Interstellar

[thatguy]

Long. Earth is dying and someone has to go on an expedition to find a new home among the stars. Reminiscent of 2001 in a lot of ways - slow moving, and also of Gravity, but much more watchable than that. I saw it in IMAX. It wasn't particularly great on it, IMHO.

McConaughey is a good choice for a "Right Stuff" type space cowboy, but having seen so much of him in the recent past (Dallas Buyers Club, True Detectives), he seems to be playing his "McConaughey" character which can be distracting. Lithgow plays his step-dad. Michael Caine plays an old boss(?). Matt Damon plays a pioneering astronaut. Anne Hathaway plays a scientist.

The robots are unbelievably functional. They irritated me.

No spoilers, but "Occurrence at Owl Creek" comes to mind.

--tg
PS: His son has a son and decides to name him Cooper in honor of his dad. But Cooper is the family name. So is the kid named Cooper Cooper? They don't really get into it.

[Drunk Monk]

bollywood numbers? puppies? where the sets nice?

actually, thanks for the Imax tip. I was wanting to see this in Imax, but if it's not worth it, I won't bother.

hold the phone...where did you see it in imax in the cruz?

[thatguy]

hold the phone...where did you see it in imax in the cruz?

No, people from work wanted to go, so we went to the AMC in Vallco. It cost nearly $20. I would rent it, or watch it on a not-so-big screen. lots of interior shots or shots of cornfields and dust storms. Sets were meh. One of the planets was obviously shot on a glacier somewhere. Another was a knee-deep ocean, no terrain to speak of. Some of the "Oh my god, it's full of stars" scenes were interesting, but I don't think they pushed the IMAX capabilities.

--tg

[thatguy]

And in other Interstellar news, Asimov's Foundation is in the works for HBO:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thewrap.com/interstellars-jonah-nolan-developing-foundation-series-for-hbo-wbtv-exclusive/">http://www.thewrap.com/interstellars-jo ... exclusive/</a><!-- m -->

‘Interstellar's’ Jonah Nolan Developing ‘Foundation’ Series for HBO, WBTV (Exclusive)



The Oscar-nominated “Memento” writer says “everyone would benefit from reading” the sci-fi trilogy

HBO and Warner Bros. TV are teaming to produce a series based on Isaac Asimov's “Foundation” trilogy that will be written and produced by “Interstellar” writer Jonathan Nolan, multiple individuals familiar with the project have told TheWrap.

Nolan, who is already working with HBO on “Westworld,” has been quietly developing the project for the last several months. He recently tipped his hand to Indiewire, which asked him, ‘what's the one piece of science fiction you truly love that people don't know enough about?’

“Well, I fucking love the ‘Foundation’ novels by Isaac Asimov. They're certainly not well-known, but that's a set of books I think everyone would benefit from reading. That's a set of books where the influence they have is just fucking massive. They have many imitators and many have been inspired by them, but go back and read those, and there are some ideas in those that'll set your fucking hair on fire,” Nolan told Indiewire.

Representatives for HBO and WBTV had no comment, while a representative for Nolan didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Foundation” follows mathematician Hari Seldon, who has dedicated his life to developing psychohistory, a concept that uses the laws of mass action to predict the future on a large scale. When he foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire and a dark age that will last 30,000 years, he sets out to create a foundation of talented artisans and engineers to preserve and expand on humanity's collective knowledge with the hope of establishing a new empire.

The “Foundation” series was originally comprised of three books — “Foundation,” “Foundation and Empire” and “Second Foundation.” The trilogy won a Hugo Award for “Best All-Time” series in 1966, 15 years before Asimov began adding to the series with sequels “Foundation's Edge” and “Foundation and Earth,” as well as prequels “Prelude to Foundation” and “Forward the Foundation.”

Sony Pictures acquired “Foundation” in a multi-studio auction back in 2009 and attached Roland Emmerich to direct and produce. Two years later, the studio hired Dante Harper (“Akira”) to adapt the books. When the project failed to materialize, HBO spent big bucks to acquire the property when it became available earlier this summer.

Nolan co-wrote “Interstellar” with his brother and longtime collaborator, director Christopher Nolan. Jonah Nolan also created the hit CBS series “Person of Interest,” and with wife Lisa Joy Nolan, co-wrote HBO's upcoming big-budget sci-fi pilot “Westworld,” which stars Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright.

Nolan, who has an overall deal with WBTV, is represented by WME and attorney Michael Schenkman.

--tg

[cranefly]

I put a hold on this maybe a month ago. The library has 12 copies.
Current status: Number 100 of 136 holds. Shouldn't be long now.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

If it makes you feel any better, CF, my copy from Netflix has been sitting next to the TV for about two weeks.

[cranefly]

So... Uh...
What's the range of your drone?

[Drunk Monk]

...along with 3 or 4 dozen other titles. :roll:

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Finally saw it. I probably could have sent it to CF a couple of times during the interim.

It was fine. The third act pales with too much magic-science and not enough science-science, I felt. It probably would have looked great on the big screen.

I was more involved in the story than I thought I would be.

[Drunk Monk]

...along with 4 or 5 dozen other titles. :oops:

[Drunk Monk]

I would rent it, or watch it on a not-so-big screen. 

Took your advice and watched this on a tiny back-of-seat airplane screen with crappy $3 earbuds and a baby kicking my seat for 10 straight hours and crying about it (the baby crying, not me, but I felt like it).  This is not the way to see this film.  Not at all.

Agreed, it's way too long, and for no good reason.  I liked the actress who played young Jessica Chastain more than Jessica herself.  I was nodding off here and there, at least until that baby kicked me awake again, so it didn't make a lot of sense.  I kinda liked the tesseract because I like tesseracts.  The geometric bot was done better in Demon Seed.  Overall, overrated.

[cranefly]

Took your advice and watched this on a tiny back-of-seat airplane screen with crappy $3 earbuds and a baby kicking my seat for 10 straight hours

Hey, I thought you said the earbuds were $6 in an elsewhere post.
You think I don't check up on these things?  I keep extensive spreadsheets cataloging everything you post and am ever looking for discrepancies.

Because someone has to do it.

[Drunk Monk]

Charged me $6 for earphones and a half cup of crappy tea.  

It was $3 for the earbuds and $3 for the half cup of crappy tea.  That was the best discrepancy you could find? So disappointed.  I was expecting something more tesseractian from you.

[Drunk Monk]

So I watched this again, forgetting I had seen it before, and now realize that I must have slept through a lot of this film on that flight back in Aug 2018. Mind you, I was coming back from our Paris & Rome trip, flying alone, and was really strung out.  I kinda remembered the beginning of this film and a little of the tesseract at the end, but there was a huge gap in the middle. So it was kinda like seeing it fresh. Plus on that tiny airplane screen with those crappy earbuds, I missed a lot.  It was better on the second viewing although my first thought was, well, I'm glad I saw that but I don't need to see it again.