10s Movie Review - Passengers

Director: Morten Tyldum
Genre: Drama/ Science Fiction/ Romance/ Fantasy
Runtime: 116 minutes
Year: 2016
Starring: Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia

Description: A spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in its sleep chambers. As a result, two passengers are awakened 90 years early.

Review: There are always those film projects, that take a long time to make. “Passengers” has been waiting on the shelves, when it was eventually picked up to be directed by Morten Tyldum.

The film starts with an introduction to the Avalon, a spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people in order to start a new civilization. The people are all in hibernation. As a malfunction, two of the passengers wake up 90 years early.
The first act of the film is the most impressive. It sets an intriguing atmosphere. We meet Jim and Aurora and how they are trying to deal with the fact that they woke up 90 years too early. How they explore the ship. Especially Chris Pratt gets a lot of room to develop his character. And the opening also has amazing special effects. After the first plot twist, it all fades a little bit.
There is supposed to be an emotion spectrum. Themes like loneliness and romance have a lot of potential here. But Jim and especially Aurora are a bit too superficial as characters to make this combination of drama and romance work to the fullest. And although Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence are two of the most beloved actors working today, the two don’t have the on screen chemistry we were all hoping for. Pratt’s character gets a bit more substance, because of his solo scenes at the start of the film. But Lawrence’s character misses that. They perform great, very solid, don’t get me wrong. But I expected them to be better together.
On paper, “Passengers” had everything to become a hit. The fantastic actors, the visuals and an interesting story. It all feels a bit mediocre, pretty predictable and without the chemistry we hoped for. A fun popcorn film, certainly not bad, but it could have been so much more.

Rating: 3 / 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (260)

Here are this week's trailers.

Passengers
Director: Morten Tyldum
Description: A spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in its sleep chambers. As a result, two passengers (Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt) are awakened 90 years early.
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Andy Garcia
Trailer: Trailer "Passengers"
Comment: I was already escited, but now I that I saw the trailer I definitely am!!!

Smurfs: The Lost Village
Director: Kelly Asbury
Description: In this fully animated, all-new take on the Smurfs, a mysterious map sets Smurfette and her friends Brainy, Clumsy and Hefty on an exciting race through the Forbidden Forest leading to the discovery of the biggest secret in Smurf history.
Starring: Bill Hader, Joe Manganiello, Mandy Patinkin, Rainn Wilson, Demi Lovato, Keegan-Michael Key, Jack McBrayer
Trailer: Trailer Smurfs: The Lost Village"
Comment: More Smurfs? Nooooooo!

Trespass Against Us
Director: Adam Smith
Description: A man (Michael Fassbender) looks to find a way to escape the criminal ways of his outlaw family.
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson,
Trailer: Trailer "Trespass Against Us"
Comment: Looks good.

Bastards
Director: Lawrence Sher
Description: Upon learning that their mother has been lying to them for years about their allegedly deceased father, two fraternal twin brothers hit the road in order to find him.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J.K. Simmons, Glenn Close, Ving Rhames, Terry Bradshaw, Harry Shearer, Bill Irwin
Trailer: Trailer Bastards"
Comment: Yeah, why not. I like Owen Wilson.

Fist Fight
Director: Richie Keen
Description: When one school teacher (Charlie Day) gets the other (Ice Cube) fired, he is challenged to an after-school fight.
Starring: Charlie Day, Ice Cube, Christina Hendricks, Tracy Morgan
Trailer: Trailer "Fist Fight"
Comment: I think Charlie Day is hilarious.

Top 5 Thursday: 2016 Fall/ Winter Movies to Look Forward to

Summer was okay, not very spectacular when it comes to movies. But fall (my favorite season) and winter has a lot in store for us. Here are the movies I’m most looking forward to.

5. Arrival
I’ve seen two trailers now and it looks fantastic. It’s directed by Denis Villeneuve, who also directed “Prisoners”, “Enemy” and “Sicario”, all movies I LOVED! The film follows a linguist, played by Amy Adams, who is recruited by the military to assist in transliting alien communications.

4. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
All set in the Harry Potter universe, so for me that’s reason enough to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. The movie is about Newt Scamander, a writer who delves into the world of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his books in school.

3. Passengers
The movie doesn’t have a trailer yet, just a couple of movie stills. But Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt got me excited enough. A spacecraft traveltng to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in its sleep chambers. As a result, two of the passengers are awakened 60 years early.

2. La La Land
This trailer got me jumping for joy! It looks so beautiful. The cast is stunning, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. And its director, Damein Chazelle, already showed us he is amazing with “Whiplash”. The film follows a jazz pianist who falls in love with a aspiring actress. And…. It’s also a musical!

1. The Girl on the Train
I read the book and it was one of those stories I couldn’t put away. And the trailer looks so amazing, I just can’t wait to see it. Emily Blunt plays the lead and there are also roles for Justine Theroux, Luke Evans, Haley Bennett, Allison Janney, Lisa Kudrow and Rebecca Ferguson. The story is about Rachel Watson’s post-divorce life. Every day, she takes the train to work in New York, and evert day the train passes by her old house. The house she lived in with her husband, who still lives there, with his new wife and child. As she attempts to not focus on her pain, she starts watching a couple who live a few houses down, Megan and Scott Hipwell. She creates a wonderful dream life for them in her head, about how they are the perfect happy family. And then one day, as the train passes, she sees something shocking. The next day, she wakes up with a horrible hangover, various wounds and bruises and no memory of the night before. She has only a feeling: something bad happened. Then come the TV reports: Megan Hipwell is missing. Rachel becomes invested in the case and trying to find out what happened to Megan.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Sully, The Magnificent Seven, A Monster Calls, Doctor Strange, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Inferno, Sing, The Light Between Oceans