Netflix Friday - Volume 15

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.

Action: Bumblebee (2018)
On the run in the year 1987, Bublee finds refuge in a junkyard in a small California beach town. On the cusp of turning 18 and trying to find her place in the world, Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld) discovers Bumblebee, battle-scarred and broken.

Drama: The Squid and the Whale (2005)
We follow two young boys (Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline) dealing with their parents divorce (Laura Linney, Jeff Daniels) in Brooklyn in the 1980s.

Comedy: The Naked Gun (1988)
Incompetent polive Detective Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) must foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

Animation: When Marnie Was There (2014)
Due to 12-year-old Anna’s (Hailee Steinfeld) asthma, she’s sent to stay with relatives of her guardian in the Japanese countryside. She likes to be along, sketching. She befriends Marnie, but who is this mysterious girl?

Romance: Stardust (2007)
In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man (Charlie Cox) makes a promise to his beloved (Claire Danes) that he’ll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm.

Horror: Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the decapitations of three people, with the culprit being the legendary apparition, The Headless Horseman.

Science Fiction: Interstellar (2014)
A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival.

Crime: American History X (1998)
A former neo-nazi skinhead (Edward Norton) tries to prevent his younger brother (Edward Furlong) from going the same wrong path that he did.

Thriller: Basic Instinct (1992)
A violent police detective (Michael Douglas) investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist (Sharon Stone).

Documentary: Down to Earth with Zac Efron (2020)
Actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live.

Family: The Lego Movie (2014)
An ordinary LEGO construction worker (Chris Pratt), thought to be the prophesied as ‘special’, is recruited to join a quest to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the LEGO universe into eternal stasis.

10s Movie Review - Interstellar

Director: Christopher Nolan
Genre: Drama/ Science Fiction/ Adventure
Runtime: 169 minutes
Year: 2014
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy, Wes Bentley, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2020 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 26: A MOVIE MADE BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

Description: A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity’s survival.

Review: Spaceman Cooper leaves his two children, when he decides to take part in a space mission to find an alternative planet for the decaying Earth. Time is relative, according to Einstein, so a trip to the first planet they visit takes Cooper an hour or three, but in our perception of time more than twenty-three years. Back at the base station, Cooper sees a video of his family. In a few minutes he sees that his family has dramatically changed. Daughter Murp, is as old as him now and son Tom is a father himself. “Interstellar” leans heavily on family ties, which gives it a huge emotional load.
The story is very complex and it is best to just let it take you away. Cooper became a farmer, after a traumatic crash, since Earth is in dire need of food. Another planet offers the only solution, but mankind has stopped space travel. At school they even learn that the mission to the moon was only a clever propaganda move. Cooper’s clever daughter Murphy think’s she is getting signals from her bookcase. What and who is unclear. Martians? Gravity? But Murphy thinks it’s a ghost. However, this silent force and a dust storm lead Cooper and his daughter to a remote space lab.
Christopher Nolan and his writer brother Jonathan are both men with great ideas and an unparalleled ability to transform their vision into images. And you can see that in “Interstellar”. You have to really pay attention or know a bit about physics to fully understand the complicated concept of black holes, wormholes, fourth and fifth dimension and the theory of relativity. Each time you are reassured with the realization that in the end, it is the dramatic aspect that the Nolan brothers want to focus on. Only Christopher Nolan knows how to combine all these difficult angles with compelling drama and spectacular space trips. Surprisingly, they are often very simple principles such as love and loss. “Interstellar” is overall a very ambitious movie. It’s clear that movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” were major inspirations for Nolan.
“Interstellar” is anything but a simple space adventure, a film you really have to focus on and let yourself be overwhelmed by. And the soundtrack is one of the best in years. A fantastic film, that doesn’t feel like it’s almost three hours long.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

Movie Battle: Interstellar Vs. The Martian

They are very different movies, but both science fiction and also both happen to have Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain in it. I would like to let those two movies go head to head in this battle. Let’s see who wins the battle: “Interstellar” Vs. “The Martian”.

 

 

ACTORS

Interstellar: Matthew McConaughey is the lead and his has proven over the years that he can easily carry a movie. I haven’t been a fan since the beginning, but I’ve come to love McConaughey. Anne Hatahway not so much though, I just never really liked her acting. Jessics Chastain on the other hand is one of my favorites and she is really good in “Interstellar”. And Michael Caine as well.

The Martian: Matt Damon is fantastic in his role as Mark Whatney. Most of the scenes he is in, he is alone. He gives away a great performance, it might even be his best. Jessica Chastain is good as well, very strong and solid.

STORY

Interstellar: It’s a Christopher Nolan directed film, so it’s anything but standard. A group of explorer’s have to travel through a wormhole in order to save humanity. Time is different there, so what’s in space is seven years on earth (or something like that). I didn’t really like the ending.

The Martian: During a mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Whatney is presumed dead and his crew returns. Not knowing that Whatney was actually still alive. Now he is alone on a planet where nothing grows. He has to ‘science the hell out of it’. It’s a great story and so well executed. It was also a lot funnier than I expected it to be.

EFFECTS

Interstellar: If you know Nolan’s work, you know that he is great with effects. Although he doesn’t overuse CGI, it always looks stunning.

The Martian: The movie looks very good, also not overusing any CGI. Just clean and solid.

WINNER

I think “Interstellar” is a bit overrated, so I’m going with “The Martian” which I absolutely loved and it was one of my favorites of 2015.

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 18: Interstellar

Director: Christopher Nolan

Genre: Adventure/ Science Fiction/ Drama

Runtime: 169 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Wes Bentley, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Matt Damon

Description: A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space in an attempt to ensure humanity's survival.

Review: Christopher Nolan’s movies can be called cold, but certainly have emotion. The (anti) heroes in movies like “Memento”, “The Prestige” and “Inception” are all driven by human emotion like heart ache or jealousy. In “Interstellar” we also meet those characters. That’s not a bad thing though, when they are portrayed by great actors like Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine.

McConaughey plays the disillusioned widow Cooper, former test pilot for NASA and now a farmer. The film is set in the near future, where the earth is exhausted and producing food is the main priority instead of science. What people don’t know is that secretly NASA is planning a mission to save mankind and move them to another planet, that can be reached through a wormhole. Cooper is asked to investigate the planet, together with a group of fellow astronauts. This means Cooper has to leave his two children and he can’t tell them when or if he will return.

The emotional scenes between Cooper and his daughter Murph are a highlight for me. They are so sincere and you feel it yourself. And although the drama is the heart of the film, Nolan focusses more on the scientific aspect of the story. Nolan likes old school effects, doesn’t use CGI if not necessary. The spaceship décor was build, very detailed and the robots CASE and TARS were all controlled manually.

The first half of the film is much better than the second and after two hours, you start to feel the length of the film. The happenings are randomly piling up and the characters can’t carry the drama anymore. And that ending, I don’t know.

Many say it’s Christopher Nolan’s best, I do not agree. Not even remotely. I think “Interstellar” is slightly overrated, although I can see and understand what Nolan wanted with this film.

Rating: 3/ 5

Movie Trailer Sunday (139)

Here are this weeks trailers.

Deliver Us From Evil

Description: New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana) who is struggling with his own personal issues. As he begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes, he joins forces with an unconventional priest (Edgar Ramirez), schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions that are terrorizing their city. Based upon the book, which details Sarchie's bone-chilling real-life cases.

Director: Scott Derrickson

Starring: Eric Bana, Edgar Ramirez, Olivia Munn, Sean Harris and Joel McHale

Trailer: Trailer "Deliver Us From Evil"

Comment: The trailer already gave me some scares.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Description: Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), a culinary ingenue with the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India, the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both picturesque and elegant, the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war between the two establishments, until Hassan's passion for French haute cuisine and for Mme. Mallory's enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Le Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory's culinary rival, she eventually recognizes Hassan's gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.

Director: Lasse Hallström

Starring: Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal, Om Puri and Charlotte Le Bon

Trailer: Trailer "The Hundred-Foot Journey"

Comment: Yeah movie, I want to see this.

Interstellar

Description: A group of explorers make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Wes Bentley, Bill Irwin, Mackenzie Foy, Topher Grace and David Gyasi

Trailer: Trailer "Interstellar"

Comment: I'm really looking forward to seeing this one.

Mr. Turner

Description: British painter J.M.W. Turner (Timothy Spall) is Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.

Director: Mike Leigh

Starring: Timothy Spall, Paul Jesson, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey, Sandy Foster, Karl Johnson, Ruth Sheen, Amy Dawson, Lesley Manville, Martin Savage and Richard Bremmer

Trailer: Trailer "Mr. Turner"

Comment: I Always love those periodic stories.

Calvary

Description:

Director: John Michael McDonagh

Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, M. Emmet Walsh, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon, Killian Scott, Orla O'Rourke, Owen Sharpe, David McSavage

Trailer: Trailer "Calvary"

Comment: Brendan Gleeson is a great actor.