GOD'S NOT DEAD 2

Pure Flix

Rated PG

Running Time: 121 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of God's Not Dead 2 from YouTube.



In Pure Flix's God's Not Dead 2, high school teacher Melissa Joan Hart is asked a question about Jesus in class and her response gets her in trouble with the school board and she winds up in court.

In this sequel to God's Not Dead, high school teacher Melissa Joan Hart, who is is a Christian and taking care of her grandfather Pat Boone, is teaching history in class when one of her troubled students, Hayley Orrantia asks a question about Jesus. Hart gives a simple answer - of which high school principal Robin Givens hears about. Now the school board threatens to fire Hart and make an example of her in court, and public defender Jesse Metcalfe must defend her.

I liked this movie better than the first one as it was not an in your face film in the beginning of the film as the first God's Not Dead. The Christian music gave you the feeling of a Christian film in the beginning of the movie. I will admit to tearing up a couple of times during the film as Hart undergoes this burden. I felt it rather sad that Orrantia's atheistic parents Maria Canals-Barrera and Carey Scott - who practically disowned their religious son - were taking the religious issue to court for the publicity of getting Orrantia into an ivy league school, as well as principal Givens controlling Orrantia.

I liked the legal arguments both for and against the religious aspects in the classroom according to the law, the separation of church and state. This was a pretty intense trial film, both with the trial and the protests outside the courts. It is curious on how the media was anti-religion - but as the religious leaders said, there is the silent majority. There was at least one religious argument that was not brought up that I would have liked to see in the movie even though they had the perfect setups. While I am not a lawyer, I have been summoned to jury duty before and had some issues with some of the procedures presented in the movie. Family was also an important theme in this movie, and also had me tearing up at some of the familial relationships.

Several of the stars from the first movie, Trisha LaFache, Paul Kwo, David A.R. White, Benjamin A. Onyango, as well as The Newsboys appeared in this movie. As well as Duck Dynasty's star Sadie Robertson's first feature film. This was former senator and actor Fred Dalton Thompson's final film appearance. I will admit that Kwo's reappearance was the most interesting appearance of the returning actors.

Ernie Hudson was great as the judge and had much more of an acting challenge in this film than in  his more famous Ghostbusters role, and Ray Wise once again played an antagonist - this time as the smarmy prosecution lawyer supposedly doing this for the good of all students.

While The Newsboys were in the movie, God's Not Dead 2 is much more of a trial film for the case of Hart. It is not as much of a Newsboys concert film as the first film was, although there is some Newsboys concert footage.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded and were singing God's Not Dead. During the credits, there was a list of similar trials that had taken place. These went by too fast for me to read them, but I noticed that at least one trial as of 2016 was still ongoing. There was a website shown for support.

A lady who was sitting behind me reached down and wished me God Bless You while she was leaving.

There is an after credits scene at the end of the movie. The lady who was sitting behind me missed the after credits scene as she had left with most of the audience leaving during the credits, although there were a few people still left in the theater to watch this important scene.

Rated PG for some thematic elements. Running time: 121 minutes.

Click below to watch the music video of The Newsboys song God's Not Dead from YouTube.



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BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 151 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




In Warner Bros. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman's/Ben Affleck's and Superman's/Henry Cavill's different ideologies finally come to a head in a fight to the finish.

A sequel to Man of Steel, and loosely based on the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - with Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Executive Produced by Christopher Nolan and Directed by Zack Snyder. The movie is the second installment of the new DC Extended Universe.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice seems to me to be told from billionaire Ben Affleck/Bruce Wayne/Batman's point of view - especially after the 9/11 type of events that had happened from Man of Steel. This is Batman's introduction, and origin - as well as Bruce Wayne's/Affleck's and Clark Kent's/Cavill's first meeting - and these events have Batman/Affleck and half the world very concerned about the power of Superman/Cavill.

I happened to like this film - although a lot of people felt it was too slow as most of the action happened toward the end of the film, which also dealt with the Doomsday story line from the comics. There was a good use of Superman's/Cavill's powers throughout, and you got to see Batman's/Affleck's hand to hand fighting with the bad guys - some of which are based on the Batman: Arkham games - as well as fighting with Superman/Cavill. I liked the dramatic setup and characterization of the movie, although some people were confused by the plot, which also includes dream sequences. Most of Superman's/Cavill's characterization of the movie was actually set up in Man of Steel, so the movie seems more of Batman's/Affleck's viewpoint.

There is a lot of religious overtones in the movie with comparisons of the Greek Gods, as well as of Christianity - God vs Man - between Batman/Affleck and Superman/Cavill. My favorite line is, "devils don't come from Hell beneath us, they come from the sky." When you consider that devils are fallen angels, this line really hit home for me. There is also another theme presented in the movie with the major characters about parentage.

I thought Affleck was great in his introduction to the DC Extended Universe as Bruce Wayne/Batman as a tragically hardened vigilante. Cavill was able to put on twice as much muscle mass for this movie than he did for Man of Steel and had looked very much like what Superman should be. There were also a couple of shots in the movie were Cavill/Superman looked like Christopher Reeve/Superman to me.

With Holly Hunter as a Senator in the movie conducting a Senate committee hearing on Superman, I could not help but think about the movie The Incredibles of which Hunter was also in and had in that movie dealing with similar issues about superheroes.

The movie portrays a younger Lex Luthor/Jesse Eisenberg than has been seen in previous incarnations, but is quite literate of books. For a dramatic movie, most of the humor in the movie comes from Luthor/Eisenberg in his sarcasm. While I could accept Eisenberg's portrayal of Luthor, I would have preferred him to be bald from a childhood accident, thus having issues with his father. It is interesting to me that Luthor's concerns with Superman are similar to Batman's but on a more psychotic level and based on the comic All-Star Superman.

It was good to have the stars like Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams, and Diane Lane from Man of Steel in this movie. Jeremy Irons as Alfred is the only major character from Batman's comic book series, outside of his parents Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan. Other cameo appearances in the movie were nice to see, some of whom are real people.

This is the first time that the trio, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have appeared in a live-action film. I thought Gal Gadot was great as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. The movie also sets up the premise for The Justice League with cameos of the future metahuman members of The Justice League. I liked the musical introductions/themes that Hans Zimmer created for the various characters, which are supposed to be used in future movies for these characters. It is too bad that Zimmer has quit writing music for superhero movies after being burned out of writing them for eleven years.

What is anachronistic for the film is that the Daily Planet is actually printing newspapers. A friend of mine used to be a printing manager for the local Los Angeles Times printing plant. He left after 25 years because The Times does not "print" newspapers anymore. The Times is all online now.

While I had expected what was going to happen, I had mixed feelings about the end of the movie, both positive and negative. A lot of fans were very disappointed with the end. I will admit that I can not wait to see how this will affect future movie sequels in the DC Extended Universe.

During the end credits, there was a Special Thanks section with what seemed like about a couple dozen names of comic book creative artists who have worked on Batman and Superman comics at one point over the decades. A lot of material from these creative artists were touched upon in the movie.

With the very dramatic tone of the movie, there are no after credits scenes during the credits as with a Marvel movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual situations.

Click below to watch another movie trailer to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




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LONDON HAS FALLEN

Gramercy Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 1:39 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of London Has Fallen from YouTube.



In Gramercy Pictures London Has Fallen, United States President Aaron Eckhart attends the British Prime Minister's funeral in London - and suddenly has to go on the run with Secret Service Agent Gerard Butler to escape terrorists.

In the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen, three years have passed and the western world's leaders are gathering to attend the state funeral for the British Prime Minister - when terrorists attack and President Eckhart and Secret Service Agent Butler go on the run throughout London.

The movie has several actors from Olympus Has Fallen reprising their roles in this movie, especially Vice President Morgan Freeman, Director of the Secret Service Angela Bassett, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Robert Forster, Butler's wife Radha Mitchell, and Secretary of Defense Melissa Leo. Freeman always has a presence as a leader in his leadership roles and this was no exception. Alon Aboutboul was good as the terrorist arms dealer on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. So was Charlotte Riley as the MI6 agent. I wish Riley had more to do, she could have been a kick ass character.

With recent real world events, some of the terrorist scenes can be difficult to watch, as well as the news videos accompanying them. I had a relatives that were in the cities of those real world events, so these scenes hit a little home to me. I also felt a little upset that the movie opened with news reports of terrorism attacks in the Philippines, including the failed real world police operation which lead to the deaths of several members of the Special Action Force in the Philippines. The trailer's initial release also had controversy as to it's timing to the anniversary of the 2005 London bombings attack.

There were typical car chases and explosions but I liked the action sequences with Butler taking charge of President Eckhart's protection throughout the movie, as well as the political scenes both with the heads of state and with Vice President Freeman and the National Security Council at the White House. The movie set up all the political players with graphics of their titles as they are introduced. I had a problem with how the terrorists got pass all of the world security Dignitary Protection services of not only the United States, but all of the other western Dignitary Protection services for the various heads of states in what is supposedly the most protected event in the world, and I also did not like how filmmakers did the tag of the movie.

It is curious that underneath the political terrorism, the theme of the movie was about family, which I liked.

I think this is the first time that I have seen Marine One in action which I liked.

While I think Olympus Has Fallen is a better film, London Has Fallen is a typical action popcorn film.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of London Has Fallen on YouTube.



Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 1:39 Minutes.

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DEADPOOL

Twentieth Century Fox

Rated R

Running Time: 108 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.
 

In Twentieth Century Fox's Deadpool, God's Perfect Idiot, mercenary superhero Ryan Reynolds goes after a British villain Ed Skrein who nearly destroyed Reynolds life and face and kidnapped his fiancee, the hot chick, Morena Baccarin.

THIS IS AN R RATED MOVIE - DO NOT BRING YOUR KIDS as there is graphic violence and big boy curse words throughout the movie, as well as sex and nudity. This is a different kind of superhero story, and was always intended to be an R movie. Although, surprisingly there is not as much sex and nudity as I was expecting given the hype that I was exposed to. But there is genuine love that grew between Baccarin and Reynolds and in a sense this is the driving force behind the movie. Most of the graphic violence comes from Deadpool's use of his katana swords. What's great is that computer generated graphic test footage was incorporated into the movie and not just used as a gimmick to sell the movie to the studio.

Based on the Marvel Comics character created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicienza, and as of February 2016, is released 25 years after his first appearance in New Mutants #98, the Merc with a Mouth Deadpool is an antihero with moral ambiguity who constantly breaks the "fourth wall" and talks to the audience as he goes about fighting the bad guys looking for Skrein and Skrein's henchwoman Gina Carano/Angel Dust. While the movie is marketed as a comedy - there is a lot more drama in the movie Deadpool than I had expected, similar to the movie Ted which also was a comedy but had a lot of drama to that movie. Most of the drama dealt with Baccarin's relationship with Reynolds and his developing cancer. This is a tour de force performance for Reynolds, especially as he had spearheaded the making of the movie.

The first half of the movie goes back and forth between the present day of Reynolds searching for Skrein so that Skrein can cure Reynolds of his disfigurement, and the origin story of former special forces operative Reynolds/Deadpool - who was trying to find a cure for his terminal cancer. After the movie gets caught up, Deadpool is a fairly straightforward superhero film.

With the creation of Deadpool by supposedly the same secret organization who created Wolverine - at least in the comics - both characters have mutant healing factors. With the promise of a cure, and abilities most men would only dream of, Deadpool's creation cured his cancer - but permanently disfigured him and messed up his relationship with Baccarin. The movie Deadpool is basically the eight X-Men film to be done - especially with a CGI character Stefan Kapicic as Colossus, as well as having a moody teen Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead as the only two X-Men shown in the movie that is trying to recruit Deadpool. This is also the first X-Men related movie where Wolverine does not make an appearance. Wolverine was originally supposed to have a cameo, but was cut from the movie. Pictures of Hugh Jackman, who played Wolverine, however do appear in the movie. The movie also has no relationship to the previous Deadpool appearance in the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Deadpool's elderly blind woman roommate Leslie Uggams and Deadpool's best friend T.J. Miller were also good in the movie.

For Stan Lee fans, a gratuitous cameo is in the middle of the movie in a strip club.

There are two after credits scenes, which teases Deadpool 2 - with a major X-Men/Deadpool character to be introduced when it gets made. I am also looking forward for Monica Baccarin to becoming the mutant Copycat in a future movie, which was sort of teased in that Baccarin played a lot of roles. Both the opening credits and the closing credits of Deadpool are very creative and are indicative of the type of movie Deadpool is, as well as the music for the opening credits and the closing credits.

The movie broke several box office records for an R-Rated movie, including the first R-Rated movie to open above $100 million at the US Box office. This is especially of interest as Deadpool was made on a smaller budget than a regular superhero movie.

Rated R for graphic violence, graphic language, sexual situations, nudity, and drug use. Running time: 108 Minutes.

Click below to watch an R-Rated review of Deadpool from YouTube.



Click below to watch the comic movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.



Click below to watch the romantic movie trailer of Deadpool from YouTube.



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STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 135 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Star Wars: The Force Awakens from YouTube.
 

In Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the old generation meets the new in this Star Wars sequel.

The seventh installment of the Star Wars series, the movie takes place thirty years after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi - and released thirty-two years after Return of the Jedi, thirty-eight years after Star Wars: A New Hope. Produced, Written, along with Lawrence Kasdan, and Directed by J.J. Abrams, Based on Characters Created by George Lucas, this is a worthy successor to the Star Wars legacy and the first of a new trilogy. With the transition of Lucasfilm over to Disney, Lucas stated that this was a way to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. The movie has all the elements of a Star Wars film including the original cast and I felt that the movie has more action and more story in this movie than in the other movies. I think that is mainly because, not only does the movie have the feeling of the original trilogy, the movie also has the feeling of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Thirty years after Return of the Jedi - Luke Skywalker/Mark Hamill, the last Jedi has disappeared. The First Order has risen from the fallen Galactic Empire seeks to eliminate Luke/Hamill and the Republic. The Resistance, led by Luke's twin Sister Leia Organa/Carrie Fisher opposes The First Order while looking for Luke/Hamill.

Meanwhile, former stormtrooper Finn/John Boyega escapes the First Order with the help of pilot Poe Dameron/Oscar Isaac and crash on a desert planet - where Finn meets scavenger Rey/Daisy Ridley as they continue to escape from the First Order with the help of Han Solo/Harrison Ford and get to the Resistance with a map to find Luke/Hamill.

I saw this movie at a 9:00 am Saturday showing opening weekend and the theater was packed. The audience reacted positively to the movie and cheered when the Star Wars logo appeared. They also cheered when Han Solo/Harrison Ford as well as the Millennium Falcon appeared. While the original cast appeared in the movie, the movie definitely is the film of the new generation - Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac. Nonetheless, Harrison Ford received top billing in the movie - his first time for a Star Wars film, as well as being the first non-Jedi character to be credited first in the series.

It was wonderful to hear John Williams music during the opening title crawl. I knew I was finally watching a Star Wars movie after all these years when I heard the music. Not only does the movie has new music like Rey's theme, but the movie also uses familiar music like Luke's theme. Just hearing the full 90 piece orchestra and 24-voice men's chorus made me feel like a teenager again experiencing a Star Wars movie. There were times where I teared up a little during the movie as well as yelling YES during some of the scenes.

The aerial battles and the ground battles were incredible for me and felt more realistic when done on planet as compared to being done out in space. Watching in 3D - while I blinked a couple of times with debris flying out at me - at times the aerial and space battles felt like watching a video game to me. The stormtroopers were more ruthless and deadly than in the previous movies, especially one particular stormtrooper. I am looking forward to how the filmmakers are going to treat Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is coming out in 2016 and is supposed to be more of a war movie than a space movie.

There are more new aliens, although most of them were not major characters. The movie does have some subtitles for an alien language that was spoken.

The droid BB-8 is an actual droid created by Disney Research and not CGI and seven different BB units were used in the film with the actors. It was wonderful to see BB-8 in action and definitely had a personality and felt like the new R2-D2 for the movie. The movie used more practical miniature models and real locations rather than CGI to make it aesthetically closer to the original trilogy. Interestingly enough, at $200 million dollars, this is the highest budgeted Star Wars film so far.

While this is the second Star Wars film that is released in IMAX, this is the first film using IMAX cameras on some scenes during filming. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is being shown on every IMAX screen in North America for four straight weeks.

By the time the movie was over, you definitely get the feeling that there will be more stories to tell and more movies - and it has been announced that everyone will be back for the sequel, Star Wars: Episode VIII.

At the end of the movie the audience applauded.

J.J. Abrams Director's credit as with all the other credits appeared at the end of the movie, just like in all of the other Star Wars movies.

At $100 million, Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke the record for pre-sales, breaking the previous pre-sale record holder The Dark Knight Rises three times over which had $25 million in pre-sales as well as initially crashing the ticket selling websites after starting ticket sales. It also had a record breaking $57 million from Thursday night "previews" and the first film to gross more than $100,million in a "single" day, the fastest to $100 million. This is significant as this is the first live-action Star Wars movie released in December with the widest December release while all the previous movies had been released in the month of May. As of 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens holds the record for highest grossing opening weekend at $215 million. Click this link from Box Office Mojo for more domestic records that Star Wars: The Force Awakens broke.

After twelve days, Star Wars: The Force Awakens became the fastest movie to reach $1 billion dollars.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 135 Minutes.

Pancho 
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SPECTRE

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.
Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 148 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Spectre from YouTube.



In Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures SPECTRE, James Bond, Daniel Craig, goes after the criminal organization that has been manipulating his life.

In the twenty-fourth James Bond film, Based on characters created by Ian Fleming - and the fourth appearance by Craig who is also the Co-Producer - Bond/Craig is undergoing an unofficial mission from the previous M - an uncredited Judi Dench - and recovers assassin Alessandro Cremona's ring that has a stylised octopus. The current M, Ralph Fiennes, then suspends Bond/Craig from field duty for Bond's/Craig's unauthorized mission. Meanwhile M/Fiennes undergoes a power struggle with C, Andrew Scott, as a result of domestic MI5 and foreign MI6 merging and C/Scott proposing that Britain joining a global electronic surveillance and intelligence initiative between nine member states - and shutting down the outdated licensed to kill '00' section. Bond/Craig disobeys M's/Fiennes's order of standing down from field duty and goes off to visit Cremona's widow, Monica Bellucci, and learns about Cremona's criminal organisation that he works with - SPECTRE.

While I liked the movie, I felt the movie could have been tighter in the story. It felt like it was dragging to me and did not seem as suspenseful to me as a result.

Monica Bellucci has the distinction of being the oldest Bond girl in the series. Bellucci is extremely hot and it is hard for me to believe she is 51 at the time of the movie's release. When Bond searches for the daughter of Jesper Christensen, who was a former member of a SPECTRE sub-organization, psychologist Lea Seydoux, you could tell that she would be a strong Bond girl character in the movie who could also kick butt. Although I felt that Seydoux fell in love with Bond/Craig a little too soon.

The title song by Sam Smith Writing's on the Wall does not have does not have the same name as the title of the movie, and so to me did not have as much of a connection to the movie as other Bond songs, while in actuality the title comes from a quote from Pierce Brosnan's GoldenEye. In a sense, this is appropriate as the title Spectre is not an Ian Fleming story title. Although the song did become the first Bond song to get to the UK Top of the Pops No. #1 rank. The music by Thomas Newman does have the feeling of a Bond movie.

I can understand the argument between human intelligence and electronic/signals intelligence. In the real world both are necessary - as sadly evidenced from recent events, especially when in the movie there was a plan to blow up a stadium. Now intelligence sources are strongly being going over in the real world as a result of intelligence failure during the recent events.

The movie references classic Bond films.

M/Fiennes, Q/Ben Whishaw, and Moneypenny/Naomie Harris return in the film to assist Bond/Craig, as well as cameo portraits of other Bond characters from Craig's Bond films appearing in the movie. I liked that Q/Whishaw had a scene outside of the lab. Dave Bautista's introduction in the movie was most impressive, and he only had one word of dialog in the entire movie. Christoph Waltz was great as the Bond villain who has been manipulating Bond throughout his entire career. It is incredible that the criminal organisation SPECTRE has not been seen since the 1971 movie Diamonds Are Forever.

I loved the Day of the Dead sequences in Mexico City and wished there was more of the references for Bond to what the parade meant to the people. There is a world-wide feeling to the movie as evidenced by the five different languages spoken in the movie with the subtitles, and the intelligence gathering alliance of countries, as well as the various locations - which includes London, Mexico City, Austria, Morocco, and Rome, Italy.

The film's budget made SPECTRE one of the most expensive movies ever made, yet there was only one over the top Bond action sequence that was slightly unbelievable, and one explosion that to me was a bit of an overkill. The rest of the action sequences were good. Aside from the Aston Martin DB10 coupe car for Bond, there was only one Bond gadget that was in the movie. SPECTRE is the second Bond film to be screened in IMAX, although it was not filmed in IMAX. The movie had the biggest opening of all time in the United Kingdom during it's first 007 week of release.

This is the first Bond film not to feature the trumpet playing of Derek Watkins who has played on every film since Dr. No. This is also the longest Bond film to date.

It is said that Craig will not come back to playing Bond, so this film had a finality of Craig's last film as Bond. It seemed appropriate that it referenced classic Bond films as a result, as well as cameo pictures of past stars in Craig's series of Bond films of which his series of movies was an overarching storyline.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Spectre from YouTube.



James Bond will return.

Rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations, language. Running time: 148 Minutes.

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THE MARTIAN

20th Century Fox

Rated PG-13

Running time: 144 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of The Martian from YouTube.
 

In Twentieth Century Fox's The Martian, on a manned mission to Mars - astronaut/biologist Matt Damon is accidentally left behind on Mars when his crew thinks he is dead.

In a cross between Gravity, Interstellar, and Robinson Crusoe on Mars - but actually more upbeat than the others - The Martian, Produced and Directed by Ridley Scott and based on the Novel The Martian Written by Andy Weir, has Damon trying to survive all by himself after a Martian storm makes the manned Mars expedition crew believe that Damon has been lost and presumed dead after debris strikes him during the storm. Due to the limited resources that would last him thirty-one days, Damon has to science himself to survive with food and water for the next four years. Damon's sense of humor, as he is determined to use his relevant skills to survive, makes this film much more enjoyable to watch than the serious Gravity and Interstellar movies - although the movie does feel like Interstellar with the movie having both actors Damon and Jessica Chastain in both movies.

Damon's medical treatment of himself for his wounds were pretty graphic for me to see and I could barely watch them. I personally think I would have screamed a lot more than Damon did while digging into my own wounds.

The Ares III crew, Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, represent NASA astronauts at it's best - while Kristen Wiig, Sean Bean, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donald Glover, Benedict Wong, Mackenzie Davis, and Jeff Daniels represent NASA Mission Control and JPL. Daniels as the head of NASA was too much of a bureaucrat for me, while the others represented the true space proponents to me as they try to problem solve Damon's rescue and bring him home - similar to Apollo 13 - once they are able to communicate with Damon. The lack of communication with NASA and Damon's crew mates was most frustrating for me as someone who is used to using various methods of instantaneous communications.

This movie is also the most dramatic role I have seen Michael Pena play, even though he still has a comedic characterization. I also loved the astronauts flying through the spacecraft Hermes in zero gravity. Having the news media like CNN  and CNN reporter Frederick Pleitgen and the world routing for Damon made for a connection for me that Gravity and Interstellar did not have.

In scenes similar to the movie Apollo 13, NASA does what it can on the ground in order to help Damon survive and come home. NASA had scientific advisers for the movie, including James L. Green, the Director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA, helping to make the movie more scientifically accurate. Fifty pages of the script is NASA material  - although there are some inaccuracies done for dramatic effect. Perhaps the mostly scientific accuracy of the movie is why some people believe that the events of this fictional movie actually did happen The movie does show how dangerous living and traveling in space can be. As Damon says, at some point - everything is going to go south on you.

I think it is cool that The Martian has been screened on the International Space Station - and that four days before the US release, NASA announced that they had found evidence that water flows on the surface of Mars. For more on NASA's planned missions to Mars, click here.

There was a lot of disco music from the collection of Commander Chastain's collection of music, which Damon played while he was alone on Mars. Surprisingly, none of the other astronauts seemed to have had their own collections of music to play as entertainment during their long mission - especially since Damon had access to their personal effects left behind when the astronauts suddenly had to abort the Mars mission.

There are scenes as the end credits start to play at the end of the movie, even though Damon's end scenes are not in the book. I thought Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive was a great song to use for the end of the movie.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of The Martian from YouTube.

 

Click below to watch a special documentary feature clip of the crew of The Martian from YouTube.

 

Rated PG-13 for language and nudity. Running time: 144 Minutes.

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