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Reviews
All Is Lost (2013)
Not a movie for the average viewer
1) As with the sailboat, Redford screws up the film from the start but recovers desperately.
Film is a MASS medium -- you make one , make a million copies, then sell it to the masses. But blue water sailing is still largely a rich man's game -- not something understood by 95 percent of the potential moviegoers. So this is an Uber art house film. But it only cost $8 million to make so it will probably turn some profit on Redford's name alone.
2) The Coast Guard should buy it and give a million DVDs away for free to reduce the number of morons calling for help.
3) In the film, the sailor screws up from the start -- sailing singlehanded with no crew means no one is on watch to easily avoid disaster when the shipping container comes along (a real hazard by the way --thought to be the reason why a number of boats never turn up at their destination.) And even though Redford patches the boat in a limited way, he should have wrapped a spare sail around the hole to give more protection.
4) Film does show cascading mistakes but nonsailors won't recognize them -- loss of the sea anchor means Redford couldn't keep the boat's bow (front) turned into into the waves which is why the boat was knocked over upside down when hit from abeam. The storm jib looked too big -- and why didn't he heave to? And put a small sail on the main mast?
5) The distress call is MayDay not SOS although SOS was probably used to be more clear to nonsailors.
6)A sextant is of no use without having the correct time to within 4 seconds or so. (1 mile of position error for each 4 seconds error in time.) The mechanical dive watch Redford had (Omega? Seiko?) would be useless since it would be off about 6 seconds for each day since last set by radio --maybe off by 20 seconds per day given all the random motion. A quartz G-Shock would have been more plausible.
Plus a sighting on a single object (sun shot)can only give you a LINE of position --you need two sightings ( either on the sun with an hour or so separation or on stars )to have two lines of position cross in order to get a location.
7) Redford was actually lucky in the movie -- I was disappointed that the boat didn't pitchpole (cartwheel with rear end flipping over the front). Also, the current/wind carried him north into the shipping lane --instead of into the lonely stretch a hundred miles to south.
PS To all the sailors yelling at Redford: It was NOT dementia --it was sleep deprivation and severe stress. See how well you perform if you are ever put into the same situation. And yes--one should avoid that.
Poirot: Appointment with Death (2008)
Awe-inspiring
The scenery is great and the haunting music beautifully captures the bittersweet sadness of a couple who overcome great odds in order to wreak awful vengeance upon a wealthy, powerful, evil person who deserves it.
A couple who rescue their beloved daughter through sheer will and intelligence and then commit suicide rather than accept the authority of a legal system which failed to protect children. The ancient Greeks would have appreciated this story.
While Hercule Poirot prevails, this sophisticated story calls into question the very ethos that defines his life: That the Law must always be respected and that murder is always a crime.
It is unfortunate that some are so insistent that a MOVIE must capture Agatha Christie's every word that they are unable to appreciate this brilliant adaptation. The Tim Curry archaeologist character was not a distraction -- it explained why the evil woman came to be on the killing field. As well as giving an example of how vicious evil may not be recognized by otherwise highly intelligent men. That it may, in fact, be unwittingly protected by them.
I have seen almost all of David Suchet's performances of Hercule Poirot and I think Appointment with Death ranks with Murder on the Orient Express as one of the best.
John Carter (2012)
Excellent Movie
1) So many US movies are about boring, trivial garbage --someone's love affair go bad or the life of pathetic people goes awry. It is rare that a movie is made with a grand vision. John Carter is such a movie. 2) In my opinion I think some of the critics dishonestly trashed it--but then unimportant scum hate grandeur. Because It reminds them that they are scum who create only boring trash. 3) Scum are people who spent $200,000 on a college education but are failures at creating anything of value. They seethe at the fact that Hollywood has earned $1.8 Billion in films based on Marvel comic books while everyone ignores the scripts of the overeducated scum. 3) On the other hand, maybe the Therns killed it. Because the observation of a hidden cult promoting wars and feeding off the ensuing carnage certainly rings true today.