Some good films – excellent for sci-fi, physics, sociology, psychology, history and just for fun…
Interstellar
Currently screening. Directed by Christopher Nolan (Inception, Batman, The Prestige). Stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine. A team of explorers and scientists leave a resource-depleted Earth and travel through a wormhole in search of a new habitable planet. Physicist Kip Thorne, an expert in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, was the scientific consultant and executive producer, ensuring that depictions of wormholes and relativity were as accurate as possible. Computer effects artists based the visual effects on Thorne’s equations and their work provided Thorne with new insight into black holes that will lead to 2 scientific papers (one in astrophysics; one in computer graphics). Music score by Hans Zimmer.
4 and a half stars from David and 3 from Margaret. David: “…a tremendously exciting space adventure …and also a rich and thoughtful meditation on time and space and gravity”.
“Brainy, barmy and beautiful to behold … a mind-bending opera of space and time with a soul wrapped up in all the science” (James Dyer – Empire mag).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_(film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/
https://interstellar.withgoogle.com/
The imitation game
Directed by Morten Tyldum. Stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley. Adapted from the novel Alan Turing: the enigma by Andrew Hodges. Based on the true story of English mathematician, logician and computer scientist Alan Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Bletchley Park, who helped crack the German Enigma code during WW2. As well as being a espionage thriller, the film follows Turing’s life from school until his untimely death and how he was forced to hide his homosexuality. Opens 1 Jan 2015. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/?ref_=tt_rec_tt
Viewers are impressed, especially with Cumberbatch – an Oscar-worthy film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2084970/reviews?ref_=tt_urv
Turing is credited as being the inventor of the digital computer, his body of work helped form the basis for artificial intelligence and he made major contributions to cognitive science, artificial life and mathematics. Turing’s story is tragic – in 1952 he was arrested and tried for homosexuality, which was then a criminal offence, and lost his security clearance. He was sentenced to 12 months of hormone “therapy” to “treat” his homosexuality and died in 1954, probably by suicide. Prime Minister Gordon Brown officially apologised in 2009 and Queen Elizabeth issued a formal pardon in 2013. The government however, will not provide posthumous pardons for the other 49 000 men also sentenced under the law.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/alan-turing
Particle fever
Directed by Mark Levinson, the documentary was shot over 7 years. It follows the inside story of 6 physicists at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland and their discovery of the elusive Higgs boson – the last undetected particle predicted by the Big Bang Theory. Reviewers have praised the film for making theoretical arguments comprehensible and for making scientific experiments thrilling – and for making particle physicists seem human! Women physicists also feature strongly. Opens 27 Nov 2014. 5 stars from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/05/movies/particle-fever-tells-of-search-for-the-higgs-boson.html
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/particle_fever/
The 100 best sci-fi movies
An excellent site – chosen by sci-fi experts, filmmakers, sci-fi writers, film critics and scientists. Includes a summary, best quote, big idea and trailer for each film, with comments from the experts and other contributors. Good site for a class discussion on the top 10 etc Here’s some from the top 10 – Blade runner, Brazil, Metropolis, 2001, The terminator, Alien, Star wars. Maybe you can guess #1? But Iron Man at #70?!
http://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-100-best-sci-fi-movies
Quick list: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-100-best-sci-fi-movies-full-list
Superhero comic book movies from now till 2019!
Superhero films with many crossover characters will fill cinemas over the next 5 years. Marvel/Disney has announced 9 movies and Warner/DC Comics has announced 10 interlinked superhero films. Get ready for Captain America 3, Ant-Man, Dr Strange, Thor 3, Black Panther, The Avengers 3, Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash..…Includes Inhumans – descendants of prehistoric genetic experiments who have lived apart from humans ever since using their own advanced technologies. Warner Bros also announced 3 Lego movies and 3 Harry Potter spinoffs – based on J.K. Rowling’s novella Fantastic beasts and where to find them. She is also writing the screenplays. Who will knock The Avengers and The Dark Knight from the top of the superhero box office charts?
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/oct/30/superhero-comic-book-movies-cinemas
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/warner-bros-announces-10-dc-741008