127 Hours

What a waste of my time. Making a movie about an arrogant a-hole going off on his own to become an even bigger a-hole. How about a movie that doesn't try to convince me of this. Too many fictional events added to make the story more titillating. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want to have to go through what Aron did, however I am not such an egomaniac to allow myself to be in that situation. As an avid climber and mountaineer, I first learned to never go off on your own. I cannot believe I wasted two hours of my life watching this drivel. I do not understand those of you who say you've walked away with a deeper understanding of life, felt inspired or have emotional clarity from this movie. Pathetic and sad. Let's stop glorifying idiots, okay?

Danny Boyle has outdone himself this time as well as James Franco in a film which to me is hands down the best film of the year, Oscar contenders get ready to be defeated! From beginning to end the movie has energy, creativity, fun and intense thrills and the best one man show since Cast Away. You get invested in this character and relate to him and feel that you are right there with him with his fight for survival and just a heads up for the squeamish that thing get pretty graphic in some scenes and if you read the book you know what I mean. This movie is so inspirational, moving, intimate and makes you want to live life to the fullest and it shows how precious life is, you'll be thankful to be alive and well. The cinematography is outstanding in this and Danny Boyle deserves an Oscar for best director because this is ten times better than Slumdog Millionaire. Overall this movie is flawless to me because it has an amazing true story, a great performance from James Franco, stunning film-work, never dull,slow or predictable it is masterful work! Highly Recommended!!!

You know, when I first heard about this movie. I didn't really know what to expect, as all I knew was it was based on a true story about a guy getting stuck in a canyon due to a boulder. I decided to give it a shot and well, I was amazed by this movie. Danny Boyle continues to give us impressive cinematography and incredible performances in his movie, thanks to James Franco, who plays as Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who gets stuck under the boulder if you didn't already know. I'm not going to go into any big spoilers, but it was amazing to see how the movie builds up to the main plot. After getting stuck under a boulder for 5 days, you're probably thinking "How is this movie going to stay entertaining?". Well, we witness some attempts of Aron trying to get out of the boulder, as well as using the equipment he brought with him with his backpack to try and survive. He also tries to keep himself awake so that he can live long enough to not die. When all normal attempts to escape fail, as a last resort, he does something very terrifying to get out. When this scene happened, I had to turn away in parts due to how extreme it was! With good uses of hallucinations and flashbacks to keep the story flowing, Danny Boyle has managed to make this movie as realistic as possible. Great music, great filming, and stunning performance. 127 Hours is a fantastic movie about a real-life incident that may be too disturbing to watch for some people, but I'd consider it a must see on all grounds. Definitely worthy of getting nominated for Best Picture at least surely?

You have probably heard the story about the man that went canyoneering, alone, in Utah in 2003, not telling anyone where he was going. Five days later he emerged out of the Utah canyons, missing an arm. He had become wedged between a rock and a hard place (literally) and eventually had to cut his own arm off in order to survive. If you were like me you probably thought to yourself, "Wow, what an awful experience, I bet that sucks. Oh well, back to my life." The truth is that the self amputation handiwork is not even close to what the man, Aron Ralston, had to go through for the first 124 hours of his ordeal. Having read "It's Not About the Bike" by Lance Armstrong, I think it is fair to compare the two stories not only about survivorship but also about the bigger picture in which we call "life." You have probably also heard how Armstrong survived testicular cancer to go on to win the Tour De France seven times. Again you might have thought to yourself "Wow, he had a small bout with cancer and now everything is all right. Oh well, back to my life." The severe gravity of these situations don't settle in until you hear or see the personal stories of what these individuals endured to earn their lives back. Danny Boyle, is the director who helped bring Ralston's excruciating story to the screen in "127 Hours." Boyle, with an eclectic resume including a movie about heroin addiction ("Trainspotting"), a movie about two youngsters finding a bag of money ("Millions"), and a Bollywood movie ("Slumdog Millionaire"), focused on the events that put the viewer in Ralston's position then made that viewer understand that there was only two ways out of the cavern. We start the story with Ralston (played by James Franco) driving out to the Utah canyons while inconveniently forgetting his Swiss Army knife at home (he would need that later). He runs into two young female hikers and introduces them to an underground swimming hole. Not knowing these are the last two people he will have contact with for quite some time. After parting ways with the hikers, Ralston tumbles down a narrow canyon and his right arm becomes wedged between a small boulder and the canyon wall. He has the exact same reaction that I would have, "AGGHHHH!!!" I understood his anger because I too would react in the same way. I too would not accept my situation. I too would be cursing at the rock. Before this movie, I did wonder how Boyle was going to keep us engaged for the length of the film. It's a hard task considering Ralston was in one place for five days. Boyle, along with Franco's brilliant acting, was able to keep us flowing from day to day. Sure there are the flash back scenes and a few Scooby-Doo induced hallucinations. But, the one thing that kept my attention was what Ralston actually did while trapped in the crevice. He had a video camera and he videotaped himself giving an ultimate gratitude list to his parents and friends. Even in his dying hours, he wanted his parents to know how he felt about them. He even went as far as producing a humorous morning talk show with himself. It was real, and it worked. That video is now in a safety deposit box where only a few sets of eyes have seen it. Should you see this movie? Yes, but don't see it because a guy cuts off his arm to survive. See it because you want a story about why a guy cuts off his own arm to survive. See it because you need to know the answer to what you would do if you were in Ralston's predicament. See it because you are the type of person (to quote an earlier Boyle movie) to "choose life" and you know deep down inside that there is a force driving you.

The summary says it all. There is no arguing this mans determination, grit and human strength; I also have no doubt in my mind that this makes an amazing tale and book. However, there really is only so long you can spin out a guy falling down a hole and getting trapped and it isn't 90 minutes, not by a long shot. It becomes tedious, also you have no sense of love for this character,he comes across as a reckless fool, perhaps they should of built up his character more in the first half and then him have his accident? So yeah, 1* for the amazing tale and the thing it could have been, -9* for the thing it isn't -Emma

Danny Boyle has always been an indie favourite, consistently producing excellent films in many different genres. However, his films never enjoyed the box-office reach they deserved. That is, until his 2008 surprise blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire broke all expectations. It was a film that would then allow Danny Boyle to create whatever film project he wanted, with presumably whatever budget he needed. This is a dream situation for any director, but instead of taking the opportunity to direct a massive budget film, he writes and directs, 127 Hours. The film, which tells the incredible true story of Aron Ralston, could be handled in incredibly different ways. Luckily, Boyle's film about a man having to cut off his own arm doesn't leave you feeling depressed, but rather it is energetic and life-affirming. The film doesn't tone down any of the difficult aspects, in fact it throws them right in your face. However, what makes this film so fantastic, is that Boyle's style matches Ralston's view on life and explanation for surviving the awful ordeal. The film begins at a furiously kinetic pace, one you would be hard pressed to find in an action film. It is a jolt to the senses and it sets the perfect mood for the film. It is not making light of a terrible situation but rather putting you in the mind set that Aron Ralston was in before the accident occurred. What makes this directorial decision so important is the fact that without understanding the kind of person he was, we couldn't understand how he survived the awful ordeal he was in. This is what makes Boyle perfect for the material, where another director would most likely go very minimalist, Boyle goes all out in terms of style, without ever losing the emotional connection. Boyle's stylistic choices heighten emotional integrity where as other directors' use of style is often just visual stimulation. As important Boyle's direction was to making the film great, if it were not for James Franco's performance as Aron, the film would have failed. Franco gives one of the strongest performances of his career, if not his best. His performance could very easily have become showy and overly dramatic, yet Franco was smart enough to restrain himself until the moment called for dramatics. It would be a real shame to forget the unsung heroes of this film, the two directors of photography; Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle. As the film features, for the most part, one man on screen for the duration, Boyle decided to make the visuals into their own characters. To do this, he employed two fantastic directors of photography to make the visuals competing characters. As the film progressed, remembering the incredibly impressive shots became harder and harder, to a point where I lost count. The film features some of the most memorable shots of Boyle's career, many of which leave you wondering how they possibly accomplished them. Danny Boyle has made a career of films about men who are pushed to their absolute limits, yet the films always leave you feeling better than when you arrived. He does not muddy his films with sentimentality or out of place scenes to make the audience feel better, but his films still leave you feeling an energy for life. It is his talent of finding the strength within people and his natural ability to present it to us that makes his films so powerful. 127 Hours is one of the rare films that leaves an audience in their seats during the credits, and for many, even after the credits are done their scroll.

Warning: this movie is boring and it will tick you off and put you to sleep. Plot. Moron goes hiking in the mountains without a cell-phone, without a GPS, without telling anyone where he's going. But he remembers a digital camera and a video-camera that apparently has enough battery-power to last 127 hours. He gets trapped in a canyon when he's arm is crushed under a big rock. After 127 hours he cuts his arm off. This movie is pointless and boring and a piece of trash and not the masterpiece people make it out to be. It's not a movie about survival and the guy is NOT a hero. This is a guy that left everything back home, including his brain. And it's not a miracle that he survived, more, just dumb luck. Avoid this snooze-fest even on TV.

The single point is simply because its based on a true story and for the courage of the man who endured it. The movie portrays the character in a very bad light, from being stupid to arrogant to crazy. 1) He is never in pain. From the fall to the rescue, there's no display of pain at all, just self loathing. 2) The character is extremely arrogant. Humoring his situation and not once feeling the need to cry out to a higher power which in most cases I'm sure most people would do. Maybe he wanted to be politically correct. 3) He has episodes of sexual arousal, I kid you not. He even plays a video and tries to *. 4) Very poor stoy telling. In fact there is no story. Everything tries to stand on the one fact that he is stuck at the canyon. So the reason for all the high points ? Maybe these are all Danny Boyle fans, who won't let him down, no matter what.

I started loving this film within the first few seconds. 127 Hours begins immediately with the sound of Fresh Blood's "Never Hear Surf Music Again" ("There must be some f*%#ing chemical, chemical in your brain, that makes us different from animals, makes us all the same." etc...) just as featured in the 1st trailer. That not-ripped-off euphoric feeling (how many times have you seen a trailer with a perfect song/music and then felt betrayed that it wasn't in the film later... yeah, me too) carried on all the way through the rest of the film. The film has an energetic start with a split screen showing office-bound commuters/workers going along their daily drudge while our lead, x-treme biker/hiker/climber Aron Ralston (played to perfection by actor James Franco) packs his gear (unfortunately not finding his Swiss Army knife which might have made a lot of difference to him later on) for a trek into Blue John Canyon country in Utah. While on his way he has a brief fun climbing/diving/swimming interlude with two female hikers (played by Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn). He then heads off on his own and at about 20 minutes into the movie takes a tumble with a small boulder that ends up pinning his right arm against the side wall of the thin crevice of a canyon. And that is where we are with him for the next "127 hours" (but only 1 hour of screen time) that it takes him to get loose. I'm not going to spoil that resolution here, although most will likely hear about it anyway before seeing the movie. An obvious clue that he survives is given by the screen credit early in the film that says it is "based on the book Between A Rock And A Hard Place by Aron Ralston". The guy must of survived if he wrote a book about it right? Well, you can survive in many ways and not all of them leave you whole (both mentally and physically). Director Danny Boyle brings a lot of the key Oscar-winning players of the Slumdog team back for this new film. Screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, soundtrack composer A.R.Rahman and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (this time paired with Enrique Chediak) are chief among those. As an added bonus, from the director of the toilet-diving cam in Trainspotting, we now have the "desperately thirsty character saves his own urine so it can be filmed while drunk through a tube"-cam in this movie. At the Toronto Film Festival's 2nd screening of the film, Boyle was there to take questions from the audience and his enthusiasm and excitement about the film were infectious. Tidbits included his talking about their 6 days of location shooting followed by a sound-stage recreation of the canyon based on 3D scanning imagery. Boyle also praised actor James Franco and emphasized how every time we see him in a new film he is stretching his talents and abilities, unlike many lead actors who are just basically playing themselves in various different situations. Boyle said that for an audience to watch what would otherwise be deemed "unwatchable" you either had to be making a schlocky/not-to-be-taken-seriously horror movie OR you had to make the audience completely identify with the character to the extent that they would believe that they themselves would have done the exact same thing to save themselves if they had to. Well, Boyle succeeds in making you believe it. Seen at the Ryerson Theatre, Toronto Sept. 13, 2010. 2nd screening of 3 at TIFF 2010.

127 HOURS starts out badly and never recovers. All we know about this guy Ralston is he's racing a bicycle across Utah trying to get somewhere or other 45 minutes quicker than anyone before. Suddenly for no reason he's on foot, still racing, and meeting two girls. He loses sight of his goals and sets about impressing the girls involving them in irresponsible behavior jumping around the sharp and dangerous rocks of Moab, Utah. Soon after leaving the girls, he's still jumping around like a jerk when the ground gives way; he slides, and his forearm is stuck under a very heavy rock. He makes a courageous and focused effort to free himself, but eventually (as you know) he'll cut off the arm to save his life. (These scenes are no more graphic than necessary.) We are supposed to get to know Ralston through his many flashbacks. Unfortunately, his life was apparently no more interesting than that of a cigar store wooden Indian -- not much there. We're initially given nothing to make us care about Ralston, later we learn nothing much, and by movie's end he's still a blank slate. Danny Boyle uses a few cheap tricks such as turning the volume up seriously loud on the background music when something (supposedly) interesting happens. In truth this is pure "What do I do next syndrome" following his truly excellent "Slumdog Millionaire." In Slumdog, he grabbed our emotions over-and-over with one brilliant scene after another. Herein, nothing. I saw this film under perfect conditions at my childhood neighborhood theater, now the restored AFI SILVER, one of America's finest movie houses. Comfortable seats, extra legroom, giant screen, THX stereo. A good movie would have made it great.