Gold

I'm a big fan of man alone in space kind of sci Fi movies and while this wasn't a sci Fi it definitely had the feel of one of those movies.

It's slow but I was kept interested the whole time and the suspense was present the entire movie with some space in between to let you breathe when appropriate.

I was very glad I watched it and will recommend it to my friends to watch. Good story. Great ending.

Gold (2022) had a promising start and overall has demonstrated solid production value, although the washed-out look got old fast.

While the acting was perfectly fine, as it gets closer to the end, it starts to wear on you. This isn't really a human nature study, more like a semi-survival film full of stupid decisions. The only human trait here was greed. Nothing more than that. In a future like this, you would think people would've still bet on survival over pointless death.

The resolution is obvious from the start since this is what would happen in a real-life situation. They added a little "twist" at the end, but it barely connects, since it means nothing for the viewer or the characters, and rather solidifies the message the film is trying to push.

The whole story relies on our main character not being too bright, and it's fine. The problem is that we barely know anything about the world and the characters. Frankly, there are no characters going through arcs, people encounter problems in a not-so-bright future, and never change. This was probably intended, and probably realistic enough, but even a couple of flashbacks establishing motivations or attitudes would've been great. Especially since the acting was good.

As it is, Gold (2022) is an ok semi-survival film but feels very shallow and does not connect the viewer to what these "characters" are going through. There are also some things that make little sense, like why Virgil didn't just leave when he got the Stranger's loot. Since one can walk there on foot, he could've given it a try, it's not as a middle of nowhere as they said it was. I guess greed is an answer to anything in this, but the introductory scene (and the burial scene) suggested some sort of dignity or reliability in Virgil, soon to be gone, again, greed. Also, it is unclear when Keith got back since neither he nor the other Stranger was affected by the dust storm. I guess I'm nitpicking, but I'd still prefer Virgil to switch into survival mode at the end, there is greed, but people still have survival instincts.

Overall, the film leaves a bad taste, which is intended but feels empty on details, which is not. It's not long, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, more like 50/50.

"Gold" is a movie about two drifters who are travelling through the South Australian desert and they stumble across the biggest gold nugget ever found. They hatch a plan to protect and excavate their bounty with one man leaving (Man #2/Keith, played by Anthony Hayes) to secure the necessary equipment to pull it out of the earth. The other man (Man #1/ Virgil played by Zac Efron), remains on the spot to secure the loot. I cannot even imagine what Virgil (Zac) went through to persevere extreme heat conditions just to hold onto what he thinks he needs. I liked the plot as you can give your own interpretation to the facts of this movie. What is the value of the biggest chunk of gold in the world if you are in the middle of the desert, dehydrated, sunburnt and you kind of know you will not survive? What would you do? This movie clearly shows the everlasting greed and the lengths people will go to secure themselves a fortune. And I loved the cinematography, digitally enhanced or not. Was just awesome. And here we also see a different Zac in a character that he never played. And he succeeded as he put down an awesome acting performance. The story is concise and you kind of know what the other guy his plan will be. But never mind, this is a very good movie and deserves to be watched.

However, despite the excellent effort and story ,it, in my mind was unsatisfying.

The bleak decolourised washed out look is a bit of a cliche these days and made it visually bland, especially in the kind of landscapes it was filmed in. That was the intention I suppose, but The Good , the Bad and the Ugly desert scenes ( in colour) were far more effective in conveying mood and intensity.

Not a commercial movie and might only appeal to males, solitary, alienated desert freaks.

Just an opinion.

Zac Efron hasn't been in much lately. I suspect he's probably just working on other projects and doing other things with his time. But 'Gold' was not the type of film I expected him to come back with. At least it looked kind of interesting so I was excited to check it out. Here are my thoughts.

The film starts out very slowly. There are only two characters and neither of them are very interesting. At this point I was worried this could be a very slow and dull film. Then it gets to the plot though and things start to become a little more interesting.

The thing that bugged me most about the film was that it made no sense. Efron's character stays to guard the gold, however no one has ever found it before now. So why are they worried someone will miraculously find it in the next 5 days in the absolute middle of nowhere? I had trouble getting past that plot-point.

A large portion of the movie is just Efron's character by himself trying to survive. For a film to get away with this you have to be impeccable, otherwise you will lose your audience fast. 'Castaway' was strong enough to pull it off (just) - and even then it took a volleyball to carry it through. 'Gold' isn't quite as strong. The middle of this film can get a little tedious.

The make-up used on Efron's face was very well done. It didn't seem particularly consistent (I could be wrong on that but it felt like every time we cut to a new scene he looked different to the last), but it did look very painful and quite realistic.

The ending of the film is a bit of fun. I like it when films aren't afraid to do something a bit different in terms of concluding their film.

This is a very somber film. There are exactly zero laughs attempted. It doesn't take away from the film, but it is worth noting. 'Gold' isn't a film I will watch again. It had its moments and was mildly enjoyable at times but probably not one I would go out of my way to recommend. 6/10.