As the title sequence faded in over the Red Planet horizon and the letters of "The Martian" appeared in slow sequence I knew I was in good hands. The poster for Ridley Scott's most recent film prefixed it with the words "From the Director of Gladiator and Prometheus", for me it would have been sold better as "From the Director of Alien and BladeRunner", but some of the audience have forgotten anything pre 1999
The survival adventure kicks off pretty much in the first few minutes of the film as Matt Damon's Mark Watney is left for dead on the surface of Mars after a monstrous storm calls an end to Ares III's mission. Mark is left to fend for himself hoping that NASA will send someone to rescue him or he must find a way to survive until the next mission turns up (and also make it halfway across the planet to the new landing site)
The Martian is the most entertaining film I have seen this year, and possibly for a good while. Very interesting, immensely funny and nail biting tense moments are perfectly sectioned. Each scientific experiment is narrated (via videolog) by Matt Damon and they are explained as if he is doing a documentary giving the audience the right scale of science mumbo jumbo and layman terms.
I watched the film in 3D as this was how the Unlimited Screening was being shown, however, I think this was completely unnecessary. All the 3D screening did was dull the colour and annoy me, so if I do get chance to watch this again with Clare it will definitely be the 2D version
The Martian is highly recommended and is a must see at the cinema this year
Life long friends who have shared everything from kisses, substances and everything life has to offer struggle to discuss an important change in their lives
I was expecting a overly-sentimental film that just tugged at the heartstrings by a "paint-by-number" style, bur Miss You Already was very well acted and a thoroughly entertaining look at life dealing with cancer and struggling to conceive a first child.
When Toni Collete's Millie is diagnosed with breast cancer, her life is turned upside down and she goes on a self destructive journey joined by Drew Barrymore who has recently found out that after multiple attempts she is pregnant. How can Drew tell her friend the happy news when things have gone so wrong so quickly?
With all the Young Adult films coming out at the moment dealing with the big C (Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, The Fault in our Stars), I was expecting this to follow the same sort of path. Miss You Already takes a more adult look at the disease and the effects it has on family life and how to tell kids that mummy won't be around much longer.
This isn't a film I would rush to see again, but I am glad I got to see it
I was unsure what to expect going in to watch Sicario, I had seen the trailer and it looked interesting, but if asked what it was about I would give a few words not a synopsis. Mexico, Cartels, Drugs and Benicio Del Torro.....
Sicario is a slow burning film, Kate (Emily Blunt) is recognised by a shadowy section of the DOD as doing a great job busting low level drug cartel operations and is recruited in an aim to take down the Jefe. Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Torro head this team that operates outside the jurisdiction Kate is accustomed to. How far beyond the law must you go to really make a difference?
There are some really tense and thrilling scenes, but they are in between some long, drawn out sequences. I appreciate that these were intended to build tension and intrigue and some of them did, but at a minute over 2 hours, I felt like there was a lot of filler. Don't get me wrong, some of the lasting aerial shots over Mexico and the silhouetted tactical team shots were stunning.
One scene near the start during a traffic jam on the way back to America over the Mexico Border is brilliant, and I think this raised the bar to a level that, unfortunately, was not reached again throughout the rest of the film
Benicio Del Torro is excellent as a questionable member of the team, with unknown origins and suspicious activity, he steals the show.
I have mixed feelings about Sicario, stunning, tense, but also slow and plodding in sections. One character arch made me think of Austin Powers with the phone call to henchmen families explaining that they had been killed at work. I questioned why he was in the film as he must have a bigger part to play....and he didn't.
I can honestly say, that after watching Everest, that Climbing this infamous mountain will never be on a bucket list of mine!
Based on a true story about the 1994 expedition lead by Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants. A group of mountaineers and enthusiasts take on the climb to the summit but a perfect storm threatens their descent. Everest takes the viewer on a journey with the explorers through the journey to base camp and upwards to the peak, through the varying, unpredictable weather conditions and across very dodgy rope and ladder set ups that you would question at much lower heights and not expect to be traversing bottomless caverns. It is an emotional journey as one would expect, when you find out at the start of the film that Keira Knightley's role is pregnant you can only expect heart strings to be yanked.
My only critisisms with the film primarily with the pacing which seems to take you on the full journey from the airport to base camp through villages of increasing altitude and monestry enroute and then skips forward missing much of the camp 1 and camp 2 expeditions. It feels as though there have been some heavy edits to reduce down run time, either that or nothing much happened in those camps and the director just thought to skip them. Secondly, with the weather conditions becoming more and more severe the higher the altitude the intrepid climbers wear more and more clothing, masks, eye covers and big jackets which in turn makes it harder to distinguish who is who, it just looks like a Teletubbie outing. When any incident happens, I was unsure who it was happening too and just had to remember coat colours in the end, characters became known to me as Tinky Winky, La La, Po and Jake Gylenhaal (because he had a funky hat on he was easier to spot).
Knowing this was a true story gave the film more gravitas to the treacherous journey, but with the big names involved (Josh Brolin, Jake Gylenhaal, Jason Clarke) it left you with a sense of wonder, are these people going to make it back down or are they destined to remain a permanent resident of Everest?
Everest was full of amazing vistas and heart stopping moments, in one scene involving a helicopter and thin air, I think I stopped breathing for a good five minutes. One thing is for sure, I felt like I climbed the mountain with them and have no intentions of doing it for myself.
Hailed as the new Stephen Speilberg in 1999 after the successful "The Sixth Sense", M Night Shyamalan's films got considerably worse until his name became a laughing matter. His films have a twist ending that everyone now expects so isn't that much of a twist anymore.The Visit is a self funded (using the money from his work on After Earth) film that M Night hoped for distribution to which the jump scare loving Blumhouse took on. The combination of these two names put fears in me straight away, but not good fears. Bloomhouse with their generic jump scare horror films and Shyamalan with his daft characters and twist endings, surely this would be terrible.
How wrong I was.
When a young single mother sends her two children for a week retreat to their grandparents, who they never met due to a family argument, Becca and Tyler aim to create a documentary on the old folks to give back what their mother may be missing. Replacing ghosts, aliens and bad acting with scary grandparents who seemingly change personalities as the sun goes down, The Visit is a horror film with a difference.
I found myself laughing many times throughout the film, mainly at the young lad Tyler who decides to use popular female popstars as swear words, making very funny comments in replacement of fear, and I wasn't alone. There were many occasions that the audience laughed with me, and really laughed.
There are moments of genuine suspense and scares as well, crawling around under the house playing hide and seek, scratching outside the bedroom door which is revealed to be a birthday suited Nanna and surprise secret camera's, all worthy of a good horror film.
I can genuinely say that after years of being connected to a series of terrible films, Mr Shyamalan has produced an essence of brilliance. One I can recommend to not just horror fans, but people who like a good film.
The ending is a little over the top, but I can live with it as the way it is set up is very well done.....and not that much of a signature twist.
Becca and Tyler are brilliantly portrayed by the young actors and at moments of heartfelt sadness, Becca really shines through. Some of the Tyler jokes seem a little too soon, taking away a lot of the tension, but you can see why a young lad would make such quips.
Clare and I went to Tunisia back in 2013, mainly to go visit the set of Star Wars, but also to have a little holiday. Whilst there, on one of our excursions we found ourselves in the middle of a full scale riot in the centre of town. Luckily, the local shop keepers provided refuge until our taxi driving saviour appeared. We later found out, whilst under house arrest at our hotel, that a state official had been assassinated and the locals were out for blood!
Also, a week after we had come back from Carnack Temple in Egypt, four lunatics had decided to try to level the temple using C4. Luckily, we were safe at home and the security had put a stop to their ploy before any damage could be done.
The reason I mention these events is down to the fact that after watching "No Escape", I am not going on holiday again!
Owen Wilson and his family are relocating to a country called Asia (the country is never fully disclosed and referred to as Asia in every conversation) due to the water company he is working for expanding into the province. On arrival he notices that his mobile phone, land line telephone, television, internet and all forms of communication seem to be down. Thinking this is just down to them moving to a 4th world country, they put it to the back of their mind and carry on hoping things will be better in the morning. Jack (Owen Wilson) goes to the local market to see if he can get a paper when the atmosphere in the town changes. With masked rioters on one side and armed police on the other, he races back to the hotel to protect his wife and 2 daughters, only to notice that the rebels are killing tourists. What follows is 2 hours of intense, nerve shredding and nail biting tension.
There are no subtitles in the film, so your understanding of what is happening only comes as Owen Wilson and his family get a vague idea. There seems no escape for the family, no pun intended, and with current events happening in the world today, this seems as though this could happen in any city anywhere and anytime.
I thoroughly enjoyed No Escape, Owen Wilson was very good, his two kids (although not very well scripted) added a great amount on tension in two very memorable scenes and Pierce Brosnan as the retired old James Bond, was great as a tension relief but also as the one bit of resilience.
Disclaimer: I know I said at the start that I am not going on holiday again....i will be
