bob-790-196018 This 1993 movie is one of a long line of dystopian (also called "awful warning") stories. In this case one of the key ideas that make dystopias interesting--a fascist government using paranoia to keep the masses in line--is swamped by the romance between Cuba Gooding and Moira Kelly. Of course there is a place for love in such a story--remember Winston Smith and Julia in Nineteen Eight-Four--but in Daybreak the love story eventually overwhelms everything else, and ideas go out the window.The treatment of the disease that is supposedly rampant in this near-future world is ambiguous. No, the disease doesn't seem like AIDS, but it's unclear just what it is, how much of the population is afflicted by it, and whether or not it is really deadly. At times, you get the sense that the government invented the disease to spread fear among the people, but, then again, clearly some of the people in the movie are sick. It's all sort of confusing.Cuba Gooding's character is one-dimensional. At first he's very angry and refuses to have anything to do with Moira Kelly. Then, aw shucks, he is forced to admit he really loves her. Moira Kelly's character is semi-believable. To me, however, the really interesting character is that played by Martha Plimpton, who makes the character come alive and has a very interesting face in the bargain.Somewhere in this movie is a good idea that never manages to break free.

Claudio Carvalho In a near future in New York, the (north) American society is ruled by a totalitarian government. In order to control AIDS, the HIV positive citizens are tattooed with a P on the chest and sent to quarantine. When the teenager Blue (Moira Kelly) accompanies her best friend Laurie (Martha Plimpton) to a government clinic for examination, they are advised on the street by the boy Willie (Amir Williams) to not go to the place. While in the waiting room, Blue and Laurie witness the treatment of the staff to an old lady and they decide to get out from the clinic. They are chased by security guards but Willie brings them to his brother Torch (Cuba Gooding Jr.) that hides and protects the girls. Blue learns that Torch is the leader of an underground movement of resistance and the government quarantine is a sham and the patients are left to die in starvation. Blue falls in love with Torch and joins the movement. When Torch is arrested by the police, he is submitted to a test and finds that he is positive. He is sent to quarantine and Blue tries to find a way to meet him."Daybreak" is HBO film with a promising beginning, with a society controlled by a fascist government and a group of resistance that helps the sick people, giving dignity to them. The idea of resistance against a government is not original, but is usually engaging. Unfortunately there is a twist and the story changes to an annoying melodrama between the negative Blue and the positive Torch. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Amanhecer Sem Futuro" ("Dawning without Future")

moviemaster The good news...Gooding is good. That's it, nothing else. The bad news... almost everything else. Obviously this was a play/movie written about the US with the specter of AIDS in mind. In 1993, it might have been horrifying. But one of the yardsticks by which to judge works of art is durability... I can still watch Metropolis and marvel at its perception. This work makes me marvel that it was even released. So, it's Sci-Fi? When is it supposed to be happening? Looks like 1993 or earlier to me. Well, as far as I know, bush wasn't president then and all this fascist drivel was not being dished up by Clinton in 1993. It's hard to tell which is more inept, the govt. or the insurgents. The insurgents seem to have little ability to plan and the govt. couldn't catch a cold. Every time they get near the insurgents to capture them, everyone starts running around like KeyStone Kops and the "terrorists" get away. Gooding is good, but Kelly is not (although she can be.) Her lines are so sickeningly sweet, one feels he's been globbed by a honey pot every time she starts one of her love chats. Everyone else is just predictable. If this was supposed to be a projection of what might happen if no cure for AIDS was found and they started quarantining, I suppose it was worth the effort. It does depict people as having few morals except for self-preservation. That's accurate.

zaur-2 This is a very excellent and overlooked HBO movie. Set in the future where HIV positive people are sent to live in concentration camps and probably exterminated in the near future. Cuba and Moria Kelly are excellent as the lead characters. There's also a really hot love scene between Cuba and Moria, which is interrupted by a kid. This is a very excellent movie of what might happen in an intolerent Texas future.