Special Guest Review! "All Is Lost" Reviewed by Jeff Watson

For the first time in the history of Out There in the Dark,

we have a guest blogger!  John's partner Jeff weighs in

on the very visceral reaction he had to All Is Lost.

 1 / 5 

All Is Lost, including the two hours of my life that I spent enduring this giant question mark of a movie. 

Who is this guy?

Does he have a name?

Why should I care about him? 

What is motivating him, at the age of eighty-something (Ed. Note: Redford is 78), to set sail alone on the Indian Ocean? 

Why does he make a series of seemingly illogical choices in the face of his predicament?

Is he unaware that the weather, 1,700 nautical miles from Sumatra, can be volatile?

Has he not heard of GPS transponders?

Why does it occur to him to distill his own water before it dawns on him to use his emergency fishing supplies to catch a fish?

REALLY?

Fine.

I can suspend disbelief with the best of them. I do it everyday.  I work for Disney for God’s sake.

But I can’t suspend my annoyance with this uninspired, senseless piece of cinema.  C’mon!

Yes, Robert Redford can hold the screen with relative ease.  But so could that whale from Blackfish.  The whale, I rooted for.  The crazy old guy on the yacht alone in the middle of nowhere, not so much.  I mean, when my grandfather was this guy’s age, he wasn’t allowed out in the garage without supervision.

*******

JOHN: So, you didn't like the movie?

JEFF: I'd rather watch a marathon of Madea films.