Film Review: The Sins of Government (2005)

SYNOPSIS:

Host David Aten takes you on a journey through two short stories: RITES OF THE ILLUMINATI – Bill Clayton wants to make a deal that will make him rich and a governor, but after meeting with the reptilian leader Pindar he realizes he is in over his head. ULTRA – Christine Wilder undergoes heinous mind control programming techniques that turn her into a human sex slave and killer.

REVIEW:

When it comes to independent movies – real independent movies, not these Hollywood movies that call themselves independent – I am an eternal optimist. Especially the independent horror movies. I am always looking for the positive, the good parts of an otherwise weak movie. So it is very rare that I can’t find at least something worthwhile to promote a movie with, whether it’s originality in the story, or a good practical effect, or maybe even just seeing potential for something better in a director’s future works. Unfortunately, every once in a while I run into a real clunker. The Sins of Government falls into that category for me, being a movie that I just can’t think of anything good to say about it, joining the lowly ranks of movies like Palumbo’s Nutbag and…um, well, I’m sure there’s more, they’re just so bad I can’t remember them right now.

The Sins of Government is a two part movie written by Milton William Cooper and directed by Alex Jones…wait, no, I’m sorry, written by John Brodie and directed by Ron Atkins (some of his other gems include titles like Schizophreniac: The Whore Mangler and The Cuckoo Clocks of Hell). The plot of both parts, which are inter-connected, have to do with conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati and a reptilian race of creatures who actually run the world. I’m all about some conspiracy theories, and this movie still fails to impress me. It’s set up like a documentary TV program you might find very, very late at night, hosted by David Aten (played by writer John Brodie). The problem is – okay, one of the problems is – aside from ranting on and on about the Illuminati theories, their presence is hardly felt in the movie. Instead, we get a couple of poorly acted stories interwoven with guys in Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and George W. Bush masks running around, grabbing their crotches, and saying offensive stuff, you know, because they can. Ugh…

The first segment is called “Rites of the Illuminati,” and it’s about a guy (Bill Clayton, played by Terry King) trying to make a deal with the powers that be to gain power. But what they want in return is more than he is willing to give – his wife. He sits there talking to a guy in a lizard mask, then the “politicians” appear and talk about what they’re doing to destroy the world, and then some weird stuff happens, the end. It might sound like I’m diminishing this, but there’s really not much to it at all. And for whatever reason, the filmmakers thought it’d be a good idea to not overdub dialogue, meaning that these people wearing masks are often times unintelligible. When we can understand what they are saying, we wish we couldn’t – for whatever reason, the Cheney and Bush characters say super crude stuff that doesn’t fit their character, stuff about molesting children and AIDS and other nasty stuff, while the Powell character says super racist stuff about himself. There’s really nothing good here, so on to segment two.

“Ultra” is the second part, and at first it seems more promising, dealing with the MK Ultra program of brainwashing and mind-control that we have heard stories about. Once we get past the title, we’re already past all the interesting stuff. The story here is all about controlling a woman (Christine, played by Ann Teal, the same woman from the first segment) through trauma and LSD. Once she is controlled, they abuse her more, rape her, call her a bunch of nasty names, and Bush and Cheney play “the most dangerous game,” where they chase after her in a desert. At the end, she is sent out on a mission, and we finally see how this segment connects to the previous one.

There is not a single redeeming quality in all of The Sins of Government. It’s not original or creative, but rather sounds like the drunken ramblings of that weird guy who sat in the back of your history class and always smelled like burnt aluminum. Much of it is shock for shock’s sake, nudity for nudity’s sake, and for being less than an hour long, it sure does feel like it lasts forever. There’s nothing exciting about a movie that can throw around some of subversive images and offensive name-calling if that’s as far as it goes. There is no shocking revelation; in fact, it’s about as shocking as a guy swearing at a sweet old lady – that’s not edgy, bro, that’s just stupid.