Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Mark Man (A) on October 26, 2015 at 08:47:15

In Reply to: RE: 'The Martian': Science and Duck Tape posted by Billy Wonka on October 02, 2015 at 13:54:58

I won't go into all the plot elements...

In a nutshell Castaway Meets Apollo 13 Meets Mission to Mars meets Red Planet...the a little of Shawshank when you are really pulling for the lead protagonist...

Matt Damon-Mark Watney Has a Hanks quality, where you just like him...His NEVER throw in the towel attitude was inspirational and just faced every setback, without dwelling on it...just kept moving forward...really good performance..."might" get an Oscar nomination for who he is and the popularity of the movie...(Depp's and Fassbender's were both better)

Jessica Chastain-Melissa Lewis Talk about the right stuff...there is no doubt who was in charge...yet gave you glimpses of her humanity...I really liked that Hollywood is giving more and more female leadership roles and taking gender out of the equation...kind-of

Kristen Wiig-Annie Montrose Ok...this was the most miss cast role...used basically facial reaction shots of despair...Is she really ever seen doing her job???

Jeff Daniels-Teddy Sanders As I stated in my Steve Jobs review, one of the best supporting character actors in Hollywood...has the every man quality...but delivers everything with confidence...he never waivered from playing the percentages...his press conferences blunt, with very little filter and believable...

Michael Peña-Rick Martinez Taking the role of the comic banter, but showing his military can do attitude or leave no one behind...solid and fit his role...

Sean Bean-Mitch Henderson I always enjoy when an actor who has been forever "type" cast as a menacing Marlboro Man, is put into a role of the humanist speaking for the crew on the ground...leaking to the crew, Damon was still alive...sacrificing his job, because he felt it was the right thing to do...

Kate Mara-Beth Johanssen Ms. Mara just seems to me is getting better and better...very solid performance...

Sebastian Stan-Chris Beck Know more for his Super Hero roles as the Winter Soldier...he was the only negative nelly on the crew...he gave you the impression he "MIGHT" vote against heading back to Mars...then became one of the ultimate team players...Mara's romance with him was just there...did not drive the plot at all, other than window dressing...

Aksel Hennie-Alex Vogel The Chekov of the crew, gives you the impression, this actor is capable of good range...almost a Hardy quality...

Chiwetel Ejiofor-Vincent Kapoor Has been type cast as the Humanist quite a bit...but a good actor and delivers...

Benedict Wong-Bruce Ng Need a believable science guy, cast someone of Asian decent...does refer to the help of Chinese as his people...really a solid performance

Mackenzie Davis-Mindy Park OK...I REALLY liked her...they tried to down play her natural beauty...but damn...hard to hide that...she was very genuine in a fairly small role...but she made MORE of her role with an organic believability...I look forward to seeing more from this young actress...from the surface, she seems to be capable of having some depth of character

Donald Glover-Rich Purnell Turned in the big brained scientist you keep in the back room and let him do his thing...his lack of people and communication skills are what you expect from those types...he nailed it...but not a stretch...

I do believe actors line-up when a director with Ridley Scott's rep is making a movie...and they seem to ALL bring their A-game...this was a very well made film...4.0 stars out of 5 stars...

Thanks
Mark