The "last movie I saw" thread

[TripletDaddy]

He actually plays Django.

the D is silent

[Topper]

He actually plays Django.

Typing on a phone is always dangerous for me. As IS Jackson.

My wife and I actually loved Django.

[Green Monstah]

St. Vincent.

Bill Murray was fantastic, and Melissa McCarthy was better than expected. The film was a little predictable (there is one twist I didn't see coming), but overall I thought it was worth the time and money. PAC is right about the ending.

[Katy Lied]

I'm completely geeked out about Interstellar; my love for Christopher Nolan trumps my distaste for Matthew McConnaughey. I hear that it is best to see it in 70mm iMax, as Nolan filmed it to take advantage of the 70mm format. Well, there are no 70mm imax theaters in Utah. The closest is Boise. Jeez, the potato farmers have better cinema tech than we do.

[Flystripper]

I'm completely geeked out about Interstellar; my love for Christopher Nolan trumps my distaste for Matthew McConnaughey. I hear that it is best to see it in 70mm iMax, as Nolan filmed it to take advantage of the 70mm format. Well, there are no 70mm imax theaters in Utah. The closest is Boise. Jeez, the potato farmers have better cinema tech than we do.

WTF?

[MarkGrace]

WTF?

For reals. Also, still loving Nolan in '14? WTF?

[Topper]

I will see it this weekend in imax Katy thanks to your advice.

[PaloAltoCougar]

In 1968, for my 16th birthday my parents took me out to a superb steak dinner followed by a big screen viewing of a new movie about the distant future, 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was mesmerized, and even though much of it was confusing, it was fascinating and caused me to think about it as much or more than any movie I’d seen to date. My parents, on the other hand, thought it was pretentious and rather boring. Fast forward to 2014 and a similar experience unfolded for me this evening as Mrs. PAC and I watched Interstellar, with some around us having my parents’ reaction of 46 years ago, while I once again found the whole experience dazzling, if at times a bit befuddling.

This is a movie I’d love to discuss with several of you around a table of good eats. Rather than give a normal review, I’ll just offer a few bullet points.

--Early on, the occasionally heavy-handed Hans Zimmer score features a single, loud organ chord that immediately evoked a memory of 2001. There are other 2001 references throughout the film, including computers with monosyllabic names and a sense of humor; indeed, the robotic assistants look a little like the 2001 monoliths. Instead of The Blue Danube playing as spacecraft hurtle through space, this time there is a more appropriate absolute silence, and the awe is as great or greater this time around.

--Matthew McConaughey has gone from being a cloying performer I disliked, to a really great actor I enjoy watching. He’s outstanding, as is pretty much everyone in the movie, including the twelve-year old Mackenzie Foy who plays his daughter.

--Despite the heavy emphasis on science (and I’ve read the astrophysics elements have a strong basis in fact, but I'll leave that to those who actually finished A Brief History of Time), a major theme is whether love is a dimension of its own, like time and gravity. Despite all the cold calculations going on in the movie, it’s the driving force of love that impels people forward.

--Several scenes wanted me to stand and clap, including an early scene where McConaughey is telling his daughter goodbye, torn by the question of whether he’s leaving to fulfill a selfish, lifelong desire for space travel, or to save the child whose heart is breaking; and the scene where his spacecraft heads out into space, leaving a dying Earth, only a portion of which is illuminated by sunlight, while Michael Caine does a voiceover of Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.” There are several other great scenes, but describing those would involve spoilers.

--There were dozens of memorable lines, although some were hard (and a few were impossible—I assume there would have been memorable) to understand because of the music and overwhelming background sound. The 70mm IMAX was truly spectacular, and feeling the floor and seats shake from the sound of liftoff and re-entry was great, but it made it hard to understand some possibly critical dialogue. We wondered if watching it without the overamped sound, in a smaller theater, might not have made it easier to understand.

--That said, I love the line McConaughey recalls his wife (another deceased wife who drives the lead character in a Christopher Nolan film) saying upon the birth of their child, “Now we’re here to be memories for our children,” or something like that. A great, disturbing and challenging thought.

There are a lot of flaws in this movie which I’ll leave to others to point out. But both of us really enjoyed a very thought-provoking and entertaining three hours.

[TripletDaddy]

2001: one of my favorite movies. I guess I will check out interstellar.

[PaloAltoCougar]

2001: one of my favorite movies. I guess I will check out interstellar.

It's certainly different than 2001 (including more of a linear story in this one), and I fear my recommendation here may be similar to my previous rec of Cashew Clusters, and we know how that ended. Actually, you should take the uneaten portion of your bag to throw at the screen should you be dissatisfied in the theater.

[TripletDaddy]

It's certainly different than 2001 (including more of a linear story in this one), and I fear my recommendation here may be similar to my previous rec of Cashew Clusters, and we know how that ended. Actually, you should take the uneaten portion of your bag to throw at the screen should you be dissatisfied in the theater.

Ha. Those pumpkin things are probably still in my pantry somewhere

[Northwestcoug]

I thought PAC's complaining about the loud soundtrack was veering close to "get off my lawn!" status. But what do you know, young whippersnappers are also complaining.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...b67_story.html

[Katy Lied]

This is a movie I’d love to discuss with several of you around a table of good eats.

Hey! Just like me! Or, what I think I said was that I'd like to discuss this with some of you after we all drop acid. Or after we all watch the sun set and are re-experiencing the callowness of our college years and our first 2AM-in-the-morning-existential-conversation. It was one of the two.

Like PAC I loved it. My theater was packed-- every seat in the 800 seat auditorium was filled. Maybe we were all Nolan fans, but he seriously had everyone hanging on the edge of their seats (you can see this in an iMax theater). Then toward the end it feels like he could throw any kind of BS at us and we'd believe it 'cause he had us eating out of his hand. When the movie ended (3 hrs later), there was a smattering of applause but mostly a hush. Then, as one, everyone dug out their phones and started texting madly. Then, people hung out in the hallways discussing geek stuff about the movie.

Like PAC I couldnt hear some of the lines due to the sounds and music- it was as bad as an Altman movie.

My favorite line in the movie- not really a spoiler- but you should go into the movie with NO knowledge about it whatsoever- is:

Spoiler for spoiler:

When they lift off and the robot controlling the voyage says something jocular like, "well, now I have the slaves to serve my robot colony"

[PaloAltoCougar]

Hey! Just like me! Or, what I think I said was that I'd like to discuss this with some of you after we all drop acid. Or after we all watch the sun set and are re-experiencing the callowness of our college years and our first 2AM-in-the-morning-existential-conversation. It was one of the two.

Like PAC I loved it. My theater was packed-- every seat in the 800 seat auditorium was filled. Maybe we were all Nolan fans, but he seriously had everyone hanging on the edge of their seats (you can see this in an iMax theater). Then toward the end it feels like he could throw any kind of BS at us and we'd believe it 'cause he had us eating out of his hand. When the movie ended (3 hrs later), there was a smattering of applause but mostly a hush. Then, as one, everyone dug out their phones and started texting madly. Then, people hung out in the hallways discussing geek stuff about the movie.

Like PAC I couldnt hear some of the lines due to the sounds and music- it was as bad as an Altman movie.

My favorite line in the movie- not really a spoiler- but you should go into the movie with NO knowledge about it whatsoever- is:

Spoiler for spoiler:

When they lift off and the robot controlling the voyage says something jocular like, "well, now I have the slaves to serve my robot colony"

Funny you mention acid... When I saw 2001 back in the 60s in SF, as was apparently typical for viewings of the movie, the first few rows were filled with hippies and hipsters who were tripping out and who had come for the climactic scene as Dave and his spaceship approached Jupiter with all the streaming and flashing bright lights and the Star Child (Whoooooooaaaaaa! Duuuuuuude!). It was groundbreaking cinema at the time; going into the worm hole in Interstellar reminded me of that.

If a couple of others see the movie this weekend, we should start a separate thread for discussion so we don't have to bother with spoiler tags. I've got a few other things I want to mention or get off my chest.

[clackamascoug]

Funny you mention acid... When I saw 2001 back in the 60s in SF, as was apparently typical for viewings of the movie, the first few rows were filled with hippies and hipsters who were tripping out and who had come for the climactic scene as Dave and his spaceship approached Jupiter with all the streaming and flashing bright lights and the Star Child (Whoooooooaaaaaa! Duuuuuuude!). It was groundbreaking cinema at the time; going into the worm hole in Interstellar reminded me of that.

If a couple of others see the movie this weekend, we should start a separate thread for discussion so we don't have to bother with spoiler tags. I've got a few other things I want to mention or get off my chest.

I haven't been to a movie in more than three years... now I've got to see Intersteller Imax style.

Katy... how do I go about procuring some Owsely Acid. There is no technicolor motorhome in my city that I'm aware of.