COVID-19 Special: 'Greenland' (15)

Director: Ric Roman Waugh

Cast: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd

Where can I watch?: Greenland is streaming on Prime Video

Rating: 3.5/5

Review: Watching the news at the moment, it can often feel that we're living through our very own disaster movie, so sitting down to watch an 'end of the world' film may feel a little... Unnecessary? Fear not, readers, for I can assure you that watching doom unfurl via the medium of film is far more entertaining than living through it... Cue Greenland, a cataclysmic, comet-related outing that successfully thrills and engages without adding anything to the genre. You know the story already - an estranged husband (Gerard Butler, Scottish in some scenes, not in others) and wife (Morena Baccarin) must put their martial issues aside to ensure they, and their diabetic son (Roger Dale Floyd), survive the apocalypse, rekindling their relationship along the way. Despite this wholly unoriginal premise and a healthy collection of classic disaster movie tropes (planes exploding, people looting shops, accidental murders and a host of redemptive montages), Greenland still managed to get my pulse racing. A tense, dread-inducing primary section of the film acts as an excellent gateway to the subsequent explosions that follow shortly after, while some of the human interactions raise this particular film slightly above the usual standard for the genre, making it an entertaining way to pass an evening as we live through our own entry in the disaster catalogue.

A COVID-19 Must-Watch?: Make no mistake - Greenland is hardly a deep, cerebral thriller that'll leave you pondering the meaning of life, the universe and humanity's place in it. However, for all the classic tropes and Gerard Butler's wavering accent, this is pretty entertaining popcorn experience that'll get your heart pounding once or twice.

Comments

'Mary Queen of Scots' (15)

**** Arriving on the shores of Scotland, Mary Stuart moves to reclaim her title and her position as Queen. A Catholic and with a claim to the throne of England, she immediately poses a threat to Queen Elizabeth, a Protestant and the last of the House of Tudor. The relationship between Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor is one that has fascinated historians and artists alike for centuries. In a history that's dominated by male sovereigns, Mary and Elizabeth ruled alongside each other until Elizabeth had her cousin executed - surely that means that the two hated each other? In his play which premiered in 1800, Friedrich Schiller portrays Mary's last days, and the fraught relationship between the two women - one that is far from the 'black and white' dynamic that you might expect. Since then, numerous historians have revisited this momentous moment and dissected the connection between the two. One such biography is John Guy's Queen of Scots: The True Life ...

COVID-19 Special: 'The White Tiger' (15)

Director: Ramin Bahrani Cast: Adarsh Gourav, Rajkummar Rao, Priyanka Chopra Jones Where can I watch?: The White Tiger is streaming on Netflix . Rating: 4/5 Review: Aravind Adiga's novel The White Tiger rocketed into the international bestseller lists when it was published in 2008. A darkly satirical study of Indian's caste system, the Man Booker Prize winner tackled everything from class to corruption, religion to rooster coops. It's perhaps strange, considering the novel's success, that it took so long for The White Tiger to be adapted into a film, but as director Ramin Bahrain shows, it was probably worth the wait. Taking on the central role of servant Balram is Adarsh Gourav: a mercurial screen presence, Gourav guides us through Balram's development from wide-eyed, eager driver to disillusioned servant and beyond with a deft, dependable hand. Balram's evolution from start to finish is entirely believable and, more importantly, wholly watchable - it'...

'Eternals' (12A)

Director: Chloé Zhao Cast: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Angelina Jolie Where can I watch?: Eternals is in cinemas and available to stream on Disney+ Rating: 2.5/5 Review: When watching a Marvel film, you must suspend some level of disbelief to fully enjoy it. However, Eternals really does push the boat too far. I'm all for a bit of fantasy and a splash of sci-fi, but I found myself drawing the line at big red robot things floating around in space - and I'm not even going to try to explain (or remember!) everything else that was revealed during this strangely boring, yet rather beautiful, superhero experience. Chloé Zhao, fresh from her Best Director win, helms the 26th film (yes, really) in the Marvel franchise, but she fails to make any sort of impact. At times, it feels as though we're veering towards something of a character study, but unfortunately all the characters are painfully shallow and one-dimensional, making the 'intimate' tal...

Eleanor Reviews

Search This Blog