User Reviews

I get what this film was trying to do, and I could see how it was going about it, and that is what spoiled the film; it seemed too contrived. Or was it? On paper, it must have been a great idea but more for new up and coming actors to cut their teeth on and show their mettle, and there were some very good performances, or was everyone wooden and emotionless? Generation Um... is about life in the generation/social class where nothing really happens, although a lot does, just not necessarily good stuff, and where life hope, expectancy and future are limited by indecision, lack of direction, and feelings of being beaten down constantly by society. The story - the documentary, if you will - follows three friends/colleagues and as is the case amongst people who know each other, they don't explain their connection or their back story for the purposes of the viewer. You have to guess, piece it together as the story goes on. It's a bleak film, and hard to watch as it is so intimate, so warts and all, so brave. There's no soft lighting, no airbrushing, nothing for the actors to hide behind. A brave choice for the ladies, and for Reeves - where most actors his age are going for more glamour and youthfulness he steps out in grim NYC back streets with a hand-held camera on him, watching him eat a cupcake and just sit. And think. Or not. Look at a squirrel. Smile at a dog. Look at a puddle. Walk along.

It's not a nice film. It's not therefore enjoyable. I felt tense all the way through it, partly because I admire Reeves and didn't want to see him engage in "24 hours of sex drugs and indecision" and also because it just had that feeling of impending catastrophe about it. You were waiting for the painful scene, the breakdown, the violence. But it was actually quite quiet and tender interspersed with the almost relieving "art shots" from John's (Reeves') hand-held stolen camera and yet again Reeves plays the benign, safe, wall of calm. The canvas on which the two girls lives were painted. Almost. Novakovic and Clemens were not known to me as actors, but are clearly very talented.

I would like to give this film more stars, as the story stayed with me for days after watching it. I wanted to think it through, see more layers, even watch it again (which was a shocker, as after watching it I felt as if I never wanted to sit through that again and it was a SLOW film)... as a film, it was pretty dreadful. As art it was superb. You FELT the 24 hours, you FELT the lacklustre grimness and dirtiness, you FELT the hopelessness and the complete lack of direction, you felt the frustration with John's monosyllabic non-responsiveness and saw all the opportunities that he let slip by, the questions you would have asked the girls... it was SO lacking, that was clearly deliberate and that shows Direction and Writing of such scope and imagination... or it was really that awful. You see? I'm torn.

The best parts of the film are some superbly artful editing (Squirrel/Cocaine especially) and the end credits (no I'm not being cutely rude), but do watch to the end... there's a bit of filming at the end which sort of ties the story up. It looks unscripted, all the characters are more relaxed, happy drunk, Reeves is suddenly his charming self, the girls less intense, there is chemistry between the actors, they are smiling and joking and you finally find something out about John. It becomes a little more rounded...

I don't know... Um... I'm undecided; good or bad film; brilliant or apathetic acting; art-house or schmarthouse? Artistically minimalist or trying too hard? You decide. Please... YOU decide and tell me what to think ;-)

For some reason I was intrigued by this movie. I kept watching it thinking something would happen. Nothing happened. Halfway through it looked like something might happen. Nothing happened. I still kept watching it though, waiting for some grand revelation, or some insight, or some idea of what it was about, and I didn't get it. I waited for the plot to reveal itself or for there to be some sort of context to the story. There was none. There was no foreshadowing, there did not appear to be any conflict, there didn't appear to be a resolution at the end, either. This movie left me unfulfilled and confused. What is the point of this movie?? I have no idea. Does anyone know, and if so can you share with me what the point of this movie was?

"Generation Um..." is a pretentious shallow film about nothing. The pointless plot is about the lives of three uninteresting persons that live in New York: John (Keanu Reeves) is an unemployed guy and small-time thief and pimp. The Call-girl Violet (Bojana Novakovic) is a promiscuous drug addicted woman that has slept with at least two hundred men and three women. The call-girl Mia (Adelaide Clemens) is a disturbed woman that saw her father kicking the belly of her pregnancy mother that aborted a baby girl. Violet shags John and Mia and she are best friends. On the day of his birthday, John steals a video-camera and makes footage in the Central park and interviewing Violet and Mia. Then the girls go to a bachelor party. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Sem Destino" ("Without Destiny")

How compelling is it to watch Keanu eat a cupcake?

After a night of hard partying with her roommate Mia (Adelaide Clemens) and the driver John (Keanu Reeves), Violet (Bojana Novakovic) is sleeping it off and doing drugs. Then John steals a camcorder and record interviews of best friends and escorts Mia and Violet about their lives.

Sometimes, Keanu is great. Then sometimes he's like this. He's listless, tired, and lifeless. I know it's the character but he infests the movie with his lifelessness. Director/writer Mark Mann hasn't made this compelling. The first half of the movie scraps along in a grinding waste of time other than a couple of interesting scenes. And no, Keanu eating a cupcake is not one of them. The first half should probably be chopped down to a shorter 15 minutes opening.

The interview meanders. It doesn't have structure to build the tension. They're just sob stories. I like both Bojana and Michelle Williams doppelganger Adelaide. But even as it gets to an interesting place, it took so long that it has no tension. It's a movie that needs more meat on the bone.

Someone called in some favors and got Keanu to agree to this. This guy records everything that happens during the day and cut it into a full-length movie. Not following any rules of cinematic at all making this a billionaires sons 16th birthday wish. At a few points the actors even look straight into the camera as they think it's well over time for a cut but the director just keep shooting and doesn't even cut that away but keep it just to mess with any potential viewer even more. I think these people OWN ME MONEY for sitting through this nonsense.

Horrible! Also, how come the first page of reviews all gave a 1 star while the next two pages are filled with all 10s..Something's is up :)

Do not waste a second watching this. It's not even so bad it's funny like Apartment 1303. It's just bad.

Review: What an awful movie. I really don't know what the hell the director was trying to attempt. Watching Keanu Reeves walk around in a complete daze for an hour and a half is definitely not entertaining. The storyline is complete rubbish, but the acting wasn't bad from the girls who had to make the best out of an awful script. The whole thing seemed liked it was filmed on someone's phone. Personally I don't know what the hell the film is about. My mind switched off halfway through the movie because nothing was happening. This has to be Keanu a Reeves worst film. Awful!

Round-Up: Keanu a Reeves has a unique and strange way of acting which works in some films but not in all. It's weird seeing him come from the Bill & Ted's movies to the Matrix and then he comes out with this rubbish. I just hope that his 47 Ronin movie is good because this movie has to go down as a bad choice. As for the other characters in the film, I haven't really seen them in anything else so I can't really comment on there previous projects, but they did put in an emotional performance which seemed very real. I know that there was a point to this story with the ending, but I just didn't get it.

I recommend this movie to people who want to watch Keanu Reeves walk around in a complete daze. 1/10

I really didn't want to watch this movie. The low rating is an absolute no go. But thanks to some user comments i saw a potential.

I'm happy that i took the chance. It's a movie about life in a certain age - my age. Maybe thats the the reason i liked the movie. It was true. I had a good feeling watching it. I didn't always like the way the camera was moving, but in the end it gave the movie an innocent touch.

This movie takes you into the life of some people you get to know just a little bit. it's like going to a party and listening to other peoples conversations without yourself interrupting. It's a pure view of the world in the eyes of John, Mia and Violet. It's so pure you see their skin 'unphotoshopped' and thats refreshing.

I often feel being betrayed or lied about how things look like, how people look like or how locations, bars, streets look like. All the lights, all the make up, all the color boosts... sometimes its just too much.

To view a movie about kind of a real life story - it's a nice idea to do that with real faces, real streets, real situations. And with that comes no explosion, no special close up event, no beautiful candle light sex scene... etc..

That said, this movie is definitively underrated. If you like Lost in Translation or Vicky Christina Barcelona - you may like this movie too. Just don't expect beautiful colors, perfect romance or a Hollywood type movie in general.

The premise is there and the actors are good but there is no way to even understand the plot or anything about it until the very end. The arc isn't managed or written well, and that's too bad because this COULD have been a really great movie now that I understand where it was headed in the end.

It's a shame because this could have been such a beautifully handled film. However, most people who watch more than 20 minutes of it are lucky to get that far because the scenes are far too long and lingering. It seems like nothing is even happening except boring people being boring. They could have done a better job with dialogue to help the audience understand the characters and their motives, etc.. I think they assumed that watchers can infer everything which is impossible. You've got to give us something substantive in order to infer the plot if you aren't going to show us a plot.

Again, it's a shame because I feel like the two female actors need to be given the chance to showcase how good they are. It was clear that both of them, Keanu Reeves, and even the actor who plays his cousin were trying their hardest to make something of a seemingly non-existent script.

What is the movie about? It's about loneliness in a crowd, probably. About pain. About hope. About proximity. The movie is about just one day, and about the whole life. It's as little as very much at the same time. The movie starts and ends same — the three friends come home from work. But the things that occurred during the day changing their attitude to themselves and to their own lives. They learn to trust. John has the rare talent to ask short questions and to listen carefully. It turns out to be very important, when you just listen and don't teach, don't advise, don't bring something up. John starts video taping as entertainment and ends up as a confession. And confession always clears the soul. Mark Mann shot a very intimate movie, and brought the viewer completely into the world where Mia, Violet and John live. This world isn't joyful and it isn't sad. It's real. The movie is for those who appreciate sincerity on the screen and who aren't afraid to pass others pain through themselves. It's for those who try to understand people living behind the standard morals. The favorite dialog in the movie is: - Just don't hate me because I'm beautiful. - I don't hate you. I'm just confused. Favorite shot: is the park water fountain.

Low user ratings are to be expected when the names of Keanu and Bojana fuel edge-of-your-seat anticipation. This however documents (partly videotaped by Keanu's character) a 24 hour stretch in the lives of three people who are beyond clueless, they don't even care if there is such a thing as clue, purpose or direction in life. They don't even bother to define the relationships amongst the 3 of them. They don't even care to find words to describe their feelings and their lack of any accomplishment gives new meaning to the word void. I do believe this to be a socially relevant document of the lives of some of the 20- or 30-something generation who are one level below the entitled ones. It's there, it's real, no comedy nor drama, but it did powerfully communicate awareness to me as a viewer.

This was nothing but a boring movie. If you wanna waste your time to see an awful and no-content movie, I strictly recommend you the Generation Um. I think even 3.3/10 is so high for this terrible movie. from the beginning you are watching a worthless movie and no sound from the cast. How did the director think about attracting the audience with his creature. after 50 minutes, you can start figuring out what is going on the film. Few number of the players and no deep content in the movie made this awful rank for this movie. Also, the part in the bathroom in the middle of the film was really out of ethics such that it distracts you from pursuing watching.

This movie is about as intriguing as a poorly sharpened stick. It's a great example of what non-movie addicts mentally imagine an indie movie to be. The visual is passable but the sound is pathetic. You make it 20 minutes in before you can understand any spoken words. Certainly one of those unwatchable crap shoots where every car, bird, and foot step blows your ear drums out but you have to turn your volume to 90 when anything is said.

Unwatchable, uninteresting, and not worth watching for money.

If you crapped in one hand, and place this movie in the other, you'd have two hands full of crap

We've all been searching for that one of a kind awful move that we can hold up to others as being the worst in every category. I thought Manos, Hands of Fate was the worst....until now. Gen Um is literally awful in every sense: Acting worse performance ever by Keanu who purposefully does not emote in the slightest, even once, and his co-stars are at least as bad; cinematography: worse than the worst...it was just "pretty bad" until Keanu finds a movie camera and the action switched over to Keanu's hand-held "found footage" style; sets = ZERO with absolutely no attempt to bring any theme or style into the frame, all sets are just slum apartments or 30 year old cars; costumes, same as sets. Anyway, I think I've made my point and I now nominate this film to sink below The Hottie and the Nottie as the worst film ever made.

I think this flick could have been directed by anyone.. including myself or any street walker . As far as the story goes, its about 3 unclean, uncouth, shabby actors (who are actually pretty in real life.. ;-) going around NY city in a day.. and to add it up,, the lead actor steals a hi end camcorder from some poor guys who are practicing some kind of dance in time square..?? Next, the lead actor will start filming scenes as he goes around and meets the two pretty girls again and take them out to Sheraton.. and some bjs and hard fornication followed by .. back to car.. I wonder, after watching this flick, anyone would really want to have sex or not.. Of the actors, only Bojana gets to show off her assets and also her histrionics (no brainer here), Keanu is just another object in the movie.. nothing much to do just to glare sheepishly at the two girls and wear dirty clothes. To sum it all, its boring, sleep inducing, no thrills, no engrossing nude scenes, no alluring sex, no nothing.. I call this Generation Uhh!

first of all i wish to say there is something hokey going on with these Russian reviews, Russians generally write some of the best most insightful reviews, this is about drugs, but its not drugstore cowboy or any of the other fascinating films, that captured the drug world. you have attractive women made unattractive, yes that's appealing to who. mr reeves well he is exactly like he is in every movie he has ever made, the same. if you want to watch a movie made with a $500 sony camera my suggestion is make a movie yourself, there is the usually wondering aimlessly around looking for the meaning in life, continue making tripe like this and soon there will be no Hollywood

If I could give it a 6.5, I would. While it was not hugely captivating, it did hold my attention.

First of all, one of the best things about the movie is that it appears to be an independent film. What that means to me is that you will not have to suffer through all the trite Hollywood-isms like the boy risking his life for the girl of his dreams.

I will say that if you do not like dialog driven movies, this is not the movie for you. Nothing 'happens'. In fact, there isn't even much dialog. But, the content was fresh and cohesive. I think the acting/actions and cinematography carry the movie adequately enough that I never feel myself urging to hit the fast forward or stop button. Oddly enough, I do not recall if there was any soundtrack music. If there was, it blended in well enough as not to be a distraction.

Of major importance is the fact the the acting was good enough that at no point in the movie was I reminded that I am watching an actor. You know how in Django, every time Jamie Fox said something, you were reminded that he is an actor from the 21st century. To me, that ruins the movie experience. Some one is going to say, 'Every time I watch Keaneau Reeves, I think of "Bill and Ted."' To that I can only say, "Every time I hear Sean Connery talk, I think of James Bond. Every time I hear Robert DeNiro talk, I think of Taxi. Every time I hear Al Pacino talk, I think of Scarface. Yet these are all actors who are never criticized for being one-denominational" My point is, there are chameleon actors, and there aren't. The bulk of the actors out there aren't like Gary Oldman, who reinvents himself every movie.

Moving on, the last thing I have to say about the movie is that the ending was awesome. I can't say much more without spoiling it. I love when a movie forces me to re-frame events. Well done.

If I had to categorize the movie, then I would use the key words 'psychological drama'.

This movie has now been marked the worst movie I've seen in the year of 2013! And I think it'll need some great competition to beat their slow and boring run through the movie. I seriously started laughing just because it was THAT bad.... For those people who do not read the summary before watching this movie you will find yourself either scratching your head or catchings some z's. I find it to be a waste of time and money and really doubt any effort or energy was put into the making of the movie since the sound quality wasn't even good. For the people finding ANY meaning to this movie you need to start lowering the quantity of whatever you're taking its starting to take its toll. Nevertheless a very disappointing movie for Matrix's protagonist Keanu Reevesm. Maybe next time!

This is the worst movie I have ever seen. Don't bother wasting your time or money! There is no real plot, its just a mess. It teaches you nothing and offers no form of escapism or entertainment. I had to actually switch off before the last 20 minutes....I was waiting until this time for something good to happen.

I thought with a cast like KR would make this movie good. But it just flops.

Anyone wants to see what it feels like to be a slob living in NYC, should just go to any poor part of any large city and look at how a bunch of loser's live.

Save yourself!

I love Keanu Reeves. And *spoiler alert* I felt the ending of the movie might be the beginning of the movie. I started over. It wasn't. Costumes were different. Only in the relevance that one day isn't much different from the next. But while taking place, it seemed that a guy annoyed with two hot but skanky chicks decided to take an interest in them after stealing a video camera. And his documentary of them was insightful. But he knew them all along. The only person surprised a the ending was me. And maybe you.