disaster

GEOSTORM: Big? Yep. Loud? You Betcha. Dull? Woefully.
GEOSTORM: Big? Yep. Loud? You Betcha. Dull? Woefully.

Despite big, loud, planet destroying special effects, Geostorm still ends up feeling like a dull, tired excuse for a blockbuster.

ONLY THE BRAVE: A Missed Opportunity Hellbent On Heroism

Only the Brave is more concerned with its traditional gender politics than making any grander statement on man’s relationship with nature.

AFTERMATH: A Shallow Dive Into Grief And Guilt
AFTERMATH: A Shallow Dive Into Grief & Guilt

Elliott Lester had juicy, absorbing material to work with. Unfortunately, he turns Aftermath into an underwhelming and empty endeavor.

Godzilla As Metaphore For Climate Change In SHIN GODZILLA
Godzilla As Metaphore For Climate Change In SHIN GODZILLA

Like all Godzilla films, Shin Godzilla criticises how governments respond to disasters – but in this film, it’s not nuclear, but natural disaster.

SHIN GODZILLA: An Ecological Parable Retold
SHIN GODZILLA: An Ecological Parable Retold

The Godzilla franchise has had a long and storied history, dating back to the original motion picture of 1954 directed by Ishirō Honda. Produced and distributed by famed Japanese film studio Toho, the original feature has spawned multiple franchise sequels over the years, from both its country of origin and the United States. Starting with the 1956 Japanese-American remake of Honda’s original feature from only two years prior, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

DEEPWATER HORIZON: An Environmental Blockbuster
DEEPWATER HORIZON: An Apolitical Environmental Blockbuster

Preservation of the environment shouldn’t be a political issue, let alone a controversial one. Yet the right wing governments of the western world are frequently abandoning environmental and climate change issues, even building entire grand-standing platforms on how the entire act of climate change is a mere myth. The masses no longer trust “experts”, no matter how many facts they have on their side about the devastating realities of our changing environment.

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE: A Hitchc*ckian Thriller For The 21st Century

The inner urge for survival is the most primitive of all impulses. For the longest time, sex was believed to be the driving force that pushes people, unconsciously and fully-cognizant, towards certain results in life. But after WWII especially, psychologists and holocaust survivors began to revisit the idea, and psychoanalysts took the obvious cue from Darwin:

Attacking the Devil
ATTACKING THE DEVIL: A Corporate Horror Show Recounted With Craft And Humanity

The world is a terrifying place. Its machinations are convoluted constructions managed by a mixture of public servants or private business people whom we would like to assume have the public’s best interests at heart, but whose true motives are more dubious and difficult to discern. Oftentimes financial imperatives outweigh common sense, and the result is disaster on a massive scale.

The Big Short
THE BIG SHORT: A Thoroughly Entertaining Lesson

Let’s be honest, how well do you really know your own finances? Do you keep a budget, evaluate it regularly, and monitor your bank accounts, debt, and investments? Remember, I asked for honesty.

IN THE HEART OF THE SEA: A Remarkable Story Told in an Unremarkable Manner

In the Heart of the Sea was originally supposed to premiere in early 2015, but it was pushed to later in the year at the last second. Ron Howard hoped that more people would come out to see the film now as opposed to in early spring, since some other oceanic adventure films have seen success around this time (Life of Pi, for example). It was my sincere hope that pushing the film to December was also because it would be worthy of premiering next to more awards-friendly films, which could mean that it was better than originally expected.

THE 33: Not Deep Enough

The 2010 Chilean mining incident was an enormous event that had the rare ability to unite most of the world to help the victims. The event gained massive media coverage and resulted in books, interviews, TV specials, etc. So, of course, a movie revival was inevitable.

Force Majeure
FORCE MAJEURE: A Dark Comedy That Cuts Close To The Bone

Fun relies on spontaneity. If you over-plan something, the less likely it is that people are going to have fun, because nothing will ever live up to expectations. Happiness equally relies on spontaneity and equally cannot be forced; the family in Force Majeure appear to be happy as the movie starts, yet look closely and you’ll see everything isn’t so straightforward.