By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Ridley Scott
Country: united_kingdom, united_states
Year: 2015
Running time: 144
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/
Thom says: “This entertaining sci-fi thriller reminded me a bit of 2013 multi-Oscar box office boffo returns GRAVITY, which was an original screen play. THE MARTIAN was adapted from Andy Weir’s bestselling novel. While this newish, Oscar-nominated film made less money than its predecessor I liked it a bit more. It had more of a purpose and was able to throw in anti-establishment & bureaucracy statements, focusing on downright bad decisions. The film had a sense-of-humor, especially the use of a disco soundtrack that even managed to have an ABBA song thrown in. Poor brilliant Mark Watney (a weight-shifting, frustrated Matt Damon) is left for dead on Mars with little or no chance of survival. How can he possibly last long enough for a beleaguered rescue mission to save him? How will the entire world react to his precarious position? What is Jessica Chastain doing in this film? Director Ridley Scott has had a remarkably varied mish-mash of a career who is responsible for 4 top-rated films in ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER, MATCHSTICK MEN, & THELMA & LOUISE, the latter was my FILM-OF-THE-YEAR for 1991. He was also the director of such mediocre fare as GLADIATOR, LEGEND, BLACK RAIN, G.I. JANE, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, & BODY OF LIES; finally some embarrassingly wretched offerings like BLACK HAWK DOWN, ROBIN HOOD, & PROMETHEUS. So the script along with Scott’s undeniable professionalism brings this home. 4 cats”