Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a pilot and engineer turned farmer, on a future Earth that is drying up and failing to provide enough food for the human race.
To save humanity he will have to make use of a rift in time and space, left there by an unknown entity, to find a new planet to inhabit.
What he finds is a place beyond imagination and understanding.
We say, “It’s pretty cool, but…”
TAYLOR: It’s going to difficult to remain unbiased about Interstellar. Here we have everything I want in a sci-fi movie: awesome, never before seen scenery, theoretical space travel, metaphysical speculation about the meaning of life, even some conspiracy, action and danger. There’s a great cast, including Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Ellen Burstyn, Casey Afleck, Topher Grace, Matt Damon, and others… Yet, looking back on the experience of the nearly three hour Interstellar, I can’t get past the fact that there’s so much sitting in a shaking chair to loud music.
HOWE: Slow down there space cowboy, you’re flying way too fast. I can’t believe that we are going to disagree for a second time in a matter of weeks. This has everything in a space movie that has been missing from the genre for years. There are a couple of flaws in the movie: McConaughey being philosophical and some of the special effects look like they’re out of the ‘80s. I can let little things slide a little because it’s just a great movie.
TAYLOR: It’s interesting, beautiful, exciting, lazy and self-indulgent. By this I mean, it takes you places to which you don’t need to go, just so it can show you something cool. Yes, you get to see the “something cool,” but like the astronauts in the film, the price you pay is measured in time. The 20 or 30 minutes Interstellar should have cut feel a lot longer in a theatre seat, back on Earth. However, I am being nitpicky, not unfair, just a man with high expectations of director Christopher Nolan.
Everyone should absolutely go see Interstellar, on the big screen. Wear your astronaut’s diaper, you’re gonna need it.
HOWE: I also noticed that Nolan (Batman, Inception) seemed to pay tribute to some of the classic space films of our time: Star Wars, 2001: A Space Odyssey and to some extent Contact. It’s the sort of film that you can watch more than once and still not be fed up. This has to be one of the more interesting movies of 2014.
– Taylor gives Interstellar 4 could’ve been a 5 out of 5.
– Howe gives it 4.5 ears of corn out of 5.
Brian Taylor and Peter Howe are film reviewers based in Vernon, B.C. Their column Reel Reviews appears in The Morning Star Friday and Sunday.
