Showing posts with label Ed Harris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ed Harris. Show all posts

Sunday, 10 November 2013

150W: Gravity

Short reviews for clear and concise verdicts on a broad range of films...


Gravity (Dir. Alfonso Cuarón/2013)

Gravity is a masterpiece. Even if the concise lost-in-space plot doesn’t resonate, in almost exclusively five continuous shots, it’s a technical masterpiece. Ryan Stone (Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (Clooney) fix satellites orbiting the earth when suddenly debris hits the group mid-mission, throwing Stone into space. Outstanding special effects mean you don’t even consider what is “real” and what is not. Intelligent use of 3D mean floating astronauts in the background and screws hovering in the foreground drag you into the abyss further, rather than detach your perspective. Director Alfonso Cuarón taps into known Sci-Fi properties as diverse as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes, without losing a sense of ownership. Through a controlled, well-pitched score, Gravity is its own film using silence to terrify you. You are alone in space, in the middle of a crowded cinema. And the cinema is the only place to see Gravity.

Rating: 9/10

Thursday, 27 January 2011

A-Z #20: A Beautiful Mind

You can pick up hundreds of DVD's for a round-pound each - it doesn't matter. Its never about quantity, its about quality. A-Z is my way of going through my collection, from A-Z, and justifying why I own the films... or you can tell me whether I should sell 'em...






#20 - A Beautiful Mind 

Why did I buy it?

I was - and ultimately still am - attempting to watch all the Best Picture winners and I found this cheap enough to purchase it. I vividly remember buying it at the Aberystwyth Woolworths and, as I walked home, I was dubious about whether it would be any good... would I find it long and boring ...

Why do I still own it?

In the first instance I do like it and, back when I first bought it, I watched it many times because I enjoyed it so much. I even watched it with young Jo and this brought about an epic debate: the focus of the film felt a little unclear - the romance between Nash and his wife should have been the centre-point of the film ... but it actually didn't feel important in A Beautiful Mind, hence the almost-unneccessary feel of the romance story - we were all rooting for Nash (Crowe) to simply get over his (without giving anything away) problems.

The epic debate was how I used Titanic as an example of a film that, although about the disaster and showing great sub-stories about class in 1912, the film was rooted in the romance between Jack and Rose, hence why it was so good - Titanic is, before anything else, a Romance. Jo disagreed - Titanic is a disaster movie according to him.

This incredible argument raged on all night and A Beautiful Mind is what started it all. This may be part of the reason I still own it because, capturing the frame from the film above made me give it a slight re-analysis and, having watched many Oscar contenders and Best Picture winners since this film, it does seem quite by-the-numbers so...

Should I sell it?

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