127 hours was pretty good. Not something I'll ever see again, mind you, but something I'm glad I did see. It is a good story, but I just thought it was dreadfully slow. I mean, going in to the movie we can guess it's basically just going to be James Franco with his hand stuck under a boulder for a long time and in that sense, the film didn't disappoint.
     Going into this film, I'll admit, I was terrified. I'd heard soooo much about how terrible and how gross the scene was where Ralston cuts off his arm that I was really expecting to faint, vomit, have a seizure or something... Can we say LET DOWN? Seriously, if you puked or fainted or had to leave the theater because of that scene, you're weak. Sorry, but I was just so disappointed. I waited for a full hour and fifteen minutes in utter fear and agony, and when it was over (like 30 seconds after it started) all I could think was, "that's it??'' I found it way more gross when he drank his own pee. And yes I have seen Bear Grylls drink his own pee too, but it's still nasty.
     Other than that, I thought that the color was ridiculously over saturated. I get it Danny Boyle, you want to be "stylish," but I just found all of the over the top color correction to make everything really blue or really orange distracting. It didn't make me say "wow how beautiful" it made me say "wow how obnoxious." This mainly happens in the beginning whenever Aron's character is happy and excited to be out in nature and it's dumbed down later when he's trapped and not quite so happy any more. At that point I thought the footage was beautiful.
     I thought Franco's portrayal of Aron was fine. He did do a good job, but I don't really understand all of the Oscar buzz. I mean, let's face it...he pretty much just stood in a cave and grunted for an hour. He did occasionally talk to himself or his camera, but that was about it. If that's what defines an Oscar worthy performance, then shoot let's give it to him now. He was great for what the role called for, I just didn't think that it was anything earth shattering.
     I think my favorite part was this close up of Franco who was sleeping while ants were crawling on his face. We're zoomed in so tight and the theater screen is so big you can actually see the ant pinch his skin. It looked really cool.
     That's it folks. It was an ok film, just don't go in expecting to see a lot of action or a lot of blood. There's a good 30 seconds of it but it's really not that bad...