I've only watched one film this week, as I've had a few days off, and I have to be honest, it was pretty underwhelming. After The Hunt promised much, with a star-studded cast including Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, but it was badly scripted, disjointed, frustratingly oblique at times, and full of characters you didn't care about or believe in. It wasn't the worst film I've seen this year on the big screen, but it was definitely in the bottom quarter.
I thought for a big of fun we would have a look at what topped the box office on 21st October in decades gone by, given it was 'Back To The Future Day' recently. We are now a decade ahead of the date Marty McFly travelled to in the excellent sequel, where flying cars hoverboards were ubiquitous, as were video calls (the latter was definitely an accurate prediction, anyway).
In 2015, Matt Damon's The Martian was the UK's biggest film, and I rated it pretty highly at the time. It's available with a Disney subscription, and proves with a good supply of spuds, you can definitely survive a trip to Mars. I'd say it's in the upper echelons of Matt Damon movies, and Ridley Scott is also on top form as the director. One review at the time said: "From its opening minutes, The Martian is a film of impeccable production, execution and pacing". I can't argue with that.
Heading back to 21st October 2005, Wallace & Gromit : The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was reigning supreme at the box office. With a Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 95%, it was another brilliant production from Aardman, and the feature length debut for Peter Sallis's Wallace alongside his faithful canine companion Gromit. Gentle slapstick, clay, visual gags galore...one I think I might rewatch this week.
Back in 1995, GoldenEye reigned supreme, and has recently had a re-release at Cineworld to mark its 30th anniversary. Whilst I'm fairly sure some of the Pierce Brosnan one-liners would get the film cancelled on Twitter these days, I thought it was his strongest outing as 007, and one of the best Bond films. Top Tina Turner theme song too!
In 1985, competing against the likes of Gremlins, Ghostbusters and A View To A Kill (Roger Moore's final outing as James Bond), Back To The Future trounced them all. I'm really excited to be watching it again in the next couple of weeks in 4DX, a format which I think will add a new dimension to a true cinema classic. I recently read that the character Biff was loosely based on Donald Trump, so I'll definitely be looking out for that, and I reckon a triple bill of The Martian, Wallace and Gromit and GoldenEye might make a decent movie night too at some point soon!
Next week, back to the new releases, with my verdict on Black Phone 2, Good Fortune, One Battle After Another, Roofman and Regretting You. Making up for a lost week!
