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Interstellar (2014)
Interstellar (2014)
2014 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Another top notch cinematic experience by the best director of our time
2014's INTERSTELLAR is one of Christopher Nolan's most ambitious works - and that is saying alot. It also is one of his best. Nolan - and his brother, the screenwriter of this film, Jonathan Nolan - wanted to make a "real" science fiction film, with the emphasis on the science, so they enlisted the help of noted theoretical physicist, Dr. Kip Thorne to ensure that they were not violating any established physical laws and that all speculations would spring from science and not fantasy.

And, for the most part, they succeed.

Following the adventures of "everyman" Cooper (if you call a farmer who is also a top notch astronaut, pilot and engineer an everyman), Interstellar tells of an Earth of the not-too-distant future that is running out of food and mankind must find a new planet to inhabit or else face extinction. Talked into leaving his family and heading into space, Cooper must face the challenges of his mission while fighting the emotions of leaving his family behind on a dying world.

As Cooper, Matthew McConaughey (at the height of his "McConnaissance") is perfectly cast as this "everyman". He brings the right balance of charisma, heroism, emotional maturity, intelligence and a "down to earth" behavior that has us rooting for him from the start. His acting is at the highest level and is matched, beat by beat by Jessica Chastain and (surprisingly to me at the time) Anne Hathaway as a fellow astronaut/scientist.

The special effects, worlds, circumstances, narrow escapes and deflating defeats are all handled in typical top-notch Nolan fashion, but it is the emotional stakes - specifically between McConaughey and Chastain (as his grown up daughter) are what keeps this film "grounded" and rises it above the standard sci-fi fair.

Nolan regular Michael Caine, the always great John Lithgow, Wes Bentley, Ellen Burstyn, a "before he was famous" Timothee Chalamet, another "before he was famous" David Oyelowo, Casey Affleck and a "surprise apperance" by a very famous "A" lister (who I will not name, so as not to ruin it) are all equally as good and give the proceedings the gravitas it needs.

Special notice needs to be made of the performance of Bill Irwin as the robot TARS (all space movies need a robot, right?). He performs the puppetry of the robot (Nolan wished to do everything as "practical" as possible) and adds large doses of humanity - and humor - to this non-human.

Another bit of special notice needs to be given to frequent Nolan collaborator - the brilliant Composer Hans Zimmer. He was tasked by Nolan to create a "unique" score - one that does not rely heavily on crescendoing strings and horns - and he succeeds tremendously with a hauntingly, melodic and driving score that heightens - but never overpowers - the scenes playing on the screen.

The decision as to whether or not you like this film will hinge on your "believability" of the final chapter - one where I "went with the flow" and was all right with, but (I'm sure) others will struggle with.

All in all, another top notch film by the best director of our day. If you have never seen INTERSTELLAR - or if you haven't seen it in awhile - I suggest you check it out, you'll be glad you did.

Letter Grade: A

9 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
  
The Incredibles (2004)
The Incredibles (2004)
2004 | Animation, Comedy, Family
Family friendly (3 more)
Funny
Good fight scenes
Good use of superheroes
Villains powers (0 more)
Brilliant family film that all will enjoy!!
So they live in a time where heroes are forbidden and Mr incredible is struggling to adjust. Disney have done a really good job in the scripting to show in his dialogue the problems he's facing. The animation as well is really impressive within his facial expressions.

After dismissing one of his fans from when he was a public hero, he receives an anonymous letter offering a heroes job. Now, for anyone else who shares my point of view. If I received a anonymous job offer worth thousands off of a stranger, I'd be speaking to my partner as that is creepy! Instead Disney took the approach of he is that desperate for the recognition of being a super he accepts without any thought or hesitation.

After dismissing the initial issue upon his first job, he begins a sort of partnership with this stranger only for it to be revealed as his childhood fan who he dismissed. The villain naming himself as syndrome has invented his own gadgets granting him powers like flight, zero gravity lasers and others.

Syndrome develops a robot that is essentially impenetrable. He holds a remote to dismantle it and has a genius master plan to get rid of all supers and essentially become the only super available. The rest of mr incredibles family get wind of what has happened and go to rescue him only to get caught as well and essentially be at syndromes disposle. Now let us just dismantle that one moment, a company as big as Disney has decided that this robot can be controlled by a remote, it has it's own computer processor so is aware of everything and is impenetrable. Am I the only one who sees the flaw that it can think for itself.? No? That's alright then.

The actors voice overs are really good and give the sense of urgency and emotion throughout there performces. This only adds to the big final battle. With a few funny moments in the film and bit of a slow moving middle filled with a sped up montage of mr incredibles training, I would say this film is definitely a very good family friendly film that will give a laugh and a very good evening with all the food on the table.
  
    EPOCH.

    EPOCH.

    Games and Entertainment

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    EPOCH - Post-apocalyptic Robot Combat Featured as "Game of the Week" on the App Store! Trailer...

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Awix (3310 KP) rated Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) in Movies

Apr 23, 2019 (Updated Apr 23, 2019)  
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
2015 | Action, Sci-Fi
Marvel #11 admirably resists the temptation to simply provide more of the same crash-bang-wallop and has a go at a story with more of a focus on character and ideas (it still includes a lot of very familiar crash-bang-wallop, naturally). This being a Marvel Comics story, two of the world's most brilliant minds decide it is a very good idea to use an alien weapon of unknown provenance to create an immensely powerful global defence system; everyone is still highly surprised when this goes wrong and spawns genocidal robot Ultron. Just another day at the office if you're in the Avengers, I suppose.

The usual supremely accomplished blend of lavish set-pieces, character bits and jokes; with nine Avengers on the roster for the climax of the story, plus various supporting turns, you can almost feel Joss Whedon's script and direction buckling under the pressure of fitting everything in, to say nothing of the various bits of meta-plot carpentry required to set up the next batch of films. Nevertheless, a film which meets all reasonable expectations - even if it isn't one of Marvel's absolute first rank, it's still within touching distance.
  
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Austin Garrick recommended M (Movie) (1931) in Movies (curated)

 
M (Movie) (1931)
M (Movie) (1931)
1931 |
8.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Had to at least include one from the master Hitchcock. Being the huge De Palma fan that I am, it would be tough to not be a huge Hitchcock fan as well. Bronwyn loves Ingrid Bergman and was the person to introduce me to Notorious when we were younger. What I love about this film is that you get this sincere, Old Hollywood romantic chemistry between Bergman and Cary Grant, in addition to some classic Hitchcock greatness. We project films while we write and record, and this film played a lot during the making of our debut album. Fritz Lang is another one of the greats who I had to have on this list. I first discovered his films through Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 restoration of Metropolis, whose iconic image of the robot on the soundtrack and posters always intrigued me as a child, and once I eventually saw the film, it quickly became one of my all-time favorites. Most who have seen it, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and M will agree that Fritz Lang is one of the best to have ever done it, but perhaps no one film has earned him that reputation more than M."

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Austin Garrick recommended Notorious (1946) in Movies (curated)

 
Notorious (1946)
Notorious (1946)
1946 | Drama, Film-Noir, Romance
6.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Had to at least include one from the master Hitchcock. Being the huge De Palma fan that I am, it would be tough to not be a huge Hitchcock fan as well. Bronwyn loves Ingrid Bergman and was the person to introduce me to Notorious when we were younger. What I love about this film is that you get this sincere, Old Hollywood romantic chemistry between Bergman and Cary Grant, in addition to some classic Hitchcock greatness. We project films while we write and record, and this film played a lot during the making of our debut album. Fritz Lang is another one of the greats who I had to have on this list. I first discovered his films through Giorgio Moroder’s 1984 restoration of Metropolis, whose iconic image of the robot on the soundtrack and posters always intrigued me as a child, and once I eventually saw the film, it quickly became one of my all-time favorites. Most who have seen it, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, and M will agree that Fritz Lang is one of the best to have ever done it, but perhaps no one film has earned him that reputation more than M."

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    Blocksworld HD

    Blocksworld HD

    Games and Education

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    Play more than 4 million awesomely fun creations made by players like you! Make and sell custom...