Review of All Is Lost (2013) by Stusmalley — 22 Jan 2014

I hate to be a spoilsport, but as a sailor I recognize how ridiculous this film is to watch. It's an excellent film to showcase how not to sail, how not to prepare and how not to even bother donning a life jacket one time in the film. I can begin with how inaccurate all of the scenes are.

He patches a hole in the hull then tacks over and puts high water right on his repair job. Come on really?Why are his clothes constantly dry? Why does the boat have a roller fuller in the beginning then he's hanking on a jib half way through? He's shaving in the middle of a storm on a sinking boat ...really? He's pouring water on a cell phone to get it to work after drying it out? Again...no life jacket after constantly being thrown overboard and miraculously making it back onboard? What? Watches the boat sink and not bothering to grab the Lifesling or a life jacket. No handheld water proof radio, no GPS. The boat rolling over in a storm (unrealistic) several time with the companionway open yet cardboard boxes in one scene are underwater then dry in the next scene. Learning celestial navigation from a book in a life raft that cannot be maneuvered. He doesn't cap his water jug then wonders why there is salt water in it? How did it hold water in the first place with the cap open? I can't begin to tell you how asinine this film is. For any blue water sailor this film depicts a person that has no business being on the sea and nobody, I mean nobody would be this goofy and unprepared. Because this film is so silly and unrealistic I have to give it a score of only 1. Oh, and at the end...after seeing a boat only a few hundred yards away, he lights his life raft on fire, then decides to kill himself after struggling the entire film to be saved. I give up.