Movie Review: 127 Hours

I don't usually review movies (because I don't watch movies anymore) but I actually watched a movie last night and I swore I'd post more in October, so here goes. My very first movie review.

3.5/5 stars

It always amazes me when I hear about true-story survival movies like this. Not because of the story line—a guy gets trapped by a boulder for five days and chops off his arm to get out—but because they can make a two hour movie about a guy stuck under a boulder interesting enough to watch. I mean, I’m sure it’s one of the most horrible experiences a person can live through. But the very fact that it’s one guy stuck in one spot for the entire movie makes me wonder just what exactly they can do to keep me interested.

This movie was actually pretty interesting. They do give you about half an hour (my times are just estimates, I didn’t check the timer on my DVD player every time something happened—sorry, I’m not that big a movie critic) when he’s wandering around Canyonlands, meeting girls, biking, etc. Then he falls in the crevice and gets stuck.

And somehow, all that beginning stuff, which is probably supposed to keep the movie interesting, actually bored me a little. I kept thinking, when are we going to get to the good part where he’s stuck and has to survive?

It seemed a little unbelievable how calm the guy stayed once he got stuck. He’s basically like, oh crap. My arm is crushed under a giant boulder. Hm, what should I do? He never panics, or even seems to feel pain. I liked all his little video-diary entries, especially when he starts to get a little batty and interviews himself. Not the kind of movie you usually find yourself laughing at, this one actually had some funny moments.

I didn’t care for all the flashbacks—they seemed a little cheesy and some of them were confusing. Such as, I had no idea the little boy sitting there watching him chop off his arm was supposed to be a premonition. I thought it was him as a kid. So I’m glad the ending cleared that up. Overall, this was a pretty engaging movie with great scenery in parts that reminded me of my own trip to that area of Utah. So I did enjoy it.

And it didn’t hurt that I got to look at James Franco for 2 hours.