Director Ripley Scott delivers stunning visuals to accompany this space survivalist flick. Matt Damon plays Mark Watney, an astronaut botanist who takes part in a space mission to the planet Mars, but when their mission is cut drastically short due to a storm, the team lose him and presume him dead. With the crew returning…
Tag: book
Review: Apollo 13
From expert director Ron Howard comes perhaps the defining space exploration film; rooted by true events Apollo 13 still stands as a testimony to what humanity could be. Shortly after the amazing success of the Apollo 11 lunar landing that saw Neil Armstrong walk on The Moon, Apollo 13’s mission was to repeat the performance….
Banter: The Hobbit and the Battle for Tradition
So The Hobbit trilogy has ended, Peter Jackson has finally ended his Middle-Earth adventure, but unlike the first Lord of the Rings trilogy this one has ended… badly. I loved the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A series of monstrous films made from acclaimed “unfilmable” tomes from JRR Tolkien, directed by a man who had…
Review: The Imitation Game
A compelling piece of history and a story worth telling, Cumberbatch is excellent but I felt the experience was let down by a very “convenient” screenplay. Based off the book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” based off the true story of the mathematician who broke the infamous Nazi cypher machine known as The Enigma Machine in World War…
Review: Before I Go to Sleep
Amnesia! The writer’s best friend comes back to haunt Nicole Kidman in her newest thriller. While the premise has been done before, I still found the film engaging and an overall success. Kidman plays Christine, a woman who every day wakes up with no memory of the last twenty years due to an accident. Her…
Trilogy Review: Starship Troopers
Very loosely based off the novel by the same name, Starship Troopers was a pretty infamous film when I was growing up, but it has become a cult favourite of the science fiction genre. Unfortunately… people thought this lightning-in-a-bottle exploitation of Paul Verhoeven deserved a sequel… and another sequel… To this day I refused to…
Review: Gone Girl
A twisting thriller with fantastic performances from the two leads, reminds a lot of old thrillers from the late eighties and early nineties. Isn’t marriage wonderful…! … Nick and Amy are happily married and live together as writers. He is a simple but handsome and likeable soul while she is pragmatic, beautiful and slightly aloof….
Review: How to Train your Dragon
2010 was a tough, tough year to rate films; so many excellent films, it remains the most memorable year for me. Inception won out, but even with Tron Legacy and Toy Story 3, How to Train your Dragon came a very, very tight second behind Christopher Nolan’s mind-warping thriller. Even now… I question that choice:…
Remake Rumble Review: The Great Gatsby
Welcome to a new review section of Cinema Cocoa, Remake Rumble, where I review a film that has been remade. That’s right, two films for the price of one on Cinema Cocoa! The Baz Luhrmann adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby” was something I was keen to review, but I wanted…
Review: The Men who Stare at Goats
Having just seen The Monuments Men, I opted to find another unorthodox “war film” starring George Clooney. This time though, it was a lot of fun! Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a reporter out to prove himself to his cheating girlfriend, and may have found the story to make a name for himself. Lyn Cassady…