Greenland
Published February 7, 2021
Film info
- Title Greenland
- Director Ric Roman Waugh
- Year 2020
- Run time 2hrs
- Genres Thriller, Action
- Tagline The sky's on fire
A family fights for survival as a planet-killing comet races to Earth. John and his family embark on a perilous journey to survive. As the global apocalypse approaches, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.
Live blog
| Time | Comment |
|---|---|
| 4:35 | Don’t scare someone on a treadmill, way danger. |
| 8:09 | Is that a diabetic thing? That’ll be important later. |
| 10:40 | Love the thumbs up, thumbs down conversation - that’s men talking through their feelings. |
| 12:38 | I’m surprised no one is panic buying! |
| 18:07 | How is the presidential alert on the TV? |
| 20:13 | “But the sky’s on fire…” |
| 33:44 | This is quiet tense… and yet, they can’t get on the plane or there’s no rest of the film, right? |
| 46:04 | Best and worst of humanity in one scene. |
| 49:45 | Good battery lives on these phones. |
| 52:34 | Curious about the rules of selection - do the government know if you fall out with your kids? Or is it that adult offspring don’t count? |
| 55:08 | Oh, okay, back to the worst of humanity again. |
| 1:10:02 | The reasonable voices of calm are SO incredible in this chaos. |
| 1:20:59 | Bunkers!! |
| 1:29:42 | Honestly think this is the first time they’ve addressed his not being American in a film, and they are going all in. |
| 1:39:46 | Bit of a game of chicken though, innit, move the car, you clear the way for them to take off without you. |
| 1:45:19 | Yak, we’d done so well to avoid a plane crash till now. |
| 1:52:17 | Someone had a fun job destroying all of Europe. |
| 1:53:04 | Wowsers, I can see why they need an architect. |
Thoughts
I was judgmental about this movie. Oh look, Gerard Butler doing a disaster movie, it’s going to be terrible (but entertaining, they usually are!) You know what? I was wrong. It was really, really good.
It gets going very quickly, instead of filling with lots of theory, the catastrophe is happening and you have to deal with it. And whilst the disaster is always there, in the background, driving the story along, it’s actually about the humanity of the situation.
From the early moments where they have to make heart-wrenching decisions about including their neighbours in the escape plans to the more terrifying moments of looters and kidnapping, to the split second actions in rescuing someone from a burning car or holding up a taxiing plane.
It doesn’t really break new ground - most disaster movie stuff has been done already - but it wasn’t derivative in the way that some genre movies can be. I liked it, even though it was brutal in places and not exactly the uplifting story we need right now!
Rating: 5 / 5