AGAINST THE SUN is a low budget WW2 thriller about a crew of three US airmen whose plane crash-lands in the middle of the Pacific, leaving them stranded on a tiny life raft with no supplies and literally hundreds of miles from the nearest land mass. The hook is that this is a true story, so that everything you see taking place on screen really happened, albeit with the usual artistic licence.
Films like this I tend to enjoy and AGAINST THE SUN is no exception. It's no masterpiece, it's not even particularly memorable, but it does keep you watching from beginning to end and I was never bored for a moment. The script focuses on the characters and pleasingly enough keeps things entirely realistic; there are only a few tacked-on dream sequences and fantasy moments to get in the way. I liked the story's grounding in realism and the way that the three men had to use their wits in order to keep them alive.
The movie is a little cheesy in places, with some lacklustre CGI here and there and JAWS music playing whenever the sharks are on screen. For the most part it works though. The plane scenes early on are very realistic. Garret Dillahunt puts in a solid turn as the eldest of the three and feels very convincing and assured while Tom Felton does an admirable American accent and convinces in his part. Some might find AGAINST THE SUN rather predictable and it's true to say that this kind of story has been done to death over the years, but I find there's still mileage in the material with the right script and direction and this film has both.
Films like this I tend to enjoy and AGAINST THE SUN is no exception. It's no masterpiece, it's not even particularly memorable, but it does keep you watching from beginning to end and I was never bored for a moment. The script focuses on the characters and pleasingly enough keeps things entirely realistic; there are only a few tacked-on dream sequences and fantasy moments to get in the way. I liked the story's grounding in realism and the way that the three men had to use their wits in order to keep them alive.
The movie is a little cheesy in places, with some lacklustre CGI here and there and JAWS music playing whenever the sharks are on screen. For the most part it works though. The plane scenes early on are very realistic. Garret Dillahunt puts in a solid turn as the eldest of the three and feels very convincing and assured while Tom Felton does an admirable American accent and convinces in his part. Some might find AGAINST THE SUN rather predictable and it's true to say that this kind of story has been done to death over the years, but I find there's still mileage in the material with the right script and direction and this film has both.