Life Tracker
Life Tracker
PG-13 | 09 March 2013 (USA)
Life Tracker Trailers

Dillon stumbles on a little known news story about a company called Life Tracker Limited, which claims it has discovered a way to predict biological events in a human's life by looking at their DNA. Everyone views the story as a modern day form of palm reading that will go nowhere, but Dillon keeps turning on his camera when he finds articles on the Internet or hears about it on the news.

Reviews
ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Nothing25 What I liked most about this movie was the fact that the director actually covered his bases with the whole "found footage" concept, which in my opinion has been done to death at this point. But here, there's an actual reason for it, and the quality gets better as the film progresses. Not going to give spoilers out as to how it was done, but I think it's done in a smart way and offers some originality to the "found footage" concept. It always bothered me in other movies like, "Paranormal 23489" or whatever number they're on now, as to "why the hell are these people holding cameras?? They would never do it in real life!" In Life Tracker they attempt to fix this which I appreciated. The movie is a little slow at first, but it didn't bother me. A little extra character development felt nice. I know all big budget movies use quick cuts and 30 second scenes to bypass solid story telling, but I like slower cuts. Besides, the movie gets more interesting in the second half so investing in the first half is worth it. It's not for short attention spans so I see why a big studio probably passed on it, but the concept is cool and and dealt with very scientifically. Again, the writer and directors covered their bases here which I appreciated. If your looking for "Face/Off," look elsewhere, but this movie offers some solid Sci/Fi concepts and good plot.
Jesse Boland This movie was quite dry, and very self defacing for the first 15 minutes or so at least. You have to get past that, and it is difficult because of the painfully bland character you experience first, and the way no one ever seems to treat him very nicely is not easy to watch either. However all of that is there for a reason it would appear. You need to feel really bad for this guy just so that when things get to the ultimate fun of the movie, which is when they get the first readings back from a licensed Life Tracker reader.Once the first reads begin you start to understand that this movie is more than a 1 camera piece of bad steady cam crap,(because they continually upgrade equipment as the movie is made) but rather a much deeper story, that had to start out broke, because you have to have somewhere to call a bottom if you are ever going to make it to the top right? So I don't want to spoil the fun of this story for anyone, I just want you to know that getting through the first half of the movie will pay off for you with an original story, and some very good acting as the protagonists each learn new things they had not been expecting.Honestly I am not sure if the casting selections were the best, but I think that the Director did get the best performances from each of the actors, even if I personally would have gone with a different line up.You will enjoy this movie though, that I can say for certain, you will start to care about people who at the start of the film seem like the type of people you would not want to know, but fate, and time do as they must.Enjoy, and be well.Jesse of www.jesse.ca
M34 I am generally quite tolerant of independent .I don't mind lack of effects and other limits from small budgets.But this film is an insult to the viewer in every respect.The writing is utterly unforgivable. Not only is the dialog a childish string of inane clichés, overall story is so full of massive plot holes, that suspension of disbelief is impossible for anyone with an IQ above that of a hamster.And really what is with these "actors"? Seriously, unknowns are fine, but abjectly untalented isn't necessary. There are plenty of unknowns with lots of training and talent that can be had for free. There was no reason to use people who could not act their way out of a paper bag.And to the director: have your actors do something other than shouting and mumbling. OK? Yeah, you got no budget, so "documentary style" eg hand-held because you can't rent equipment or locations is OK. But you don't need to jutter the viewers, zoom and pan like someone who has never used a camera to emphasize that! Skip this film.
bosworth-nick Ever since I was a little kid, I've always been fascinated by science fiction films that involve the known reality that we all live and breathe in today. From CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND to CHILDREN OF MEN, looking at an alternate reality of the present or near future has always fascinated me and the big question of "What if?". For that reason, LIFE TRACKER had a big impact on me because not only did it move me but it also made me ponder the philosophical questions of "Would I want to know when I die?" or "Would mankind benefit from something like this?". LIFE TRACKER is a story which takes place during the present where one man's dream and scientific study combined have unlocked our DNA code and given us the ability to see into our future and what it possibly holds for us. Questions of what diseases we might contract, injuries, who we'll have our children with, when we'll die and many more are answered through these DNA "prints". There's another incredible science fiction film that released all the way back in 1997 that you all might remember called GATTACA starring Ethan Hawke and Jude Law which was about a dystopian future where our DNA dictates how our lives will progress, what jobs we'll be fit for, what we'll most likely die of, etc. Our DNA was even alterable in the story to remove any faults but the main antagonist of the story was born naturally and defied the system to achieve his dream of space flight. This privilege was reserved only for the most elite of human specimens. The reason I bring this film up is because I almost see LIFE TRACKER as an amazing prequel story to GATTACA or an alternate and more real-life take on the subject of our own DNA affecting how we live and the decisions we make. Watching these two one after another would be an amazing experience that I'm sure I'll be doing pretty soon.The story of LIFE TRACKER is told in a documentary style where our lead character Dillon Smith (Barry Finnegan) is attempting to make a change in his life by creating a documentary in California that chronicles the birth and development of Life Tracker Limited who supply the prints to citizens based on their DNA and personal information submitted. Dillon isn't very sure of himself at first because he's left so many things unfinished in his life but his strength and drive comes from close friends that he lives in an apartment complex with. The story for the most part focuses on Dillon, his friend Scott Orenhauser (Matt Dallas) and Scott's girlfriend Bell Osbourne as we watch their relationship go through many hurdles as the documentary filming progresses. This for me was a very powerful aspect of LIFE TRACKER as firstly the three leads did an incredible job acting wise and made the predicaments very believable which I won't spoil in this review. I believed their reactions to the Life Tracker Limited prints for themselves but also surprised at the same time as while some reactions could have been very clichéd, the writing never went there and that made the film very refreshing. What I love the most about LIFE TRACKER though is the attention to detail especially when it came to the political and religious implications of such a technology being unleashed on modern-day society cause lets face it, humanity isn't ready for something like that nor do I think it ever will be. All of this being told through the documentary work of Dillon as he inter-cuts news media from the internet, his own interviews with those with a particular expertise and so on. I must applaud director/writer Joe McClean and his production crew for putting together excellent material for this independent film and for making sure that no detail be missed including news footage, graphics, etc. The interviews that Dillon has with religious experts, medical professionals and just ordinary folks in the streets were terrifically executed and this was helped greatly by a very well thought out script.Once everything is said and done though, the strongest aspect that anyone would expect from a film like this is the human emotions and reactions of the lead characters which as I mentioned were very strong and believable. As I watched the film, I put myself in their shoes and thought to myself "Oh man, they shouldn't know this information!" or "I would probably react the same way." and to me those kind of films are special. This is the reason why so many larger found-footage/documentary style films of late don't work for me like PARANORMAL ACTIVITY while LIFE TRACKER does because the reactions of the characters aren't there just to serve the plot, they actually feel real and we can relate to them.LIFE TRACKER makes you think and and to me there's no better kind of film. It takes the current state of humanity and mixes in this life- changing technology with results that I believe would be pretty much spot-on if Life Tracker was actual real today. From the political/financial/religious unrest to personal doubt and beliefs, LIFE TRACKER covers it all and even leads to a great conclusion that I wasn't prepared for. All of this combined makes LIFE TRACKER one of my favorite films of 2013 and I highly recommend it to everyone. Congratulations to all the cast and crew who have a bright future ahead.