Top 5: Scenes from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (IMDB Top 250 #11)

Every month (or so…..I swear they’re coming more regularly) we take a look at a movie on the Internet Movie Database’s List of the TOP 250 FILMS OF ALL-TIME.  These are movies that transcend a simple “My Favorite Scene” column.  These are movies that are hard to just pry five gems from, but we do and examine the film overall.  We’re on our eleventh installment in this series.  Click on the links for The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Dark Knight, Pulp Fiction , Schindler’s List, 12 Angry Men, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, The Return of the King, and Fight Club to check out previous installments.

Having made it through the top 10, we come to #11 on the IMDB Top 250: the opening chapter in Peter Jackson’s flawless adaptation of The Lord of the Rings.  Taking Tolkien’s masterpiece from the province of literary scholars and the kids who sat alone at lunch in high school, Jackson showed the whole world the scope of Middle-Earth (to such extent that New Zealand, where both the LOTR and Hobbit films were shot, pretty much considers itself Middle-Earth).  The Lord of the Rings is my favorite film, and I treat it as one 12 hour epic, not three parts, but this works out to my advantage as all three chapters are in the top 15 and I get to showcase fifteen scenes instead of just five.

Movie Review: The Martian (2015) *Ridley Gets It Right!*

I’m a space geek.  Some people think NASA and space exploration is an ungodly waste of time and money and I’m one of those people who think those people are an ungodly waste of time and money (I’ll let that settle).  The Martian by Andy Weir was 2014’s best book, fantastic science fiction and I have been vocally concerned at its rush to the screen by Ridley Scott.  Ridley, long one of my favorite directors, hasn’t connected in about a decade, so even with favorable reviews, I went in a little nervous.  No need.  This is Scott’s best picture since 2001’s Black Hawk Down, one of the best science fiction films in recent memory and one of the best films of 2015.

Trailer Time: The Martian Trailer #2 (2015) *Will Ridley Mess Up 2014’s Best Book?*

Andy Weir’s science fiction masterpiece, The Martian, was my favorite book of 2014.  I love Matt Damon, I love Jessica Chastain, I love pretty much all the cast of the film and I know Andy Weir was directly involved in the adaptation, but I’m nervous.  It’s not the trailers, which have looked spectacular.  It’s Ridley Scott.  I can’t remember the last film Ridley Scott directed that I liked, which certainly wasn’t always the case.  I so hope this is a return to form for him, because this could be one of the best films of the year if it lives up to its source material.  The Martian lands in theaters on October 2, 2015, kicking off the Fall Movie Season.

 

Trailer Time: The Martian (2015) *Will Ridley Mess Up 2014’s Best Book?*

*Text courtesy of Rolling Stone

Matt Damon strikes a delicate balance between intensity and levity in the new trailer for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, in which the actor plays Mark Watney, an astronaut trying to survive after being accidentally stranded on Mars.

As the clip shows, Watney and his Ares 3 crew are hit by a sudden, severe storm and ordered to evacuate their mission on the red planet; Watney, however, gets caught in the chaos and is left behind and presumed dead. When he wakes up alone, he returns to the Ares 3 base and lays out the dire stakes in a video log: He has no way to communicate with NASA or his crew, and even if he could, it would take four years for another manned mission to reach him (adding to the tension, he only has enough supplies to last him 31 days).

“So in the face of overwhelming odds, I’m left with only one option,” Watney says, as he slaps on a pair protective glasses. “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.”

The ensuing montage finds Watney MacGyver-ing Mars’ arid land into something that can support plant life and rundown equipment into a machine that sends a message to the Ares 3 crew. But while they are adamant about rescuing their abandoned crew mate, NASA rejects the mission. The Ares 3 is forced to go rogue, formulating an intricate plan that could leave them all dead.

The Martian boasts a stacked supporting cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover and Chiwetel Ejiofor. The screenplay was written by Drew Goddard (World War Z, The Cabin in the Woods) and is based on Andy Weir’s book of the same name.

Movie Review: Jupiter Ascending (2015) *A Reasonable Critic Review*

Jupiter Ascending is an extremely cool movie layered on top of a bad one. I have never been so entertained by a movie this flawed. I don’t mean I enjoyed its awfulness, like Plan 9 From Outer Space. I mean I actually found it enjoyable.The question is, do you want to shell out money to see it, particularly in IMAX 3D?