OPENS MARCH 14, CERT 15, 107 MINS
Some time in the not so distant future, a Third World War has decimated the human race. To ensure peace will reign ever more, the survivors have, um, banned classical music, burned all books and paintings and shot all the puppies. Who said there were no great ideas left in Hollywood?
The idea is that all human emotion is banned; all the inconvenient, messy stuff that gets us het up and ready to drop bombs on each other is forbidden. A drug called “Prozium” (geddit?) quells the emotions. The elite of the police force are the clerics, and the deadliest of them all is John Preston (Christian Bale), a man with no feelings. Bale conveys this emotional emptiness with a look of sullen distaste, as if someone just off camera is operating on his piles. When he starts missing his dose, this gives way to an expression of horrified panic. Perhaps that was when he realised he was starring in the most ludicrous, awesomely stupid sci-fi film ever made.