Interstellar

Interstellar (2014) is a movie directed by Christopher Nolen and starring Mathew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain.

I was able to watch this movie in the full IMAX exeprience at the Bob Bullock Museum and not the converted theaters that have good, though smaller screens.  I was greatly pleased with this movie.  It was clear that Nolan paid homage to Stanley Kubrick and the epic 2001: As Space Odyssey. This nod to Kubrick is found in music that is familiar and the detail given over to special effects. 

Too many movies these days rely on multiple conflicts on a myriad of levels or resort to heavy special effects to entertain the audience.  This is not the case with Interstellar.  The film has a solid story, great writing, acting and cinematography which is adorned but not overwhelmed by the special effects necessary to tell a story about space exploration.

I keep finding myself wanting to go back and watch it again only to remember that I saw it in the theater and it is not out on disc yet. Interstellar ranks very high on my list of favorite movies.

Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky (2001) is a movie staring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz with Cameron Diaz, and Kurt Russel.  It is hard to describe this movie without giving too much away.  It is about a man who has everything, has a friend who he has an on and off again relationship when he finds what he sees as true love.  He survives an accident and the movie goes from there. It is sometimes hard to follow the story line but there is a reason for this.  The movie comes together in the end and has a great payout. I find myself watching the movie, in particular the ending over and over again.  The movie has more than its share of intimate scenes.  However, I found towards the end one of the most powerful and palatable scenes of true love between two people I have ever found in the movies.

Dredd

Dredd (2012) is a movie staring Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby. The movie is set in a dystopian world where Urban, who Stars as Judge Dredd, and Thirlby as a Judge (probationary), out for a day of crime fighting.  They find themselves trapped and alone in a building massively high and densely populated but under the control of a drug kingpin.  The movie is a battle of the Judges attempting to arrest, convict and punish the kingpin while the kingpin is attempting to destroy the Judges with her massively large army of thugs.  The movie is tightly filmed with good acting from the cast.  It is a very violent movie but low on the gore.  I find myself thinking about it from time to time so I would say it is definitely memorable. It has a following and people are clamoring for a sequel.  Dark, moody, severe with great directing and cinematography.  It has a refreshing undertone in an unflinching sense of justice from Judge Dredd as he is assailed from all angles with the injustices of the day.

Ruthless People

Ruthless People (1986) is a movie Danny DeVito and Bette Midler who star as Sam and Barbara Stone and Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater who star as Ken and Sandy Kessler.  The Kesslers decide to get justice by kidnapping Barbara Stone and demand a ransom.  Sam Stone, who sees freedom in his future, decides to ensure that his wife does not come back alive.  Through the greed on Sams part and the ineptness on the Kesslers part the movie twists and turns throughout with one humorous moment followed by another.  There are a few crude references but overall the humor is more above brow.  When I was training for our Relax the Back Stores I would use a couple of scenes from this movie to show positive and negative sales approaches modeled by Ken Kessler, a salesman in what was equivalent to an electronics store.  No one actor out shadows another but Danny DeVito is in rare form in this movie.

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (2006) is a movie staring Hugo Weaging and Natalie Portman.  It is about a near future totalitarian Great Britain that is ruthless and oppressive to it's people.  Hugo Weaving stars as "V" who is attempting to overthrow the government under the symbolic Guy Fawkes motif*.  Natalie Portman is a young and average person working in the TV business on a show that is hosted by a character staring Stephen Fry. It is a brooding but well done movie and has a surreal tone underlying the whole movie where the allegories between the fiction and reality can be seen throughout.  The acting is great and Natalie Portman does a great job in a not too familiar role.  The movie has developed a following and the mask used for the character V is familiar to many and shows up from time to time as a symbol of the common man against the oppressor.



 *Guy Fawkes, for those of you who do not know, attempted to overthrow the British government centuries ago and was caught before they could successfully blow up Parliament.  This is of particular interest to me as my first school was a British school in what is now Bangladesh.  My first holiday of memory, other than Christmas, was Guy Fawkes Day where we burned the Guy in effigy and shot off all kinds of fireworks.

Witness

Witness (1985) stars Harrison Ford and Kelly Mc Gillis.  A young Amish boy played by Lukas Haas is on a trip outside of their community when he inadvertently witnesses a brutal murder.  Ford plays a detective, John Book, who learns the terrible truth of the identity of the murderer and takes the boy and his mother into hiding back in the Amish Community.  The cinematography, directing, acting, music, and almost all other aspects of the movie are at their very best.  The supporting cast is a stellar group of actors as well.  The compelling story behind the story is how two people from two different worlds can somehow make sense of feelings that develop as they spend more and more time together.  At first the boy and his mother are fish out of water and then it is Book who finds himself as a fish out of water.  Can a person from one world completely give everything up and walk into another world.  This movie was nominated for multiple awards and won two Academy 'Awards.

The Ref

The Ref (1994) stars Dennis Leary and Kevin Spacey.  Leary stars as Gus, a burglar who, on Christmas Eve ends up with a burglary gone wrong.  Spacey stars as Lloyd a henpecked businessman who is having marital problems and the family on the way for Christmas.  Leary finds his only choice is to take the family hostage.  It is here that the movie takes off with Leary trying desperately to find a way out while keeping the family from melting down.  Excellent repartee between Spacey and Leary ensues from the time they meet until the very end. A well done comedy that relies more on the dialogue than any form of slapstick.