Two movies I watched with my guests!
Sully
After performing an emergency water landing of a passenger plane in the Hudson River, Captain Sully (played by Tom Hanks) faces the aviation review board who question if that was the correct course of action after simulations project his damaged flight being able to make it to two airports all while most of the public treats him as a hero. This "based on true events" film is a mostly talking one with heavy use of flash backs, but it is still pretty cool all up.
A Working Man
A retired soldier who now works in construction (played by Jason Statham) tries his best [not very hard at all] to leave his life of killing behind but when ridiculously over the top bad guys show up to mess with his place of business, what else can a guy do but blow them all away with high powered weaponry? Yep, this flick is one of pure "Statham taking out the bad guys" action with very little plot and set dressing to go with it. An easy one to turn off your brain and enjoy. :P
Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Hanks. Show all posts
Sunday, 22 June 2025
Sully, A Working Man
Wednesday, 17 August 2016
The Martian
Where it feels good to be isolated on an alien planet.
The premise of this movie is so simple: An astronaut (Matt Damon) is trapped on Mars. How can he survive and/or escape? After a strong opening that set the scene right away, he combats the despair of being abandoned and the incredibly high probabilty of various horrible deaths with... humor. It's awesome. There's no weepy Tom Hanks Cast Away here!
This movie kept me very entertained and definitely wide awake and for a plot about a guy stuck on Mars there are certainly a lot of characters in this, each one with memorable enough quirks which actually strengthens it. I don't think there's any particular "bad guy" in this movie, just bad luck, which is awesome and adds to the whole feel good thing it has going. I mean, at least you've got disco music right? :P
Definitely a good watch and one I wouldn't mind seeing again! I give it four potatoes out of five.
The premise of this movie is so simple: An astronaut (Matt Damon) is trapped on Mars. How can he survive and/or escape? After a strong opening that set the scene right away, he combats the despair of being abandoned and the incredibly high probabilty of various horrible deaths with... humor. It's awesome. There's no weepy Tom Hanks Cast Away here!
It's good to be him. :P
This movie kept me very entertained and definitely wide awake and for a plot about a guy stuck on Mars there are certainly a lot of characters in this, each one with memorable enough quirks which actually strengthens it. I don't think there's any particular "bad guy" in this movie, just bad luck, which is awesome and adds to the whole feel good thing it has going. I mean, at least you've got disco music right? :P
Definitely a good watch and one I wouldn't mind seeing again! I give it four potatoes out of five.
Saturday, 24 January 2015
Cast Away
I always thought this movie was about Tom Hanks and a volleyball until I actually got to see it for the first time a few days ago. While a big chunk of it is just Tom Hanks on a remote island, there are plenty of other people in the movie too - Helen Hunt of special note since I've always liked her. It's a pretty quiet (music wise) and nice yet sad tale of not giving up and taking things for granted. It also gives a lot of ideas for anyone who gets stranded on an island in the future and is a great ad for FedEx.
I must say, I probably would have not survived what Hanks' character went through - especially the plane part. Ironic that the guy without a seat belt is the one that made it out. Also not sure why a whale would have hung around him so long. It was funny to watch him collect the packages at the start and sort them, as per his regular job. I'm not sure why he didn't open that last one and just kept the box, but oh well. Funnier still to then find out what might have been in it (spoilers). :P
All up, it was a decent enough flick for me to give three out of five coconuts to, and worth a watch if nothing else is on.
If this spawned from that old screen saver, it turned out to be a good movie!
I must say, I probably would have not survived what Hanks' character went through - especially the plane part. Ironic that the guy without a seat belt is the one that made it out. Also not sure why a whale would have hung around him so long. It was funny to watch him collect the packages at the start and sort them, as per his regular job. I'm not sure why he didn't open that last one and just kept the box, but oh well. Funnier still to then find out what might have been in it (spoilers). :P
All up, it was a decent enough flick for me to give three out of five coconuts to, and worth a watch if nothing else is on.
Friday, 29 August 2014
Captain Phillips
[Post #30 of the Blaugust Challenge!]
A movie based on the real life hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, Tom Hanks stars as the clever captain of that ship which begins the morning before it set sails from port. It is quite interesting to see the countermeasures used by the unarmed container ship when a handful of pirates decide to try capture it for ransom, and the shifting of focus between the pirates and their prey makes for a pretty tense and exciting film. Can't really give away more than that as it might take away from the experience for you. While Tom Hanks does his "captaining" very well, everyone else does a decent job in the acting department (pirates included). Also funny to learn that pirates get their crew via ye old school yard pick.
That said there are some changes I'd like to see which I think would make the movie better. The first part at the beginning before Tom Hanks reaches the docks could have been chopped. Some other people in the later part of the movie traveling from point A to point B footage could also be removed and replaced with "they arrived". Lastly I would have liked to see the part where the US NAVY goes in and brutally kills every single pirate, their families, friends and pets at the "pirate base".
Unfortunately that doesn't happen in real life either so I guess it's too much of a stretch. At least it looks like the Maersk Line learned their lesson and began employing security personnel on their ships. There are so many parts in the movie where I was saying out loud about the difference one or two armed dudes would make.
Anyway, before I get carried away further into real life vs movie life I'd better score this, and since I believe it is one that many people would enjoy I give it three and a half bullets out of five.
Blaugust Bonus: Writing Prompt time! "Do you collect in game pets? Various games have turned this into a mini game but are you a pet collector? If so why? If not why as well?" Yes and no, depending on the game. More on the no side though. There are three main barriers to pet collection for me. First, are they useful? If it's just a display item that you can get easily or by paying money then that holds no interest to me. An example for exception to this would be mini-Liadri in Guildwars 2, who while only being a "trophy" is one that I felt to be earned.
The second barrier is longetivity. If I need to take care of pets by any means other than occasionally healing it then it is too much of a hassle. Having to learn veterinary skills in UO for example (I think that combo was healing, taming, animal lore and anatomy) to maintain a viable ally was just not in my character. So, yes I had my mount and a random pack of critters for a short time, but it became too annoying to replace the pack as they died so I eventually dropped them altogether.
The last barrier is cost. If it costs real money then I don't buy it. Mabinogi is a huge exception for me here though as the pets are cheap, some freely earned, very useful (you can play AS the pet) and perhaps most importantly CUTE OVERLOAD. I don't classify as a collector though, as there are many I skip. My initial plan was just to get something to help me fight, followed by transportation. I sort of earned quite a few more in the process... cough. My current barn consists of: a mini bear, a thunderbird, a black unicorn, a giant eagle, a thoroughbred horse, a cobra, a thunder dragon, three flamemares, an armored pegasus and four bulls. Don't mock the bovines, I used them to help me defeat one of the goddesses in the game!
A movie based on the real life hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, Tom Hanks stars as the clever captain of that ship which begins the morning before it set sails from port. It is quite interesting to see the countermeasures used by the unarmed container ship when a handful of pirates decide to try capture it for ransom, and the shifting of focus between the pirates and their prey makes for a pretty tense and exciting film. Can't really give away more than that as it might take away from the experience for you. While Tom Hanks does his "captaining" very well, everyone else does a decent job in the acting department (pirates included). Also funny to learn that pirates get their crew via ye old school yard pick.
Tom Hanks wishes he had one of those guns right about now.
That said there are some changes I'd like to see which I think would make the movie better. The first part at the beginning before Tom Hanks reaches the docks could have been chopped. Some other people in the later part of the movie traveling from point A to point B footage could also be removed and replaced with "they arrived". Lastly I would have liked to see the part where the US NAVY goes in and brutally kills every single pirate, their families, friends and pets at the "pirate base".
Unfortunately that doesn't happen in real life either so I guess it's too much of a stretch. At least it looks like the Maersk Line learned their lesson and began employing security personnel on their ships. There are so many parts in the movie where I was saying out loud about the difference one or two armed dudes would make.
Anyway, before I get carried away further into real life vs movie life I'd better score this, and since I believe it is one that many people would enjoy I give it three and a half bullets out of five.
Blaugust Bonus: Writing Prompt time! "Do you collect in game pets? Various games have turned this into a mini game but are you a pet collector? If so why? If not why as well?" Yes and no, depending on the game. More on the no side though. There are three main barriers to pet collection for me. First, are they useful? If it's just a display item that you can get easily or by paying money then that holds no interest to me. An example for exception to this would be mini-Liadri in Guildwars 2, who while only being a "trophy" is one that I felt to be earned.
The second barrier is longetivity. If I need to take care of pets by any means other than occasionally healing it then it is too much of a hassle. Having to learn veterinary skills in UO for example (I think that combo was healing, taming, animal lore and anatomy) to maintain a viable ally was just not in my character. So, yes I had my mount and a random pack of critters for a short time, but it became too annoying to replace the pack as they died so I eventually dropped them altogether.
The last barrier is cost. If it costs real money then I don't buy it. Mabinogi is a huge exception for me here though as the pets are cheap, some freely earned, very useful (you can play AS the pet) and perhaps most importantly CUTE OVERLOAD. I don't classify as a collector though, as there are many I skip. My initial plan was just to get something to help me fight, followed by transportation. I sort of earned quite a few more in the process... cough. My current barn consists of: a mini bear, a thunderbird, a black unicorn, a giant eagle, a thoroughbred horse, a cobra, a thunder dragon, three flamemares, an armored pegasus and four bulls. Don't mock the bovines, I used them to help me defeat one of the goddesses in the game!
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