Review of All Is Lost (2013) by Bradysmith — 13 Sep 2014

It's not a bad movie, but All Is Lost is way too sparse to hold complete attention for its almost two hour running time. It's very well shot and meticulously detailed in terms of how Redford comes up with clever ways to survive, but a lot of the time I was bored.

Don't get me wrong, there were a handful of tense or exciting scenes. A couple of times the movie actually got to be pretty emotionally resonant. I just haven't fallen in love with the idea of movies being as bare boned as possible.

This same story could have been told with a lot more excitement if flashbacks, or at least some more lines, were added. It's all very convincing, but if you look at 127 Hours, or Life of Pi, you'll see how much more engaging this type of movie can be.

Redford did a decent job acting but it wasn't a very challenging role to play. He just had to hold a serious face the whole time. The movie's not terrible but I don't get why critics adore it so much.

A metascore of 87 is just way too high in my opinion. Nice storm scene though.