Starring:  Sandra Bullock, George Clooney.

Rated: PG-13.  Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller.  Running Time: 1 hour 31 minutes.

There are a few voice actors we could’ve listed in the cast, including a cleverly placed Ed Harris as the voice from mission control (think Apollo 13), but be clear this is a two person movie.  As a matter of fact, George is only here to do a, ‘Danny Ocean in space’ turn, as astronaut-lite comic relief.  This movie IS Sandra Bullock, and I would submit, her best work ever.  I’m sure you must know the plot of this one, catastrophic space accident leads to desperate attempts at survival.  I found myself thinking, “this is like All is Lost, but in space.”  We recently reviewed that Robert Redford one man show, about a mysterious older man alone on a yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean.  He too has an accident and must pull out all the stops to survive.  Redford’s performance was fantastic, but that script fell far short of Gravity’s, and subsequently only received a 3 Gummy Bear rating from yours truly.  Bullock’s Ryan Stone has much more to work with in Gravity and she really delivers.   

It blows my mind that she didn’t win the Oscar.  Instead Cate Blanchett’s neurotic Jasmine took home the tiny statuette.  But I’m honestly biased because I didn’t care much for Woody Allen’s ‘Blue Jasmine’ and Gravity literally rocked my World.  I saw Gravity in the theatre on a whim and only by circumstance.  Ross and I were hosting our good friend Labs, as we call him, and in an attempt to spare Labs our usual PG, 3-D kids flick, I accompanied him to Gravity whilst Ross and Ethan caught Free Birds.  And Gravity in the theatre was breathtaking.  From the opening visual masterpiece of Earth from space to the reality shattering cinematography – this flick has balls.  There’s no lollygagging – it opens right up into action and ends without ever coming up for air.  As Ross has said, it’s very similar to the Redford survival tale and seemingly identical in the way it makes the sympathetic viewer say, “Give ’em a break.”

I’ll go a step further, I HATED Blue Jasmine, it blew chunks.  Cate Blanchett was appropriately vile in her role, but there is simply no comparison to Sandra Bullock’s performance.  I know why she lost though; the special effects were so mind blowing, the voters must’ve been blinded into thinking that they, not Sandra, was the reason Gravity so mesmerized them.  I wish I had seen it on the big screen, that truly had to be something!  What Gravity had that All is Lost lacked, was a backstory on our heroine.  We know who she is.  We know she held the impossible misery of losing a child.  We know she had withdrawn into her work because of it, and we know that inevitably led her to space.  We also know that through it all, she still had an indefatigable will to live.  Make no mistake, the special effects are out of this world and won well-deserved Oscars, but Sandra Bullock is the reason to see Gravity. 

Gravity won 7 Oscars total, including Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón.  Cuarón also directed Ross’ favorite Harry Potter flick, Prisoner of Azkaban as well as the sci-fi thriller, Children of Men, which he always enjoys watching.  Even though he’s seen it dozens of times.  It’s no stretch that he enjoys the man’s style of directing as much as the rest of the World, including myself.   I had to mention my man crush George Clooney.  And I love when he plays his usual charming smart ass, which he does here as Matt Kowalski.  Half the time he’s either telling some cheeky story or hitting on Bullock’s Ryan Stone.  He’s a welcome distraction from the harrowing struggle…even though it’s fleeting.  There are many reasons to see Gravity.  The performances, the effects and the execution.  It’s hard to pull off a movie of this magnitude and they accomplish it with flying colors.  I can tell you one thing for sure…I never want to go up in space.

Ross’ Rating: 4.25 out of 5 Gummy Bears. 

Maria’s Rating: 4 Gummies.