I wouldn’t say that Interstellar was more scientifically plausible than most SF; maybe it had a higher than average level of scientific verisimilitude. Which is fine - verisimilitude is all I want from science fiction. I want it to tell a good story without insulting my intelligence too much.
It also had FTL, and the fact that its scientific advisors keep on denying it makes me respect the movie even less.
Your low opinion of Kip Thorne, Nobel Laureate and Emeritus Richard Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cal Tech and lifelong friend, colleague, and collaborator with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, is duly noted.
It depends what you mean by FTL. What the advisors mean is that the ship never approaches and surpasses the speed of light in a vacuum. What you mean is that the ship goes to a far away place in less time than it would take light to get there from here in a straight line through space.
You are both correct, given your specific definitions.
I mean, obviously nothing can surpass the speed of light in the vacuum - that’s why Science Fiction writers invented things like wormholes or hyperspace or warp drives. But saying a movie doesn’t have FTL in it, while it in fact features one of the standard forms of SF FTL travel, seems kind of disingenuous to me.
Back on topic, last night I watched American Outlaws on Prime. It’s an intense movie based on the 2012 exploits of three Florida siblings who went on a cross-country crime spree, robbing a bank and shooting at cops. A decent show, but certainly not for everyone.
Finally gonna tackle this
The Invisible Boy isn’t really a sequel to Forbidden Planet, nor is it a prequel. The boy sees a photo of his uncle returning from his mission in Forbidden Planet, dated 2309, which is how Robby the Robot is brought back to earth. So it’s really a time travel movie (for about five seconds). A really bad time travel movie. I wish it would have explored that more.
Slingshot (2024) with Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne
A spaceship is traveling to Titan for reason that made no sense to me. Right out of the gate it is established that the sleep hibernation drugs are causing protagonist Casey (in full-on mope mode) to hallucinate. So the viewer can’t rely on anything they see in this film to be reality. Throw in every SF trope about isolated small crews aboard a spaceship and a “keep you guessing” ending and you have one of the least rewarding films I have seen this year.
Needed a new siren?
I sort of watched the end of Happy Gilmore 2 this morning. I was working in one of the dog play rooms, so I couldn’t really watch it but I could have it on the background. At one point I looked up and saw a hydraulic, tilting green with a caddie providing counterweight for balance. WTF? Kind of taking a shit over the original premise, no?
How is this ending ruining the original premise? The weird green that rotated and tilted was part of the Maxi Golf tour, which was crapping all over regular golf to improve it and make it more interesting. To be honest, they made some good points…
Forbidden Planet is by far one of the best sci fi movies, and THE best Star Trek movie ever. (They just changed the names). And the monster attacking, being illuminated by just the blasters, and the unearthly howls! Good stuff, what! I’ll even forgive them the Earl Holliman character, who is probably from Brooklyn, no less!
Except for the sexism! OMG it is so 50s where they are it’s painful to watch. Abrams practically accuses Alta of asking to be raped by his genetically superior but terminally horny crew. She is fine with what she is, but the crew (even the captain) act like teenagers. And then Ostrow’s “well I concede you win the girl, because you’re the captain”, well, I guess I’m “woke” because I think she should make the decision.
Naked Gun (2025)
Recommended.
Oh, yes, “joy”, I remember that. This movie is fun! And funny. And it is joke after joke, many of which don’t land, but no one cares because:
They did the right thing keeping most jokes out the trailers, so it feels fresh. Liam Neeson is impressive in a straight comedy and Pamela Anderson really gives a good performance as well.
I love long jokes like them being handed coffee over and over, Liam Neeson snapping every phone in half, even the land-line.
But then we have quick jokes, like Neeson using only the magazines to hurt his enemies or the extremely strange Snowman…..love scene?
It was so fun to see a joke movie again. When was the last time we had a quality movie centered around gags and jokes?
Tried to slog through the latest rendition of “War of the Worlds”, which basically seemed to consist mostly of an angry black man shouting at people over the phone. Couldn’t finish it.
I wasn;t aware of this version.
It’s catching some heat for sure. It’s settled as a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes and is becoming popular as a hate-watch/laugh-watch movie.
I’d like to see a WOTw set in England, like the book.
Well, I just mean that the original was all about a Maxi-like golfer (Gilmore) taking the piss out of the staid culture of golf. This is trying to flip the bitch, making Gilmore part of the staid golfers, but he’s not and never will be and the Maxi tour may as well have been put together for Gilmore because he plays that way anyway.
So, idunno. It seems like they went carnival style to come up with a sequel when they probably didn’t need to
There was an authentic version that came out in 2019 starring Rafe Spall. It was a bit dull, though.
I “reviewed” it way up in post 2997. My last two words sums it up:
“It stinks.”
You didn’t miss anything, and most importantly, you got the piece of your life back that you might have squandered by watching the whole stinkin’ thing.