Rating: PG-13, for brief strong language.
Robert Redford gives a tour-de-force performance in an essentially wordless role as a man stranded alone on a small yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean. When he does allow himself to break down and speak, on the sixth day of his ordeal, he bellows the four-letter word the rest of us would have shouted early and often on day one. Nothing frightening happens in director J.C. Chandor’s powerfully precise film -not in the traditional, horror-flick sense of the word. But Redford’s character’s struggle for survival steadily intensifies with each new problem until it becomes almost unbearably harrowing. Some tweens might find themselves a little bored by the quiet tone and languid pacing. But All Is Lost also could serve as an inspiring tale of resourcefulness and perseverance.
Rating: PG-13, for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence throughout, and brief language.
Director Guillermo del Toro does not mess around when it comes to creature features, as we know, so the monsters in this spectacularly mounted escape are full of clever, vivid details. This summer blockbuster features giant underwater monsters known as kaiju wreaking havoc on major cities across the globe; only an army of massive robots can stop them and save humanity. It’s big, dumb fun that might be too scary for littler ones but just right for eager tweens. One sequence, however, will be unnerving for viewers of any age: a flashback to a little girl scurrying through the decimated streets of Japan, sobbing as she tries to flee the beast that just killed her parents.
