"The Martian" Review (****)

Matt Damon stars as Mark Watney in "The Martian."

“The Martian” is an emotional, ruthlessly realistic space-travel survival story that never once overwhelms you with the scope of it, with the concept of interstellar isolation, or with hopelessness. Instead, it magnifies the magnificence of everything within its frame. Ridley Scott is practiced and controlled and patient with the grandeur of space, and “The Martian” is arguably his loosest and most playful project to date. And with Drew Goddard adapting Andy Weir’s bestselling novel for the screen, this film can’t be anything but good… and it is. Honestly, it is. “The Martian” never maroons you within the darkest pits of Mars, never speaks in platitudes about the smallness of humanity, never reduces itself to cliché. It’s a champion of exploration, of adventure, and of knowledge and innovation. I doubt there’s much contention in me saying that “The Martian” will be the blockbuster film of 2015.

Review: "Fury" (***½)

Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Brad Pitt, Michael Peña & Jon Bernthal star in "Fury"

Very rarely do I enter a theatre completely blind to what it is I’m about to see. I’m too greedy, too curious and far too impatient for the kind of diamond-like discovery that comes with digging in the dark. That analogy may have fallen a bit flat, but the point I’m trying to make here is that this was my experience with “Fury;” I went into the theatre knowing only that it was a war movie and that Brad Pitt was in it. I hadn’t heard too much about the film, and I never really felt any pressure to see it. I hadn’t heard anything too great about it, though to be fair, I hadn’t heard that anyone despised it, either. The buzz surrounding “Fury” was essentially non-existent… for me, at least. The only reason I did see this movie was because it was a very, very rainy Sunday and, quite simply, I love the movies. Plus, I have less a tendency to watch period pieces in the comfort of my own home. Had I not seen “Lincoln” in theatres, I never would have watched that movie; and I’m glad I did see it, it’s a very good movie, but I have some sort of mental block against them. They’re not very easy for me. All that being said, “Fury” was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed.