In a plausible near future, Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is part of the research mission ARES III, part of a five-mission effort to explore Mars. But Mars is a hostile planet and when a massive sandstorm blows up with just a few minutes warning, the entire crew scrambles into the MAV, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, desperate to take off and rendezvous with the orbiting station a few hundred miles above the planet. The short journey from…Read More
Review: Hercules
I should start by clarifying which version of the oft-told Hercules story we’re talking about, because it’s not the animated feature from Disney and it’s most assuredly not the banal early 2014 The Legend of Hercules with Kellan Lutz in the title role. I’m talking about the summer release with the always popular muscleman Dwayne Johnson in the title role, as released jointly by Paramount and MGM. First the perhaps surprising news: I quite liked and enjoyed…Read More