2014 Movie Preview: #1 - Interstellar

Release date: November 7

Plot summary: "Interstellar" chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.

My take: While a Nolan-clone like Transcendence is worthy of being on my list, only the real deal is deserving of the top spot. Having now ended his work on the Batman franchise, Nolan can return to some original ideas here. Of course, he's brought along some familiar faces for his cast including Anne Hathaway and Michael Caine, but he also has plenty of talent like Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain who are new to the Nolan universe. We've still got a long time to go before this comes out, but I'm going to enjoy the anticipation for it each and every day.

Drumming up interest

We go from talking about this year's highly touted space adventure to previewing what could likely be next year's highly touted space adventure. Here's your first look at Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. It doesn't tell us much and yet I am already hooked.

RBR: Now You See Me

Portraying magic in the movies can be just as difficult as performing a trick in real life. Both require a lot of misdirection before a final reveal that needs to payoff. In Now You See Me, the crime thriller that came out last May, a group of magicians and illusionists band together to perform tricks that seemingly involve robbing banks. The group, known as the Four Horsemen, consists of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco. After committing their first trick/robbery, they are put under investigation by a cop played by Mark Ruffalo and an Interpol agent played by Melanie Laurent. Also involved is Michael Caine who is producing the Four Horsemen's act and Morgan Freeman as a magician who has built a career out of revealing magicians' secrets to the public. As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts at play here. This enables there to never be a dull moment in the film, but is also prevents us from really getting to know any of the characters all that well. The most development comes from the budding romance between Ruffalo and Laurent, but I found that to be the weakest part of the film. Meanwhile, director Louis Leterrier throws a lot of tricks at you, both of the magical and visual kind, that are meant to, and mostly succeed, at enthralling you. This is a movie that begs you to "look closer" in order to try and figure out. While it does a good job of keeping you guessing, I am not sold that the final reveal works. Yet I found it to be a twist that encourages me to watch the film again rather than get annoyed or disgusted. If you let yourself get sucked in to the magic, you will likely find yourself fully entertained. But if you're the type of person who wants to take the magic out of everything, the film gives you plenty of ammunition to hate it. Personally, I was entertained and would gladly be interested in seeing more adventures from The Four Horsemen in the future. Rating: ****

Illusions of grandeur

Heist movies are a personal favorite of mine and when you throw in a litle magic, plus a killer cast, well then you've got the recipe for a movie that will likely find its way on my 2013 preview next month. Until then, you can enjoy the trailer for Now You See Me here below.