Gravity (2013), Director: Alfonso Cuarón, 12A

Two things straight up - Gravity is REALLY that good. See it immediately. The film also belongs to Sandra Bullock. Give that lady an Oscar (we recommend placing your bets now!)
This 3D space spectacular has been in development for many years but is well worth the wait, with Director Alfonso Cuarón making the most of the technology that is now available to us. Gravity has the best use of 3D seen yet (sorry Jaws 3-D) and you WILL duck as space debris plummets towards you, and the Space Shuttle Explorer is hit - swirling around, and around, and around. On the biggest screen possible, you'll feel like you're up there in space with Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (a wise-cracking George Clooney); you'll feel their isolation, their weightlessness, the fact it takes bloody ages to do anything in space, and the complete dread as the very worst happens.
Dr Stone is on her first space shuttle mission, and it turns out to be a very bad day at work. A bereaved mother, space is a comfort to her and she likes the silence. At home, she turns the radio off when someone talks. But it's talking - communication - which helps Ryan in what she's about to face and gives her back her literal fight for survival. It's an epic journey for her, a simple story plot-wise to tell as a filmmaker, but one that gives the audience massooove payback. You'll be weeping for her. You'll be cheering her on in the final 20 minutes. This will be the ride of your life.
And Bullock is extraordinary. We know the back story of what she went through as an actress during filming - the loneliness, the long hours in the rig communicating via a headset - and she delivers the performance of her career. If you don't choke up in her final battle when she references her deceased daughter - the line of the film - well...we're welling up now. From despair, to hope, to a tremendous fighting spirit, she is absolutely amazing.
There are deeper elements to Gravity that all film lovers will appreciate, and where you'll be weeping for a different reason. It really is the perfect bloody film. You'll cry as it's everything you've wanted to see. There's an Ellen Ripley homage where Ryan strips down to her knickers in the temporary home of the ISS, and a scare that's akin to the head shock shot in Jaws. Themes of creation vs evolution run through - religion, the 'supernatural' and science are all questioned, and you can't help but feel the final shots have an evolutionary reference. It's a joy to watch and is instantly one of the greatest films ever made; a bold statement, but a true statement!
We're predicting 4 - 5 Oscars for Gravity - Best Film; Best Director; Best Actress and Best Visual Effects.
(How one woman can have so much bad luck on her first day in space is beyond us, mind)
5/5 flying spacey things coming atcha

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