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Thursday 19 November 2015
The Martian
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Ridley Scott returns to the genre that made his name.
Will it be less divisive than his previous effort, Prometheus?
The plot:
It’s 2035, and initial attempts to explore Mars are underway, the Ares III a manned mission already on the planet. Whilst conducting standard scientific shenanigans, the crew are warned of a significant storm front moving in. Attempting to make their way back to their lander, the storm hits, and such is the ferocity that one of their number is lost. Though the commander attempts to locate him, sensors on his life suit indicate that he is depressurised, out of oxygen, and surely dead.
So they clear off.
Back to Earth.
A journey of several months.
Awakening some time after the storm has passed, Mark Watney is astonished to discover that he is still alive. Battered, with a piece of metal jutting from his belly, and utterly alone on an alien world, he manages to make his way back to the habitable base camp, patches himself up, then sits down to think.
How to survive on a planet where nothing can grow, with diminishing supplies of oxygen, and without hope of contacting home? Easy, right?
Just recycle the poo.
What from the outset appears as if it may well play out as something of a one-hander, is actually a more complicated affair, with a veritable roster of characters.
An ensemble, if you will.
Matt Damon shines as the astronaut tasked with the impossible challenge of surviving in conditions both bleak and barren, and does something that we have never seen from him before: demonstrates a knack for comic timing.
Well scripted, the characters are likeable enough, but there is a massive problem slap bang at the heart of this movie: it’s entirely predictable from beginning to end. From the initial catastrophe that sees our hero stranded, through the messages back to Earth, through the decisions made by others to decide his fate, through the heroism of all involved, through the mid-point ‘exciting incident’ that tips his world back into chaos just as all had seemed to settle down, through the denouement which may as well have had flashing neon lights saying STORY GOES THIS WAY.
Listen, it’s well played, it’s well conceived, it’s well delivered, it’s just…..well….obvious as all tits.
Effects-wise, it’s nothing special. Prometheus was a far more impressive visual spectacle. Indeed, the opening sequences involving the tempest lashing at the Mars based team of ‘Stronauts – as all the cool kids are calling them these days – look distinctly shonky, reminiscent of the glory days of BBC CGI from good old Tom Baker era Doctor Who. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture. It’s clear that the characters are in no way interacting with the digital effects that are literally whipping up a storm on screen.
So, decent if shallow is the final analysis.
Highlights. Well, poo-tatoes, Damon’s humour, and some cool scienceing (sic) the shit off things.
Lowlights. Signposted twists, an obnoxious soundtrack and shaky effects work.
Pretty average, really, and we’re really surprised to be saying that.
Damn.
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Year: | 2015 | |
| Country of origin: | USA / UK | |
| Director: | Ridley Scott | |
| Genre: | Sci-fi | |
| Starring: | Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Kate Mara? Benedict Wong | |
| Rating: | 3/5 | |
| IMDB link: | www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/ | |
| Tagline: | Bring Him Home | |
| Favourite line: | "I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the greatest botanist on this planet" | |
Ridley Scott returns to the genre that made his name.
Will it be less divisive than his previous effort, Prometheus?
The plot:
It’s 2035, and initial attempts to explore Mars are underway, the Ares III a manned mission already on the planet. Whilst conducting standard scientific shenanigans, the crew are warned of a significant storm front moving in. Attempting to make their way back to their lander, the storm hits, and such is the ferocity that one of their number is lost. Though the commander attempts to locate him, sensors on his life suit indicate that he is depressurised, out of oxygen, and surely dead.
So they clear off.
Back to Earth.
A journey of several months.
Awakening some time after the storm has passed, Mark Watney is astonished to discover that he is still alive. Battered, with a piece of metal jutting from his belly, and utterly alone on an alien world, he manages to make his way back to the habitable base camp, patches himself up, then sits down to think.
How to survive on a planet where nothing can grow, with diminishing supplies of oxygen, and without hope of contacting home? Easy, right?
Just recycle the poo.
What from the outset appears as if it may well play out as something of a one-hander, is actually a more complicated affair, with a veritable roster of characters.
An ensemble, if you will.
Matt Damon shines as the astronaut tasked with the impossible challenge of surviving in conditions both bleak and barren, and does something that we have never seen from him before: demonstrates a knack for comic timing.
Well scripted, the characters are likeable enough, but there is a massive problem slap bang at the heart of this movie: it’s entirely predictable from beginning to end. From the initial catastrophe that sees our hero stranded, through the messages back to Earth, through the decisions made by others to decide his fate, through the heroism of all involved, through the mid-point ‘exciting incident’ that tips his world back into chaos just as all had seemed to settle down, through the denouement which may as well have had flashing neon lights saying STORY GOES THIS WAY.
Listen, it’s well played, it’s well conceived, it’s well delivered, it’s just…..well….obvious as all tits.
Effects-wise, it’s nothing special. Prometheus was a far more impressive visual spectacle. Indeed, the opening sequences involving the tempest lashing at the Mars based team of ‘Stronauts – as all the cool kids are calling them these days – look distinctly shonky, reminiscent of the glory days of BBC CGI from good old Tom Baker era Doctor Who. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the picture. It’s clear that the characters are in no way interacting with the digital effects that are literally whipping up a storm on screen.
So, decent if shallow is the final analysis.
Highlights. Well, poo-tatoes, Damon’s humour, and some cool scienceing (sic) the shit off things.
Lowlights. Signposted twists, an obnoxious soundtrack and shaky effects work.
Pretty average, really, and we’re really surprised to be saying that.
Damn.
Friday 23 October 2015
Mad Max: Fury Road
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Well now, that was intense.
The plot:
Max Rockatansky is a strange old bird.
A loner, drifting through a post-apocalyptic wasteland once called Australia, he finds himself captured by the ruler of the land, Immortal Joe.
Max’s blood is sampled and, it turns out, his blood type is desirable, for he is a universal donor, so suitable for all - lucky for him as it keeps him alive.
After much mayhem, Max finds himself free and, whilst wandering the desert, dehydrated, half-mad, he encounters six delectable females, bathing themselves. Through fevered eyes he spies them and, as luscious as they are, it is the water that courses over their bodies that captivates him more, for the land in which they live is dry as dust.
Now introduced to their leader, Furiosa, he learns their tale; wives of Immortal Joe, Furiosa has helped them escape his tyranny and is leading them to the place where she grew up known only as The Green Place, a land of rare fertility in the barren wasteland.
With little option, Max and Furiosa become a team of sorts, their common enemy, Immortal Joe, and his wild, manic gang of War Boys hot on their trail.
Jesus suffering fuck, that was AWESOME.
Rarely do we find ourselves resorting to such invective, but there is no better way to express the sensations coursing through our bodies right now, mere moments after the movie has ended.
From the get-go, this is full-pelt, pell-mell, no holds barred, adrenaline soaked madness, handled with bravado and confidence by George ‘I’m 70. No, really’ Miller.
It is brilliant.
Effectively a chase movie, almost non-stop, in fact, save for a couple of scenes where it pauses to take a breath and to allow for a spot of the old character development, as well as to give the audience the opportunity to calm down, albeit briefly.
Tom Hardy, as Max himself, is an assured figure, holding the attention of the viewer by physical presence alone as, throughout the two hour runtime, if he says more than a hundred words, we would be surprised.
Charlize Theron is the main player here, in truth, her Furiosa both the catalyst for the main plot strand and the emotional heart of the piece, the latter encapsulated in one brief sequence where, bereft, she falls to her knees and screams at the sky, a sound so plaintive and desperate even the blackest of souls must surely feel a stirring.
Design-wise, you simply won’t see anything more impressive this year, and probably not this decade, for the imagination on show is near implausible. Action sequences featuring skull-faced assassins on bendy metal poles raining down fire on War Rigs below; a character strapped to the front of a Rig, blind and deaf, though playing a guitar that spews fire; creatures roaming The Wasteland on stilts; vestigial limbed henchmen in nappies; and more than could ever be mentioned in such a brief overview, each scene is packed full of so…much….stuff we were almost out of breath just trying to keep up.
And there’s shock-factor, too, Miller unflinching at times, putting things on screen that no Hollywood blockbuster would usually dare, unafraid to tackle the usual taboos of dead foetuses and matricide in a direct, head-on approach, unsettling the viewer, making us realise that no-one and nothing is off limits, here.
Literally, this could go anywhere is the message, and it is received loud and clear.
For fans of action movies, simply stop what you are doing right now. Go watch this film because, as The Raid did a few years ago with the martial arts genre, director Miller has just given an object lesson to everybody else in the business on exactly how to make an action film in the modern age, using a combination of physical and digital effects, choosing the appropriate tool for the appropriate task at the appropriate time.
Ladies and gentleman, at the age of 70 George Miller has just powned the young upstarts.
The bar for action movies has well and truly been raised.
Simply magnificent.
Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
| Year: | 2015 | |
| Country of origin: | Australia / USA | |
| Director: | George Miller | |
| Genre: | Post-apocalyptic sci-fi | |
| Starring: | Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Nicholas Hoult | |
| Rating: | 5/5 | |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/ | |
| Tagline: | The future belongs to the mad | |
| Favourite line: | "My name is Max. My world is fire and blood. Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause. As the world fell, each of us in our own way was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy... me... or everyone else." | |
Well now, that was intense.
The plot:
Max Rockatansky is a strange old bird.
A loner, drifting through a post-apocalyptic wasteland once called Australia, he finds himself captured by the ruler of the land, Immortal Joe.
Max’s blood is sampled and, it turns out, his blood type is desirable, for he is a universal donor, so suitable for all - lucky for him as it keeps him alive.
After much mayhem, Max finds himself free and, whilst wandering the desert, dehydrated, half-mad, he encounters six delectable females, bathing themselves. Through fevered eyes he spies them and, as luscious as they are, it is the water that courses over their bodies that captivates him more, for the land in which they live is dry as dust.
Now introduced to their leader, Furiosa, he learns their tale; wives of Immortal Joe, Furiosa has helped them escape his tyranny and is leading them to the place where she grew up known only as The Green Place, a land of rare fertility in the barren wasteland.
With little option, Max and Furiosa become a team of sorts, their common enemy, Immortal Joe, and his wild, manic gang of War Boys hot on their trail.
Jesus suffering fuck, that was AWESOME.
Rarely do we find ourselves resorting to such invective, but there is no better way to express the sensations coursing through our bodies right now, mere moments after the movie has ended.
From the get-go, this is full-pelt, pell-mell, no holds barred, adrenaline soaked madness, handled with bravado and confidence by George ‘I’m 70. No, really’ Miller.
It is brilliant.
Effectively a chase movie, almost non-stop, in fact, save for a couple of scenes where it pauses to take a breath and to allow for a spot of the old character development, as well as to give the audience the opportunity to calm down, albeit briefly.
Tom Hardy, as Max himself, is an assured figure, holding the attention of the viewer by physical presence alone as, throughout the two hour runtime, if he says more than a hundred words, we would be surprised.
Charlize Theron is the main player here, in truth, her Furiosa both the catalyst for the main plot strand and the emotional heart of the piece, the latter encapsulated in one brief sequence where, bereft, she falls to her knees and screams at the sky, a sound so plaintive and desperate even the blackest of souls must surely feel a stirring.
Design-wise, you simply won’t see anything more impressive this year, and probably not this decade, for the imagination on show is near implausible. Action sequences featuring skull-faced assassins on bendy metal poles raining down fire on War Rigs below; a character strapped to the front of a Rig, blind and deaf, though playing a guitar that spews fire; creatures roaming The Wasteland on stilts; vestigial limbed henchmen in nappies; and more than could ever be mentioned in such a brief overview, each scene is packed full of so…much….stuff we were almost out of breath just trying to keep up.
And there’s shock-factor, too, Miller unflinching at times, putting things on screen that no Hollywood blockbuster would usually dare, unafraid to tackle the usual taboos of dead foetuses and matricide in a direct, head-on approach, unsettling the viewer, making us realise that no-one and nothing is off limits, here.
Literally, this could go anywhere is the message, and it is received loud and clear.
For fans of action movies, simply stop what you are doing right now. Go watch this film because, as The Raid did a few years ago with the martial arts genre, director Miller has just given an object lesson to everybody else in the business on exactly how to make an action film in the modern age, using a combination of physical and digital effects, choosing the appropriate tool for the appropriate task at the appropriate time.
Ladies and gentleman, at the age of 70 George Miller has just powned the young upstarts.
The bar for action movies has well and truly been raised.
Simply magnificent.
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