We’ve seen these ominous clouds roll in before, bringing storms, earthquakes, tsunami’s, lava and more with them. Sometimes it’s aliens, virus-carrying monkeys or the undead behind such shenanigans, but the good stuff usually comes in the form of Mother Nature/our solar system and the all the hazardous goodies within it suffering a king size tantrum.
In fact, when it comes to apocalyptic fare as entertainment fodder, the list pretty much goes from A (as in ‘Armageddon’) to Z (…uh, ‘World War Z’?), and in most cases, the cream that rises to the top is the material that embraces NOT the avalanche of visual effects that horrifyingly capture the multitude of ways in which our planet gets mowed, but manages to tell some kind of story with a human element.
With ‘Greenland’, audiences get a rather hearty helping of both. A heap of real estate gets sufficiently beat up thanks to a comet named Clark, so fans of disaster flicks won’t be too disappointed… plus, the narrative is comfortably (or, in this case, uncomfortably) unraveled through John Garrity (Gerard Butler), a relatively mild-mannered construction project manager. When the #%$ hits the fan….rather, when Clark starts to hit earth….Garrity receives an Amber-Alert-like text from Homeland Security, instructing him, his estranged wife Allison (‘Deadpool’s Morena Baccarin) – yup, we have here a hero with a few personal warts – and their son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) to show up at a designated Air Force Base for receipt of special wristbands and transport to safety – safety being, as it turns out, survival bunkers in Greenland, hence the title of the film.
Why Garrity? That realization soon strikes, but it’s getting to safety that proves to be the real roller coaster ride in ‘Greenland’, especially with a nation full of panicked individuals coming apart at the seams.
Some of it is a little lunk headed, and a ton of it is improbable, yet in comparison with similar entries into the cinematic end-of-the-world library, ‘Greenland’ is quite good. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Butler is an action star able to do some heavy lifting in the emotional department….he’s not going to be putting any hardware on the mantle anytime soon, but he’s able to win your empathy, I’m sure.
Originally pegged for theatres, ‘Greenland’ is one of the many recent releases going the digital streaming route, this one on Amazon Prime. That means you pretty much get a blockbuster budget film in the comfort of your living room. Oh, and if you have surround sound?….you can really get the upstairs shakin’ with this one.
