Friday 28 November 2014

Nightcrawler V Interstellar


NIGHTCRAWLER

Summary

Jake Gyllenhaal, (you'll know him from films such as Source Code where he played a time traveling marine, and Brokeback Mountain where he played a rancher that turns Heath Ledger gay) plays Lou Bloom; a man who likes ironing and is attracted to women in their 60's.


This film was written by the same guy that wrote the Bourne Legacy and Freejack. Remember Freejack? Freejack starred Emilio Estevez who played a racing driver that gets killed on the track. However at the moment of the crash he gets magically transported into the future, the year 2009! There he fights Mick Jagger in a dystopian future in a race for immortality. It's quite easily one of the worst films ever made and what's more amazing is that everyone involved in the project went on to have fine careers. Anthony Hopkins, Bryan Cranston, even Rene Russo. 

A lot has been said already of Nightcrawler, that its a film that touches on Darwinism, survival of the fittest. Some say its a film that reflects the psychology of modern day journalism as media channels resort to sensationalism at the expense of the truth.  But I feel like we are all missing the point, and the real question is this, is it ok for me to fancy Rene Russo? She's 60!

Tomato Meter - (critics) 94%
Tomato Meter - (audience) 88%
Peter Meter - 84%

INTERSTELLAR

Plot Summary 

Interstellar features Matthew Mahogany as the best damn pilot there is. He is a maverick, a loose cannon, and after the death of his best friend Goose he quits the academy, wait a minute…

A quick tip before seeing this film. Take a good lengthy piss before heading into the theatre because the feature runs near 3 hours. Throw some adverts, trailers and a 2ltr pitcher of Coke into the mix and you’ll be bursting for the john just at the point when Michael Caine tells Matthew Mahogany that he can be his wingman anytime.

The film has all the typical Nolan traits of being ambitious, multi-layered and laden thick with a powerhouse score by Hans Zimmer. (His go-to guy it seems having collaborated with him on The Dark Knight and Inception). I’d say the films narrative doesn’t quite the discipline of his previous works. But that’s a minor criticism is that Interstellar has so much going on visually and emotionally. I say emotionally, that's been the consensus from other critics. I personally wasn’t emotionally involved with this flick, however I was rooting for the robot which provides the comic relief and generally kicks the most ass.

The film not only lends itself to Top Gun but I picked up a few other references. Look away if you don’t want any spoilers. Watch out for the Event Horizon scene when time travel and black holes are explained using a biro being threaded through a folded piece of paper. Look out for the Independence Day scene where the Brits go ‘A message from the Americans, its old morse code.’ But hey as it’s a film about time and space then let me say this; with the exceptions of vacuums, according to the laws of physics everything has its place. If you want to create something new, you must displace what is already there. (Or something like that). And this film certainly displaces everything else, Top Gun included.

Tomato Meter - (Critics) 78%
Tomato Meter - (Audience) - 87%

VERDICT

I think it's important to realise just how crap Freejack was. As a wannabe writer myself I find it very inspiring that you can produce such a shit sandwich like Freejack and the industry will still green light your future scripts. So WATCH Freejack and NOT Nightcrawler OR Interstellar.

FREE JACK TRAILER

@the_brooker