything, they own American bonds. It's like owning stock in our country, if we do good their bonds are worth more and they do good. For this and other reasons if they destroyed American consumerism they would destroy themselves. Another hilarious thing about this story were the wristbands that you are supposed to wear after the "invasion". When you put them on your wrist they instantly know your name, and if you walk 100ft away from your house after 3pm your wrist will "start burning", then somehow you die. I'm assuming they are supposed to be killed by electrocution, but whats up with the "burning" that happens for like 3 min before they die? Why doesn't the bracelet just electrocute them? Probably has to do with the fact that batteries don't have enough amperage to kill someone. They would get shocked, maybe burned, then the thing would shut off because the battery would die. Anyway, how are you supposed to charge those things when you can't take them off. Just sit by the outlet 6hrs a day I guess.All in all I do actually feel bad for the guy who wrote, directed, and produced this movie, but come on man, you should have never picked up a pen. Also you and your crew are scum for giving this movie a 10. I know even you don't believe it deserves that. Anyway at this point you should be marketing this as an intentionally bad movie or a comedy. You'd probably get this movie more attention if you gave it the rating it deserves.

Slow at times and at one time looking like the beginnings of the usual post-apocalyptic re-hash, but came out completely different. The usual American movies can't entertain the possibility that the people will largely roll over and accept occupation. There always has to be the triumphant fight-back.Here, it's a story of surrender and obey, with references to the current US debt debacle. The focus is on one family not yielding, but not being in a position to fight back either, so escape is the only option.Although at the end a spanner is thrown into the occupiers machinery.

This movie is an excellent "What if?" type story that many reviewers apparently don't understand. In Dragon Day, the Chinese sabotage our electronic grid with Chinese-made silicon chips (which we bought by the hundreds of millions) that contain code the Chinese control. So is the movie jingoistic propaganda designed to stir up fear of the yellow horde? NO, NO, NO! In the entire movie, only ONE Chinese military person is even SHOWN, and then for maybe a minute! This movie is about the tremendously vulnerable position America has put itself in by miring itself in debt, while at the same time creating an ever more government-dependent citizenry, and an entire nationwide infrastructure with a serious Achilles heel.I gave this movie a 10 based on what the makers did with what HAD to be a very small budget, and on the fact that they got ALL of the four major issues right: 1. When the grid goes down, many people panic and more than a handful let their baser instincts take over, as we have well seen in real life with Katrina and more recently the EBT card screwups. People "pulling together" happens on a MUCH smaller scale (2-5 friends) than the wolfpacks that inevitably form to prey on them.2. Almost everyone is woefully unprepared for ANY disruption, let alone a major one.3. A depressing number of people, especially women, will eagerly trade their freedom for the "promise" of security, and sell others out to do it.4. The police, and others in positions of authority, may choose their own self-interests over the oath they took before they assumed these positions.There are no Rambo-type heroics in Dragon Day, where the hero utterly vanquishes his tormentors. That is the movie's other greatest strength. The concept of "victory" is quickly reduced to focusing on keeping your family alive and out of reach of those that would enslave you, regardless of how little else you may have left, or the sacrifices you have to make to retain those two things.The ending drives this home. I thought I saw where the director was headed, but I was afraid he was going to pull some unrealistic "feel-good" crap at the last minute.He didn't. This is a great movie.