When a computer virus leads to the collapse of civilization, an assortment of 30-something, ex-university pals head for the California hills, where two married friends live in an off-grid, hot-tub utopia with their young daughter. After everybody has arrived at the neo-hippie compound, these former acquaintances are immediately recognizable as reincarnations of the clique who gathered for 'The Big Chill' in 1983. Beginning with an aborted suicide in the opening sequence, 'Goodbye World' plagiarizes or rewrites many of the earlier film's scenes - and the characters even include a doppelganger of Meg Tilly's college-age interloper, who once again critiques her elders for their self-obsession.
It's often said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but unfortunately the producers of this copycat project forgot to clone themselves a screenwriter with Laurence Kasdan's talent. Although they're surrounded by marauding biker gangs, meth-head neighbors, rogue National Guardsmen and the smoke of burning cities, these privileged airheads respond to the crisis by getting high on weed and reviving old disputes. None of the wrangling over sexual jealousy and other grievances has any relevance in their apocalyptic new world - it seems to flare up simply because the writers had learned at film school that drama requires conflict. As the film nears its insipid conclusion, none of it seems to matter overmuch.
It's often said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but unfortunately the producers of this copycat project forgot to clone themselves a screenwriter with Laurence Kasdan's talent. Although they're surrounded by marauding biker gangs, meth-head neighbors, rogue National Guardsmen and the smoke of burning cities, these privileged airheads respond to the crisis by getting high on weed and reviving old disputes. None of the wrangling over sexual jealousy and other grievances has any relevance in their apocalyptic new world - it seems to flare up simply because the writers had learned at film school that drama requires conflict. As the film nears its insipid conclusion, none of it seems to matter overmuch.