Trailer:  127 Hours (2010)

Starring:  James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara  – Directed By:  Danny Boyle

Running Time: 1hr & 34 mins – Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama

 

Big JD (Host)

Movie Selection Relevance

I’ve been really wanting to select this movie for quite awhile.  I’ve told Ran-Dizzle to watch it in the past but did he?  No, so here ya go!  Now you have to.  🙂  More importantly I’ve been on a James Franco kick lately.  He’s been popping up in a bunch of movies I’ve been watching lately.  The Iceman, Lovelace, This is the End and a movie trailer of a movie called As I lay Dying that seems like another winner from Mr. Franco.  It really helps that he’s been working his ass off.  Just in 2013 he was in 11 movies. and 9 movies in 2012.  For 2014 he has on dock 10 movies.  I should call him “James (Brown) Franco: the hardest working-est man in Hollywood”.

Synopsis:

Aron loves his X-treme sports, especially his rock climbing.  One normal day he sets out on some rock climbing excercises when he gets stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Then his survival skills come into question as he awaits rescue.  Will he make it out alive?  He has 127 hours to live so you can find out for yourself.

Review:

James Franco is spectacular in this movie!  He is the only one onscreen for most of the movie.  Sure there are others that appear in this movie but it is Franco that carries the torch.  And he sets the place ablaze!

His (James’) acting ability was never in question.  Kate Mara and the other hitchhiker Amber Tamblyn were recognized right away from TV and another movie I like.  Amber had a reoccurring role in House, M.D. and Kate was in Entourage and played the Subpoena Issuer in Iron Man 2.  Both had short roles in this movie but they did have a point and they did well.  It made you feel like after he got caught you then feel the anxiety of leaving someone waiting.  Your missing a good time.  The anxiety of him hitting it off with a girl.  Instead you then have to stick it through with him to survive.  …and drink some urine.  I just threw up a little.

The soundtrack is pretty melodramatic with exception to the beginning.  Love the intro.  It shows his intensity and his love for everything outdoors.  It basically throws you into his X-treme world immediately and doesn’t let up.  The intro song helps with that.  The directing and editing was done very well.  When this could have been a disaster of a movie Danny Boyle is great.  With so many one on one moments with Franco it had the chance to become boring.  This never happened for me.  It’s all in the editing of scenes and keeping the internal story moving along to NOT make you think about what’s going on in other places.  And when you watch this movie without spoiling it I will say that I enjoyed the ending.

Before I was a married with kids man, I could have really related with Aron’s motivation to stay alive.  He wanted to see his future son.  Who knows when that could be its just the thought that you may die without ever being able to pass on knowledge to your offspring.  That hit home with me, because there were times in my “single” life that I had doubts that I would ever find that special someone and that made me push through it in hopes of one day meeting my kids.  Yeah, I just compared being single to being stuck in crevasse with a boulder on your hand.

My only issue with this movie is that it leaves very little to be desired when talking about re-watch ability.  You can watch it once a year and be fine but, it’s really not a sit down and watch on a Wednesday afternoon just after you watched two Monday’s ago.  Not really the movie’s fault but I cannot give a movie a 5 Star rating unless I can watch it over and over again.

Comic Book Connection:  James Franco – Spider-Man 1-3, Kate Mara – Iron Man 2, Lizzy Caplan – Item 47 (Marvel One-shot), Smallville

Nudity:  No.

 

4.50‘s

Ran-Dizzle

This is one of those movies that brings reality to light, as it is a true event it shows you lots of things to do to survive when the worst happens as well as bring those fears among what could happen when one does something like this. Not many movies especially over rock climbing or any really outdoor activity catches my attention I even procrastinated watching it, and Big JD tells me “Your going to love it.” I wouldn’t say I loved it but I did think it was a good movie.

First of all James Franco did a great job playing Aron Ralston being stuck between a rock and survival for 127 hours. I mean to play that part where you can’t move and all the stuff that Aron had to do even down to *Spoiler* urinating in the Camel Pak to which he had to drink later. The best part besides it’s a true story, is that you see the rock as a symbol of something taking a hold of him and saying LOOK, look at what your choices in life are causing, He hallucinated that he wasn’t going to make it to his sister’s wedding, how if he answered his mom’s call he wouldn’t have been where he was, he could have went and partied with those girls and the inflatable Scooby-Doo. ..but instead he was stuck between the rock and his survival.

The writing was done very well but when you only have basically one scene and quite a few flashbacks you really don’t have to be Shakespeare to make this movie quite dramatic.

The Soundtrack was quite unusual but I liked it, kind of like a burned cd or playlist on an Ipod to Aron’s everyday journey into rock climbing, biking, hiking…

As a movie and a story I think this movie was amazing and tells Aron’s tale well and I think it’s a must see for any wanna-be hikers,rock climbers, or anyone who wants a challenge you should definitely watch this.

And just as important as the message at the end of the movie, if your going to tempt fate by doing things on your own make sure people know where you are because sometimes things don’t always work out like we want them.

4.5‘s

 

Kimmay!

WOW!! That is about all I can say about this movie. It was amazing to watch. I don’t think I could be as calm or collected as Aron if I was in any kind of situation as this. The movie itself was moving and full of hope in a very hopeless situation. There were times when you wanted to yell at the fates for Aron and you kept cheering him on. Halfway through the movie, I had to keep looking away from the screen because it was just to much to take in. 

James Franco did an amazing job in a basically one man show. There were hints of other characters to help keep Aron going but other than the feel good fun scene at the beginning of the film it is him and his own mind.

I remember hearing this was based on a true story when it first came out. If Franco’s portrayal of Aron is anywhere accurate to how Aron really responded then more power to him. He was so calm from beginning to end. He just kept going and doing what he thought needed to be done. I don’t want to tell you how he kept himself going but I will say the mind is a powerful thing.

I would not recommend watching this with small children but older ones yes. Use this as an example of what can happen when no one knows where you are going or when you’ll be back.

It does get a little graphic but the music helped me get through the rougher scenes. it blended well with the movie and kept me going.

So yes, watch this movie! It has a total WOW factor and is super amazing.

4.0‘s