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“Since I kept hearing some really good things about this movie, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, even though it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was still a really solid Western. Basically, it is a rather long movie and maybe 2/3 was about a posse looking for some kidnapped people, firs” read more
Notes: I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it won the Best picture Academy award back in 1955, I was quite eager to check it out. After watching the damned thing, the first thing I thought was how interesting that such a small and low key feature would actually win the Best picture Academy award. Indeed, do you think it would have a chance against our contemporary epics with a huge budget such as ‘Gladiator’, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, ‘Dance with the Wolves’, or ‘Titanic’? Even if some smaller productions did win the big prize recently like ‘Spotlight’, ‘Birdman’ or ’12 Years a Slave’, they were still much more ambitious than this movie. Eventually, the fact it was so small was definitely part of its charm and why it was fairly successful commercially and critically when it was released. For Ernest Borgnine, a character actor throughout all his lengthy career, it was definitely a all-time high and he even won the Academy award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance. Anyway, I thought it was charming movie.
“Since I have always been a fan of Paul Greengrass’s work, I was really eager to check this movie. Well, the tricky thing is that it was released only a few months after the amazing ‘Utøya 22. Juli’ which was also dealing with the same tragedy in Utoya and there is a fair chance that I would” read more
Notes: I haven't seen this one yet...
“To be honest, I have never been a huge fan of such Dutch family features but, somehow, I still ended up watching this one. Well, I have to admit it , for once, they came up with a decent concept. On top of that, Thor Braun was quite charismatic and the kid did deliver a solid performance. However, e” read more
“I wasn't really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, eventually, even though it was nothing really groundbreaking, it turned out to be a decent gritty spy action flick. Indeed, Pierce Bosnan gave a decent performance” read more
“Even though most of the Netflix original films have been terribly disappointing so far, since I kept hearing some positive things about this one, I was quite eager to check it out. To be honest, it is actually a rather slow movie and it took me a while to understand what the makers were really getti” read more
Notes: To be honest, it is actually a rather slow movie and it took me a while to understand what the makers were really getting at. Eventually, it was only from the moment that Ronsel and Jamie came back from the war that the whole thing started to really get my attention. Indeed, from that point, it became a study of a forbidden friendship involving 2 broken men and it was quite fascinating and also rather heartbreaking to behold. Basically, for the first time of his life, Ronsel had left this place and discovered the horrors of the war but also the rest of the world and, suddenly, he was treated mostly decently by some total strangers. But then, when he had to get back to the bigotry and segregation in Mississippi, he couldn't make this step back. For Jamie, it was a more conventional form of PTSD but the guy was still pretty much a lost soul as well. So, they became friends and even though they could support each other, this friendship would also have some dramatic consequences for both of them. To be honest, I'm not sure if I really cared for any of the other characters but these two men were quite spellbinding to behold. 
Notes: To be honest, I thought it was rather difficult to judge this movie because there is James Dean in it and everyone tends to overly praise his movies. I mean, by now, I have seen all 3 movies starring James Dean (see also ‘Giant’ and ‘East of Eden’) but, to be honest, I find it really weird that the guy became such a legend just after showing up in 3 movies. After watching this flick, I thought it became even more obvious. I mean, sure, I liked the damned thing and Dean gave a solid performance but I didn't think it was really a masterpiece. I don’t know, maybe, at the time, the teenagers thought it was fascinating as they were really able to identify themselves with the characters but, to be honest, I thought they were all rather whinny and even a little bit obnoxious. I mean, they are just really self-centered and I guess that’s what you are supposed to feel at this age but I thought they made it rather overly dramatic. Anyway, even though I wasn’t completely convinced by this feature, it was still a solid drama, James Dean was really charismatic, I have to admit it, and it is definitely worth a look. 
“Since I kept hearing some really good things about this flick (it even won the prestigious Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival), I was really eager to check it out. Well, I have been faithfully following Ken Loach for more than 20 years and, to be honest, I has been a while that the guy delivere” read more
Notes: Well, I have been faithfully following Ken Loach for more than 20 years and, to be honest, I has been a while that the guy delivered something so impressive. Indeed, Loach managed to deliver one of his best movies which was rather unexpected as many including myself thought that his best movies were already behind him. Anyway, once again, he gave us another socially relevant and really powerful tale and, in this case, it was even more heartbreaking as it all felt terribly familiar. Indeed, my wife has been terribly ill for already 8 years and, even though we live in the Netherlands and not UK, she had to face the same fight with the bureaucracy to have her invalid status acknowledged and approved. This battle lasted at least 4 years and what's so outrageous is that such organisations should be meant to help people but, in fact, there are in place to make sure the government's budget doesn't get red. As a result, you have some seriously sick people who spend hours, days, months dealing with this matter which eventually turns into a huge battle when they should be in fact focusing on their recovery. Well, in this movie, Ken Loach completely captured this social nightmare, the realism was just uncanny and it is not hard to believe that some women would choose to get into prostitution as ruthless gangsters and pimps might seem to be eventually more helpful than the so-called social welfare system.
