All is Lost (2013)

By Newguy

Next up on the Rob’s weekly challenge is All is Lost which has been on my too watch pile for a few months but I have just never gotten around to watching it.

Director: J.C. Chandor

Writer: J.C. Chandor (Screenplay)

Starring: Robert Redford

Plot: After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Stunning but Slow

Story: All is Lost starts 1700 Nautical Miles from The Sumatra Straits on the 13th July as Our Man (Redford) believes that all is lost. The film starts out with a bang when sleeping lone sailor is awoken be cargo shipping container floating in the ocean smashing into the side of his ship leaving a massive hole in the side. The breach in the ship leaves our man with no connections for help even if his boat isn’t going down yet. Staying calm our man fixes the hole before fixing the radio knowing he can survive for a time but just how long is the question, mother nature decides to test our man by throwing storms at him but his years of experience are keeping him a float.

All is Lost is such a very simple story of one man trying survive against mother nature. We have to say this is a courage story that shows our hero never panic and use all the tricks he can to make sure he survives as long as he can always hoping for help. We are left guessing whether he will survive or not as we learn tricks that could help us one day, but in the end I do think this is an incredible story but is very slow, I can easily see the casual film fan giving up on this one. There is pretty much no dialog in the film because our character has no one to talk to or need to explain who he is. I can honestly I would rather watch the fantasy Life of Pi over this because of the extra elements involved. (8/10)

Actor Review

Robert Redford: Our Man is our lone character in the whole film, we learn little about him over than he likes to boat, we know he keeps calm during the panic and knows how to survive and we also get to see his determination to survive. Robert gives a great performance without having to say too much that his action bring us in. (9/10)

Director Review: J.C. ChandorJ.C gives us a very good drama about surviving that will get the praise from the critics but might not get enough attention from the casual fans. (8/10)

Action: All is Lost has the action scenes when our hero has t take on mother nature, each scene is heart stopping and realistic. (9/10)

Drama: All is Lost brings us a brilliant story about surviving against the odds. (9/10)

Settings: All is Lost can’t be faulted one bit for the settings because the whole film is set in the middle of the ocean giving our hero little to no chance of surviving. (10/10)

Suggestion: All is Lost is one to watch even if it does come off slow in places. (Watch)

Best Part: Redford is brilliant.

Worst Part: Slow in places.

Action Scene Of The Film: Storm turning the boat upside and back up again.

Believability: Events like this happen a lot and while this story is fictional it takes ideas from other stories. (8/10)

Chances of Tears: No (0/10)

Chances of Sequel: No

Post Credits Scene: No

Similar Too: Life of Pi

Oscar Chances: Nominated for Best Achievement in Sound Editing.

Box Office: $6.25 Million

Budget: $9 Million

Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes

Tagline: Never Give Up

Overall: All is Lost is a very good story about survival that keeps everything looking very realistic.

Rating