GREENLAND

I liked GREENLAND, Gerard Butler’s end-of-the-world, extinction-level-threat, asteroid movie, directed by Ric Roman Waugh.

The premise isn’t fresh, but it keeps its feet on the ground and amps up its tension with a fine sense of balance and plausibility as it follows a family of three and their journey amid the chaos to find each other after being separated (no surprises there) and then get to a point where they have a chance of surviving the impact.

Gerard is good as the father / husband. The film is wise not to allow him to be more than human as he responds to the threats around him - a man attacking him with a claw hammer - and the dilemmas he has to face - a neighbour begging him to take her daughter with him to safety.

Terrific to see Morena Baccarin given equal screen time as the mother / wife. Her character’s sense of distress at the danger facing her son is played beautifully and helps ground the film.

Scott Glenn is on hand, too, living in the world’s loveliest house, a big ranch with magnificent views of America. Glenn always plusses a film, and that’s what he does here, channeling Iggy Pop in his cap sleeve t-shirt, showing off those wiry, sinewed arms. Glenn is 82 now. Long may he reign.

The film brings nothing new to the genre, and many of its incidents and set pieces are familiar, but it delivers on its promise and sees things through to the end. It even, at times, evokes Lynne Littmann’s criminally overlooked TESTAMENT from 1983.

GREENLAND is on Amazon Prime.