LONDON: You’d be forgiven for assuming that any movie which sees action movie stalwart Gerard Butler reuniting with “Angel Has Fallen” director Ric Roman Waugh would be a heady mix of CGI-heavy spectacle and bombastic set pieces in which Butler (probably singlehandedly) triumphs over the laws of physics and probability alike.
Rated MA15+, 120 minutes, Amazon Prime
Disaster movies, by and large, are not about disasters. Theyâre about the triumph of the human family when faced with overwhelming odds. When was the last disaster film you saw where everyone, including the main stars, actually died? Imagine a big new screen movie about Pompeii that told the truth â âno survivorsâ isnât a great selling point.
Gerard Butler in a scene from the Amazon Prime film Greenland.
Credit:Amazon Prime
Greenland is better than that, while still respecting the rules of the genre. It has more brains than I expected from a disaster film, because itâs about some real and present dangers. Gerard Butler, with his firm Scottish jaw, is a reassuring leading man, although it was once going to be Chris Evans. Whoâs better, Captain America or the guy who has saved more presidents than Clint Eastwood?
February 5
Greenland (Amazon Original): In the action-packed disaster-thriller Greenland, a family fights for survival as a planet-killing comet races to Earth. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his estranged wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and young son Nathan make a perilous journey to their only hope for sanctuary. Amid terrifying news accounts of cities around the world being levelled by the comet’s fragments, the Garrity’s experience the best and worst in humanity while they battle the increasing panic and lawlessness surrounding them. As the countdown to global apocalypse approaches zero, their incredible trek culminates in a desperate and last-minute flight to a possible safe haven.
At the end of the world, ‘Greenland’ is where humanity endures
Morena Baccarin, Roger Dale Floyd and Gerard Butler star in a scene from the movie Greenland. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. (CNS photo/STXfilms)
By John Mulderig • Catholic News Service • Posted January 8, 2021
NEW YORK (CNS) As if to demonstrate that something even worse than a pandemic could befall humanity, along comes the apocalyptic action drama “Greenland” (STX).
A steady focus on the believable characters who populate it elevates director Ric Roman Waugh’s engaging film above the status of a disaster movie. But the positive values displayed along the path of the quest for survival he and screenwriter Chris Sparling chart are offset by the disturbing nature of the mayhem they unleash.
Streaming on Video on Demand 12.18
It’s always been a bit strange to me when the end of the world as we know it is thought to be a fun premise for a blockbuster
2012 and especially
Knowing being prime examples but of all the times that I haven’t been in the mood for “what if one day civilization and all as we know it life was destroyed?” as escapist fare, I think this year takes the cake.
Greenland is the newest “object hurtling toward earth” movie (because 1998 was over twenty years ago), and it’s time to remind audiences how loosely the term “entertainment” can be applied to film.