Weekly Movie Reviews: Jan 8-14, 2017

Favorite Movie of the Week

Interstellar (2014)

I’ve seen this movie before (when it was in theaters), but I’m still counting it as a favorite movie of the week because I love it so much. I’ve loved space ever since I first read A Brief History of Time when I was fourteen, and this is a movie that celebrates loving space and exploration and pioneering and charting the unknown. I can’t think of any other movie that does that so well, except Contact (which I also love) and that’s not really about space.

In the near future, humanity is dying because our crops are affected with an incurable blight. Former NASA pilot Coop takes an offer to pilot a new spaceship to help humanity find a new world – even though that means he won’t be able to see his daughter Murphy grow up because of time dilation. Coop’s idealism about the role of humanity and his love for his family don’t seem compatible, but he ends up needing both to succeed at his mission.

This isn’t a perfect movie by any means – some character motivations (Michael Caine’s character, particularly) don’t make sense sometimes, and there’s some handwaving around how problems finally resolve themselves. But it does a great job of conveying a sense of how much people don’t know yet about the universe and the awe and wonder of discovery. It’s sincerely hopeful about humanity’s ability to do great things despite massive setbacks, and I think there’s not enough of that sentiment these days. The score (by Hans Zimmer, but admittedly inspired by the Koyaanisqatsi score by Philip Glass) is beautiful as well. And Matthew McConaughey is fantastic as the protagonist, as are all three actors playing Murph.

Other Movies Watched

April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

If I hadn’t watched Interstellar this week, this would’ve probably been my favorite movie of the week. April and the Extraordinary World is a French-Belgian-Canadian animated film that follows April, a young scientist in an alternate history/steampunk world. Most scientists are either disappearing mysteriously or being forcibly recruited to the war effort, and April must avoid both these fates as she tries to recreate her parents’ invulnerability serum. The animation style of the movie is beautiful (and very different from the Disney and Japanese animation styles I’m used to.) It’s also a heartening story with a fascinating world, a stubborn and brave heroine, and a feisty talking cat. Highly recommended.

Gandhi (1982)

This was a re-watch for us, although we didn’t remember the movie very well since we watched it a few years ago. As the name implies, it’s a biopic of Mahatma Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley playing the title role. It follows Gandhi’s life starting with his fight for civil rights in South Africa all the way to his assassination. It’s a really good movie, and Ben Kingsley deserves the Oscar for Best Actor that he won for it. As with many biopics, the movie shows an extremely rosy perspective of the subject, and Gandhi is portrayed as almost flawless. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, though, it’s a deliberate choice, and the movie acknowledges that you can’t capture a person’s life in a single telling.

Last Action Hero (1993)

Another re-watch of a movie I barely remembered, other than the fact that I loved it. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Jack Slater, a cop in L.A. in a franchise of ridiculous action films (basically a parody of his usual roles.) When Danny, a teenage movie buff, is magically transported into a Jack Slater movie, he has to help his hero foil the bad guys, who have discovered the magical transportation technology and threaten the real world too. I think of this movie as The Princess Bride of action movies, it’s a very loving parody, and a great action movie itself (it’s made by John McTiernan, who did Die Hard – arguably the best action movie of all time.) It also manages to be heartwarming.

The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Yet another re-watch. We’re watching our way through the Lord of the Rings somewhat slowly (mainly because we’re watching the extended versions, and they’re about four hours long each.) I wish there were more fantasy movies like these movies, they’re beautiful and epic and complex. The Two Towers is mostly about Rohan, while introducing us to Gondor through Frodo and Sam’s journey. The Battle of Helm’s Deep is probably what people remember most about this movie, and that’s because it’s very well done. The fall of Isengard (long overdue!) also happens in this movie. I don’t think I paid enough attention to Gollum’s internal struggles previously, and how they change after he’s captured by Faramir – it made me much more sympathetic to Gollum.

Thunderball (1965)

We’re slowly watching our way through all the Bond movies (although not necessarily in chronological order, we’re already done with the Brosnan and Craig movies.) Sean Connery made James Bond a classic, and he continues to be great in this movie, which is the fourth in the franchise. I think this is my least favorite of the Connery movies so far, though, just because it fit the Bond template so well that I was a little bored by it. There is a lot of underwater action in this movie, which seems like a cool technical accomplishment, but made the fight scenes somewhat ponderous. The henchmen, the villain and the Bond girls were fine too, but didn’t stand out.

Spectral (2016)

This movie was recommended to me on Reddit as being similar to Aliens, Starship Troopers, and Pitch Black, with the caveat of “it’s not as good as those movies”. I think that’s a great description of this movie. In the middle of a warzone in Moldova, U.S. soldiers start encountering ghostly forms that kill them instantly. A DARPA engineer (James Badge Dale) is sent to investigate and has to work with a CIA agent (Emily Mortimer) and a Delta team to figure out what’s going on and stop it. I was worried that this would have significant horror tones (given the name and comparison to Aliens and Pitch Black), but it’s pretty much just a sci-fi action movie. It’s not subtle, some of the dialogue is way too on the nose, the technobabble is pretty implausible, but it’s fun. Spectral is a Netflix original, and I hope this does well and they make more sci-fi movies!

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