Greenland: Good cast, good writing, and great effects.

Movie Review: Greenland (2020) on HBO

After what the world has been through with the pandemic, is this really the time to watch a movie like Greenland? Well, the circumstances are more dire. Maybe this is a good time, since many are finally emerging from the pandemic and this film paints a far grimmer picture for its characters.

In Greenland, the quintessential broken American family, struggling to mend its internal struggles, finds itself struggling even more for survival against the forces of nature as a comet bears down on Earth closer than any other in history, not one big ball of ice but a collection of interlopers threatening to strike the surface and plunge humanity into chaos and most life into extinction. Dad John (played by Gerard Butler) finds himself, a structural engineer, selected by secret government plan to survive the debacle, along with his wife Allison (played by Morena Baccarin) and son Nathan (played by Roger Dale Floyd). But first, they have to leave behind their neighbors and friends, who haven't been chosen, and legions of others clogging the roads, looting stores, and basically getting in the Garrity family's way to finding safety. Also in the way is son Nathan's type-1 diabetes, which threatens the Garritys' spot on the plane out of insanity. And there are multiple opportunities to dodge comet strikes on every large city and rural roadway the Garritys find themselves. How will they survive?

As subtext in the storyline are John and Allison trying to patch their marriage, which has been on the rocks for a couple of years. It's tested even more severely when the family is separated during their trip and John must face Allison's father at his home, which is where the threesome has arranged to meet. Her father is played by Scott Glenn, who shows all the disdain for a reckless son-in-law you can imagine, until Butler pours on the sincerity and shows his honest determination to get his family through to safety. This is well played and some of the more believable of the acting and plotting of the movie.

This film reminds me a lot of 1998's Deep Impact, which also involved a comet colliding with Earth and families struggling to survive. Greenland has that same sense of doom and despair and heroics. Although, in this film, Earth gets hit a lot more often! So if you're wondering if you're prepared for watching this kind of movie now, think of how you might have felt watching Deep Impact and go from there.

Greenland has solid production values, a good cast, good writing, and great effects. I give it an A^ for Above Average. Are you ready to rise above the pandemic?

Geostorm: Be Sure to Miss It!

Movie Review: Geostorm (2017)
Version: Library borrow

In 1996 there was a film called Night of the Twisters that was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I would rate Geostorm right up there with it. Both involve impossible story lines with poor acting performances. At least with Geostorm there was a fairly good cast. Unfortunately, the script was trash.

Here is how the story is describe on the IMDB website:

When catastrophic climate change endangers Earth's very survival, world governments unite and create the Dutch Boy Program: a world wide net of satellites, surrounding the planet, that are armed with geoengineering technologies designed to stave off the natural disasters. After successfully protecting the planet for three years, something is starting to go wrong. Two estranged brothers are tasked with solving the program's malfunction before a world wide Geostorm can engulf the planet.

First of all, no governmental body, worldwide or otherwise, would name a science project "Dutch Boy Program" -- it doesn't make any sense! Second, the program has been hacked to attack the weather and create havoc around the world, but half the attacks don't actually attack the weather and don't even make sense. Third, this supposed "geostorm" is really about upsetting the climate, not the weather, and that would take much longer than the time shown in the movie. When they finally subdue the satellite system, it calms down immediately, also not realistic. Finally, the bad guys hack the space station and its network of interchangeable satellites, which they make go berserk. But when they go berserk inside the space station, there's no threat of loss of air pressure as pieces of steel go flying through windows.

The cast is all right, but they're most miscast in this film. Gerard Butler doesn't come off as a tech or scientist. Andy Garcia is supposed to be the president but he just doesn't fit the part. Ed Harris plays the character in charge of the Dutch Boy Program but he has more gravitas to play president, yet he plays the bad guy. Andy Garcia has played gangsters! Why wasn't he cast as the bad guy?

I wasn't impressed by the writing, either. The dialogue was sloppy. The plotting was unrealistic as were the conflict resolutions. The whole film was simply ugly. If someone asked me what I thought of Geostorm, I'd say, "Be sure to miss it!" Sorry, Geostorm fans.