Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

I wouldn't really say I'm a fan of Mel Gibson and he hasn't really done anything particularly noteworthy in a while. I wasn't expecting much but this movie is his return to form. He went back to what he knows, war movies. The battle scene is very long and the violence is quite gratuitous but all in all the choreography is actually really well done. There is a constant intensity. Is it a little over the top? Sure. But war is over the top, isn't it? There were a couple of scenes that just didn't work. At one point, you see warships that bomb the ridge. And in this day and age, the warships should not have looked so fake. The CGI and special effects in that scene were not up to date. Secondly, the inevitable seppuku scene was unnecessary and in poor taste. We got the idea already, we didn't need to see it.

Andrew Garfield is quite good. His southern accent sounds a little off, but it is charming nonetheless. The first half of the movie perhaps bangs on the bible too much for my taste, but that is the whole point. Garfield plays a conscientious objector (for religious reasons) who volunteers for the army anyways. The film presents an ethical dilemma that is genuinely thought provoking. The movie is emotional in all the right places. The star of the movie, however, is Vince Vaughn. I think he is hilarious in everything he does, and a war movie is no exception. He is an interesting and brilliant (kind of provocative) choice to cast as the army sergeant, providing some comic relief to an otherwise unfunny situation. 

Everest (2015)

Everest is a film about torture.  These mountaineers inexplicably put themselves through misery for a steep $65,000 per summit. Climbing the highest mountain in the world does not look like fun. It is unbearably cold, the air is inhumanely thin, and everyone is perpetually exhausted.  I thought Jake Gyllenhaal would have a larger part in the movie, but he was hardly in it.  The visuals are incredible though.  You actually feel as miserable as the trekkers and you feel like you're on the side of the mountain.  You feel the snow pouring down as it becomes more difficult to breathe.  It is a truly immersive experience that probably would've been great in IMAX. Nothing ever goes right in the expedition doomed to fail.  It is a dangerous adventure disaster movie.  And it is done quite well. One of the scariest moments is crossing a ladder bridged across a deep crevasse in the ice.  It is a flimsy looking ladder and there is nothing protecting them from falling down into the depths.  The aerial shot over the bottomless pit is a dizzying visual.  These are some terrifying shots.