The Giver opened in theaters last Friday. Has anyone seen it, someone who's also read Lowry's novel? I loved this book, but I hated the trailers. I thought they'd changed too much. The IMDb/Metacritic reviews (critics and users) weren't promising either.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm fairly hopeful about it because I've read a couple of interviews in which Lowry expressed favorable feelings toward the production, even going to far as to say she wished she had written some of the changes they made into the book.

http://www.hypable.com/2014/07/16/the-giver-author-lois-lowry/
http://io9.com/lois-lowry-explains-how-the-giver-movie-improves-on-her-1610582880

I loved Guardians of the Galaxy too. I expected to like Star-Lord and Groot, but I certainly didn't expect to like Gamora and Drax as much as I did. And Rocket was hilarious!

I also liked that we finally

I snuck yesterday afternoon and caught a matinee showing of Interstellar.

And I loved it. I've been a huge fan of space exploration, colonization, and general purpose space junkie since I first saw Star Wars in 77'. The Voyager flybys of the late 70's of Jupiter and Saturn only heightened this interest and I spent a lot of time going through National Geographic issues of that and watching any Sci-Fi movie or TV program I could get my eyeballs on. Oh how I always wanted to be an astronaut (and perhaps one day will be still) and make those long treks to far away worlds and to see wonders no one else has seen. Contact (1997) built upon this innate desire of mine and I'd have given anything to take that space probe off to Vega instead of Jodie Foster. So many countless worlds out there to visit and explore, chart and give names to.

Interstellar spoke to me on a deep level, and it was a rush of exhilaration to my soul to see the things it had to offer. The plot goes something like this. Cooper (Matt McConaughey) is a retired astronaut and test pilot living somewhere in the Midwest. The Earth's resources are drying up and crops are failing on a global scale due to an unknown botanical pathogen known as "the blight", which kills off varying types of crops and gets bigger due to the nitrogren buildup as a result (as they explained it). Cooper, like 95% of the rest of the world's population, is now a farmer. All militaries have been disbanded and the world is focused only on survival. After Cooper's daughter, Murph, begins complaining of a ghost in her bedroom Cooper discovers that the phenomenon is actually a coded signal from...somewhere else. He deciphers some coordinates from the signals and discovers an old military base where he is taken into custody (along with his daughter) by what appears to be the remnants of NASA, who are claiming that while Mankind is on an inevitable collision course with extinction there just may be a little hope. It seems that some intelligence has created a stable wormhole in Saturn's orbit, and probes report that the wormhole (a point in space which occupies two separate places in the universe at the same time) has habitable worlds beyond that just may be Mankind's salvation. Cooper and a team of scientists are selected to board the Endurance, a long range spacecraft, and rocket through the wormhole to find and investigate those worlds beyond it. And what they find beyond is pretty amazing.

This is a sci-fi film that feels very real. I mean it's clear that shy of the long term cryogenic sleep chambers (which allow the crew to sleep for years at a time) pretty much everything in the movie is a working technology now. I had a huge grin on my face for much of the film, not because you're rooting for Cooper (which you are, as he's the "everyman" representative of the film) or because the heroes just escaped a seemingly inescapable situation, but because as a people we were made to explore. The special effects were apparently exorbitantly expensive but you can tell. They also used actual spacecraft models in lieu of CGI (take note George Lucas!) which makes it seem more real. This is not a film for everyone. If you're like me or have a big interest in space in general you will likely love this film and it will wow you with how small our little spot is in the universe. The soundtrack was very wonderful and it felt like a cross between the score for 2001: A Space Odyssey and Disney's old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, with lots of what sounded like pipe organ music.

Five solid stars.

Thanks for the review SL. I don't follow movie releases closely anymore, so I didn't even hear about this movie until last weekend (I think?) when everybody started gushing about it. I'll have to check it out. Or at least have my husband check it out since it's up his alley more than mine. He can tell me whether or not I'd like it.

Now the movie that I'm pretty sure I WOULD like that's out right now is Big Hero 6. Has anybody seen that one and would care to comment on it? I think most people I know that have seen it, liked it quite a lot.

I'd been meaning to come in and briefly talk about Big Hero 6, but hadn't had a chance, fk. I went and saw it this past week with a couple of my sisters and a friend. We all really enjoyed it. It was fun, and the characters were good. There was a little bit of eye-rolling humour, but it was pretty much overshadowed by how emotional it was, which I hadn't expected. But I'm really glad I watched it. I don't know if that helps you out or not, sorry; I think I'm still processing it a bit.

Just saw Big Hero 6 this last Tuesday, and I absolutely loved it!! I've been excited about it since I first saw the concept art, so you can imagine my excitement. The movie was funny and sad and heartwarming and exciting all at once, if you can imagine that. Baymax, especially, (although GoGo Tomago is my favorite character) was just a delight to watch. It also has a lot of really good themes in it, especially about not desiring revenge, and sacrifice and all of that. Also, if you're a fan of Marvel, make sure to stay for the scene after the credits.

Some of my favorite lines (w/o spoilers):
"This armor may undermine my huggable and non-threatening design." - Baymax
"I spilled Wasabi on my shirt once...!" - Wasabi
"Woman up!" - GoGo
"We jumped out a window!" - Baymax
"Hairy...BABY! Hairy baby..." - Baymax
The Baymax fistbump (not a quote, but still funny)

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar.

Wow. Just wow. Phenomenal. At its heart, the movie is a science-fiction drama/space exploration thriller but it also showcases philosophical elements. Remember the best parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey and you'll have some idea of what to expect. The script is generally well-written and thought-provoking, if a little nihilistic and humanity-is-our-saviour-ish. The acting is heartfelt, the visuals brilliant but purposeful and the music bombastic where needed. Nothing is there just for the cool factor. In fact, there's a heavy 80s but futuristic, practical feel to the space aircraft aesthetics and technologies. Still, a high-concept movie is nothing without a beating heart, and Interstellar has heart in spades. The father/daughter relationship is particularly powerful. There are a few pacing issues in the middle and there's a little evolution talk but nothing too troublesome. At times, sound-mixing issues drowned out dialogue, but this may have been by design (can anyone confirm?) The final act is beyond words. Finally, while Interstellar contains very little objectionable content (just one F-word and a few minor words) the movie is rather long (170mins) and includes several super-intense scenes that will have you clawing at your seat.

See it!

8.5/10

Two thumbs up for that review. Interstellar catapulted itself into my Top 5 Best Sci-Fi films in short order. The worlds they made planetfall on were wild, were they not? I felt the ending was left open....I would not at all mind seeing how that segment turned out but I left the theater feeling hope and optimism, so perhaps that question is already answered in my heart, cheesy as that sounds.

I saw The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies and was bitterly disappointed. I had steered clear of Unexpected Journey two years ago because of the poor reviews. I saw Desolation of Smaug last year because the critics gave it better notices, and was delighted. It was an entertaining movie event, though not a cinematic masterwork like LotR.

This year I was hoping that Battle of the Five Armies would be similarly entertaining, but the fact of the matter is that there is simply not enough content in the original book to spread across 3 movies. Peter Jackson sold out his artistic integrity to make a extra buck (or 2, or half a million).

They bloated the running time with endless over-the-top battle scenes. In LotR, the special effects added to the drama, they didn't single-handedly make the movies great. Now, 10 years later, the "special effects battle extravaganza" is becoming a tired concept. Without a connection to well-developed stories or characters, the special effects are dull and pointless.

They couldn't think of an organic way to develop the relationships, so they shoehorned in "moments" most of which had little or no emotional impact. The only character I could care less about was Thranduil, and that's a testament to Lee Pace's talents as an actor, not to anything the writers did. Seriously, I think you could make an interesting short film, just by cutting out all of the scenes that don't involve Lee Pace. He made his fight scenes epic and his big emotional moment actually made me cry.

My advice: rent the DVD from your local library, and fast forward through the non-Thranduil scenes.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is messy, convoluted, overstuffed, pandering, bloated, rushed at times and absolutely the most fun I've had at the cinema since Guardians of the Galaxy last summer. Whedon is able to juggle almost a dozen major characters, introduce several new ones and delve even deeper into several of the returning ones, outdo the incredible action set pieces of his previous film and set up upcoming films all the while keeping it mostly fresh and incredibly fun. And while the resulting film is nowhere near perfect he still deserves huge amounts of credit that this film even works on any level. There are too many action scenes and almost all of them go on for too long and they are far too reliant on CGI and yet he is able to put more character moments and development in any given one than a lot of modern blockbusters manage in an entire film. And it doesn't hurt that all the said action scenes are really good despite Whedon's weakness's as an action director getting in the way here and there. The dialogue has all the great wit and flair that Whedon's become famous for and than some.
A really fun, delightful mess.

Ps.
And we finally actually get to see Paul Bettany, he alone is almost worth the price of admission here!

Saw Avengers Saturday. A couple of people have said it felt a bit rushed. I agree. However, I think it was a bit rushed because they neglected to touch on a couple of things like:

Loved the character development. Especially that of Hawkeye and Black Widow. The CGI was too video game in the opening scene, but that smoothed out as the movie went on.

aragorn2, I totally agree. A fun, delightful mess.

My viewing was particularly hilarious in that the power flickered before my friend and I got in the theater and apparently it goofed up the projector. We got to hear the commercials, but not see them. Someone had the bright idea of using the flashlight app on one or more phones and proceeded to do a shadow puppet show. Had the whole theater in stitches for a good 20 minutes. They did get the movie going. We didn't have to sit through endless previews.

I agree with these comments about Age of Ultron. The opening CGI also seemed off to me but that was short-lived.

My tongue-in-cheek thought as I watched Tony Stark do his thing:

Tomorrowland is a sweet, childish, heavy-handed and over bearing message of humanistic hope brought to us by Brad Bird, that despite all of its best and noblest efforts doesn't entirely work.
But... having been brought to us by the one and only Mr. Bird, despite it's flaws, it's still an incredibly fun and at times very creative film with great chemistry between its leads and a lot of wit.

Bird's love letter/invitation to a bygone age of childlike hope and optimism doesn't totally come together in the end, but it's still a wonderfully delightful flight of fancy from one of the best film makers working today.

I had nearly forgotten about that movie (Tomorrowland). A couple years back we were taking some lambs to the butcher in Enderby. Just beyond where we turned in the driveway, we noticed a whole bunch of receivers(? telephone or internet) stuck all over a silo. Thought it was a bit weird, and didn't remember them being there the time before.

The butcher, as next door neighbour, told us all about it--the house front set they built, and so on. I figured I might have heard of George Clooney before, but I wasn't quite sure. I guess some of the local people were excited (good for the economy) but the butcher wasn't overly thrilled. I don't think they were filming there at the time.

Probably won't watch the movie, though