20 | November | 2021 | Movie Reviews 101

Director: Michael Radford

Writer: Anna Pavignano, Michael Radford, Andrea Bocelli (Screenplay) Andrea Bocelli (Autobiography)

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Jordi Molla, Toby Sebastian, Luisa Ranieri, Alessandro Sperduti, Antonella Attili

Plot: Born with a serious eye condition that eventually leads to his blindness, Bocelli nevertheless rises above the challenges, driven by great ambitions towards his passion. The silent pursuit of his daily mission continues.

Tagline – The Unforgettable True Story of Andrea Bocelli

Runtime: 1 Hour 55 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Interesting Biopic

Story: The Music of Silence starts when Sandro (Molla) and Edi (Ranieri) welcome their first son to the world, only after a year of wondering what might be wrong with him, they discover Amos is blind, before eventually finding comfort in music.

As Amos (Sebastian) builds a reputation which sees him turn heads all over the local area, when his teenage years hit, his voice changes, but his passion for music is just as important to him, this is until he finds a new voice that makes him standout from a crowd.

Thoughts on The Music of Silence

Characters – Amos was born blind and struggled to find his place as a child until he found music, he has a voice of an angel which gains him a following, only he never gets his break, every time he thinks he is about to get a chance he finds himself fall, he needs the break to help himself become the star his talent deserves him to be. Sandro is Amos’ father who hasn’t always been as supportive as he could, but didn’t know how to find the best for his son. Maestro is the man that helps Amos look to improve his voice and find his own sound.

Performances – Toby Sebastian is the strongest of the performers in this film, with somebody as big as Antonio Banderas you would have expected to see more screen time for him, only for him like everyone else, just not getting enough time to make an impact.

Story – The story here follows the life of Amos, his struggles with dealing with being blind at a young age and how his passion for music inspired him despite the struggles he would have to come up against to make sure he makes it in the industry. The story isn’t the strongest with how it is told, because we don’t see many or any true breaks Amos is getting, just waiting for the massive moment which would make his career, we go through parts of the personal life, only they don’t seem like they are as important to what happens with his career.

Biopic/Music – The biopic side of the film isn’t the strongest with how it unfolds, though the music once he is let out is beautiful.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show the life that Amos would have had to live through to get to where he was in life, he has the ups and downs, with this shown with where he is living.

Scene of the Movie – The big performance.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is slower with how everything unfolds.

Final Thoughts – This does have beautiful music, only to goes along at such a slow pass it just doesn’t end up giving the emotional impact of the man’s journey.

Overall: Standard Biopic.

Director: Mark Dennis, Ben Foster

Writer: Mark Dennis (Screenplay)

Starring: Reiley McClendon, Cassidy Gifford, Brianne Howey, Olivia Draguicevich, Max Wright, Andrew Wilson

Plot: A professor enters a cave and goes missing. Some of his students come looking for him and get trapped in the cave as well.

Tagline – Deep in the unknown, where time stands still, the only way to survive is to escape to the future.

Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Time Trap starts when Professor Hopper (Wilson) goes in search of a newly discovered cave only for him not to return, Taylor (McClendon), Jackie (Howe) his teaching assistants want to go in search for him, bringing along Cara (Gifford), Veeves (Draguicevich) and Furby (Wright) to help with school projects.

Once inside the cave the five find themselves trapped in a world where not everything is making as much sense as it should.

Thoughts on Time Trap

Characters – Taylor is the one that is leading the expedition to search for the professor, he tries to keep things contained and will look for the best solution when the group become trapped. Cara is the one with climbing experience that could help them look for answers, but it doesn’t always help. With Jackie and Veeves being the younger sibling put into a world they aren’t ready to be in, but drawn to the adventurous nature of the cave searching.

Performances – When we come to the performances nobody is really strong, while nobody is bad, they give us the type of performance you would expect from a movie that could easily have been a TV show.

Story – The story here follows 5 friends who go in search for a missing professor, only to find themselves thrown into a world they can’t explain, with no foreseeable route to escape from. This story is one that is way better than the basic description gives it, we get to look philosophical ideas about time travel and time passing by, the fountain of youth and it isn’t afraid to go brutal in what looks like a child friendly movie. This story has so much more going on, it almost feels like we could have spent more time in this world, learning more, diving into more and wanting more.

Adventure/Sci-Fi – The adventure side of this movie takes us to a world the character would never have imaged being able to be part of, showing us a world we could barely imagine, which plays into the sci-fi elements of everything involved with time travel.

Settings – The film keeps us inside the cave system, the more time spent there, the more secret we unlock through the film.

Special Effects – The effects might well be low budget, but they work very well for the film, bringing to life the different eras.

Scene of the Movie – The final destination.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – You can’t help but feel there would have been more people there with the truth.

Final Thoughts – This is a film that delivers much more than you would expect and could be one of the best looks at the idea of time passing by without knowing the reality outside being different.