Chiwetel Ejiofor – STREAMING MOVIE NIGHT

2015 20th Century Fox

Rated: PG-13

Length: 2 hr 24min

Adventure ~ Drama ~ Epic ~ Sci-Fi ~ Survival

Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover and Mackenzie Davis.

BRING HIM HOME!

The Martian follows astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is accidentally left behind on Mars after a violent storm forces his crew to abort their mission and evacuate. Believed dead when struck by flying debris, Watney wakes up injured and alone on the hostile red planet with only limited supplies. Determined to survive, he uses his ingenuity as a botanist to grow crops inside the team’s living habitat, known as the Hab. By turning Martian soil and his crew’s waste into usable farmland, and creating water through chemical reactions, he begins to sustain himself while figuring out a way to signal Earth that he is still alive.

Back on Earth, NASA is stunned to discover images showing Watney’s activity on Mars. Director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels) and mission lead Vincent Kapoor (Chiwetel Ejiofor) scramble to reestablish contact using the old Pathfinder rover, eventually opening a line of communication with Watney. As messages begin to travel between Mars and Earth, NASA faces a monumental challenge, how to rescue him before his limited food and oxygen run out. Scientists and engineers from multiple nations join forces, while the world follows Watney’s struggle in awe and suspense, turning his isolation into a global mission.

Meanwhile, aboard the Hermes spacecraft, mission commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and her remaining crew learn that their teammate is alive. Torn between orders to return home and their loyalty to Watney, they secretly conspire to go back for him. Astrophysicist Rich Purnell (Donald Glover) develops a daring “slingshot” plan that would redirect the Hermes back to Mars using Earth’s gravity, saving crucial time but putting the crew at immense risk. Against NASA’s official stance, Lewis and her team decide to take the chance, setting off on an unauthorized rescue mission fueled by courage and friendship.

As Watney drives his rover across the Martian landscape toward the Ares IV launch site, the tension builds. Using parts scavenged from old missions, he prepares for the last, most dangerous phase, launching himself into orbit with a stripped-down Mars Ascent Vehicle to rendezvous with Hermes. In an intense and emotional climax, Commander Lewis reaches out to catch him in open space, reuniting him with the crew in one final, breathtaking rescue. Against impossible odds, Mark Watney’s determination and human resilience triumph, making his story one of survival, science, and hope.

Matt Damon’s performance anchors the film and is frequently hailed as one of his best. Carrying most of the runtime alone, Damon portrays Watney with a mix of frustration, charm, and vulnerability that keeps the viewer invested. His humor becomes a survival tool, softening the loneliness and tension of Mars’s desolation. Damon’s ability to blend wit with emotional depth makes Watney feel like a real person, an explorer confronting fear with intellect and stubborn optimism. Critics note that Ridley Scott gives Damon the cinematic space to let audiences truly connect with Watney’s struggle and triumph.

Visually, the movie is breathtaking. Scott’s decision to shoot in the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan lends authenticity to the Martian landscape, while Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography captures the vast emptiness of space without losing the intimacy of human emotion. The production’s technical precision extends from set design to space flight realism, creating one of the most scientifically credible sci-fi films of the decade. The music, featuring a mix of Harry Gregson-Williams’s introspective score and Watney’s tongue-in-cheek disco playlist, lightens the mood and grounds the story in personality rather than spectacle.

Ridley Scott’s The Martian is a brilliant reminder why he’s one of sci-fi’s all-time greats, a director who can take you from the shadowy, rain-soaked alleys of Blade Runner to the dusty, lonely surface of Mars without missing a beat. If Blade Runner was Scott’s moody, philosophical masterpiece about what it means to be human, The Martian flips the script with a smart, hopeful survival story that celebrates human ingenuity and grit. Both films boast unforgettable worlds, the futuristic cityscape in one, the stark Martian horizon in the other, showcasing Scott’s knack for creating settings as powerful as the characters. Watching The Martian feels like catching up with an old friend who’s just as comfortable making you think deeply as making you root for a guy growing potatoes on the red planet.

I don’t remember seeing this movie before but I saw it was on Netflix and decided to give it a go. How could you go wrong with Ridley Scott, Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover and Mackenzie Davis. It does not disappoint, the 2 hours and 24 minute runtime went by super quick. It is a really good movie, one I highly recommend if you haven’t seen it. And if you have, watch it again, well worth a repeat viewing.

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie!

Currently on NETFLIX.

2006 Universal Pictures

Rated: R

Length: 2 hr 8min

Crime ~ Drama ~ Mystery ~ Thriller

Directed by: Spike Lee

Starring: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

“My name is Dalton Russell. Recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery……..”

Clive Owen stars as Dalton Russell, who in August 2005, leads a small group of criminals who hijack The Manhattan Trust Bank and hold everyone inside hostage. Denzel Washington stars as Detective Keith Frazier, who along with his partner Detective Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are assigned to the active situation. Willem Dafoe stars as Captain John Darius with the NYPD Emergency services Unit who has set up the perimeter and command center at the Bank. They set up phone communication within the bank solely through the commander center and wait to hear from the Bank robbers.

Christopher Plummer stars as The Founder and Chairman of The Board of Manhattan Trust Bank Arthur Case. This branch is the original Manhattan Trust Bank and also the biggest. Arthur is very nervous about the robbery and the men inside the bank because he has an unidentified security deposit box inside. He does not want them to get their hands on what is inside the box for fear it could ruin him. He makes a call to the most notorius “Fixer” in the city, Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), and she agrees to meet with him. Madeleine calls in a favor from the Mayor and gets him to let her into the active crime scene so she can negotiate with the bank robbers.

And the game of cat and mouse is on as the police and detectives try to negotiate with the bank robbers and figure out their motives and demands, and Madeleine and Arthur try to keep his secret hidden, and the robbers play hide and seek with the hostages as they do something different than bank robbers are expected to do in this situation. It is a thrilling crime drama with a mystery not solved until the very end. It is a movie centered around a bank robbery but it is much more than that. There are secrets and mysteries that are exposed that throw a different twist on the old bank robbery caper.

I have seen this countless times, whenever I see it listed on a platform I always watch it. It is one of my favorites. I sought it out this time because I found out that there was a sequel to this movie, INSIDE MAN: MOST WANTED. I have seen the sequel numerous times too, but didn’t realize they were connected. I came across an article about it while doing research for another movie. It explained how the two movies are connected in the storyline, how the story carries over into the sequel. I had no idea, but thinking about it it made sense. So I had to go back and watch them with my new knowledge of the storyline.

It is a great movie. With Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe and Chiwetel Ejiofor all at their best. It is funny at times as well. All the interrogation scenes were completely ad-libbed by the actors. Great job I’d say. Great story, great cast, great acting and a great movie. I am watching the sequel INSIDE MAN: MOST WANTED tonight.

If you haven’t seen it you’re missing out on a good one.

Highly Recommended!