Where to watch The Humanity Bureau
3 Stars
The Humanity Bureau is one of those low-key science fiction dramas that serve as a metaphor for our current times. Sure, it’s got a dystopian setting and some updated technical mumbo-jumbo, but the good guy drives around in an El Camino and the production design is very contemporary looking. If you can forgive the film of these quibbles, it is being sold as a sci-fi flick, then you will be most entertained by this crisply told, well-acted, and compelling action sci-fi/drama story about the value of an individual within a society.
In the near future war, climate, and political agendas have robbed America of its lush resources. Seeds rarely grow into vegetation, the water is mostly polluted, and people are obligated to work hard to earn their keep. Noah Kross (Nicolas Cage) is an agent of the humanity bureau, a government agency that determines a person’s productivity, Kross’s reports are key factors in deciding who stay in America and who is deported to New Eden.
The reliable Kross is tripped up when he comes in contact with a woman farmer and her teenage son. He inexplicably delays sending in his report so the boy can perform at a musical recital the following day. This act of minor insubordination sends up major red flags back at the bureau and catches the attention of Kross’s higher ranking superiors. The action takes Kross, the woman and her son from the deserts of Nevada to the snow-capped mountain peaks of Canada.
Directed cleanly by Rob W. King, the brief film moves through its story at a brisk pace never giving us much time to over analyze it’s shaky plot devices.
Stars: Rob W. King
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sarah Lind, Hugh Dillon, Jakob Davies
I watch every science fiction film I can find, regardless if it’s American, European, Japanese, Korean, etc. etc., and say without hesitation that this was an abysmal effort. Wooden acting, terrible script, special effects that would have been special in 1985, and just all around flat and uninspired.