Greetings Yule-tide Merry-makers!
It was late, and I was in the mood for a movie, but not a specific movie, and not a movie I've seen already. No, on this solitary night, with my wife slumbering in my bed and Emmett taking up more and more of the space that I prefer to occupy, I decided that I was in the mood to hunt. Like the uncountable generations of dominant males before me, I heard the call to take off my shirt, rub animal excrement on myself, (to mask my scent, of course) take my spear and stalk a wary prey. My adrenaline was up, my standards were down, and my X-box was on. So, I loaded Netflix online and navigated the uncharted territories that are the wasteland between quality and quantity.
For those that don't or have never streamed Netflix movies, what they do is; the more movies you watch the more detailed categories they give you. They even have one category that's "Movies Josh will Love". At this time and at every moment up to this time, there has not been one single movie in that list that I was interested in. No, to say that I would love those would be an excercise in either sarcasm or deceit. For instance, I watch 300, and it deduces that I like slightly homo-erotic bloody action movies, and puts 'Man Hole 2: the Bloody Sequel' in my recommended list. Actually, that one wasn't that bad.
Just kidding.
So, I end up in the science fiction category, and find this movie with the envigorating and imaginative title, MOON. The picture on the cover is of a man in a space suit standing on..... what? The moon. Of course. What did you think it would be, a waterfall? No, that was the cover on the Bloody Sequel. So anyway, I click on this auspicious movie and read the synopsis, and hey! It doesn't sound half bad, so I watch it. And guess what, it was even better than that. Moon stars Sam Rockwell and the disembodied voice of Kevin Spacey.
**Non-Spoiler ALERT!** I'm not going to give anything away here.....
Astronaut Sam Bell is near the end of his 3 year contract on the lunar mining station where he's been stationed by himself. Something bad happens, and some things seem a bit out of whack, and Sam begins to develop the unshakeable feeling that Lunar Industries is not being entirely honest with him and has far more insidious intentions for him than to rocket his replacement to him and return him to earth and his young wife and daughter. Turns out he's right.....
It's a pretty good movie. It does a good job of making you feel that isolation and lonliness that a man in this situation would feel. A lot like they did in that Tom Hanks movie Castaway. It's well acted and well concieved and looks pretty cool too. They stay away from the flashy graphics and imagery, and it causes you to connect to the man and his predicament. It works. I liked it. If you saw it then you agree with me. I know you do without you even having to tell me. If you don't like space movies don't watch it. Oh who am I kidding, I don't really care if you watch it or not. As long as you read this and tell me about it. Seriously, I feel like I'm the lonely astronaut here and no one wants to talk to me... Hello? Earth, are you there? Am I really the only one that thinks this is an interesting past time? Maybe I should blog about what I'm shopping for and cooking for dinner and how constipated I am instead, then you'd read it, huh.
Can't wait for Man Hole 3....
