Movie Review: Interstellar

Christopher Nolan is back folks. The acclaimed director’s new sci-fi, space exploration epic, Interstellar, is finally upon us. The hype behind this film has been ginormous to say the least. Shot in IMAX 70mm…on actual film! Features minimal CGI! Uses man made sets and practical effects! Academy award winning cast! Etc. etc. Does the film actually deliver? Kind of.

Matthew Mcconaughey stars as “Cooper,” a former NASA test pilot marooned on a slowly decaying American farmstead. In the not too distant future, Earth has had enough of mankind’s shit and ravaged the environment with a deadly wave of blight and dust storms, causing massive crop failures and respiratory problems up the wazoo. Our time on Earth is running low, and humans toil about their increasingly miserable lives trying to get by. Cooper begrudgingly raises his two children on his dying farm, mourning his dead wife, and extinguished dreams of exploring the stars. But thankfully, his genius daughter’s pet ghost tasks them on a crazy errand that reunites Cooper with the remnants of what used to be NASA, who’ve been literally hiding in his back yard the entire time, hatching a plan to save the human race: move to a new galaxy. Yes, you read that correctly.

wut?

Interstellar could have been a great film, instead of just a good one. Unfortunately, it’s beyond convoluted plot and insistence on ham-fisted melodrama takes the film down several pegs. The ‘wow, I can’t believe what I’m seeing!’ sense of awe that Nolan’s visuals instill throughout the film, gives way to a ‘wow…I can’t believe this is what I’m seeing,’ lament, stemming from the mediocre script. The film is long and ambitious but surprisingly, despite the ‘lol wut?’ problems with the plot, doesn’t feel like an eternity while watching. Maybe that’s because the film crams what should have been twelve hours of screen content into a mere three [we got off easy if you think about that way].

Interstellar’s ensemble cast turns out to be film’s saving grace. With so much trippy NASA jargon and space talk thrown around and tons of eye rolling exposition being spoon fed to the audience, it’s the actor’s stellar [eh eh?] performances that keeps the movie from collapsing in on itself. Matthew Mcconaughey’s character Cooper might be written as the dumbest astronaut ever [he needs diagrams to explain how wormholes work], but his performance is unyielding throughout. He spouts that dialogue, no matter how painful, like it was the word of God [or Nolan]. In fact, the scene where he watches messages from his family on Earth is some truly powerful stuff and one of the highlights of the entire film. Anne Hathaway is billed as Interstellar’s other big star, but Jessica Chastain is the movie's real leading lady. Hathaway isn’t bad per se…even though her character is written so, but Chastain’s performance is just miles beyond hers.

the real MVP

Interstellar is three hours of bizarre entertainment. If you can ignore the bloated plot and relish some solid acting and cool visuals you’ll probably have fun. It was refreshing to watch a sci-fi film with real people and not a massive CGI cartoon, just as it was cool to see Nolan finally play with a new cinematographer for a change [hello Hoyte van Hoytema, nice work dude]. There’s some really gripping, suspenseful scenes that almost make up for the bang your head against the wall stupid ones. This movie would have been a sweet ass summer time blockbuster, but since it came out in fall and is surrounded but tons of, you know, good movies; it just doesn’t hold up as well in comparison.

RUMOR: Christopher Nolan controls DC Universe

DC: Nolan is the perfect director...FOR YOU.

I didn't want to believe this because it sounded too insane to be true. Then I remembered how Hollywood truly functions ($$$) and realized, it's just crazy enough to work.

The Latino Review is reporting that both Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale will return in Warner Bros (parent company of DC Comics) upcoming Justice League film. Nolan swore he was done directing anymore comic book movies after last year's The Dark Knight Rises concluded his blockbuster Batman film trilogy, and Bale said he wouldn't dream of reprising his role as the caped crusader without Nolan. Well, Nolan is an executive producer for this year's Superman reboot, Man of Steel, so he hasn't completely abandoned his post in the DC cinematic universe. Now this dude from The Latino Review (who has a ridiculously accurate track record of breaking scoops with DC films) is reporting that Warner Bros is so desperate to curb Disney's domination of the geek franchise market, both Avengers & Star Wars now belong to the mouse, they are willing to move heaven and Earth to get the key players from their own billion dollar Batman franchise on board with their new Justice League project. Check it out:


Justice League Scoop! from Mayimbe Media on Vimeo.

I don't know what to believe. After hearing those arguments, it sounds like anything is possible at this point. All I know is that I've been a Marvel fanboy for the past 20 years so DC and their Justice League movie can suck it! I'm kidding. I'm actually kind of stoked for this new Superman flick (the trailer where Supes gets thrown into the bank vault? *SWOONS*) and if Warner Bros can pull this Nolan deal off, every nerd in the world will be better off for it. 

What do you folks think about this mega Oprah Nolan rumor?

Movie Review: Skyfall

First, I must make an admission. I’d never seen an entire James Bond film before this. I grew up playing GoldenEye on N64 and might have seen parts from other Pierce Brosnan flicks over the years (which all pretty much sucked), but I’m a 007 n00b basically. I heard all the hype/positive word of mouth this film was getting, and saw Sam Mendes was the director and said, why not?  That being said, I enjoyed Skyfall.

The film follows James Bond’s return to the espionage world after a near fatal accident in the field sent him into self imposed exile. Bond returns to find his beloved MI6 spy agency in ruins. Bond has to rush back into action, even though he’s horribly rusty and not fit for active duty, and stop the deranged cyber terrorist/rogue MI6 operative who plans on destroying the agency and kill its director; M. 

Daniel Craig is the coolest Bond I’ve ever seen (that doesn’t say much). He’s got the sophisticated British charm thing down, but looks like he would generally enjoying beating the shit out of someone at the same time. Javier Bardem is much creepier as the villain then I imagined. He puts a tortured, quasi-homoerotic spin on his character. He’s a damaged man, both physically and mentally and is just really fucking weird. The film’s visuals look great, even the shots of Bond’s gloomy pad in Scotland are beautiful. I did have a problem with the final act of the film. It sort of turns into a super spy version of Home Alone, and the big finale is a little anti-climactic. Eh, it’s still a good movie though.

Also while I was watching Bond wreak vengeance on that sniper in the Chinese hotel, I suddenly realized where Christopher Nolan gets all his juice from. Most all of Nolan’s films follow sharp dressed dudes who jet set around the world, using fancy gadgets on some epic adventures (The Prestige, Inception, Batman Trilogy) and now I totally see the Bond worship. It makes sense, Nolan is British and probably grew up on this stuff. In Skyfall, Mendes seems to acknowledge the cultural impact of Nolan’s recent Bond worship films (and their use of Bat-wings, memory extraction/inception devices and clones machines) and decides to root Skyfall in good ol’ fashioned reality. The villain is a high tech computer hacking terrorist while Bond is armed in the latest cutting edge gadgets: a radio and a gun. It may be old school, but it’s very refreshing.

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

The final chapter in Christopher Nolan's epic Batman film trilogy is upon us. The Dark Knight Rises is just that, epic. The scope of this movie is beyond anything Nolan has done before, even dwarfing his hallucinogenic adventure film Inception (dream within a dream...go deeper!). Remember the flipping diesel truck in The Dark Knight, or the speeding train ripping through the city street in Inception? That's what Nolan's new film is like, a lumbering behemoth of a film. With a run time of damn near three hours, a smorgasbord cast of A list actors, locales and set pieces that cross the globe, and the largest most insane depiction of Gotham City ever,  The Dark Knight Rises is indeed an epic spectacle that is not to be missed.

I was skeptical before viewing this film. I mean, The Dark Knight, as much as I love picking it apart these days, was such an awesome, iconic even, event. It was like more than just a movie. Also, This new Batman flick would have the dubious task of ending the entire saga. With film trilogies, the first movie has the chore of introducing everything, the second film has free reign to do what it wants and be awesome, while the third is once again forced into tying up all the lose ends. So I kept that in the back of my head the whole time, reminding myself I was probably about to watch Return of The Jedi, not Empire Strikes Back if you catch my drift. Well, The Dark Knight Rises works WONDERFULLY as the final piece of Nolan's Batman jigsaw. Elements, themes and characters from the first two films are back, and in a big way. While Batman Begins and The Dark Knight really had no relation to one another, The Dark Knight Rises is directly linked to both previous films and knowledge of events that transpired the other films is essential to the experience of this new one.

The cast is phenomenal. Anne Hathway was my biggest fear. How would she pull off Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman)? Well she does. Everyone nails their performances. Tom Hardy is damn menacing as Bane (even if he sounds like Billy Madison sometimes). Michael Caine as Alfred, never in a million years would I think I would give a rats ass about Batman's butler but he's amazing in this. Gary Oldman, yeah he's still holding it down as Commissioner Gordon. Also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, props man, props.

So the movie rules. Duh. But guess what...it has it's flaws. Mainly that it's bloated. Yes this movie is epic in every sense of the word, but at some points it's just too much. Some unnecessary characters (Matthew Modine's annoying cop guy for example) could have been eliminated and some of the films "epic" plot really should have been scaled down a bit. As a history geek I got a kick out of seeing Bane trying to Robespierre his way into Gotham and starting his own Reign of Terror, French Revolution style in the streets but really, some of it came off as too phoney and the previously believable Bane instantly became comic book super villain guy and that I didn't like.

Why so serious...oh.

Small grievances aside, I gotta say, I really enjoyed this movie. So nice seeing an adult film (well, not that kind, hehe) with awesome visuals that's not covered in 3D/CGI filth. Also, we've spent the past 7 years with these characters so seeing the grand finale was kind of touching. Like saying goodbye to friends on the last day of school. Damn you Nolan. Damn you!

Remember The Dark Knight

off to see The Dark Knight Rises midnight showing. Wish me luck. It's gonna be nuts. Here's an awesome little retrospective of the entire series: