Leave the World Behind (2023) - Attack of the CGI animals

It's rare that I sit and watch a film and like it and dislike it in equal amounts, based on alternate scenes.  Seriously, one minute I'm really enjoying the story and the next scene drags to such a degree that it practically feels unwatchable.

Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are the parents of a couple of teenagers who take their family away on a break to the countryside where they rent a villa, only to find that the rest of the world is gradually falling apart due to... Yeah, I'm not trailing off for dramatic purposes - I'm stopping because, by the time the credits roll, there are no real concrete answers to any of your questions, but I think that's kind of the point.

It's a decent enough premise and has an excellent cast.  However, my personal overall gripe with the story was just how much some of the scenes drag.  I confess... I watched it on an online streaming service and I have a very comfortable remote control which allows me to view the movie in ten second segments.  This allowed me to see whether anything vaguely interesting happened in the current scene I was watching.  If it went on too long, I could skip ahead with ease.  Some may say that doing this made me miss key points, but I disagree.  I could tell what was going on with the greatest of ease.

With all the movies on streaming services, many don't even hold my attention until the end.  Yet I'm pleased to say that 'Leave the World Behind' kept me entertained right until the end.  Maybe it was the (near) A-list cast, or whether I was hoping for some concrete answers as to what was going on, but I stuck with it and I definitely don't think I wasted me time on it.

I think I'd have been bored if I'd watched this at the cinema, but, thanks to my remote control, I kind of created my own 'director's cut' of the story and, as a result, enjoyed it all the more from doing so.  There are some genuinely creepy scenes which chart society's downfall - just try to roll with the poor CGI, especially when animals are involved.  I actually found one scene almost too painful to watch when two of the cast members are yelling for a long time at a wood full of computer generated critters.  Quite funny really - I'm surprised no one has memed that scene more!

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights