Meet China’s answer to Sully. On May 14, 2018, the cockpit window of Sichuan Airlines Flight 8633 shattered deep in the Himalayas, sucking the copilot halfway out of the plane and placing the rest of the 9-person crew and 119 passengers at risk for hypothermia, hypoxia, and worse. The story of how the captain, the […]
Review: Exit (2019)
South Korea is no stranger to disaster movies—entries cover tidal waves to zombie viruses. The most recent addition combines The Towering Inferno, the French Dans la Brume (A Breath Away), the Three Stooges, and any movie where a guy wants to impress a girl. Let me explain. Our sad-sack-but-soon-to-be-hero Yong-nam (Jo Jung-suk) has been living […]
Review: The Command (2018)
It might have been to The Command‘s detriment that I watched it very soon after Chernobyl. Apparently this is the summer for Soviet disaster movies. Both films cover actual nuclear disasters that happened because of the culture of the time: the overriding imperative to be first/best, damn the human cost, along with paranoia and arrogance […]
Review: Chernobyl (2019)
“What is the cost of lies?” Caution: This review contains descriptions of suicide and animals being harmed. This is the last line of the TV miniseries Chernobyl, which over the course of its five episodes, answers the question thusly: 600,000 men conscripted, 300,000 people displaced, and up to 93,000 dead. But according to the Soviet […]
Review: Aniara (2018)
Well, you can’t say they didn’t warn you. The word aniara comes from an old Greek word meaning depairing. This is truth in advertising, people. It’s so full of despair that a MACHINE commits suicide. It’s not a popcorn movie, is what I’m saying; in fact, I’m not sure it’s really a disaster movie. The […]