50x3: Moon (O-1)

For the first film on Oscar's list I watch one that I was not too familiar with. I had heard about it and had seen the odd poster for it, but really had no idea what it was about.

I will say this before I start, there is really no way to talk about this film without spoilers - so if you have not seen it and plan to do not read anymore.

Moon is a film in the same vein as Cast Away or Buried in that for pretty much the entire film we are with just one human character. Sam Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, who is on a 3-year mission on the moon to oversee harvesting that is done there for a gas called helium-3 that is sent to Earth.

Bell has a wife, Tess (Dominique McElligott) and a young daughter Eve (Kaya Scoderlario), which are the only things really keeping him going while spending his days alone. Them and his only other 'friend' a robot named GERTY (Kevin Spacey).

With only two weeks remaining on his mission, Bell gets in an accident while out on the moon surface trying to recover a helium-3 canister. He awakens in the infirmary by GERTY with no memory of the accident. He overhears GERTY speaking with the Lunar Industries, who is in charge, despite the fact that communications have been knocked out for years.

GERTY is to keep Bell in the space station and not let him out as a rescue team comes to get him. Believing something is not right, Bell creates a fake issue to get out of the station and finds an unconscious person inside a crashed rover - which turns out to be himself.

As it turns out there is no 3-year mission. Long ago a man named Sam Bell volunteered to have himself cloned so that these clones could harvest on the moon risk free. Of course, all of Bell's memories and thoughts were left inside his clones - so they longed to get home and see their wife and new child.

But, there was no return home for these clones. Their 3-year mission was (and this is just what I gathered) actually their life expectancy. Once their 3-year mission was over - GERTY would 'awaken' another clone and the cycle would begin all over again.

In Moon Rockwell did have a few more things to interact with than Hanks did in Cast Away. Hanks' lone companion was a volleyball that couldn't speak, while Rockwell had a robot that could interact and eventually another clone to speak with.

But, Rockwell still did an amazing job in the role. Plus the difference between the two clones was night and day. Despite not having much color in the film, the views were outstanding - especially when they journeyed out onto the surface of the moon.

Grade:

HOT: The Green Mile

The posting of this review comes at an unfortunate time. I am (again) still catching up on reviews of movies I have watched awhile ago. This comes just days after the death of its star Michael Clarke Duncan of a heart problem. I always enjoyed Duncan in many of his roles - this one probably being his best - and always wondered why he wasn't in more mainstream films.

Anyway, back to the movie. You will be missed Mr. Duncan.

I believe in my life I have only watched two films that were adapted from Stephen King's writing - The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile (but, I will be watching Stand By Me soon).

Here, Tom Hanks stars as Paul Edgecomb, a death row prison guard during the Great Depression. Edgecomb works with Brutus Howell (David Morse), Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper), Harry Terwilliger (Jeffrey DeMunn) and newcomer Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison).

Percy is an issue in the prison - but he also just so happens to be related to the warden Hall Moores (James Cromwell), so the rest of the men just have to put up with him.

Edgecomb also happens to be dealing with one of the worst urinary tract infections I have seen - and has difficulty using the rest room, walking sometimes and in the boudoir with his wife Jan (Bonnie Hunt).

One day a prisoner arrives to the 'Mile', which they call it. A prisoner named John Coffey (Duncan) who is convicted of killing a pair of young girls. He joins two men already on death row, Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) and Arlen Bitterbuck (Graham Greene).

After the death of Bitterbuck, the Mile gets another member 'Wild Bill' Wharton (Sam Rockwell). Wharton is one of the worst criminals - and really stirs things up on the Mile.

The guards begin to realize that Coffey may be a bit different than other prisoners - and not just because he stands almost a foot taller than the rest. Edgecomb even begins to develop a relationship with Coffey and begins to think he didn't commit the crimes he is being charged with.

After Eduard's circus mouse is killed by Percy, Coffey shows his first miracle - bringing the mouse back to life. Standing amazed, the guards truly believe Coffey is something special - and begin to feel horrible that they will have to put him to death.

The film is marvelous to look at. You get the feeling by how the film looks just how it felt to be working on the Mile. Constantly sweating - much like in A Time to Kill - it was used very well.

The acting is top-notch. Hanks and Duncan are the standouts, but Cromwell, Morse and Pepper also give memorable performances. Hutchison, who is seriously despised in this role, does a great job to make us hate him. Finally, Jeter and Rockwell were just amazing in their roles as criminals. Rockwell really went over the edge as 'Wild Bill'.

This is one of those films that is great, but hard to watch except every so often. It's long and you begin to feel for these characters, especially Coffey, that it's hard to take on repeat viewings.

Grade:

G-Force

The last new film we watched over the weekend was G-Force. This was the movie that my wife tried to take my son to in the theater. It was his first time ever going to a movie.

He apparently made it through about half of the movie before wanting to leave. But, he was very attentive to the final part of the movie this time around.

G-Force is a secret side project for the FBI led by Ben (Zach Galifianakis). He has managed to train animals to become FBI agents as well as a chip that allows animals and humans to speak to each other.

It was fun trying to figure out who was voicing each of the animals, but unfortunately I was only able to figure out two of them. The main G-Force animals are guinea pigs, Darwin (Sam Rockwell), Juarez (Penelope Cruz) and Blaster (Tracy Morgan), as well as a mole, Speckles (Nicolas Cage). I was only able to pick out Morgan out of that group, I mistook Cruz for Salma Hayek. Along the way the meet up with another guinea pig, Hurley (Jon Favreau) and a hamster, Bucky (Steve Buscemi). Now I was able to pick out Buscemi, that was not too hard.

This was actually a pretty cute film that had a pretty decent premise. I was not too excited about the twist ending, I felt that something else could have been better, but I will take it.

The film had some comedy and loads of action, and kept the family entertained throughout which is always a plus.

Grade: