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Reviews
1944 (2015)
WWII from the people eyes of small country
It's hard to make a war movie not crossing hero line - in many war movies one side is good ones and another is opposing front. And ordinary people are left out-of-the plot usually. In the big WWII picture there are two sides - Germans and allies who recruits new soldiers from whatever country. But the problem is - what if country is small and want's to be neutral, but it can't be - because of big external forces ? In such case country is split into two opposing parts. And the smaller the country - the bigger chaos takes place in that picture which is made from the Estonia country perspective in WWII. So in the end - whoever wins in the world war - we lose, as nation of small country, because it's not our business after all. And this plot makes movie highly approachable from the ordinary people eyes, because there are too many war movies with heroes in it, and less with people who just tries to deal with a fact that soldier's duty is just another job which can break your life in an unimaginable way.
Gravity (2013)
top hit for sure
If somebody would ask to describe this movie in a few words - then I would call this movie as "Best non-alienated sci-fi movie of 2013" or maybe even of all time. It is hard to make good sci-fi movie, and it is doubly hard to make good non-alienated sci-fi movie. This movie jumps that barrier for sure.
Somehow this movie reminds me another hit (at least for me) - Solaris (2002). Some common things, such as:
a) Action of both movies happens in the some planet's orbit.
b) George Clooney plays in both of them.
c) Both movies tries to dig into human psychology. Albeit Solaris dig a bit deeper ;-).
d) Basic line of events flows around man (George) and woman (Sandra - Gravity case Or Natascha - Solaris case).
e) Action in both movies concentrates around space station(s).
But here similarities ends. Solaris chose more human related problems to analyze deeply. And Gravity chose to analyze more space-tech related problems with sprinkle of human psychology.
Sandra and George duet is wonderful. In first part of movie George acts as primary character, then in second part Sandra takes control over George. This switch is not bad, but it makes to feel that character relations are a bit too asymmetric. (For example in Solaris movie George and Natascha was acting in more symmetrical way - they were like two planets orbiting each other). And in Gravity you have a feeling that somebody shoot George movie part, after that - Sandra movie part and then joined these two parts with digital movie editor ;-) Of course this flow of events is also interesting, but for me symmetrical relations are more interesting to watch.
I would also recommend to see this movie in 3D format. Let's say that Gravity is well optimized for 3D effects. Maybe it is because plot is very suitable for this. Dark space and debris floating around - nothing has better options for 3D ;-)
All in all - you have to see this movie, because as far as i can tell George picks only deep and interesting plots to act on. And this is the case. So go on and see it.