A Boy and His Robot: Big Hero Six, Interstellar, Jupiter Ascending and Black Sea

A bit of a movie catch-up with three sci-fi and one psychological thriller.

First up, Interstellar. With a looming ecological catastrophe, former astronaut Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is asked to venture through a recently discovered wormhole to find a new home for Humanity.

While the acting and special effects are good, at two hours plus, this seemed a little dragged out to me. Plus, although they had expert advice on the physics concepts involved, the plot did seems a little contrived (I didn't understand how they managed to get down to the first planet without being ripped apart by tidal forces from gravity stong enough to slow down time). Quite a good pizza movie, though, and a more positive spin on the future than most films.

Next, Black Sea. Unemployed submariner Robinson (Jude Law) is offered an opportunity to salvage gold from a sunken U-Boat.

A claustrophobic and tense thriller, with some genuine starts (for me anyway), it's spoiled by technical errors (there's a reason they use diesel in ships: it's inflammable) and the silliness of the plot. An average pizza movie, but no more than that.

From the Wachowski siblings, who brought you the Matrix, comes Jupiter Ascending. Jupiter (Mila Kunis) a cleaner in Chicago turns out to be the genetic twin of a long dead Queen of... Lord, I can't be bothered. Instead of showing you the trailer, I'll let Honest Trailer's explain (if they can):

I didn't think it was that bad, but, like they say, the plot has holes you could drive a tank through and the acting is bad enough to make Sean Bean look like Laurence Olivier. Harmless enough, I suppose, but more expensive than Black Sea for a not much better result.

Lastly, we have Disney's attempt to cash in on the Manga phenomena with Big Hero Six. After losing his brother in a fire, Hiro (geddit?) Hamada and the formers robot creation Baymax try to find out what happened.

Although still a Disney film, and, therefore, a bit cardboard cut-out, it's a reasonable plot and good enough characters to make it an enjoyable 90 minutes. I liked it.

Elysium

Through my LoveFilm subscription, a(nother) sci-fi film from Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9. Having been fatally irradiated at work, Max Da Costa (Matt Damon) makes a deal with local activists to break into the orbital space station Elysium for a chance at being healed.

With a rather good plot, breath-taking special effects, and decent acting (although I would have preferred someone Hispanic instead of Damon, but I suppose it required a name to sell it), Elysium makes for a rattling good sci-fi film. I especially liked spangly space station and the robots, but all the weaponry was cool, especially the exploding bullets. Recommended.

Along similar lines, there's a new series out in the states called The 100.

Mmmmmm, teenagers in space. Yeah, I'll give that one a miss, I think, assuming anyone over here is going to buy it.

True Grit

Happy New Year, everybody.

While seeing in the New Year with my Aunt and Uncle in the wild and wooly North West, I brought over the remake of True Grit to watch. Fourteen year old Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) hires aged Federal Marshal Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) to bring her father's killer to justice:

Although the original is considered a classic, I was never that enamoured of it. This improves on it slightly, and definitely has the weirdness of a Coen brother's movie, which can be a little arresting in places, although I imagine it stays very true to the book. The support is good, too, if a little underused (with the exception of Matt Damon reprising Glen Campbell's role as the Texas Ranger LeBoeuf). Not a bad little pizza movie, but requiring a little patience.