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: Ant-Man
From the first time I heard about a cinematic version of the Ant-Man story, I was baffled. Norse Gods? Sure. Guys who gain spider powers and use it to fight crime? Okay. A woman who can turn herself invisible? Uh, sure. But the idea of a superhero who can shrink down to the size of an ant is more evocative of The Incredible Shrinking Man, a dark 1957 diatribe against environmental pollution and unfettered science,…Read More
Review: Fury
War is inherently cinematic. The stark comparison between good and bad, the grey areas of moral or amoral behavior, the stripping away of the thin veneer of civilization and civilized behavior, and the historical replay — or reinvention — of heinous situations. It’s no wonder that for any given war there are dozens if not hundreds of films. No war has been covered more thoroughly than World War II, however, with its deep and profound…Read More