(film review) - Triple 9

So, I saw the trailer to this and was like, "Oh right, this looks like it could be good!".  We have a dude from one of my favourite shows I am currently watching, The Walking Dead; another dude from an excellent show I applauded once I finished watching it, albeit, 2 years after everybody else, Breaking Bad; Batfleck's (Ben Affleck) kid brother; a white man who couldn't jump (a favourite actor of mine); Captain America's buddy, The Falcon and a dude who was 12 years a slave, not to mention Wonder Woman or the woman who lost DiCaprio at sea in Titanic.  This film was stacked!!! But did you enjoy it though? I hear you ask.  I did.

A bunch of guys perform a bank robbery to obtain an item for a Russian mob boss, however, when said boss holds out on payment, the gang of crooked cops and criminals led by Michael (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his two buddies, Russell (Norman Reedus) & Gabe (Aaron Paul), are required to pull off another robbery before they can finally get paid.  Under pressure by the mob boss' wife, Irina (Kate Winslet) and some skeptical members, whilst plotting how to pull off their next robbery, they devise a plan to pull a 'Triple 9' which will mean every cop will race and attend the scene of the crime buying them time to pull it off.  However, things go awry when gang members are wary of one another, cannot trust one another and each member have their own drive and motivation.  Throw in a new cop partner (Casey Affleck) in there and a Sgt. Detective (Woody Harrelson) trying to solve the bank robbery looking for every bit of clue he can find, we have ourselves a sticky situation.

This film is gritty and hard.  It reminds me of training day, but with more characters and a lot more action.  The pacing of the film is a little off as I found it somewhat difficult to follow and I couldn't figure out who were the cops and who were the criminals (probably playing to the aim of the director) and what the end game was.  I felt like I was in the movie trying to watch my own back, it was somewhat gripping but slow in places.  Not so much the twists and the turns, the film does become somewhat predictable.  I do feel that maybe this film would have been better if Nolan directed it or the Russo Brothers.  I can't explain it, but I felt like it was missing something.

Go and see this film though.  I mean, with such a cast, with not a single person phoning it in, this is a well acted and enjoyable film.  Affleck, Ejifor, Mackie, Winslet...all brilliant.  Even Reedus and Paul were great.  I would like to see more films for them so they can up their game. So for the most part, it's a good movie, have a gander.

(film review) - Interstellar

Christopher Nolan flew onto the scene for me when he directed Batman Begins.  Who is this guy?  People were talking about Memento, something I had never heard of and how he is a good director.  Up and coming, I think I heard somewhere, "could be the new Spielberg.  Having seen Batman Begins, then The Dark Knight (in which I really enjoyed), then Inception (a film I LO VE!!!), Christopher Nolan was a house hold name at this point and I surely wasn't going to let this film slip by me.  I heard about The Prestige being a great film, but I was already invested with this movie from the moment I saw the trailer.  Space, futuristic space travel, saving humanity or something, vague first initial trailer, but I was going to see it regardless.

Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is an ex NASA Pilot and now farmer, living with his two children, daughter Murphy Cooper (Jessica Chastain), son Tom Cooper (Casey Affleck) and father in law Donald (John Lithgow).  As the world is slowly becoming inhabitable due to servere dust storms, Cooper embarks on a journey instructed by Professor Brand (Michael Cain) to travel to inhabitable planets with Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), Romilly (David Gyasi) and Doyle (Wes Bentley).  However, when one of the scouting trips going horribly wrong, the crew are now racing against time, desperate to find a planet to colonise before it becomes too late for those living on Earth.

This film was a lot!  I loved it just like how I love Inception, but I also hated a singular moment in this film which now has me hating Anne Hathaway.  I know it's a character and I know it's a role, but there is something she does in this film that infuriated me to no end that even now as I am typing this, I'm getting angrier and angrier.  The film also touches on love and how love can transcend space and time, the future of humans and the need to live/survive no matter the cost.  Towards the end of the movie, it does get really confusing and abstract that you may not understand what is happening, but Nolan has definitely directed this film in order to have repeat viewings.

The sound, the cinematography, the acting, everything was beyond superb.  The tension in this movie is at a very high scale and moments in this movie will have you on edge whilst other moments may have you hating an actor forever! I joke, although right now she isn't in my good books.  The film isn't JUST set in space either, so the dynamics on the ground, well...Earth also contributes to the overall story and the ongoing mounting pressure.  Lies, betrayal, love and will, is littered throughout this movie and for me, I will need to watch it again, but not because i didn't get it, well the end, a little maybe, but it is such a good film, it deserves a rewatch.