Movie of the week – The Martian
Science geeks are in for a treat this week with the release of The Martian, which sees Matt Damon’s botanist stranded on Mars and forced to rely on all his scientific know-how to survive while back on earth, NASA figure out a way to rescue him. Damon does a great job of carrying the movie while selling the science without turning it all into an Open University lecture. If you have kids with an interest in science, take them along to this; they’ll love it.
99 Homes
Like a Wall Street for the recession era, 99 Homes is a thrilling tale of a construction worker who teams up in desperation with the real estate broker who evicted his family from their home. There aren’t many things scarier than losing a roof over your head and this really hammers home that point in captivating fashion.
Fidelio: Alice’s Journey
Fidelio: Alice’s Journey follows a ship’s engineer as she becomes the sole female on a cargo freighter. The film is an interesting look at the complexities of gender, but being a French production, some of the sexism is hard to swallow.
The Walk
The Walk is the incredible true story of Frenchman Philippe Petit, who walked between the twin towers of the World Trade Center on a tightrope in 1974. The movie is awful for a long stretch, until the moment Petit steps out onto that precarious cable, when it becomes a heart in mouth cinematic experience that needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Macbeth
As if we didn’t have enough Shakespearean adaptations, along comes another Macbeth. This one stars Michael Fassbender in the title role and is a mess of flashy visuals and incomprehensible dialogue. Stick to the stage Bill.
By Eric Hillis
