While the scientific consensus supports mankind’s role in causing or at least strongly contributing to global warming, some scientists point to increased solar activity or the natural cyclic effect of climate change as the cause. Others claim that computer models have left out “the complex interaction between warm southerly winds, variations in cloud cover, and…
The synopsis of acclaimed German director Werner Herzog’s 2016 thriller Salt and Fire, at first, seems to present a truly intriguing, unique and captivating story — “A renowned scientist is sent to Bolivia on an urgent mission to analyze a looming environmental catastrophe she along with her colleagues are deceived by a man claiming to…
Like last year’s “The 33,” which told of the survival and rescue of a group of Chileans trapped in a gold mine in 2010, Lionsgate’s Deepwater Horizon, produced by and starring Mark Wahlberg (“Ted 2”), along with John Malkovich, Kurt Russell and Kate Hudson, relates the horrifying experience of another true life disaster culled from…
Generally, part of the charm of international cinema is that it’s specifically and obviously not Hollywood cinema. So when something like the Norwegian disaster drama The Wave tries so desperately and artlessly to ape similarly themed Hollywood blockbusters, there’s a sense of overwhelmingly suffocating futility that plagues the project. Of course, if The Wave actually…
San Andreas stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson (although ‘The Rock’ is no longer a necessary addition to his name to know who he is) as admirable Search and Rescue helicopter pilot Ray Gaines. He’s the kind of person you want to have around when a pickle jar can’t be opened or when the largest magnitude…
Although disaster movies don’t resonate particularly well in the theaters, it doesn’t stop studios from making them. The latest to try their luck in the genre is Warner Bros. with their earthquake actioner, San Andreas. Leading the charge to save his family (daughter and estranged wife) this time — in very much the same way…
Cinematic sentimental gestures don’t come much more desperately inspirational than the slow motion shot of a person reaching skyward with a swelling score accompanying their ascent. In his syrupy drama The Impossible, director J.A. Bayona reserves this moment for the third act, but it’s not like the sentimentality sneaks up on us. This kind of…
