Day Zero
Day Zero
R | 27 April 2007 (USA)
Day Zero Trailers

The military draft is back. Three best friends are drafted and given 30 days to report for duty. In that time they're forced to confront everything they believe about courage, duty, love, friendship and honor. If called to serve, what would you do?

Reviews
Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.
Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
cat_on_imdb I do not not know where to begin, except to agree with the other reviewers who stated that this film is pro-war. War has always has been and will be a business enterprise. The war in Iraq is/was about oil, geopolitics and nothing more. If you think otherwise there is not much hope for you. This movie was complete nonsense. I will end my review with a rather large quote from Fred Reed about the war on this subject, who could sum it up much better and more eloquently than myself. I apologize for a large quote, but this man was a soldier and he knows the score: "A friend recently asked me what I would tell a young man thinking about enlisting in the military. (He had in mind his son.) I would tell him this, which I wish someone had told me: Kid, you are being suckered. You are being used. You need to think carefully before signing that enlistment contract.First, notice that the men who want to send you to die were draft-dodgers. President Bush was of military age during Vietnam, but he sat out the war in the Air National Guard. The Guard was then a common way of avoiding combat. Bush could do it because he was a rich kid who went to Yale, and his family had connections.He dodged, but he wants you to go.Vice President Cheney, also of military age during Vietnam, also didn't go. Why? When asked by the press, he said, "I had other priorities." In other words, he was too important to risk his precious self overseas. He dodged, but wants you to go.In talking to recruiters, you need to understand what you are up against. You are probably nineteen or twenty years old, full of energy and vinegar as we used to say, just starting to know the world. Which means that you don't yet know it.... They know that young men, the ones that are worth anything anyway, want to prove themselves, want adventure, want to show what they can do. Everything a recruiter does is carefully calculated to play on this. They go to recruiting school to learn how."The Few. The Proud." You don't think that came out of the Marine Corps, do you? These phrases—"An Army of One," "Be All You Can Be"--come from ad agencies in New York. Nobody in those ad agencies, I promise you, was ever in the Marine Corps. New York sells the military the way it sells soap. It has no interest in you at all.Recruiters know exactly what they are doing. They are manly, which appeals to gutsy young guys who don't want to be mall rats. They are confident. They have a physical fitness, a clean-cut appearance that looks good compared to all those wussy lawyers in business suits. They invite you to come into a man's world. They promise you college funds. (Check and see how many actually ever get those funds. Read the small print.) Until they put you in combat. Then it's too late. You can't change your mind. They send you to jail for a long time if you do.Combat is not the adventure you think it is. Know what happens when an RPG hits a tank? Nothing good. The cherry juice—hydraulic fluid that turns the turret—can vaporize and then blow. I saw the results in the Naval Support Activity hospital in Danang in 1967. A tank has a crew of four. Two burned to death, screaming as they tried to get out. The other two were scalded pink, under a plastic sheet that was always foggy with serum evaporating from burns where the skin had sloughed off. They probably lived. Know what burn scars look like? The recruiters won't tell you this. They know, but they won't tell you. Ever seen a guy who just took a round through the face? He's a bloody mess with his eyes gone, nasty hole where his nose was, funny white cartilage things sticking out of dripping meat. Suppose he'll ever have another girlfriend? Not freaking likely. He'll spend the next fifty years as a horror in some forsaken VA hospital.But the recruiters won't tell you this. They want you to think that it's an adventure.Other things happen that, depending on your head, may or may not bother you. Iraq means combat in cities. Ordinary people live there. You pop a grenade through a window, or hit a building with a burst from the Chain gun, or maybe put a tank round through it. Then you find the little girl with her bowels hanging out, not quite dead yet, with her mother screaming over what's left. You'd be surprised how much blood a small kid has.You get to live with that picture for the rest of your life. And you will live with it. The recruiter will tell you that it doesn't happen, that it's the exception, that I'm a communist journalist. Believe him if you want. Believe him now, while you can. When you get back, you'll believe me.Don't expect thanks from a grateful nation. Somebody might buy you a drink in a bar. That's about all you get. Many will regard you as a criminal or a fool.Wars seem important at the time, but they usually aren't. Five years later, they are history. About sixty thousand GIs died in Vietnam. We lost. Nothing happened. It was a stupid war for nothing. Today the guys who lost faces and legs and internal organs back then are just freaks. Nobody gives a damn about them, and nobody will give a damn about you. A war is a politician's toy, but your wheelchair is forever. If you want adventure, try the fishing fleet in Alaska.Think about it."
Jay Harris This film from 2007 is set in a near future where the draft has been reinstated.As in life & fiction all these stories must be about a trio,no matter whether it is a comedy, drama or musical.Our three buddies are in their late 20's,they even went to the same High School (STUYVESNT-one of the highest rated public High Schools).BTW I am a graduate of same High SchoolThey are very well acted by Elijah Wood, he is in the middle of writing his second novel.Chris Klien as an successful married attorney, and Don Berenthal a taxi driver.They all receive there draft notices the same day. How the 3 of them react to this event & the war is the crux of the story. Ginnifer Goodwin & Elizabeth Moss are the wife & girl friend of 2 of them. Ally Sheedy has a nice few scenes as a shrink.Bryan Gunner Cole in his first feature directorial effort shows promise.The script is by Robert Malkani,there are more than a few script problems.The movie runs only 90 minutes but the last 30 are at a crawl pace.I question the very last scene with Elijah,I wonder what was the reason to do what he did.The film had a very short 2 screen run for 2 weeks in Jan.2008 It deserved a better release than this, Granted this is my standard gripe. Half way decent films like this are short shrift-ed, BUT stupid moronic comedies open in over 2000.Ratings: *** (out of 4) 81 points(out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)
gregher This movie addresses the reality of our times. Its a movie that can take on a common thought for everyone in my generation. I am a 22 year old male who knows people who fight and have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. The reality of the draft can be overwhelming. I don't want to pretend that I have a unique perspective, because I think many people my age have adopted the same unique understanding that I have. What I am trying to say is that I treat our soldiers like everyone I know. There is so much tension in this world...with the economy, and with the war. You have to treat soldiers with the utmost respect, and this can only be done by sharing a relationship. This movie takes on the task of understanding the war without denying the truth. The truth is that men and women serve to protect our country, but what they go through emotionally is beyond our comprehension. As much as we can argue, the people who serve believe in our freedom. I want more movies like this that can address what goes on in the mind of the people who are willing to give their lives. Sometimes, a man doesn't know that he is willing.
Sir Vertual (sirvertual) There seems to be a continuing trend(?) to produce (promising) movies these days with (B) Unfinished scripts...where they makeup the last half as they go along to get a 'finished movie'. (B) Lame scripts (that somebody's brother-in-law wrote) and then get embellished to get a 'finished movie'. (C) Indy scripts that get edited (down to the quick) to save time and money and get passed off as a 'finished movie'...Day Zero...Is a small movie that could have been much more...I left unsatisfied when the movie 'just ended'...I don't expect or need a 'Rings Trilogy' to be satisfied, but would have enjoyed the effort 'a great deal more' with only 'a bit more story'....Otherwise, I'd say 'Zero' is well-written, cast, art directed, shot, etc, etc. But - considering the magnitude of the questions it raises, a bit more storyline would have made this a much better movie effort. The large selection of Vietnam movies from the eighties run the gamut of poor efforts to great movies, but the main difference is that storyline(s) are generally 'more complete'...This movie would have been much better had the storyline (A) been more in-depth concerning the 30 days and the 3 friends...or (B) been more in-depth concerning where and what takes place - after the 30 days...It would also have been much more satisfying from a storyline point of view...Either way, the result we are left with has an incomplete feel and leaves one wanting to see the rest of the story...Possibly there might be a trilogy in the works (or at least a chapter-2)...Sir Vertual