DVD review: Gravity
Our resident movie buff, Andrew Campbell, gives us the lowdown on the Academy Award winning movie, Gravity.
What’s the story? Dr. Ryan Stone is a brilliant engineer on her first shuttle mission with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski. On a routine spacewalk, disaster strikes and the shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalski completely alone, connected to each other and spiraling out into the darkness. As fear sets in and turns into panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. And the only way home seems to be going farther out into space…
Who’s in it? Sandra Bullock is Oscar-nominated for her turn as Dr. Ryan Stone. George Clooney is criminally overlooked for his portrayal of Kowalski. And Ed Harris is the voice of Mission Control. That’s about it… the whole movie is carried by these central characters and boy oh boy do they pull it off!!!
Who’s the director? Alfonso Cuarón, the director behind movies like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Children of Men.
What will you remember? Feeling like your oxygen levels are also running dangerously low and finding claw marks in the couch.
What’s the best scene? The whole damn movie. It is that good!
What’s the best line? Kowalski: “Houston, I have a bad feeling about this mission.”
What other movies does it compare with? Statham does what Statham does best… action. Although this shows a moodier side to his acting, the movie compares with other Jason Statham movies like Parker, Safe and Blitz.
With what piece of information can you impress your friends? The film is 90 minutes long. In real life, the International Space Station travels at approximately 17,500 mph, and orbits the earth every 90 minutes. The debris field also circles the earth every 90 minutes.
What did others have to say?
"Pop quiz, hotshot: you’re cut loose 375 miles above the Earth, oxygen is running out, communication is lost, catastrophic satellite debris is heading your way and you have no hope of rescue. What do you do? What do you do? The answer is the film of the year." www.empireonline.com
"Like the title suggests, this is an astronaut adventure whose pull is hard to resist. By the time 90 stomach-shrinking minutes have elapsed, you’ll feel like you’ve been bumped around the heavens." - www.totalfilm.com
"It is as much a celebration of humanity as it is a tale of survival and with industry-changing levels of visuals and supreme performances it is, quite simply, the film of the year." - www.thatfilmguy.net
RATING: 10