Matt Damon

The Martian

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Martian
  • IMDb: link

The MartianAdapted by Drew Goddard, Andy Weir’s novel about an astronaut left behind and stranded alone on Mars isn’t exactly what I was expecting from a Ridley Scott film. With more heart and humor than Scott’s usual fare, the film actually reminded me of a mashup of the space disaster from Ron Howard‘s Apollo 13 with the lone man survivor of Robert Zemeckis‘ Cast Away with a bit of MacGyver thrown in for good measure as our protagonist is constantly forced to think outside the box in order to survive a series of challenges that make his continued survival less and less likely.

When we meet botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) he is just one member of a crew of astronauts (Jessica Chastain, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie), but things quickly change when a storm causes the group to leave the planet prematurely. Mistakenly leaving Watney behind, the crew begin their slow trek back to Earth. With the limited resources and safety of the outpost (neither of which were meant to be stretched for extended uses), Watney has to find a way not only to alert NASA that he’s still alive but find away to live on a desolate world until help can reach him.

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The Top Ten Movies of 2014 (so far)

/ / Top Tens & Lists

The Top Ten Movies of 2014 (so far)

We’ve hit the halfway point of the year and, as has become the custom, that means it’s time to look back on the best movies of the year so far. This year’s list includes three animated films, two sequels, the return of a beloved television character, a latest (and in one case the last) from few big name directors, and a pair of small indie films topping the list of what has been a pretty damn good first-half of the year at the movies.

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The Bourne Legacy

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Bourne Legacy
  • IMDB: link

the-bourne-legacy-poster"It’s interesting to note that the further we go into the Jason Bourne movie series the further and further we get from writer Robert Ludlum‘s original creation. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as the movies have been entertaining, but although there’s certainly a lot to like about the latest entry into the franchise that swaps Jeremy Renner for Matt Damon, it’s no doubt the weakest movie delivered so far.

The Bourne Legacy spends an awfully long time (most of the film’s first half-hour) trying to make the film’s events fit into the storylines of the second and third Bourne films. That means we start out when a surprising amount of exposition and a barrage of quick cuts (seriously, at times this movie feels like it was edited by George Lucas on speed). The result is far from as seamless as I’d like. This also means we have to wait quite a long time to see Renner in action (unless you count the clips where he’s channeling Liam Neeson‘s character from The Grey).

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The Best Movies of 2010

/ / Top Tens & Lists

This wasn’t a year to wow you. 2010 may have been somewhat of an off year for movies, but there are several quality films that hit theaters this year which are worth noting. A couple things struck me as I was putting together this list. First, how actresses stepped up huge this year. Whether in lead or supporting roles, it was a year dominated by the performances of the fairer sex. And second, 2010 was a year of raw emotion, almost visceral, brought to screen. You might argue that one or two of my choices didn’t have elaborate plots, but each delivered on an emotional level.

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True Grit (2010)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: True Grit
  • IMDB: link

More than four decades ago John Wayne won an Academy Award for his performance in True Grit as the drunken U.S. Marshall hired by a young woman to track down the man responsible for killing her father. It would be the first, and only, time the actor would take home an Oscar.

Deciding to remake the film, the Coen brothers went back to the original novel by Charles Portis to give us their reinterpretation of the story. The result is the brothers most mainstream film to date: a traditional western filled with strong performances and splashes of the filmmakers’ trademark wit.

The film begins and ends with the narration (provided by Elizabeth Marvel, who plays the character in later scenes) of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who at the age of 14 travels to collect the body of her recently deceased father and hire a bounty hunter to track down his murderer (Josh Brolin).

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