The Martian Review
RYAN: What a great week for new movies! We just saw The Martian and it’s such a fun, thrilling, manful movie that’s very Gravity meets Cast Away. This is the movie I’d hoped Interstellar had been.
CHUCK: Absolutely. It’s not your Jerry Bruckheimer’s version of space. It has many levels – moments of levity mixed with danger and…
RYAN: Severe survival. It’s steeped in science but I didn’t expect it to be as light and funny as it was. There’s a lot of comedy to it. In the script, in the characters but also in the soundtrack. The music is brilliant! It’s such an integral part of the story and I loved it. A certain genre looms large.
CHUCK: The movie is surprising. It’s not what you’d expect from the trailers, alone.
RYAN: It’s not a cheesy, corny humor. It’s humanistic. It adds a lot of dimension to it.
CHUCK: People find a lot of different emotions when their survival instincts kick in. We’ve been given, over the years, stories of people stranded. Some go crazy, some develop a relationship with a volleyball and in this film, Matt finds his own way.
RYAN: I just loved it. It’s intelligent, as is expected from Ridley Scott and there’s also a lot of heart to it. You really connect to and care about these people.
CHUCK: It’s simple but also has depth.
RYAN: You walk away with a real metaphor in this film that you can really apply to your life. It has a great message in the end. I feel enriched seeing it.
CHUCK: It is totally enriching. People will probably be surprised by that.
RYAN: It’s a bit slow in parts and I was kind of expecting something unusual to happen and let me just say that when you stick with it, something does happen. You get what you want out of this.
CHUCK: There is a climax. I was starting to wonder if it was just going to be a pensive movie but there is action in it.
RYAN: The whole ending was fantastic. It suspenseful and exciting and really good.
CHUCK: It speaks to the strength of Ridley Scott – crafting a movie nearly two and a half hours long and really with ups and downs, but still makes you so invested in it that by the time the ending comes, you’re still rooting for it.
RYAN: The whole cast is great. I love Jessica Chastain and she’s great. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Michael Pena, Sean Bean… all so good but it’s really Matt Damon’s movie. It’s a showcase for him.
CHUCK: And Kristen Wiig makes sense in it. I didn’t at first, seeing her in the trailer, understand how she would fit in.
RYAN: But because the film has a bit of comedy to it, she really fits.
CHUCK: It’s a big cast and they are all fantastic. It’s set in the future but not defined when. We’re nowhere near a Mars mission but it’s in this movie. The 3D is good.
RYAN: The 3D is better in The Walk. This is a different movie but it’s great. It’s very entertaining and worth it on the big screen.
CHUCK: It’s everything you go to the movies for.
