Sebastian Sindermann
First of all, I think many of the reviews are so polarized is that this story has such potential. Unfortunately it's missing the complexity to make it work. It needs levels of depth, the kind of movie you watch the first time and generally get, but you know you need to watch a bunch more times to enjoy the complexity.I like the overall style, soundtrack, and cinematography. Sure, there's a healthy homage to Blade Runner and I'm OK with that. In this day and age it's pretty hard to come up with something truly new without a ridiculous budget. I will say one thing that bothered me production wise and does about so many films these days is the audio. Can we please have an audio mix not designed for headphones? Vocals are too low and sound effects too loud. I have a very respectable home theater system and it's still hard to understand dialog without turning the volume to silly high levels. Anyway moving on...SPOILERS AHEADI won't get into lots of detail, so you can still watch the movie and enjoy it. The concept of a society that has essentially legalized drug use is a good one. We are pretty much there now. Without getting into what is legal and illegal, these days any illegal substance is essentially available in a legal alternative. It speaks to the time we live in, taking it one level higher, and a great way to pull us into the story. Now we need a pay off.The truly interesting part that drew me to watch this movie is the idea of time travel and that we are capable of it via drugs. This is a truly great concept for telling an amazing story and has so much potential for wonderful detail. Unfortunately, the story doesn't focus much on that. It was worth a watch and I hope someone takes the concept and truly explores it to its potential.
MikaOznam
Drugs and time travel - that's like ham and eggs right? Can't have one without the other correct? a perfect marriageTrue but after watching this mess, even a liter of black coffee couldn't keep me from dozing off to slumber city in parallel universeNarcopolis ( "Narcopolice"? ) just loses itself in trying to tie too many loose ends that seem to be caught in a vortex of bad Sy Fy writing where no hack has gone beyond.Hate being hard on a movie - regardless of budget, it is still someone's creative sweat equity - but this is a real stinkerBut if you are suffering from insomnia...this might be the right drug for ya.
mcobley
I struggled from the beginning.Even if you can cope with, Legalised all drugs idiocy, (we would self destruct within a year if all drugs were legalized. There is a reason why no one in any form or authority should be on drugs, whether that is someone driving, to the leader of a country....all drugs legal... really?), but yes getting pass this premise. Its like all common sense left the scientific adviser.Car number plates with bar codes? Oh my. You can see it now, local law enforcement, "Excuse me ma'am, can you tell me the car number plate from the robbery."...."Sure, it was a thick line, with small space, followed by a thicker line, no...that's not right, it was a thinner line." Again, no common sense.Oh and his cool visor that sees temperature of the corpse....he moves around to see it from different angles, then cuts back to him having not moved at all.Sad to say, i couldn't get through this film......
Kevin Lea Davies
Justin Trefgarne has his first cinematic debut with the crowdfunded Narcopolis; a sci-fi drama about a future where drugs have been not only legalized, but are being pushed by corporate backers as being a safe alternative to street narcotics.There were several things I really liked about this film, despite being what most people would consider a low budget type of film. First, as a science fiction, it brings a very unique idea to the audience. Although the majority of the film is in the detective style of neo-noir films, the concept is a solid one. Imagine a future, where the majority of citizens are not only using, but encouraged to do so though advertising and product guarantees. Narcotics are available in every society I can think of, but very few of them have been privatized outside of the prescription drug market. There is some decent acting, and I was particularly impressed by Eliot Cowan's portrayal as the protagonist Frank Grieves; who portrayed a massive and daunting man, battling his own demons, while progressing through a series of bizarre events.The things that most people will notice are the poorly written plot twists, and dialogue. Some of the twists that are meant to shock the audience fall quite flat during this film, or are revealed at the wrong times. Perhaps due to poor direction or writing execution, it's hard to say, but there are several scenes that make little to no sense in the overall plot. A few of the actors are new, and you can tell in the way they exchange dialogue. Yet if you can look past these scene errors and look at the overall film, I think you'll be quite pleased at the end result. I encourage more films from Justin Trefgarn and hope he keeps to the same genre. I especially enjoyed the opening of the film, which set quite a pace that I wished that the rest of the movie kept up to.Needless to say, it's a very sound Sci-Fiction / Drama, but most viewers will hold it to perhaps too high a standard. An excellent first entry along the lines of 'Equilibrium' (2002).5/10