Gravity

Get ready for a mind blowing, stomach churning, popcorn dropping space adventure that might be the most exciting movie you see all year.

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney star as Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski – an engineer on her first mission in space, and an astronaut on his final ride before retirement. They have gone out in a space shuttle to repair a satellite, which requires a spacewalk and maneuvering alongside this big mechanical giant.

Unfortunately, the Russians have chosen to shoot down one of their own malfunctioning satellites, and misjudged the impact and debris field, so the mission has to be aborted in a matter of moments to avoid the massive clutter of junk heading their way. Of course, they don’t make it, the space shuttle is destroyed and Stone has been sent spinning out into space with no way to stop, and no tether to keep her anywhere near safety.

Can Stone and Kowalski survive?

Gravity is the one movie a year that will have you and your friends and your family and all of those people in the theater with you talking about its harrowing scenario and all of the theories we have going in about how Stone is supposed to be saved, because you can’t imagine a movie where she isn’t saved, or can you?

That’s the great part of Gravity. As Stone is spinning and floating through space, every audience member puts himself or herself in her space suit and tries to imagine how to get out or what they would do or feel in that situation, and survival seems impossible.

And, while watching Gravity, director Alfonso Cuaron makes you feel like you are thousands of miles above earth, floating in space with these astronauts. I actually started to feel a bit queasy as if I was right next to Sandra Bullock as she was struggling to hold on or when she is trying to breathe as she is getting further and further away from safety and closer and closer to impending death and doom.

We don’t have lots of other details, because none are needed. This is not a dialogue driven movie or a film reliant on lots of backstory for the characters. We just get wrapped up in this struggle to survive in a situation that seems as deadly as any we ever could imagine.

Bullock is fantastic. She’s a space neophyte struggling to stay alive for a worst case scenario you don’t do a ton of training for. She fills the character with a will to live, and daringly pushes herself further than most.

And, George Clooney gets one, amazing, breathtaking, Give-Him-The-Oscar moment that will blow you away.

Make sure you see it in 3D!

Gravity is rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.