Charades? That's some cute full-circle bullshit (Game Night 2018)

184.

Game Night

  

7.5/10

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams lead the line in my first comedy movie that I have seen in a good while. Yet again, with the volume that I've been to the cinema, I have seen this trailer quite a few times and it really got me interested. It looks as if a group of mates meet up now and again in order to have game nights and then, one night, end up in a real-life game when one of the players gets kidnapped. There's no secret about where the story is going here so we know where we stand before we sit down, which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing right now. Will this comedy be as frustrating as monopoly or better than the average 'bored' game?

The film starts with a little back ground and at a bar, there is a quiz night with two teams competing for the main prize. The two leaders of these teams are Bateman's character, Max and McAdams' character, Annie. They answer the correct answer at the same time and end up dating from there. The two end up owning their friends at game nights and one night, Max uses a game of charades in order to propose. We can already see how much different types of games are being used in their lives. In the present day, things aren't quite as jolly. The two are struggling to conceive and the doctor puts it down to Max being stressed recently because his more successful, older brother in visiting soon. They return home to prepare for game night, that night and run into their next-door neighbour, who we can see is a bit of a weird one and very awkward. He used to come to their game nights until his wife divorced him. He is just standing there, holding his dog and he can see the couple are setting up for a game night, which they deny so that they don't have to invite him. Later, they friends begin to arrive, a couple of childhood sweethearts and a pretty dull guy, who brings an equally dull girl. Our main stars point out to him that the reason he always loses, is because he keeps bringing dull, hot girls. All of these friends sneak in through windows, so that the neighbour doesn't notice. this is ruined though, as Max's brother Brooks shows up, beeping his horn outside and carrying beer. He once again tries to wind Max up because he has arrived in Max's dream car and then proceeds to tell the neighbour that they are having a game night and the couple have been lying to him. When he gets into the game, he instantly starts telling embarrassing stories about his younger brother. Annie hates this, mainly because it is screwing with their chances of having kids. Brooks invites everyone to play at his house the following week and Annie agrees with Max to take the guy down a peg or two.
The movie continues and we are now at Brooks place and it's huge, once again being the envy of his brother. Ryan, the dull plank, has brought another woman, Sarah, as she is very much smarter than him and it gives him a chance of winning for once. They start the night with a game of 'I Never', which doesn't bode well for the sweetheart couple. She has sleep with a celeb, which the guy didn't know about. A few moments later, a guy walks in, posing as an FBI officer. He hands the teams a file and tells them that Brooks will be taken and it's their game to work out where he is. Once he has left, two guys enter and take Brooks at gun point. Brooks is in a panic, knowing that this is for real, not the game, but everyone else is loving the realistic acting and are munching on the snacks. Brooks fights the men, all around the house, before eventually being bested and taken. It's time to read the clues and Max and Annie head out first. Sarah manages to get in touch with the company that made the game and her and Ryan start the cheating part. The ones who are on the case though, with actually finding the next clue, are the sweethearts. Kevin and Michelle find it in the office, so Ryan locks them in there and they head to the company shop. The sweethearts are having a usual tiff about the celeb news earlier on and I can imagine that this will carry on.
Max and Annie have made it to a bar, with Annie picking up a gun that Brooks had dropped out of his pocket earlier. She clearly thinks it's a joke, because when they recognise the guys and see Brooks tied up in the back room, she starts waving it around and the guys shit themselves. They head in to untie Brooks and he instantly tells them that this isn't a game and everything is real. Annie doesn't believe him and starts shooting the gun, hitting Max in the arm, leading to a decently funny scene of her removing the bullet later on, before they both realise that there was an exit wound. The guys leg it to the car, just as the bad guys are breaking into the back room. Brooks admits that he has got himself into some bad crap, explaining that his success never came from Wall Street, but from smuggling instead. He ended up stealing something from The Bulgarian and sold it to someone called Marlon Freeman. The villains have caught up in their car, so Brooks jumps out, to not get them involved, leading him to be taken again. Ryan and Sarah are now at the company shop and walk in, where they see a corpse with a bullet wound to the head. Wondering what the hell is going on, I'm wondering whether this is part of it too, but the woman wakes up and explains that she has been to a murder party. They have to bribe her to give up the next clue. Back at the house, the actual actors have shown up, leading to Kevin and Michelle's realisation that everything from earlier, was actually real. They then get in touch with Ryan and Sarah and head out.
The next idea is to all go to the weird neighbour's house, Gary, who is a cop. They are forced to play Jenga, whilst Max sneaks off to use the police computer and find out who Marlon Freeman is. They find out his real name and address, so I guess that's our next location, to get the egg back. Whilst Max is on the computer, the dog has entered the room and the blood from Max's arm has dripped all over this white dog. He tries to wash it, the dog does its usual shake and the room is covered. Brilliant. Instead, he rounds everyone up for a quick exit and we are on our way. The kidnappers check in and tell the gang that they have an hour or crooks is dead. They arrive at the house and it's full of rich people, whilst a fight club is being held in the basement. Ryan loves this and stays to watch, as the other explore the house for the egg. Michelle finally tells her sweetheart that the celeb was Denzel Washington and she recounts it all, even showing him a picture of him with her. You can clearly see that it's just a guy who looks familiar though and Kevin is loving it. Annie, being the bird she is, decides it's a great time to bring up kids with Max, who she doubts wants them, because he wishes he was more like Brooks. Ryan spots the egg in a vault and tries to take it, before being spotted and the guards chase the gang around all floors of the house, in a scene that reminded me of a Scooby-Doo chase, with everyone handling the egg at one point and entering one door but exiting another. They finally escape and the exchange is on.
They arrive at an abandoned bridge and Kevin breaks extra hard, causing the egg to fly through the air and smashing across the dashboard. Great, this was probably the hardest I laughed, just seeing their faces. The scene stays silent for what seems an eternity. This is until they realise what the egg contained. A list of people in witness protection. The group approach the kidnappers, trying to act with confidence and are forced to get on the ground. Whilst the criminals speak to their employer, Brooks spends his time apologising to his brother. He tells Max that the keys to his car are in his pocket, expecting to die, but instead, the whole gang are going to be executed, that's until weird neighbour Greg shows up and shoots everyone. He figured something was up with their strange behaviour and chased them down. He then gets shot by a guy still alive on the floor and Max and Annie rush over to him, before noticing a blood capsule fall from his mouth after telling him how sorry they were. He reveals that he hired the kidnappers, in order to get back into the game by saving them and when they hand him the witness list, he tells them that he wasn't in on that. So, what the hell? There's a third gang of kidnappers, two being fake? The Bulgarian steps out of the car and he's play by Michael C. Hall, who then shoots Gary for real. Brooks quickly swallows the list, knowing it will extend his life for a bit and again he is taken, this time to a jet.
Max and Annie go lone couple and get to Brooks' to take his Stingray car and head to the airstrip. When they get there, the plane is ready to go but Max takes out the wheels and it comes to a halt, leading to guards chasing the couple and Annie distracting them as Max heads to save Brooks. He gets on the plane, whilst Annie is held at gunpoint outside. Max is losing and as they tussle, the lean on the engine buttons, causing the guard who is hold Annie to be sucked into a turbine, letting her celebrate, until she comes back down to Earth that she just witnessed a death. She then sneaks on top of the plan and gets in through a hatch at the top before knocking The Bulgarian out with a fire extinguisher. They tie him up and untie Brooks, who decides to tell them that this was all part of the game too. He's only joking.
Three months later, the gang have gathered again at Brooks' house for a game night, who is now living somewhere a lot smaller and is on house arrest. He says it isn't all bad because he sold that list on the black market for millions and when Max is furious because those people would die, he also explains how he tipped them all of for 20k a pop. Gary is even part of the game, after surviving the bullet. They play Pictionary and Annie is drawing, which she uses to tell Max that she is pregnant. The two hug as the camera pans out, zooming slowly outside the house, where we see two men in masks ready to enter with guns. The credits role and they are some of the cleverest I've seen in a while. As it tells us who played who, it's all on a wall, like a crime scene layout and it's Greg's plan on how he was going to hijack the game. After the credits, we see our Denzel look-a-like, who has now pulled a new girl with the same technique. It's Debbie, the silly cow that Ryan brought to the game at the beginning of the movie.
This may not have been a masterpiece by any means, but it was a good laugh at times. I'm a fan of Bateman and McAdams is as easy on the eye as many. The real funny character for me could be Gary though, played by Jesse Plemons. His dryness and no attempt to be funny, is actually part of the funniest moment. It brought some laughs, not only for me, but my mates and plenty of others in the audience. The casting was pretty decent, with a good amount of different characters bringing a different style of comedy to the screen and this meant that things were never repetitive. The story could have been a little confusing at times, with who hired who and which part was fake, but when it tied up, it was alright at best. I do enjoy a game, whether a board game, escape room or something simpler, so I enjoyed this movie maybe more than others would. It had been a while since I had seen a comedy, so it was a nice escape from all the serious movies. If you don't take this too seriously, you'll find it loads of fun.

I never freeze (Black Panther 2018)

 

 

 

183.

Black Panther

 

 

 

6.5/10

 

 

Time for one of the most hyped Marvel Cinematic Universe films in a while, apart from the big on that came out this year. Because I am catching up on reviews having been travelling for a month, I have already seen Infinity War by now. The trailer was quite usual for a Marvel movie, colourful and full of music to accompany the action and style of movie. We have already seen Chadwick Boseman kick some ass as the Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, but this would be a solo movie. Michael B. Jordan is fresh off the back of some success with Creed and a couple of other faces, familiar and not, are along to join the ride. The only question that needs answering, would be if it is going to live up to all of the hype that surrounds it and what is the real reason that it has drawn so much attention?

 I've decided not to fly into too much detail about the movie plot, but mainly give an outline of the important factors and my opinion as each one happens. I've no doubt that nearly everyone would have watched this movie. We are given some background on Wakanda as a nation, as centuries before when our movie will be set five tribes started a war over a meteorite that contain the alien metal that we know as Vibranium. One of the warriors takes in a 'heart-shaped herb' and becomes the first Black Panther after gaining superhuman abilities. He unties four of the tribes, as another refuses and heads to the mountains. They use the Vibranium to create highly-advanced technologies and isolate themselves from the world, posing as a third world country, so that the technology never falls into the wrong hands. We move on through time, into the 90's and a young Prince N'Jobu is working undercover in Oakland, making himself convinced that the fact that they have hidden the tech, has done more harm than good around the world, as everyone else is suffering. He vows to share it all with people of African descent around the world. He enlists the help of a black-market worker, played by Andy Serkis, to help him steal a crate of Vibranium. 92' draws in and King T'Chaka learns of his brother's betrayal. He confronts him and when he is simply rebuffed and N'Jobu threatens to kill T'Chaka's best friend, the King kills his own brother, leaving his nephew to fend behind, so that Wakanda will never know what happened. Erik, the boy, is expected to either die, or never find a way to Wakanda alone.

We final come to present day and after the death of T'chaka, which we witnessed in Civil War, his son, T'Challa, has returned to take his place on the throne. He works with Okoye, the leader of the all-female army, to save his ex-missis from an undercover mission which had gone wrong and it's our first taste of some action in this movie. Moving exactly like a cat, we don't catch a full glimpse, but sort of like a horror film, where a lot happens within the shadows. T'Challa is also reunited with his mother and his sister Shuri, who embraces him with a handshake and greeting that you'd expect in a playground. At his Kingship ceremony, he is challenged for leadership by the leader of the fifth, mountain tribe, and M'Baku loses, with T'Challa letting the man live after becoming King. In London, Serkis' character, Klaue, has a gang, which contains Jordan's character, called Killmonger and they all enter a museum, stealing an old Wakandan axe. The axe contained Vibranium and the news instantly reaches the King. The tribal elders learn that Klaue has moved to South Korea, so the King's friend urges him to bring the man to justice. He, Okoye and his ex-missis, Nakia, who we have already met from the rescue, move to intercept Klaue at an underground casino. He's there to sell the axe to an unknown buyer, but the plan doesn't go through as we find out that the buyer is Everett Ross, who once again we have met in another movie or two and is played by Martin Freeman. This leads Klaue to thinking the whole thing is a set-up and fighting begins. A car chase brings some pretty cool scenes and effects as they chase through some pretty colourful streets, which ends with the dealer in custody. Whilst he is in custody though, an explosion comes through his wall and Killmonger has come to free him. Ross gets injured pretty badly in the crossfire, as he saves Nakia from being shot and instead of chasing the prisoner, T'Challa takes Ross to Wakanda, knowing that Shuri can save him.

In the meantime, Killmonger has lived up his name and killed Klaue, taking it to Wakanda as a kind of offering token for the Elders. When they ask how he got there and who he is, he explains that he is the son of N'Jobu, to everyone's shock. His first instinct is to challenge for the throne and this time, T'Challa is defeated. He hurls the ex-King over a waterfall and leaves him for dead. His first plan of action is to carry on with his father's plan, getting shipments of weapons ready to be delivered to Wakandan operatives around the globe. Meanwhile, Shuri, Nakia, a healthy again Ross and T'Challa's mother have escaped and headed for the mountains to find help from M'Baku and his men. They find out that this tribe have found T'Challa washed up and are caring for him, but he's in a coma. Nakia decides to head out and get some of the heart-shaped herbs to cure T'Challa and on arrival and capturing some, she sees Killmonger's men advancing, heading to burn the herbs so that no other man can use them. On T'Challa's return, he challenges Killmonger as he never died or conceded in the fight and when he is refused, the female army turn on him. He now has his own Black Panther armour, which is probably the coolest out of the lot. A massive battle ensues, as half of the tribes' side with Killmonger and others with T'Challa, along with the army. Ross is flying a jet, with the help of Shuri and shoots down the planes carrying the shipments, before they can make it out of the city. The battle goes poorly for the T'Challa side but it's easy to see what is coming. The mountain tribe will end up coming and saving the day to a sort. Here they come and the battle starts to shift sides. The fight between the two wannabe King's leads them into the heart of the Vibranium mine and with the use of a lot and I mean a lot, of CGI, Killmonger is stabbed by his cousin. T'Challa takes him to see the sunset of Wakanda, offering to help him, but Killmonger refuses and pulls the knife from his chest, ultimately killing him. With the victory, T'Challa returns to the throne and M'Baku is granted a seat on the council. T'Challa's next step is to establish and embassy with the USA, which wouldn't be happening with Trump! The movie ends as he makes a press conference, in a mid-credit scene, revealing Wakanda's true nature. In the post credits scene, we catch a glimpse of Shuri helping a woken Bucky Barnes, the White Wolf.

My opinion may be a little tough for some people to take, but everyone is entitled to their own. Mine is that this is nothing more than a 'mid-table' entry in the MCU for me. I don't think that the hype before or the hype afterwards has been anywhere near warranted. Not only did this have a weird Lion King feel to, with the dad dying, people challenging the kid in charge, a darker villain taking over and the child being sent away. Then comes the child's return, the fight and back to happiness. But I can see past that, many movies have similarities these days. One disappointment was the fact that Marvel have given us another villain, which was a very good character and killed him off yet again, without making him a recurring thing. But fine, we should be used to that now. When it comes down to it, this movie seemed to be a decent storyline but for it to be considered outstanding is simply too far. It seemed society needed this movie to work and it was the same effect with Wonder Woman. That gave us a lead female role and, in my opinion, a match better movie, that afterwards, was far from up its own arse. That gave the sense of 'Girl Power' and obviously, without wanting to offend people, this movie was all about 'Black Power'. Because of the racism in society and the history of how people from ethnic background have been seen in society, it seemed that people were too afraid of wanting to say anything bad about this movie. The accents were awful, the over the top reviews sometimes even state this but if they wanted people to see this movie, surely the culture relates more towards the villain? A guy who is struggling and wanting the government to do something about it so plans on fighting to get to the top and give everyone the same advances in culture. He was probably the best thing about this movie and he is up there with some of the better villains in the franchise. For people to say that they never see a black character on screen, haven't they noticed Sam Jackson as Nick Fury? he's in charge of the god damn Avengers. What about Cyborg being part of Justice League? OK, so I got shot down using those examples, mainly because they, 'weren't leading roles'. Let's mention Blade then. Not only is he a leading role, with his own trilogy of movies, but this guy is also part of the Marvel universe and comics. It seems to be the society that we live in now, were the message carried by a movie seems to be bigger than the enjoyment of it. That, for me, ruins it leading to seeing and hearing too much about this mediocre movie.

 

I ain't cuffin' up (Den of Thieves 2018)

 

 

 

182.

Den of Thieves

 

 

 

7/10

 

 

 

It's been a couple of weeks since I have seen a 'shoot'em'up' and I was really expecting a whole lot from this one. It had a decent looking cast, with Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, Gerard Butler and his crazy slanted mouth, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and a couple of other familiar faces. From the trailer, it was easy to see that this was going to be a gritty, crime movie, full of bullets and explosions. We already know the plan, which seems an impossible one, but will this movie be the Keystone Cops or bring on the Heat?

 We are straight into the action as an armoured truck pulls up at a coffee shop, only to be set upon by a team of robbers, led by Ray. The guards attempt a defence but fail, with their deaths being the end, until the police arrive. The crew finally make it back to their hideout, only for Ray to pull up Donnie, played by O'Shea Jackson Jr, on the fact that he killed the first guard and put everyone in danger. The next morning, Gerard Butler turns up on the scene, playing a detective, nicknamed, 'Big Nick'. This guy looks as if he lives on some stiff whiskey, dirty women and sleeps on a mattress on the floor, the rough bastard. He has been following the crew for a while and Ray holds a grudge against him for killing one of his guys in the past.

Nick is a clever guy, has his fingers in many pies and knows where to find Donnie, who is working at the bar as his day job. He makes small chat, friendly, as to not let on why he is there, until he corners him outside in the parking lot and knocks him out. Donnie wakes to find himself handcuffed to a chair and a gang of officers about to interrogate him. They want to know Ray's plans, knowing that he has something big in the pipeline. Donnie explains that the only reason he is there, is because Ray knows he's a good getaway driver, other than that, he never gets told anything. We do get treated to a flashback though, as Ray has taken the crew to a multi-story car park opposite Federal Reserve, with him explaining his plan to steal 40 million from there, which won't be missed, as it's only going to get shredded.

Back with the gang, Donnie is made to get a job as a Chinese delivery guy and sneak into the Federal Reserve to scope the place out. Climbing through the vents, he hasn't really got a great job. We then get to see a different side of Nick, a more vulnerable side. He sneaks into his home, early one morning, to be countered by his wife, questioning where he's been. She kind of knows that's he's been messing around with other women and mainly strippers, so she angrily gets their daughters ready and leaves him. Even with him pleading, in a weakness we didn't expect to see, she hits him, gives him an ear full and finally leaves. She even sends divorce papers to him a few days later, in front of his work force. What you expect to be a few nights later, Nick runs into Donnie, who he has been asking to keep him updated on the crew's runnings, at a restaurant with the crew. This makes Ray suspicious after Nick calls Donnie out and back at the hideout, Ray has his second in command, Levi, beat some information out of Donnie. Levi is played by Curtis Jackson, a figure I expected to be more prominent in this movie. Donnie assures them that he hasn't told anyone anything about the robbery.

Once shit had settled down, Ray sets a stripper onto Nick in order to get some information on him, she even takes Nick back to a place that Ray is hiding and he squares up to Nick, with the option of doing something, he chooses nothing and leaves, along with Nick's phone. Later one, Levi's daughter brings her prom date over and the kid is taken into a room for the father, boyfriend chat. He is introduced to the whole crew and a couple of extra big guys, as they try to intimidate him, making sure he does nothing to hurt the daughter. The kid must be shitting bricks and once he's left, all the lads have a laugh about it. Meanwhile, Nick isn't taking things too well and crashes a get-together that his soon-to-be ex-wife is having with some friends and acts aggressively, before being told to leave. Away from this, he is actually still trying to have contact with his daughter, even if it's through the school, fence, which is a little dodgy.

We are finally at the day of the heist. This is usually a good signal that we are drawing to a close of some sort. So, the plan goes as follows. Ray and his crew invade a small bank, taking hostages and Nick and his men are outside as the shit hits the fan. Ray gets in touch with the Chief of Police, through the bank manager and to prove he is serious, he gets one of his men to take a hostage to the back room and shoot her. The message is relayed that the crew want a large sum of money and a chopper to get away. They then proceed with blowing the vault and escape through a hole in the floor, just before Nick and the police enter. They also find the hostage who was supposed to be shot, still alive and only frightened. They get out of the tunnels and head straight to the Federal Reserve. Donnie heads to the toilets, again posing as a delivery boy and takes out a bag of food that he had hidden there a few days before. He is in the main building, making sure that the lads take all of the money they need, as the cameras and power are having the usual dodgy five minutes that you expect with this kind of movie. They end up in a van and using a fake ID to escape through security. Donnie has trouble trying to escape, as he didn't sign in that day to deliver, but as the security try to get him, he's already gone. Instead, he is caught by Nick, who has shot the guy who cut the power and has taken Donnie, beating him until he gives up where Ray is heading.

Ray has ended up cutting Donnie and another guy from the team as he tried to escape along with Levi. They hit traffic and a gun fight ends up taking place between innocent cars. To be fair, the police do warn the drivers to start ducking or heading backwards, but there isn't much stopping these bullets. A few other men from the gang have caught up and begin the escape too, only to be shot dead, alone with Levi, but Ray keeps running. Nick keeps the chase on as he shoots Ray though a fence, injuring him. He refuses to go down quietly, and it ends with Ray being shot dead and Nick winning the day. When Nick goes to inspect Ray's van for the money, all he finds are bags of shredded notes. He also finds out that Donnie has escaped custody. The movie finally draws to a close with Nick heading back to that bar that Donnie worked at, seeing pictures hanging on the wall of Donnie with some of the members that Nick knew from the heist. We are treated to some flashbacks, as we are shown that Donnie had planned this all along, from the start and to use the crew and escape with the real money. It finally hits Nick, that not only he was, but the robbers were fooled by Donnie. We then scoot over to London, where Donnie is now working behind another bar. The men left from the original crew, who were actually Donnie's mates, are celebrating their win. A man from the shop opposite comes in and as Donnie serves him, he asks about the diamond shop that he works at. Leading to Donnie giving him the drink on the house. Is there more to come?

So, this movie was really made by the ending for me. I was so lost in all of the shooting, I didn't see the twist coming at the end. It was quite cleverly concealed because this character seemed so young and quiet, but they always so it's the quiet ones that you need to watch. The acting was pretty decent throughout, with Butler being the stand out for me. Being able to play this cop above the law but also showing a fragile side was quite interesting. He got to the point where he had lost it all and became a man possessed. The rest of the movie and the build-up isn't too special and seems to carry on with the normal cops and robbers theme. The only difference being was, at times, you were wondering if it was bad guys versus bad guys, with these cops, not going along the line of the law with their methods. It was hard to see who to route for and with normal heist movies, you were always willing, in some way, for the criminals to win. They did by the end of this one, but not in the way you were going to expect. A twist within a twist only adds to the excitement. 

I'm out here alone! (The Mercy 2018)

 

 

 

181.

The Mercy

 

 

 

 

5.5/10

 

 

 

Once seeing the trailer for this, it looked like a film that I wouldn't have gone out of my way to see without my limitless account. The one thing that it had going for it was that it was based on a true story. It is quite intriguing, as far as a story goes, because an amateur sailor named Donald Crowhurst was attempting to circumnavigate the globe, as part of a competition. Due to it being solo, it would be interesting to see what the writers on this movie believed that this guy went through when alone and how these actions would be portrayed by Colin Firth. His wife is played by Rachel Weisz and along with a few other famous faces, let's find out if this is a movie that can make it around the world, or simply sink at the first attempt.

The film is pretty simply with its storyline, because it can simply go along the lines of what happened. It begins with a dream, Donald building his own boat and trying to find the finances from companies, in order to pay for the whole thing. Donald is a little inventor, not being able to sell his items and still wanting the need to be famous in some way. Building this boat and sailing was going to be his one-way ticket to stardom. He invested his house and business into the boat and was willing to leave his wife and children behind in his quest. Time quickly caught up this him and he had to set sail with an unfinished boat and hope that he was still in with a chance. Knowing that others had left before him, he was always going to be up shits creek. We can see by the look on his face, that he was a nervous as anyone can be. We travel a few days with him, with a few things falling apart on the boat, but so far, nothing major. Then it starts to get slightly worse and he knows that he's in trouble. When he radios home, to speak to his family, he does the same with the officiators and investors in his voyage and the competition. His main idea is to lie. Lie in how far he has gotten, how fast he is travelling and give everyone hope.

You can see this guy slowly deteriorate and slip into a persona that is worrying for anyone watching. Firth plays this role really well, for he comes across as a calm but passionate man and at the same time, he becomes really unnerving with his talking and answering himself under his own breath. Now shit, I may do that at times, but this guy's eyes, you could see he wasn't all there. He is filling in the diaries and lying on them too. Over the radio, he hears how other competitors are pulling up or pulling out of the competition, leaving only him and another. With his lies, he somehow gets everyone to believe that he is going below Africa and heading into the dangerous parts of the water, in which he will lose radio contact for a while. This gives him time to plan his next lie, one that means he won't even be going around Africa, he will turn around and head towards South America and work his way back up. After a bad storm, his ship is falling to bits. He ends up on a coast in Argentina and finds some help, after proving who he is, in patching his ship back up and sending him back on his way. Back home, everyone is waiting eagerly to hear whether he indeed, made it past the hardest waters. All he needs to do now is make it home, as the papers, news shows and everyone in his home village are now labelling him a hero. Instead, his ship is completely malfunctioning and his is losing his radio activity, as well as his mind.

The movie draws to a close as the people back home hear nothing more, they are subjecting themselves to the worst, knowing they should never have pushed him and put so much pressure on him to make them money. His family are still holding out hope, with banners and balloons, always looking for his return. Back on the boat, we witness the final demise of Donald. He grabs a few diaries in which he lied, the clock off the wall and jumps overboard. Being overcome with insane thoughts, he knew nothing more than to kill himself. Once the authorities find his boat, they come to the conclusion that he had fallen over board, probably knowing that this was a better conclusion for his family and the press.

For a watch and a bit of escapism, this wasn't too bad, but did come with its flaws. Firth done a cracking job of playing a man, 20 years younger than his actual age, who become lonely, insane and fell into a pit of despair. When it comes to Weisz, this wasn't such a good job. I'm not sure if this is done to her, because we have seen her do well elsewhere, but this character seemed a little bit 'cardboard', for a woman who was married to a failing business man. There's no real need to speak about the other, more general roles, because there was little room for error there. The sound and lack of it at times, added to the suspense of this man spiralling downwards but because the story would switch back onto land and then back to the boat after a while, it was hard to get to grips how long this man was alone. One major fact that you needed to look into was the fact that no one really knew what happened towards the end. Did this man take his own life because he couldn't live with the fact that he had lied and would have to answer questions about it all? We will never really know. Did this film do the story justice? I honestly cannot judge on that fact. This may be a story that you would have to read rather than see. When it comes to the movie, it was ok, but only in certain moments.