Wednesday 17 December 2014

Interstellar (2014)


Being the moviegoer that I am, I was quite disappointed that I didn't catch Interstellar when it first came out. But alas, I caught it today, just before our oh so perfect cinema company (Cineco) removed it from its theaters. And let me tell you, I was mentally prepared to wait three months until it's released on Blu-Ray so I could get the chance to watch it, but today's plan was delightfully spontaneous. The story is about a team of astronauts who discover a wormhole in space (obviously) that connects them to potentially inhabitable planets in another galaxy, they have to make the journey because planet earth is basically dead. It sounds cliche, but trust me it's not, the movie is incredible.

I just wanna say that one thing before I get into the review. Watching the movie in theater was amazing, but I swear to god I had half a mind to go and choke the shit out of four 13 year olds that were sitting in the row in front of me. If any of you dumbasses are reading this, know that you were a nuisance to everyone in the cinema, and not every movie that has a picture of an astronaut is necessarily gonna be some Call of Duty type of bullshit that you guys worship. And the fact that you left the theater halfway through the movie was a sigh of relief. So please, you're kids, go watch a cartoon or something.

Aaaaaanyways, back to the movie. I've noticed that in space themed movies are actually booming these days, like Gravity and Interstellar. I mean if the quality of these movies are an indication of things to come, sign me up, cause its already looking very promising. There is no doubt that Mathew McConaughey was a goddamn star in this film, I mean he's always been one of my favorites, he caught my attention in A Time to Kill, won my heart in Dallas Buyers Club, and engraved his name on my top actors list with his performance in Interstellar. In fact, all the actors were brilliant, it's actually fascinating to see so much talent in one movie...like even Anne Hathaway was good. It's like they gave their best performances in Interstellar and my god it was brilliant.

Bravo man, Bravo.

A visual masterpiece with a spine tingling soundtrack to go along with it. The soundtrack, composed by Hans Zimmer, was in my opinion, the backbone of the movie. I'm never one to pay attention to the soundtrack of films, but this was just perfection, it extenuated the highs and the lows and complemented the visuals beautifully. Now about the visuals, they were bloody beautiful man, my expectations were high, and let me tell you they ended up soaring in the heavens. Wow, all I kept saying to myself was WOW.

The film's plot is very smart. I mean different planets, yeah we have seen that before, but to go in depth with black holes and relativity? Now I personally have not seen that. And because I spend a lot of time watching shows about space and reading about it (Yes, I am a nerd), It was pleasant to understand all that scientific jargon that was being thrown around about black holes and trajectories and Einstein's theory of Relativity and what not. The plot has a lot of twists, expected and unexpected, I mean you'd expect that in a movie like this.

Moreover, the film is an emotional roller coaster man, and I'm not talking about no kiddie coaster, I'm talking heart attack inducing shit right here (just a tad exaggerated). I mean you get so attached to the characters because the character development in the film is just out of this world, you start to develop a bond with them, I know it seems bizarre but I speak the truth. I remember this one scene where Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) was crying cause he was watching video messages of his children and oh my god man I swear I was cracking up, goddamn!

GARGANTULA! 

Now the ending, I honestly didn't have trouble understanding what happened at the end, and to be honest most people won't have a problem IF they focus from the beginning, cause in the end everything will start to make sense. And the run time, now I'm a veteran when it comes to long run times (I watched the extended Lord of The Rings Trilogy in one sitting), and I was so immersed in the film that I didn't even feel like 2 hours and 50 minutes passed, that's how engaging it is.

All in all, Interstellar is a blast from start to finish. Christopher Nolan just proves time and time again that he's one of the top directors out there. A beautiful plot, with the most jaw dropping visuals and soundtrack, very decent character developments, and an ending that will get you thinking. Is it worth watching, fuck yes. You have to watch it, in fact if I could recommend any movie from the last five years it would be Interstellar, no joke.


Side note: I love how the movie showcased the four elements of nature: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. You will know what I'm talking about when you watch it.


"Mankind was born on earth, It was not meant to die here"

Ahmed Almatrook

Thursday 4 December 2014

Lucy (2014)


So I never really got the chance to watch Lucy in the theaters, because of a combination of not having a ride and a lack of cash (story of my life). But I remember being excited for its release, the trailer looked good and the previews were fair. And it basically follows the same idea as Limitless, which in all honesty, was a blast and I loved it. So I got the opportunity to watch Lucy last night, and let's just say, my day could have gone waaaaaay better if I chose to watch Tropic Thunder for the millionth time as opposed to this shit-fest.

So, the story is about Lucy (obviously), who's tricked by her boyfriend into becoming a drug mule for a Korean mob boss (Triads?). So they plant the drugs into her abdomen and send her off, but the drugs eventually leak into her body, giving her the ability to utilize more than 10% of her brain and thus the ability to become superhuman.

Let me start by crushing your hopes children, this myth that a human being only uses 10% of their brain is total utter bullshit. It's science man, you can't argue with SCIENCE (Breaking Bad reference). Now that we got that out of the way, let's move on. I have never realised how much of a bad actress Scarlett Johansson is until I watched Lucy, like I don't see talent there. I mean she's a sex symbol, that's it, not a sex symbol that can act like Angelina Jolie. She fails as an actress just like Hitler failed when he tried to invade the Soviet Union.

She's really pretty but she just can't act
Another thing that pissed me off was the direction this movie was going in. *SPOILER ALERT* It went too over-the-top, I mean what's it supposed to convey to us (let's assume that this myth is a fact)? That if we reach 100%  of our cerebral capacity, we just turn into this giant Daedric looking supercomputer and release a flash drive then disappear*SPOILERS END HERE*. Going back to Limitless, I mean that movie too was over the top, but it had appeal. It engaged the audience and it had a twisty-ish plot. Limitless was a "realistic" version of movies that are based on the "10% of the brain myth", whereas Lucy was just fuckin' weird. Lucy is a prime example in which the direction of the movie was literally just forward, and not in a good way. No subplots, no emotion, and just to top it off, an abrupt ending that would literally make you want to throw your TV from a fuckin' airplane.


Anyways, I'm losing brain cells just talking about this shit-fest. So let me cut to the chase, do not watch Lucy, because I swear to god you'll hate yourself for it. If you want a movie that explores the same idea as Lucy, watch Limitless, and trust me, you WILL thank me.


"Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge"

Ahmed Almatrook