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I love this movie so much

Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Films with a premise like "Z.P.G." are the most disturbing ones imaginable. This is the sort of science fiction concept that one day could actually become reality! Probably is a much less drastic format and fascist execution, but nevertheless the rudimentary principle of law-obtruded birth control is alarmingly plausible. In the distant future, when people standard have to wear oxygen masks to walk over the streets and visits museums to see what a 20th century domestic family diner looked like, the government suddenly decides that no couple is allowed anymore to produce any children for the next thirty years. This incentive is launched to put a stop to the destroying of the earth by overpopulation. The last legally born children are branded with a laser and all aspiring families are welcome to apply for a fully personalized child dummy. With removal from society as the harsh punishment for illegal pregnancy, the birth rate immediately drops back to Z(ero) P(opulation) G(rowth). However, museum actress Carol McNeil's biggest wish is to bear and raise a child. When she pursuits her will, her husband Russ – the almighty Oliver Reed – is forced to entrench his belly-developing wife in a hideout shelter and think up excuses for her continuous absence on the surface. But a severe crime like this can't be kept secret forever… "Z.P.G." is a tremendously astonishing film. It's often compared with "Logan's Run" and "Soylent Green" but this movie predates the both of them and it's immensely underrated whereas the others are more likely overrated. This is the type of absorbing Sci-Fi that gradually becomes more disturbing if you contemplate about it too much. The surveillance over the population is harrowing (for example: when you show interest in reading articles about parenthood in the library, you're promptly put in isolation for questioning) and the overall depiction of our future society is just downright depressing. People are stiff, emotionless and robot-like beings and unconditional friendship or even interaction between families doesn't seem to exist anymore. The purely fictional elements of the plot vary from pretty damn scary (the mechanical replacement kids) to silly & clichéd (live newscast reporting from a gigantic zeppelin floating over the Metropolis) but they always remain compelling. The most fantastic trump of "Z.P.G." is that the plot never stops evolving. Once the baby is born, other and even more challenging issues arise, like rivalry and all-overpowering sentiments of mother instinct. This movie is an incredibly absorbing Sci-Fi magnum opus that had my mate and I glued to the screen from start to finish. The atmosphere and despair and paranoia is so real you can almost taste it, the decors and set pieces (albeit occasionally cheap looking) are imaginative and the screenplay is so intelligently written that it covers every tiniest potential plot hole or possible default. Oliver Reed once more demonstrates what an incredibly versatile actor he was. His stern and masculine appearance truly adapts to all sorts of roles; even to a melodramatic one. "Z.P.G." was made at the peak of Reed's career, as he starred in numerous classic horror/cult movies around that time, like "The Devils", "Revolver", "The Hunting Party" and "Blue Blood".

This movie is one rarity in my country scarcely here are copies in DVD or Blu Ray almost in the 2006 was edited one cheap version rated to 89 minutes of the 105 minutes of it's original duration by Vellavision with quality of image very bad.The Spanish public know very well whose are Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin but them at present day to ignore the existence of this film, I as fan of the science fiction was one of them until that I read the novel by Max Ehrlich when I was a child.The book is excellent for me so much as the film, and it's a good material to make a remake if someone producer wants to make one new version of this history.It's a movie that must be revised of it's landing forgotten and discredited by critic and public in it's time.The story is merit to second opportunity in the actual times.

Whenever I go shopping with my baby son, I hear o's and r's quite a lot. I even have people coming up and talking to me because of my baby son. I can see why. Babies are cute, adorable and most importantly, a symbol of hope. In the future world of zpg (Zero Population Growth), they have become objects of fear.The world is overpopulated, polluted and on the verge of a collapse from centuries of environmental abuse. The governments of the world have had to make the painful decision to ban birth for 30 years in an attempt to save the human race from extinction. Food is synthetic, and so are the robotic children. It is one fake, sterile place to live in.The government uses all kinds of methods to quash the yearning for children with the death penalty being the ultimate deterrent. Despite this, many still decide to have children. One such couple are the Mcneils (Geraldine Chaplin and the late and great Oliver Reed). But their friends, the Bordens find out and want the baby for themselves and threaten to grass on the Mcneils if they don't let them have their baby. The Mcniels have to find a way out before time runs out.This film very much reflects the hopes and fears of the era it was made (including the flares on the protective suit the populace have to wear outdoors). The environmental movement was in full swing with the fears that human race was destroying the planet. Zpg showed a disturbing outcome to way that the environment is treated and like in other films like 'Soylent Green' shows the affect on the quality of life. In zpg, technology had made life 'confortable'? But the populace was constantly starving because of eating only synthetic food. This very much reflected the belief that more and more things would become 'fake'. It was during this era that plastic furniture came into the home. There was also nylon clothing and the first 'ready meals' and of course, the 'Pot Noodle'.The technology of this world offered so many distractions including the horrible robot children, but could not hide the yearning that people wanted things to be real. Including children.The government of this world pretty much like in 1984 has a grip on the peoples minds from interfering on almost every part of daily life. Okay, there might not be a camera in every home, but one such example is an official government video that was playing while the McNiels were 'getting it on'. Such is the control that the government have, one such scene shows a baying mob surrounding a couple with their baby. The police turn up to arrest and execute the family. A women brags about spotting the baby and alerting the police. Proud of killing a baby. The awful thing is that this actually happens in China. The Mirror newspaper printed a picture of a dead newborn baby in a gutter in a street in China, with people just walking by like it was just a bit of trash. The one child, 1 family policy has caused many newborn girls to be murdered because a lot of couples want boys. This is a good if sometimes disturbing film that should be viewed on the one chance it is shown on TV.

In the not too distant future, overpopulation with its resultant pollution has made most of the earth unfit for habitation. A portion of humanity has retreated into a hermetically sealed city. By edict couples are prohibited from having children. Exempt are those born Before Edict and the initials B.E. are invisibly engraved on those children's foreheads visible only under a special light wielded by law enforcers.Deprivation of maternity has driven many women to psychosis. There is a scene where women scream at another woman with a young child "Baby! Baby!" and the authorities move in. It turns out that the child has a B.E on his forehead.Despite the danger, the characters played by Reed and Geraldine Chaplin decide to have a baby anyway. Gripping was the scene when Reed was researching via a virtual library on how to perform a baby delivery. He was of course being monitored by a "Big Sister" computer of the authorities. How he got to the sections about maternity and delivery is interesting. He first surfed through sections about some obscure aspect of monastic art,Premonstratensian art. From there he managed to navigate to pregnancy and delivery. The computer, however, sensed that he drifted into the taboo topic of childbirth. Reed's chair clamped onto him sending volts of electricity into his body. He pretended to be disgusted at the videos he saw of childbirth and alleged that he was about to report and protest the presence of such "filth" in the library. His acting here was notable as he seemed to be really in pain with his face oily and perspiring. The leader of the civilization rides in some kind of whimsical toy-like flying saucer that plays "Pop Goes the Weasel" every time he makes an appearance. The tone, texture and general treatment of this film is both amusing and unsettling at the same time. It is what makes it a fine one.The horrors governments would be willing to perpetrate to achieve Zero Population Growth was accurately predicted in this movie. Compulsory mass abortion was (is?) practiced in China in the '80s. There too was the testimony of a Chinese lady doctor who escaped to the West that babies who were delivered live illegally (more than two children for the couple) were murdered by injecting poisons into the fontanel. Later China amended the two-child decree to only one. During Indira Gandhi's regime in India, Rajiv (her son who later on became PM himself), regularly went on patrol gathering young men and having them forcibly sterilized. And of course, women who went to public health clinics for any reason were summarily sterilized once it was determined that they already had children. But why pick on China and India, abortion in the U.S. and in most of the EU is also done on a massive scale under the alleged "right to privacy" and of "freedom of choice."If you are intrigued by societies that seal themselves off from the rest of the world and humanity, check out Zardoz (1974 with Sean Connery) and Logan's Run (1976 with Michael York). There is also, of course, The Time Machine of which I know of at least two film versions. I like the older George Pal production because of its lush texture and the beautiful actors (Yvette Mimieux and Rod Taylor). The Lost Horizon also has two versions one made in 1937 and the other in 1973. The newer version is the better one with Peter Finch and Liv Ullman although the parts with George Kennedy (singing at that) and Sally Kellerman made it somewhat corny.