LR's MOVIE OF THE NOW

[Lethal Interjection]

Saw Interstellar tonight.

Really, really enjoyed it. I think this might be the first space movie that has not only satiated my clear interest in suspense thrillers, lesser interest in space movies*, as well as my lapsing/remitting interest in astrophysics. And I will admit that on more than one occasion I was reminded of my limited experiences with Kerbal Space Program.
Also, in a different way, Nolan has continued to prove himself. Unlike Inception, this movie kind of felt like very little was actually going on. Yet, to Nolan's credit, I think I spent at least as much time on the edge of my seat. So, kudos.

*Not unlike my interest in zombie films, I think my interest in space movies kind of snuck up on me. I have seen enough of both that I finally came to a point where I realized that I like a lot more of them than I dislike.

[Felstaff]

Spoiler'd for spoiling the ending:

If I was ever able to recreate any given point in time within an infinite three dimensional space, I'd put it behind the bookshelves, too.

Also, given that Maconna-hey was able to physically travel back and forth between fixed points in time whilst, you know, stuck behind the bookshelves, why does he send the 'S-T-A-Y' message, and then send the 'GO' (NASA coordinates) message?

Why not just not send the S-T-A-Y message at all? He can travel back to the pre-STAY message and SPACEGHOST his way of saying: "I have chosen this point to communicate everything: 1, I'm your dad. 2, tell me not to go to Wavey Waterworld, as that'll eat up 23 years of everyone's life, 3., Matt Damon[/teamamerica], and 4, by the way here's some black hole data that can kinda useful in completing Alfred's theorem.

It suffers the problematic theme of time travel that has afflicted every film that has tried to broach it, with the exception of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

[Lethal Interjection]

I kind of felt the same, though I was able to reconcile this with recognizing that at the time he was not fully aware of his circumstance and was drawn to regret rather than providing the information. It was a bit hackneyed, I'll grant you. And I'm still a bit confused about the origins of the non-time matrix-thing that he was in, for which explanation was attempted but not clearly enough. That said, I still enjoyed it, even though his re-immersion into the timeline was also a bit ill-explained. It did its level best to explain away the time travel paradox, to a point that I was at least semi-satisfied. I'm not sure how much of this will be remedied by a second viewing, which I'll have to wait a few months for.
All of this said, my sister really enjoyed it. And she's neither terribly interested in space movies, nor in time-travel movies. So I think that is something of a positive recommendation.

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

I saw it tonight. I wasn't expecting that much of a 2001: ASO homage, but boy was it! I still haven't seen Inception, which I think helped me appreciate it more than I would if I thought it might be a crazy hijinks movie. When I saw the older brother, I thought, "my, Ben Affleck has put on a bit of weight". I really enjoyed the suspense they built with the robots. In retrospect, it was a little cheeky when that dude from Contact asked if the future could send messages back in time. What reason did he have to ask that?

I think Nolan wanted to redeem Contact-man by making him play Jodie Foster's character, almost to a T.

My parents didn't like it as much. I think it got a little too busy. My dad thought it was trying too hard to be the next 2001: ASO, which he didn't like. I thought it referenced it to such a degree while exploring new themes that it sat pretty well with me.

e: I almost forgot! Seeing Interstellar was very timely because I just finished reading Forever Free, which along with the first book in the series are all about relativity and time dilation. Anne Hathaway and Contact-man only make one major jump into the future though, while the main character in these books makes several, skipping centuries and millennia into the future, checking in with how the rest of humanity is doing.

[Lethal Interjection]

I definitely caught the 2001 homage-ness. I didn't catch the Contact one, primarily because I had forgotten that McConaughey was in Contact. I really should watch that movie again. Despite having watching it a bajillion times in high-school (I think it was the de-facto do-nothing science period activity), which made me dislike it a little bit at the time. Plus I have never liked Foster. I have seen Contact once since, and did really thoroughly enjoy it.

[smiley_cow]

I finally saw Bridesmaids - It's really good, you guys should all see this movie.

[Edminster]

Have you ever wanted to watch Sylvester Stallone get beat up in a garage full of novelty cars by a dude wearing a gimp mask and lycra bodysuit complete with cape and the whole scene is played completely straight? And also the Gimpman is the main character with a tragic backstory? Then have I a movie for you!

Death Race 2000 came out in 1975 and is an oddity in this modern world of character development and having an actual budget. Despite sounding like generic 70's schlock it is surprisingly tasteful in that it takes only two story breaks to show bare-assed tittays, and one of them involves telling the aforementioned tragic backstory. It is not, in any sense of the word, a good movie. It's terrible, but it's Roger Corman (producer of Sharktopus, Piranhaconda, and Dinocroc Vs. Supergator to name his latest) so it is definitely watchable.

[Kaharz]

Mad Max meets Cannonball Run before either of those movies existed. I like to think Corman got his inspiration from Hanna Barbera's Wacky Races. They kind of did a remake/prequel in 2008 just called Death Race. And then two more direct to video prequels a few years later. I never saw any of those, Corman only produced the first one. I haven't seen Death Race 2000 since I was a teenager. I'll have to watch it again.

[Lethal Interjection]

I saw the final Hobbit movie.

So disappointing. Really. I mean a real let-down. I'll probably see it again with my family (as I have with the last two) in the next few weeks. But I'm actually a little shocked how unsatisfying it was.
It felt rushed. Relatively non-spoiler examples:
- I felt like they were going to wrap up the storylines (even the added-in ones) and tie it all together, but this was done poorly. In fact, if felt as they wrote in the stories and when it came to the third movie they realized that even they still didn't have enough so they needlessly extended them. For example: Legolas and Tauriel going to the second orc strong-hold... and doing nothing but introducing a needless backstory about Legolas' mom. Also, this in relation to Thranduil, ultimately.
- Actually, in some ways it felt like they even rushed through some of the more dynamic non-action actual-story moments. Or at least relatively so.
- Similar to above, but introducing new character dynamics which weren't previously hashed out and were then rushed over. Example: Gandalf and Galadriel. They did indicate that there was a connection between them in the first movie, but they bring it to a very quick and unexplained crescendo, also without resolution.
- At least two "sorry... what?" deus ex machina moments.
- One gross scientific error (clear even in this fantasy realm).
- A couple of sloppy stand-in moments.
- Some pretty 4th-wall destroying CGI moments. I knew of both McKellen's and the DP's frustrations, but I think the CGI was more noticable here than in the first two. Example: Pretty much everything Connolly. Loved that he was in it, just didn't love how CGI he was. Now apparently Connolly was going through health issues (I knew cancer but apparently early parkinsons too?) at the time of filming so it was primarily voice work, but still. The dwarf did look like him, but it looked totally computer generated.

Ultimately the only positive I came away with was how awesome the fight at Dol Guldur was. Sure it was also likely almost entirely CGI, since the actors are nearly all senior citizens (Christopher Lee is 92! And was about 80 when he started work on two major tentpole sagas!). But it was packed with fantastic action and had my jaw dropped for most of it.

[Apocalyptus]

Well, I watched an Iranian feminist vampire Western today. The sound design and soundtrack were amazing, and although the plot was a little light I enjoyed the hell out of it.

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

The Imitation Game. I actually started reading up more thoroughly on Alan Turing thanks to that SMBC comic about him. It was a very good movie. It was good to see Binofsticks Cribbagematch in a role where he wasn't boomy and sociopathic. Alan isn't the most mainstream fellah ever though, so still comfortable territory. I haden't seen Kiera Knightley in anything since Atonement and didn't know she was in this till she appeared. She was also very good. The young Alan Turing was fantastic, and the three of them definitely carried the movie acting-wise. No one was bad, but some stereotypical movie tropes were shoehorned in awkwardly in a few places and those actors did the best they could with them. It didn't spoil the movie for me by any means.

I teared up a few times during the movie but the last couple minutes made me openly weep.

[smiley_cow]

Lego Movie - So that movie is basically just an hour and a half commercial for lego, eh? Like I thought it was before, but it is so much more transparent about it than I expected.

[Apocalyptus]

Lego Movie - So that movie is basically just an hour and a half commercial for lego, eh? Like I thought it was before, but it is so much more transparent about it than I expected.

I actually also watched it for the first time the other day, and found it to be more subversive and enjoyable than I had expected, although yes of course it was still quite commercial-ly.

[Lethal Interjection]

Lego Movie - So that movie is basically just an hour and a half commercial for lego, eh? Like I thought it was before, but it is so much more transparent about it than I expected.

I actually also watched it for the first time the other day, and found it to be more subversive and enjoyable than I had expected, although yes of course it was still quite commercial-ly.

I did the same. Netflix, everyone?

While it was blatantly commercial, I also felt that it did so in a rather refreshing, albeit overt, way. For a company that has spent at least 20-25 years releasing sets that are (at least primarily) instruction-based to endorse a movie which eschews that predisposition was pretty admirable. I'm also really interested in what the (presumably forth-coming) sequel will look like. Since the ending did, after all, introduce a female Lego player. Hopefully they don't keep it as a purely antagonistic role (which the ending implies) but something more like two opposing protagonists working together or somesuch. I assume it will skew more that way (if they go that direction), judging by the both positive and negative press Lego has gotten in the last year or so, regarding female Lego enthusiasts.

[Liriodendron_fagotti]

Finally watched the entirety of Paris, Je T'aime with a friend. The film is a series of vignettes set in different parts of Paris with different directors, actors, and characters in a wide variety of genres. Even though the directors change between each one (there are twelve*, I think), they manage to flow together pretty well with not too much unevenness. The Frodo vampire one stuck out a bit.

*13 if you count Joel and Ethan Coen as separate.

My housemate and I recently rewatched Fargo and now I really want to start watching the TV series, which I've heard is pretty excellent.