God Don't Make the Laws (2011) User Reviews

Intriguing, with Great Premise but Wasted by an Inconclusive Ending

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 3 April 2016]

The teenager Hawk Kodiak (Lucas Salvagno) has just left a juvenile facility to live with the Eddie Palmer (Robert Prescott), who owns a dinner in Rockwell. Hawk arrives in the small town by bus bringing a basketball, and befriends the local Joey Larch (Peter Vack). Then he goes to the high school, where he meets Eddie's niece Colbie Palmer (Ella Rae Peck), who drives him home. He meets the outcast Johnny Stumbles (Bob Braswell), who is the only survivor of a bus accident with the local volleyball team that happened seventeen years ago. Soon Hawk discovers that time has stopped in Rockwell since the accident and people have not aged. However he decides to play basketball with Joey and Johnny and soon there are changes in town. Who is Hawk Kodiak?

"God Don't Make the Laws" is an intriguing film, with a great premise that is wasted by an inconclusive ending. The beginning seems to be an episode of "The Twilight Zone", with a stranger arriving is a town that has stopped in time. The mystery persists and the viewer expects an explanation for the event, but the conclusion is absolutely disappointing without explanation. Paul Sorvino participation is only to give his name to the credits since his character is absolutely out of the context. Who sees this film will certainly expect to like, but will certainly be disappointed. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Tempo Não Espera Por Ninguém" ("Time Does not Wait for Anybody")

odd film

[artrouble21 · 4/10 · 16 November 2013]

There was no review of this 2011 movie but I took the time to watch it as the story has an interesting premise. Though it is a bit drawn out in it's execution it seems to want to be preachy and make the viewer think about mortality but lacks any real punch due to the pace of it's execution. Whilst the characters and scenario are stereotypical they are well played though the script often lacks any real depth even when it is trying to be dramatic. There are definitely some young actors in this film with a good future ahead of them and this film does no real harm to anyones career. I was a bit worried that it would degenerate into some quasi religious morality play but it seem to be more like a poorly realized contemporary version of Our Town. The "twist" ending seems like an after thought and doesn't really explain anything. But I sat through it and I've seen worse, maybe there is a lesson to be learned if not from the movies premise then from the way it is put together. My one major criticism is the music used throughout the film. Simple background arrangements work here and there but there are a lot of badly written songs that impinge on the dialog and whilst the idea seems to be to amplify the films "meaning" it constantly works against the both the acting and the script often drowning out the actors and distracting the viewer. I just don't see how a filmmaker can ruin perfectly good scenes with an overbearing soundtrack unless he owes the songwriter a big favor or something, he certainly did himself no service at all and came close to wrecking his work completely. This film would have worked much better if there wasn't some chatty song going on in the background, quiet works much better with this sort of dialog. I would have allowed 1 or 2 more stars had the film not used these lame songs. Still it had it's moments and is not a total train wreck.

Messing with the status quo

[OJT · 4/10 · 12 April 2014]

God don't make the laws is also called "Frozen moment" in some markets is a strange little indie movie from American first time feature director David Sabbath.

Hawk Kodiak gets out of correctional detention and off the bus in small town Rockwell where he is to get a job, under the supervision of a burger shop owner Eddie. A town where American football count, basketball doesn't. He doesn't fit in, walking around with an "illegal" basketball, and doesn't know the "social codes" The police chief in town is also the football coach, and the maker of the laws "around here", and threatens the newcomer, to make him go away. it seem's like time has been standing still. A young girl tells this story after being caught up by men in black suits after years trying to hold them on distance. This is the start of the film, which in more than one way is quite mystical.

A strange film it is. Some interesting moments, but also sometimes very clichéd. Acting is good from some, others aren't that up to it, but still there some talent both from the film maker as well as in some of the young actors. The "retard"is not always very believable. From time to time the dialog in the film is a bit lame.

Quite annoying choice of songs in the film score makes you think there is some religious twist to it, a fear that is without any hold. A couple of other cuts are great, and suits well. However, the whole time the amateurish acting ruins the film. The idea is not so bad, but the execution is not top notch. If you can see past this, a slow burning story, you might have an OK time watching the movie.

Any potential, ruined.

[philjn161 · 2/10 · 23 September 2014]

First, the acting : On the whole, considering the budget and circumstances (it being a first foray of the director) I've seen much worse acting in films with a much greater pedigree. At times, it's laboured, but not wooden or overtly stilted. So the cast can't be held responsible for failings of the film. The Story isn't really anything "new" either. It has an undercurrent of mystery and mystique, but struggles to engage the viewer by trying way too hard to be enigmatic. If you avoid religiously moral tales, then fear not, this isn't ported from a bible channel.. But a spiritual overseer and play caller is hinted at in the dialogue and the feel of the story. Zero spoilers, but, basically you're watching the town of Rockwell frozen in time after a town tragedy and a young man turns up off the bus and triggers the re commencement of time. Editing and photography are more than adequate, and coupled with the reasonable acting and inoffensive story premise, you'd expect to sit down to watch a low budget B movie that didn't change your life but didn't have you hurling bricks at the screen. You'd expect.. But here's where an unforgivable error of judgement on the part of the Director scuppers ANY chance of engaging his audience... He lets loose the sound editor and the score composer, and basically massacres his own movie. I've seen some awful films, and heard some terrible songs and soundtracks, but this movie is probably the most heavy handed, cheesiest, stinkiest soundtrack I've ever suffered through. Completely jarring, incongruous, overly loud, diabolical lyrics and sweat stained vocals appear from nowhere in situations that lend absolutely no correlation to the story. If you can envisage , say, a sequence of quiet contemplation in a candle lit church, then out of nowhere , with no change of action, a sequence of hip hop tracks followed by a Metallica song suddenly start to play? That's the kind of incongruity in the sound editing. It was so jarring, so contrary to the immersion factor required for movie enjoyment, it left me feeling furious. As such, I can say nothing of the film's storyline or conclusion because I simply didn't care. A woeful series of decisions render this film virtually unwatchable. Give it a miss.

Almost but not quite

[llarian-2 · 3/10 · 7 July 2014]

I tried really hard to like this movie - the premise sounds encouraging: a loner boy comes to a small town where basketball is banned following the road traffic death years before of some young people - a bit like 'Footloose' but without the funky music and some added supernatural undertones.

The dialogue's not too bad but some of the acting (Lucas Salvagno, Jason Jay Crabtree) is just shockingly bad. Then we come to Adam White's cinematography and director David Sabbbath's editing. The whole thing has the ambiance of some 1970s porno-flick.

It's saved by the easy-on-the-eye Ella Rae Peck and a hefty performance by Robert Prescott but the production values leave a lot to be desired.

Wow This Was Bad

[kolano · 1/10 · 21 October 2014]

I had been hopeful that this was just getting poor reviews due to the freshmen director, but no this just seems really bad.

I'm generally accepting to plod through a bad movie, but couldn't do so with this and had to stop watching about 30-45min in. Perhaps that means I missed it's twist ending, but I had no interest in sitting through enough of it to make it there.

Acting seemed generally terrible, though I'm less sure that should be blamed on the actors vs the terrible plot/script. The movie was full of clichéd roles/dialog and failed to provide any insight to it's out there premises, such as basketball being "illegal" in any modern US city. Nothing of real interest seemed to be happening, and I couldn't stand to put up with it to reach the end.

I normally don't review things here, but felt it necessary to log in to do so just to lower this movies score, it was that bad and deserves less than the 4.4 it had as of submitting this review.

not that bad

[wrigco · 7/10 · 19 March 2024]

At first I thought this was going to be some sort of quasi religious type of movie with a "message". But it wasn't that at all.

I still don't really know what it was all about.

Some of the town wanted to remain the way they were. Imagine being a teenager forever. You never get to experience life - having a career, perhaps a family, the highs and lows of growing older - to its fullest extent.

Anyway, the character Hawk is enigmatic as he doesn't appear to have a past and no-one knows where he came from. The "prison" is just a cover.

The ending was too out there for me, the girl, the dog and the youngster. Are they all ghosts?

The music was horrendous but overall it's not nearly a bad as the reviews.

Cute...

[RosanaBotafogo · 8/10 · 10 January 2021]

What a cute movie, almost poetry, was embarking on a different path, ended without explanation, but very sensitive, and captivating, with subliminal messages, cute ... The main girl has charisma ...

Very good at provoking questions, about traumas and time

[rafaeloliveirap · 10/10 · 1 November 2023]

The film is very good at provoking questions about past traumas, the continuity of time, whether there is time without change? What change must occur to overcome trauma? Would it be something spiritual, from another world? A miracle or religious event that will erase the trauma and give us another purpose to move on with life?

If in the city after the great tragedy of the accident with the basketball team: time doesn't pass, they don't die, they don't get sick, they don't age, nothing happens and they preserve the status quo - it's because in a way they stopped living, they're stuck in the time; however, with the arrival of a young and skilled player (referring to the unexpected arrival, without traces or roots of an Angel or Savior) the city returns to normal (the time clock starts running again), the city becomes adept at basketball again, illnesses , fights, aging (and some characters are against this change), implying that the city after a "miracle" comes back to life, no matter how painful real life is, living with traumas, adversities, this change to The real world is happier, full of ups and downs, no longer "with an empty soul" that the city had. As Aristotle said: "time only exists in change" or "does time exist when nothing changes?"

Some final questions of the film are somewhat open and subject to various interpretations, as in the comments.

• The girl continues not to age;
• Is the boy with her in the car seat her son? He appears to say "sis" implying that he could be her brother who died in the basketball team accident.

• The whole story could be a creation in her head to deal with the trauma of the accident and overcome her brother's death.

Lesson: even if we face very difficult traumas in life, "time waits for no one" shows us that we must continue moving forward, it is the best choice, life needs to move forward and time will continue to pass, with you accepting it or not, did you lose someone you loved so much? Lost a child? A companion? A relative? An entire team? It's very painful, there is a moment of mourning, but then life needs to go on at some point, find/create your savior Angel to move forward, your life needs to go on, time only exists in change, so make change happen for the time will start spinning again...

In a more religious view: perhaps the change is spiritual, the one who will give new meaning to life, the one who can send the angel, perform the miracle is God and then in him you will find the change...