Interstellar

Directed by:

Christopher Nolan

Starring:

Matthew McConaughey

Anne Hathaway

Michael Caine

Jessica Chastain

Christopher Nolan, Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, a huge budget and worldwide fanfare. It's safe to say that you know what to expect when you go to see Interstellar. A very long movie, an epic of biblical proportions, heightened drama, more tension than in the chest of an asthmatic old lady carrying heavy shopping and fantastic story telling. You will not be disappointed.

Interstellar is a slow-burner but it has to be, Man Of Steel showed us what happens when the movie is THAT long and tears off the line - we remember the general gist of what happened but I'll be damned if I remember much of the plot or the millions of secondary characters for that matter! Here though, Nolan reverts to the formula that served him so well in the Dark Knight franchise. We are allowed to learn to love and to hate the characters before they are thrust into exciting incidents.

Matthew McConaughey stars as Cooper, a genius-turned-farmer, in a world set somewhere in the not-too-distant future where the need for farmers and for produce far outweighs the need for engineers and scientists. That the world we are seeing is a very real probability lends credibility to Interstellar. There are no fancy contraptions, take note Back To The Future II (where are the floating cars and inside-out jeans and self-drying jackets?) This world, on the brink of dystopia, reminds us that brain power and cunning and all of our books and education count for nothing if we don't have a world to live in and a family to leave behind.

Cooper is recruited by the extravagant and exciting Professor Brand (Michael Caine) with his daughter who is annoyingly just known as Brand (Anne Hathaway) in order to find alternative life in the universe and thus save the future of mankind. What is it with the insistence of Hollywood to make us know poeple by their surnames? Mulder & Scully, Mr White, Mr Anderson, Underwood, etc etc etc. 

Once you can get your head around the ridiculous science, the movie sucks you in like a black hole (snigger). While it does stick to conventional scientific theory, the idea of black holes is one that, even as a Sci Fi fan, I find it hard to hang my hat on. Then again, there are people who base an entire career around the THEORY of the big bang. Imagine their disappointment when that one is disproved. 

Allow yourself to fully leave your disbelief at the door and you will love Interstellar. Don't be a skeptic and all will be well.

McConaughey is fantastic as the brash and quick-witted Cooper. There are genuine moments of Rusty Cole from True Detective here as he struggles to make sense of the world he lives in and risks his life to save. Although it was a bit weird to not see him sucking on endless cancer sticks throughout the movie for once! There was a moment in recent times when McConaughey was nothing more than a chick flick actor. He was typecast as the boring and dreadful love interest of his co-star and therefore every lady that watched them. However, just two major roles later and he has transcended into the world of the serious actor, portraying complex characters with a deeper-lying agenda and endless thought behind those mysterious eyes. All that is left for McConaughey to do is to play the action hero and then perhaps the genius yet twisted villain. Have they cast for the next James Bond movie yet?

Anne Hathaway is great as the secondary character here but her famous talents are wasted in this role. She has limited dialogue and we are expected to believe that there is a bond between her and other humans when her few lines and body language suggest that she is a cold and limited human being of little or no humility. But what actor in their right mind would have turned down this role?!

Overall the movie leaves you pondering the wonderful and has a definite air of the magnificence about it. There are constant questions being asked and more importantly, being answered. The special effects are - ahem - out of this world and the narrative, once it has dragged you in, becomes your life for the next 169 minutes. This is not one of those movies that you will spend looking at your phone. 

Are there any flaws in the movie? Well of course. It is a little bit dragging towards the final act and the simultaneous telling of a story at different times gets a little bit messy. Then there is the ending. Make the movie three minutes shorter and we have possibly the theultrareview's greatest ever movie!

This is the movie of the year and one of the best I have ever seen. If you have the chance to see Interstellar, do it. Please do it. You will not regret it and don't wait for it to come out on DVD or Bluray - I don't care how good your set up is, it will not do Interstellar justice - trust me!

I was reluctant to review the movie for fear of not doing it justice, that's how good it is. This is what happens when one of the greatest directors of our age, a massive budget and one of the world's most accomplished actors get together on a project. Sometimes everything clicks.

The overall theme is one of leaving your comfort zone and pushing yourself to find out who and what you can truly become, only to realise that there will always be that little bit of you wishing you were back in your bedroom at the age of eight, playing with your toys and without a care in the world. The best quote from the movie is a poem by Dylan Thomas called Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. These words sum up Interstellar and it really hits home how rare movies as important and emotive as this really are.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Rating: ★★★★★

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSWdZVtXT7E

Fury

Directed by:

David Ayer

Starring:

Brad Pitt

Shia LaBeouf

Logan Lerman

Michael Pena

Jon Bernthal

It was pure coincidence that I heard a radio interview with Fury director David Ayer literally moments before I went into the cinema to watch his latest movie. His words inspired me and my fears about the movie were allayed. He spoke of wanting to make a war movie that focused less on the overall theme of good vs evil; the just and worthy, god-fearing Americans verses the evil, antiquated and ill-advised Krauts. He lied. Though there were moments of greatness and simplicity in Fury, they were all performed to the backdrop of the great and noble cause that pushed them forward. There were many moments in the film where all that was missing from the scene was a star-spangled banner flying in the background, with that song playing while American bald eagles flew overhead. The surfing scene from Apocalypse Now springs to mind, not because of its ridiculousness, that scene is so powerful because it is a parody of itself and of the entire Vietnam War and the American way. A bit of that self-deprecation would have been appreciated here.

In the same interview, he spoke of wanting to focus on the deeds of the many and the relationships they harvested; brothers fighting for each other and not for any perceived greater good. He said that he wanted to movie to not be just another Spielberg war fantasy. Again, he lied. Ironically, the greatest parts of this movie have much in common with Saving Private Ryan. What makes Fury so watchable is its portrayal of the men as men. We are reminded constantly that, although brainwashed by propaganda and bullshit rhetoric, the men are ordinary folk. They are scared, they cry, they miss their wives, they miss their kids, they miss baseball and ice cream. We learn about who these guys are and that they are so much more than the numbers that they are likely to become.

We begin to love and hate characters as much as the sides we choose, even if we don't want to. We experience every bullet and we feel every lump of mud that they crawl through. We feel as though we have been in their vaunted tank - the death machine and life saver for our crew of unlikely heroes.  

What Fury achieved above all else and what makes this movie different to all other war movies is its temporary refusal to eulogise about war. Fury is a powerful movie in the awkward silences between the men who are effectively strangers. When the bombs have dropped and our heroes have somehow managed to survive the German onslaught, there are cheers of joy, yee-haws and vehement expletives. But what happens when they stop? Once the dust has settled and the camaraderie has stopped, all these men want to do is kiss the ground they are walking on for another day and thank their deity that they are still alive, they want to cry and hug each other...but they cannot. They must remain broad-shouldered, square-jawed and with a stiff upper lip. Much like the cinematic masterpiece that is Drive, the most powerful words in this movie are the ones that are left unsaid. We have to read the moment, the body language and put ourselves into the situation to know what those men are thinking. It is then that you realise that the movie has got you. You are emotionally involved. Of course, this soon gives way to the old "the Germans all deserve to die" nonsense but for a while at least, we are walking a path not walked in a long, long time.

Herein lies the problem. Ayer said none of this in his radio interview. The movie's biggest achievement went unadvertised on the night of its launch. This leads me to believe that the movie's biggest success was down to the cast and their chemistry and given the cast - I would not be surprised. Brad Pitt is fantastic as "Wardaddy" in a roll that he plays with more intensity than anything since Twelve Monkeys (this is not World War Z - the Z is for flop). Shia LaBeouf is brilliant as the emotional, religious and fittingly-named "Bible", Michael Pena is great as the token Latino "Gordo", Jon Bernthal of The Walking Dead is solid as the token hick idiot "Coon Ass" and Logan Lerman is very, very good as the pathetic, deer-caught-in-the-headlights kid "Norman". It speaks volumes about the actors that they spent so much time in the tank leading up to the shooting of the movie to get used to the small spaces and each others' habits, personalities and smells.

Fury was designed to be a war movie with a difference. It was but not as much as it should have been. While it was great to see the dark side of war tackled for the first time in a long time, there was still far too much of the very thing Ayer claims he tried to avoid - the glorification of the allied cause. Therefore the movie has to be put down as a missed opportunity and a failure to do something that hasn't been done before. 

This movie isn't as intelligent as it thinks it is.

Rating: ★★★½

Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OGvZoIrXpg