richard-810

This movie has achieved a very high rating on IMDb and so I had a very high level of expectation before seeing it. My one concern was that I've found Nolan's recent work (particularly Inception) to contain some excellent ideas and cinematography but to be overlong and rambling in places. I found Interstellar to suffer from the same faults. Very interesting ideas, great cinematography, solid cast (although I wish Matthew McConaughey would deliver his dialogue more clearly and not mumble so much. He doesn't seem to have fully recovered from his role in True Detective and I couldn't understand what he was saying much of the time and I was not alone in this. A number of reviewers have used the word 'epic' to describe this movie. I'd be more blunt and say it could have done with some more effective editing. A friend of mind made the comment that it may take several years to get from Earth to Saturn and when you see Interstellar, it feels like you're making the same trip! An exaggeration maybe but the movie is very long and lacks pace at some points. Not all bad news however - some sections are very impressive and visually spectacular, although some ideas have been borrowed from other sources - obviously 2001/ 2010 and Arthur C Clarkes story 'Rendezvous with Rama'. Definitely worth seeing but I don't share the 'masterpiece' line of some reviewers. Good but not great.

This for me is the best film yet made dealing with the workings of Wall Street/City of London type financial institutions and particularly the financial crash of 2008. One thing to stress immediately is please don't imagine that is a worthy, educational type of movie. It is educational (or will be to some people) but there is a real sense of tension and impending doom comparable to the best film noir thrillers. 'Wall Street' 1 and 2 were decent enough films but this has an edge to it that almost feels documentary in tone. The cast are uniformly excellent, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons and Stanley Tucci in particular, to which you can add Kevin Spacey and (always a pleasure to see her these days) Demi Moore. Newcomer to me, Zachary Quinto was particularly good. One thing I must mention; one IMDb reviewer was concerned that those unfamiliar with the financial markets might not understand what is going on. I've worked in financial services for some years myself and I couldn't disagree more. This idea that this business is complicated is all part of the great myth – it's actually very simple. You buy something – a batch of mortgages, gold, shares in a company – you sit on the purchase for ten minutes, a day or (very long term this) a week or two and then you sell. If your risk assessment is right, you sell for more than you paid and congratulations, you've just earned your million dollar bonus! If the assessment was wrong, quickly find some idiot to sell on to and minimise your losses (in which case no bonus but almost certainly 'goodbye old chap, we'll miss you'). It's as simple as that. An excellent and entertaining movie of our times, highly recommended.

Like the other IMDb reviewers, I spotted this on a UK satellite channel and gave it a try. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it (if you can see it). An excellent cast - only four main characters - but is a very tense thriller, fast paced, good direction and featuring a confidence trick plot. I'll not say any more as I certainly don't want to spoil it for anyone but it has some really good twists right to the end. One of those movies that you know is going to have a surprise at the end but when it came was not the one that I had guessed or was expecting.

The only problem then is how and where to see it? I've already said it's available on UK satellite channels and I see that it is 'Internet release only'. I assume this is the US? If so, it's real shame that a well made movie like this with a good cast and excellent story is not more widely available. I'm no expert on the economics of the movie industry but this deserves to be seen and enjoyed by a wider audience.