A
true story is in the foreground of this survival movie which
is situated in the midst of the treacherous waters of the Pacific Ocean.
The movie, ‘Adrift’ is originally set on the island
of Tahiti in 1983. Tahiti is a paradise
island below the equator, which was the setting for the 18th century
maritime adventure which became well known as the ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’.
‘Adrift’ features the story of a Californian girl,
Tami who is touring the world alone, and working her way through the South
Pacific islands. She meets a young
English man, Richard, who is sailing his way to his destiny in the same
region. When they meet up, they find a
kindred spirit in each other, and love happens.
The young lovers set out on a boat through the wild
ocean, but neither envisaged the hell of a trip that awaited them. Unfortunately for them, they encountered one
of the worst hurricanes ever recorded.
Tami awoke to find Richard first missing, and then
seriously injured. She had to work to
save both their lives in a boat that was barely afloat and adrift.
Tami is played by Shailene Woodley and Richard is
played by Sam Clafin. Shailene is also
producer of the movie which has a claustrophobic feel to it, due to much of it
being set on the adrift boat, in the middle of the great ocean. The strength of the waves were very vivid in
the storm scene, and the general look of the movie was shown beautifully.
The performances of both main actors were exemplary,
particularly Shailene Woodley’s.
Shailene gave great depth to the part of Tami, which came across very
natural.
There are certain to be awards at the different
ceremonies next year for this feature, writes
David Flynn, and one definite will be for cinematography, and it’s hard to
see another feature between now and then beating ‘Adrift’.
Some
of cinema’s top female stars appear here as would-be jewel thieves in a robbery
worth no less than $150,000,000.
‘Ocean’s Eight’ is a spin-off of the successful 2000s trilogy, which
starred some of the top male stars of the time.
This new movie begins with Debbie Ocean (Sandra
Bullock) getting out of prison after doing time for fraud. Debbie is the sister of Danny Ocean, the
leader of the lads in the original productions.
Danny was played by George Clooney in the earlier movies.
However it is now more than ten years since an
Oceans movie and Danny is now dead, and after Debbie gets out of prison she
plans a caper, the likes of which would have made her late brother proud.
Glamour is the order of the day in ‘Ocean’s Eight’ and it
features Debbie re-joining with her old partner in crime, Lou, played by Cate
Blanchett. Lou is living off a scheme of
watering down vodka when she reunites with Debbie (they did some bingo scams
together in their youth), and the duo engineer a new scam to steal a museum’s
Royal jewels.
The ladies they assemble include Helena
Bonham-Carter as a tax criminal and successful 1990s fashion designer, and also
Sarah Paulsen as fence turned homemaker, Tammy.
Movie star Daphne is the key to putting the whole
plan together, she was played by the brilliant Anne Hathaway. Rihanna is in there as well on the team, and
there are special appearances from two of the Kardashian girls and Olivia Munn
and Katie Holmes. Popular veteran
actor, Elliot Gould from the other Oceans movies makes a guest appearance.
There are a couple of laughs in the movie, and it’s
a mind-candy feature. Despite it having
three Oscar winners on board in the acting stakes, it won’t win any Oscars, but
it’s a bit of fun, and you could see far worse writes David Flynn.
Returning
to a movie franchise which is now 25 years old can be exciting for those who
grew up with the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park.
Here we have the fifth move in the series, and the
remaining dinosaurs are living out their existence on a volcanic island. The governments of the world are in talks
about whether they should save the dinosaurs or let them die.
This new movie is set three years after the last one, ‘Jurassic
World’, and the animal expert couple, Clair and Owen return, although they are
now estranged.
An invalid industrialist, Benjamin Lockwood (played
by James Cromwell), who was an associate of the founder of Jurassic Park, which
was original home of the dinosaurs gets Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her
former love, Owen (Chris Pratt) to return to the island and save the
dinosaurs. Owen has the further interest
of finding his own favourite dinosaur, Blue, and along the way he discovers
that they will have more battles to save the dinosaurs than they originally thought.
It begins like a traditional movie, with the elderly
billionaire offering the young folk the opportunity to save the dinosaurs, but the
storyline gets lost along the way, although it does manage to throw in a few surprises. The CGI of the dinosaurs is still great to
see, but somehow it was more effective in the early 1990s when audiences hadn’t
seen as much of these types of movies.
Jeff Goldblum returns as Dr. Ian Malcolm to give a
philosophical perspective on the whole plan of dinosaurs living in the world
with man, writes David Flynn
It’s a moral story, which shows some respect for
animals, and it’s an interesting episode of the series. However producers will want to come up with
some new and adventurous ideas for the next Jurassic feature.
