One of the year's best (and smartest) movies.

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2015)

THE MARTIAN (2015) **** Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Mackenzie Davis, Donald Glover. Epic, fun and enthralling science fiction drama with Damon as a botanist left behind on Mars accidentally being believed to be killed on an expedition, resulting in his savvy brain trust (his and NASA's) to get him home in spite of tremendous odds, obstacles and pitfalls. Ridley Scott pulls out all the stops with brio and smartly sprinkles in dollops of self-ware, world-weary humor (thanks to a fine adaptation of Andy Weir's book by Drew Goddard) and a sterling cast including bright-eyed Chastain as his commander hell-bent on the rescue mission, Ejiofor and Daniels as squabbling team pundits and again, Damon in a career high turn as the self-possessed yet vulnerable Mark Watney in a performance ranking up there with Tom Hanks' in CASTAWAY & Sandra Bullock's in GRAVITY ; in other words - Oscar-worthy. A must see in 3-D with some truly amazing visuals and a superb sound track of '70s disco tunes. One of the year's best (and smartest) movies.