Movie Muser

The world is on the brink of disaster as extreme climate change has left much of the planet a dust bowl, with civilisation pretty much collapsed and many convinced that humanity only has a short time left to live. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is scratching out a living on a farm, but discovers that not far away is a facility that’s hopes to find a future for mankind.

A wormhole has been discovered near Saturn, which leads to another galaxy where there may be habitable worlds. Years before scientists were sent to each of those planets, and now it’s time to send another ship to discover what happened to them and whether one of the worlds could be humanity’s new home. With his ace piloting skills Cooper is selected to go on the mission – much to the anger of his young daughter Murph – alongside scientist Brand (Anne Hathaway) and two other crew members.

Cooper is desperate to get through the wormhole and back home as soon as possible so that he can get back to his kids. However on the other side is a black hole that plays havoc with spacetime, meaning that in certain places an hour for the astronauts may be seven years back on earth. However Cooper knows how important their mission is, even if it increasingly seems doomed to failure – and even if it does succeed, the time dilation may mean that everyone the astronauts knew will be dead before they can report their findings.

Back on Earth Murph has grown up (and is now Jessica Chastain) and is working on the project to save mankind by sending them to another world, while still harbouring anger that her father left her decades before (even though it’s only been months for him).

Nobody can criticise Christopher Nolan for his ambition, although I have to admit I’m not in the camp who unequivocally thinks everything he touches is a masterpiece of the cinematic form. While I liked it a lot, overall Interstellar didn’t change my mind. It’s a great piece of big-budget entertainment that is interesting, exciting (after a slightly ponderous first 40 minutes) and full of incredible visuals. However rather like Inception, I don’t think it’s as smart of many others do.

Sure it deal with physics and spacetime, and it does have a few interesting things to say, but I couldn’t help feeling they weren’t as interesting as the movie seems to think they are. Indeed it has The Matrix conceit of taking rather old concepts and dressing them up in new clothes, and then presenting them as if they’re brand new and something the world has never seen before. And before you say that all the science in Interstellar is true, that was just the marketing line, as while it stays much, much closer to real physics than most sci-fi, it still takes an awful lot of liberties.

It’s slightly ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’ tendency is particularly noticeable due to how much the plot borrows from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Contact (both Carl Sagan’s novel and Robert Zemeckis’ movie). Indeed if you look at it objectively, the endings of Contact and Interstellar are surprisingly similar, but while audiences hated the former and it became a bit of a joke, they’ve lapped up Nolan’s version, even if in many ways it’s less profound and smart. Indeed one of the absolute key moments makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

And while I’m perhaps unfairly heaping on the criticism, if you strip Nolan’s trademark seriousness and ability to make his movies seem incredibly realistic, there is a lot of absolute nonsense in Interstellar. In fact there are moments which even Michael Bay would probably strip out of a script feeling they lacked credibility. However as he’s done before, Nolan drips everything in a pseudo-profundity that I can’t help feeling is a bit of a trick and stops being genuinely thinking about what they’re actually seeing.

I do feel like I’m being unfair though because I did enjoy it, but I equally felt frustrated in the same way as I did when people were raving that The Dark Knight Rises is a realistic superhero movie – no, it’s not, in fact objectively it’s a stunningly dumb superhero movie plot-wise, but it manages to cover that up by appearing deeper and more grounded than it really is. Again though, I really did enjoy Nolan’s Batman movies, I just didn’t enjoy other people’s reactions to them as I felt like they were slightly being taken for a ride.

But hey, they liked it, I liked it and the same is true for Interstellar. There’s also no doubt that Nolan has tried to address with his latest movie one of the main criticisms that have been levelled at his earlier films, which is they have lots of ideas but within that their humanity gets slightly lost. Here he attempts to completely ground the movie in ideas of human nature and love (even if with the latter he engages in the sort of cod spirituality that will have some people’s eyes rolling, especially as he tries to marry it to scientific ideas in ways that don’t really make any sense). He also brings in a sense of humour, something which many have remarked his earlier movies were sorely lacking, although it’s kind of fascinating that he and co-screenwriter Jonathan Nolan give nearly all the jokes to a machine that even by its own admission is only pretending to be human.

I have to think this is deliberate, especially as there’s a lengthy part of the movie with strong 2001 echoes, but which subverts whether its science/machines or humanity that’s most likely to cause the problems.

I don’t want you to get the impression that I think Interstellar is a rubbish movie, as I really don’t. It got me hooked and it does present quite a few interesting ideas. It also tells its story extremely well and McConaughey gives a great performance in the lead role. Where it absolutely excels is in its action and its visuals. It’s a genuinely beautiful movie with special effects that are utterly seamless and some brilliantly conceived and executed action sequences.

As with all Nolan’s films from The Dark Knight onwards, you get the bonus on Blu-ray that rather than showing the whole movie in 2.35:1 aspect ratio as it was in most cinemas, those shots that were filmed with IMAX cameras expand out to fill the entire widescreen TV frame. It’s interesting what shots they chose to use these cameras for, as it wasn’t just for big action scenes but also for some quieter moments where it wants to present absolute clarity and a genuine sense of depth while not being 3D.

And it is noticeable how much clarity IMAX adds, which may seem surprising when you’re watching it on a comparatively small TV (compared to a cinema screen, that is), but in 1080p HD it’s certainly noticeable that the quality of both the colour and definition of IMAX is superior to either 35mm or digital film.

To complete the package is a bonus disc with loads of extremely good special features, which take you deep into the making of the movie, from how they used a lot of practical special effects rather than just relying on CG to create realistic space travel (which to be honest would have seemed more worth boasting about had Gravity not shown us you can be just as realistic inside a computer), as well as how they used the strange landscapes of Iceland to create two of the alien worlds. There’s also a good 50-minute documentary looking at some of the scientific concepts it deals with. It adds up to around three hours of extremely well put together features that are certainly worth watching for movie fans.

Overall Verdict: Despite its best efforts, Interstellar hasn’t converted me to the cult of Christopher Nolan. It is a very good movie and extremely entertaining, but it’s not as smart and ground-breaking as many would like to suggest. It did underline to me though how unfair people have been to Robert Zemeckis’ Contact, as the things that people hates about that movie could equally be levelled at Interstellar, while to my mind the ideas that Zemeckis’ film looked at were actually more interestingly dealt with.

Special Features:
‘The Science Of Interstellar’ Documentary
‘Inside Interstellar’ 14 Making of featurettes
Trailers

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that DreamWorks Animation have given up on making films and have instead decided to make a series of 90 minute chase scenes. With some of their output this strategy has resulted in a giant mess, but with others it’s worked surprisingly well, and that’s the case with Penguins Of Madagascar.

Despite the title, this doesn’t really have much to do with the Madagascar films bar the presence of the military-minded penguins and a few jokey references. In the new film Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private come up against a surprising opponent when they meet Dr. Octavius Brine, who seems to be a brilliant human scientist, but is actually an octopus called Dave. The purple cephalopod harbours a hatred of the penguins due to the fact that they used to be loved far more than him at the zoo.

Dave is determined to destroy the fish-loving birds, but Skipper and co. are just as determined to stop him. However then the penguins get picked up by a spy team called The North Wind, led by the arrogant wolf ‘Classified’ (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch). The North Wind have little time for the Penguins, who they view as inferior animals whose job is purely to be rescued. Unsurprisingly Skipper thinks otherwise. However they may have to work together to take down Dave – as well as realise that just because Private is super-cute, that doesn’t mean he’s also useless.

It is essentially one long chase scene, but it’s funny and uses its ridiculous pace to ensure there’s no time to get bored or realise (at least while you’re watching it) just how contradictory many of its ideas are. You just have to go along for the ride and smile at the vaguely surreal nonsense unfolding on the screen in front of you. It works almost in spite of itself, but it does work.

To be honest in the Madagascar films I found the penguins slightly annoying (just like I can’t even vaguely understand the appeal of Scrat in the Ice Age movies). However given a movie of their own they certainly grew on me, even if Penguin Of Madagascar still can’t decide if they’re brilliant or stupid.

There are some decent special features which focus on entertaining the kids, such as some music videos and a family-friendly making of featurette. However it’s certainly the film that’s the main focus here and on Blu-ray it looks good and will keep a smile on your face.

Overall Verdict: More a chase around the globe than a story, but Penguins Of Madagascar’s lightning pace ensure it never outstays its welcome and most of it is good fun.

Special Features:
Top Secret Guide To Becoming An Elite Agent
‘He Is Dave’ Music Video
Flipper Slap Shake Waddle & Roll
‘Celebrate’ Pitbull Music Video
Do The Penguin Shake With tWitch
Cheezy Dibbles Ad
Madagascar Mash Up
Gallery
The World Of DreamWorks

Reviewer: Tim Isaac

There are plenty of contenders, but in my opinion the best scripts Hollywood has ever come up with are All About Eve and Network. Perhaps surprisingly – or unsurprisingly depending on how you look at it – they could both be accused of biting the media hand that feeds them, with All About Eve taking on Tinsel Town itself, while Network is a scathing satire of TV.

Indeed it was seen as so scathing back in 1976 that it nearly didn’t get made at all, as studio executives were worried no television station would ever air it after its theatrical run had ended. However they obviously hadn’t read the script closely enough or they’d have realised that it doesn’t matter too much what the subject is, as long as it produces ratings/profits TV will show it.

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is a network TV news anchor whose ratings are in the toilet and so he’s been fired. Then he announces on the air that because of this he plans to commit suicide live on TV the following week (which, incidentally, was inspired by an incident in 1974 when a Florida news host really did shoot herself in the head on live television). This causes a sensation, and while initially the news heads think Howard is having a breakdown and should be pulled off the air immediately, they’re overruled by those higher up and told to keep him on.

That results in Howard launching into another tirade about how he’s fed up with all the ‘bullshit’. Realising they may be onto something that will bring in viewers and perhaps actually be able to make the news profitable for once, they decide to keep Howard on the air and let him spout off about whatever he likes – with audiences adoring his mad prophet diatribes about how he’s ‘Mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore’. This fits with executive Diane’s (Faye Dunaway) plans, as she wants to bring news into the realm of regular entertainment programming rather than being in a special division off by itself.

While it becomes increasing obvious that Howard is in the middles of a serious mental breakdown and has completely lost touch with reality, all the TV network can see are the ever growing ratings, and a great lead-in for their new raft of edgy, counter-culture programmes.

Network really is brilliant, managing to be funny and absurd, yet always in a way where one second you’re smiling because of how wonderfully ridiculous it seems, and the next you realise that it’s perilously close to reality. Many people have suggested Network was extraordinarily prescient about the direction television has headed, but the fact is that it was already well on its way in 1976 when the movie was released, and the film just reflects that.

As well as a spectacular script full of brilliant dialogue and humour that’s still very funny, Network is also aided by some brilliant acting. It’s one of the few movies to receive five Oscar nominations in the acting categories and one of only two to win three Acting Academy Awards (the other being A Streetcar Named Desire). To show just how good the acting is in this movie, Network’s Beatrice Straight still holds the record for the performance with the shortest screen-time to win an Oscar. She’s in the movie for less than six minutes.

Hell, Ned Beatty got an Oscar nomination and he’s only in a single scene and was on set for just a single day (at least Straight got two scenes, although to be honest it’s the second she won the Oscar for, which must the greatest wounded wife moment ever committed to celluloid).

The great cast all come together to take on the potentially dangerous capitalism of TV, brilliantly skewering how money talks and that ethics and decency go out the window when there are big bucks to be made, despite the cultural power the airwaves wield. The film doesn’t just do that with the commodification of Howard’s breakdown, but also with Diane’s mission to give a militant communist group their own reality TV show (although of course back in 1976 that term hadn’t been invented), who soon turn surprisingly capitalist when they realise the cash the Communist Party could be making.

Network really is a wonderful movie that’s as timely today – if not more so – than the day it was made. To be honest though, while it’s now made its way to Blu-ray, the step up from DVD in picture quality isn’t a great as it is for some movies. That’s partly because 1970s film stock hasn’t generally aged well and so few movies from that era look amazing in HD without an expensive restoration, and also because it’s from an era when the entire world looked oddly brown, from the clothes to the décor. However it is better than the DVD, and if you don’t own the movie you should definitely get it in some format.

There are a couple of really good special features too. One is a 1999 documentary about director Sidney Lumet, which is particularly worth watching as many forget just how many great films he was behind, from Network and Serpico to Dog Day Afternoon and 12 Angry Men. There’s also a lengthy featurette which is essentially a lecture from Dave Itzkoff, the author of ‘Mad as Hell: The Making of Network’ and the ‘Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies’, which gives a great insight into the creation of the film.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Paddy Chayefsky came up with such a great script for Network, as if anyone understood TV and the changes it had undergone it was him. He was there during the early days of American television drama, and was revered as perhaps the most celebrated writer of TV plays in the 1950s and 1960s. However he’d seen the changes in the 70s when even he found it increasingly difficult to get television to take chances on anything new, one-off, or which wasn’t what they’d seen 100 times before. He may have brought a slightly bitter edge to Network, but he did it absolutely expertly.

Overall Verdict: A screenplay masterpiece, smart direction and some truly brilliant acting ensure Network is one of Hollywood’s best. Funny, prescient, smart and mad as hell, it’s a great movie.

Special Features:
‘The Directors: Sidney Lumet’ Documentary
‘Tune in Next Tuesday’ Visual Essay
Collectible Booklet

Reviewer: Tim Isaac