Unmissables

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Director Ridley Scott’s smash hit proved that film fans don’t necessarily need action, aliens, superheroes or sequels to coax them out of the house and into the cinema. Adapted from Andy Weir’s novel, it grabbed various fancy awards and became the tenth highest-grossing film of 2015. Pretty amazing for a two-and-a-half hour movie about one astronaut stuck on Mars. Admittedly, that astronaut is Matt Damon, and he does spend a reasonable amount of time with his shirt off, but the film’s success still defies most box-office wisdom. works mainly because Mark Watney (Damon) is so likeable: after being accidentally left for dead on Mars, with no hope of a rescue mission for years, he accepts his lousy predicament with good grace and dark humour. While most of the laughs are aimed at geeks and the script doesn’t skimp on NASA jargon, a strong supporting cast including Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels help keep the whole thing grounded.