Sunday, February 14, 2021

Greenland

 


Another end of the world disaster movie is exactly what Greenland is. Maybe this and a film like The Midnight Sky might not be everyone's cup of tea during the pandemic, but for me, I'm good with it. The premise: a comet known as Clarke (maybe a Superman nod) is going to strike Earth and kill us all. The government has selected important people, like structural engineers, to help rebuild society after everything is wiped out. I don't know if you every played that game with friends or maybe just in your own head, who would you need to rebuild society if you could only take a couple of hundred people to rebuild the planet? Gerard Butler would of course be on top of the list! You have seen all this before with films like Armageddon, San Andreas, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, etc. There are literally dozens of this type of movie. But Greenland is surprisingly good. And the special effects for Clarke - well done special effects people, well done. If you want to forget about the pandemic for a while and get into the death of the planet (mix it up people!) for some action and adventure, then take a trip to Greenland! Catch it on Amazon!

The Midnight Sky

 

To be honest, I didn't get around to watching this movie until just recently because the reviews were so awful. Reviewers! What do they know - ha! This is George Clooney's third mission to space (although in this movie his role is firmly on the ground); Steven Soderbergh's remake of Solaris being the first and Gravity being the second. The Midnight Sky is is by far my favourite of the three. George also directed this one - so to make better films than Alfonso CuarĂ³n and Steven Soderbergh, good on you George. What's it all about? End of the world baby! Earth is in trouble (sound familiar?) and it's basically about to end from a ecological point of view - everyone on the planet is going to die. Luckily for us Earthlings, we already sent a reconnaissance mission to one of Jupitar's moons to see if we could all move there. So those folks are coming back - little do they know the earth is already cooked. George's character is Augustine, and he is the last man standing in the arctic. Well turns out there is a little girl who got left behind with him, Iris (played by Caoilinn Springall - this kid was pretty darn great). Iris and Augustine must race to another arctic station to warn our returning crew that the Earth is kaput. And in space, there is all kind of action happening as space debris smashes into their ship. I won't tell you any more. I found it all very exciting and surprisingly emotional - maybe the pandemic is getting to me. Catch this on Netflix.