#MovieMonday Interstellar Review

Man’s ability to dream and desire to explore has long been one of our defining features and what’s helped make our species, for better or worse, the dominant one on Earth, allowing for travel far beyond what was possible only 100 years ago. However, there is an argument to be made – a valid one – that we’ve stopped looking outward to the stars and the possibility of what lies beyond, and are now entirely too focused on the pettiness of looking down. Though it hasn’t much in recent memory, science fiction can show us a better future or at least a desire to create one. Christopher Nolan addresses this, and a whole lot of other things, in his new film Interstellar, a throwback to the space exploration films of the 1960s, now using state-of-the-art special effects and IMAX camera technology.

Clearly influenced (almost ridiculously so) by Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey, Interstellar is a lofty idea for a film, focusing on mankind’s final efforts to reach a new habitable planet whilst rapid deforestation, debilitating dust storms, and a dwindling supply of food make continued life on Earth a finite prospect. It’s also the only film I can think of to focus so extensively on the Theory of Relativity as it pertains to time near black holes. It shows us a completely fictionalized account of what could happen to a person inside a black hole. The science of a lot of it toward the end doesn’t make any sense, or at least none by what we currently know about science, however, if you are willing to entertain the possibility of the beginning of this movie - an apocalyptic world where man is searching the stars for a new home - then why wouldn't you be able to entertain the ending as well? I'll get more to that later.

Without spoiling too much of the movie or the ending, the gist of it is that Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a NASA test pilot and brilliant engineer turned farmer - because everyone on Earth has turned farmer with the lack of food - who stumbles back into NASA and takes on a mission to leave Earth with a team, search for a habitable planet, and return for the surviving humans. The point being to leave Earth altogether because in so many years everything, no matter what, will be dead. Crops refuse to grow, water is drying up, etc. Where will they find a habitable planet close enough to transfer survivors (and not just their children's children) to knowing from basic science that we haven't really even found one in our universe yet? Well, through the black hole that popped up out of nowhere near Saturn when Earth took a turn for the worse, of course.

While the movie focuses mostly on "bending space and time," it also focuses on the human connection to one another as well. It's actually as if 2001: A Space Odyssey had a love child with Contact who had a love child with The Martian who had a love child with Gravity. Actually... that's exactly what it's like. And I even like the fact that I saw The Martian before this movie because the science of it is spot on, and I like the fact that Matt Damon makes an appearance in Interstellar as well. And the ending... Here's a spoiler alert, so if you haven't seen it, read no further.

The ending can go a million different ways depending on it's interpretation, and honestly, I think that's exactly what the film-makers intended. I'm not upset about the speculation of love being quantifiable, or that gravity can transcend time and space, or that if you get pulled into a black hole (and don't get ripped to shreds) you will age extremely slower than you normally would or, I guess, others will age faster because to you it seems like it's only been minutes and to others further away from the black hole it's been years - 7 years to every 1 hour one planet really close to the BH, 2 minutes to 50 years right smack dab in the middle of the BH. But, no, I'm not upset. Why? Because it's a movie. It's meant to entertain. Make you think. If you have no emotion coming out of it, you're not human because it really is a great father-daughter movie, and the movie itself does exactly what it's meant to do. So, if you have 2 hours and 45 minutes to spare, watch it. Just don't be mad about a movie (all movies really) meant for entertainment.

New #TeamBlue Member!

It's official! Josef House has completed his EMT-B training and has passed his National Registry! He's also become a member of the Stonewall Fire Dept, and is the only medic on the team. Also, we are waiting to hear from Mercy on his application, so hopefully good updates to come!

#MovieMonday Deadpool Review

For Ryan Reynolds, third time is the charm as he at last fulfills his superhero destiny with Deadpool, based on the anti-hero created in 1991 for Marvel Comics by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld. After an abortive first attempt at bringing some sort of version of Wade Wilson to the screen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, followed by his stoic portrayal of Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern, Reynolds has returned to Wilson – the character he was born to play – in a movie that he has spent several years with director Tim Miller and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick practically willing into existence.

Now here it is, in all its crude, ratty glory, and we can tell you that the movie has at least nailed both the tone of the comics and the ragged charm of the character himself. And the tone of the movie seems as if it were a Quentin Tarantino film, if that tells you anything. And also, ladies, be prepared to own this DVD, because you will definitely be pausing it, screenshotting it and putting it in the Skank Bank in order to break it out on dine-alone-Taco-Tuesdays. Ryan Reynolds... Nom Nom Nom. Am I right?

Wade Wilson (Deadpool) is quick with the quips and the meta references, he breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience (as he has done so famously with the readers of his comic books) and – as we find out when he meets the woman of his dreams, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin of Firefly and, more recently, Gotham) – he’s a romantic at heart.

Reynolds gives his all in the role, and it’s clear from the start that he has immersed himself in this character and worked to create the perfect screen version of Deadpool. He’s endlessly carrying on a running conversation with himself (“Did I leave the stove on?”), reacting like a petulant child when he gets shot or stabbed, and riotously commenting on the comic book movie world around him - including several jokes at the X-Men franchise's expense, previous Ryan Reynolds movies, and even Ryan Reynolds himself.

The movie basically is a one-man show and director Miller wisely derives almost all its entertainment value from Reynolds’ detailed and truly oddball performance. With the main character’s over-the-top-and-beyond behavior and constant self-awareness dominating the proceedings, it's likely Deadpool Movies will be around for a long while.

Deadpool is fun, highly entertaining and, for fans of the comics, does exactly what it promised. Oh, and make sure you stay until the very end -- the post-credits  easter egg sequence isn't the one you might have expected, but it's the one you unknowingly want.