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Posted : 7 years, 2 months ago on 31 January 2018 10:55
(A review of The Discovery)To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it turned out to be a decent surprise after all. Indeed, the concept of what would happen if we would find out that that there was an after-life was intriguing but, what was even more interesting, was their conclusion that a massive number of people would then decide to end their lives as a result of this discovery. Basically, it shows that many people, maybe most of us, are actually struggling to comprehend life in general, are struggling to simply move forward and, if there was an easy way out, they would definitely go for it. I felt also a connection with the main character who believed that life is actually really complex and, even though many people are looking for some simple answers, there are actually none and even such a discovery would not change this fact. So, it was an intriguing movie but not everything really worked though. For instance, even though it was obviously not the main selling point of this picture, the technology looked terribly cheap and unconvincing. Furthermore, even though Jason Segel and Rooney Mara had a decent chemistry, I'm not sure if it was a good idea to plant a generic and predictable romance in this apocalyptic futuristic tale. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was not a masterpiece, I actually liked the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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A bad movie
Posted : 7 years, 2 months ago on 31 January 2018 06:46
(A review of Innocent Lies)To be honest, I really had no idea what to expect from this flick but since it was the first feature film starring Keira Knightley, I thought I might as well check it out. Unfortunately, Knightley had only a very small part with only a couple of scenes and no dialogue whatsoever. Anyway, above all, this movie turned out to be pretty bad. Seriously, the beginning was just really weak but the damned thing kept sinking lower and lower by the minute. Indeed, even though it was visually decent enough, pretty much nothing else did work in this movie. For example, the characters were never properly introduced and, even at the end, you might still wonder who was who and what the hell did they have to do with this story. Why did the English detective brought up his daughter? Who was this young French woman welcoming the main character the airport and constantly following him around? What the hell did in do in France since he didn't have any jurisdiction there? In fact, it was a rather simple story but it was told in such a convoluted way and the end-result was just a mess filled up with some non-sensical scenes. For example, at some point, the main character had sex with one of the main suspects and she confessed pretty much everything during their sexual intercourse and this scene was just so pathetic to behold. Anyway, to conclude, the whole thing was a big waste of time and you should probably avoid it.
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An average movie
Posted : 7 years, 2 months ago on 28 January 2018 10:46
(A review of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)I wasn't really sure what go expect from this movie but, according to IMDb, it was one of Ben Stiller's best movies, even his best directoring effort so far, so I was quite eager to check it out. Well, after 'Tropic Thunder', Stiller delivered another seriously ambitious directing effort but, to be honest, I actually had a hard time to really care about the damned thing. I mean, basically, it was pretty much a rather generic whimsical comedy with some rather shallow philosophical ideas. In fact, I thought that most of it was actually rather depressing and I think it would have been more interesting if they did take a darker approach to this material. At first, the main character 'zoned out' pretty often and they gave us some rather convoluted visual scenes but it turned to be a fairly annoying gimmick pretty quickly. Then, the guy went on some wild trip to find a mysterious missing picture and, even though it was supposed to be inspiring, it felt rather silly. Eventually, what are we supposed to do, us, the average losers with an average boring job? Should we also drop everything and go instead on a wild goose chase? I don't think so. To make things worse, he ends up becoming some kind of cool dude after going through this journey and all of this mess was just so that he would muster the courage to simply ask his co-worker to go on a date with him. I know, now, you might think that it was just terrible but there were here and there some decent scenes and it could have worked but most of it was still rather tedious. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I guess it still worth a look if you like the genre though.
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A good movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 27 January 2018 10:47
(A review of Hitchcock)To be honest, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie. Indeed, the whole idea of making a movie about the making off of another movie has always seemed to me to be a rather tedious concept, especially after watching the seriously overrated 'My Week with Marilyn'. However, the big difference, this time, is that it was dealing with one of the best directors making one of the greatest masterpieces. As a result, it was actually pretty neat. On top that, Anthony Hopkins gave another strong performance and completely disappeared behind this character. Unfortunately, even though the process of making this movie and to see this great master at work was really nice, pretty much everything else was rather underwhelming though. Indeed, even though it was interesting to see the impact that Alma Hitchcock had on her husband's work, I didn't care much about the trouble in their marriage, which was in fact apparently vastly exaggerated for this movie. Furthermore, the whole thing about Hitchcock having some visions of Ed Gein was rather ridiculous. Apparently, they did take quite some liberties with what really happened but it was fairly easy to spot and it didn't add much value to this story. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch and I think it is worth a look, especially if you're interested in Alfred Hitchcock's work.
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A classic
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 26 January 2018 10:51
(A review of The Last Emperor)I already saw this movie but it was such a long time ago and since I had it on DVD, I was really eager to check it out. First of all, to be honest, I was actually rather disappointed that they shot this movie in English instead of Mandarin of Manchurian which was probably the language spoken by the Emperor. Then, even though it was almost 3 hours long, it still must be the most accessible movie directed by Bertolucci. Basically, it was pretty much a rather straightforward biopic but it doesn't mean that I didn't seriously enjoy it though. Indeed, even though storywise, it was nothing really groundbreaking, it was visually really impressive and, by far, the most ambitious feature in this area delivered by the Italian master. Concerning the story, not only it was an entertaining tale about the life of the last Emperor of China, it also provided a fascinating view on 60 years of Chinese history. Of course, you might argue that some of the facts had been dramatised to make the whole thing more suitable for the silver screen but you can assume that most of it was actually fairly accurate. Above all, I thought it was quite interesting to learn that the Emperor, right from the beginning of his reign, didn't have any power whatsoever making his life even more peculiar to follow. Anyway, to conclude, it is pretty much a classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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An average movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 25 January 2018 11:32
(A review of Turbo)I already saw this movie but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. To be honest, I wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to watch it again since I didn't like it at all the first time around. And, indeed, the damned thing turned out to be just as lame as I remembered. Sure,
I will have to admit that DreamWorks has been quite productive through the years with their CGI animated features and, as a result, they have become one of the leaders in this fairly competitive market. Unfortunately, they often come up with some rather weak concepts and this movie was unfortunately a good example. Indeed, to make a movie about snails was not really the most inspired idea and, to make things worse, they made this snail fall into some nitro juice to gain some super speed power. I mean, who gave the greenlight for such a stupid idea?!? Eventually, it did feel like a mix of 'Cars' (already one of the weakest movies delivered by Pixar) with 'Ratatouille' (at least, a decent Pixar production). To be honest, not only it was ludicrous but, above all, it was just rather boring. At least, I have to admit that the animation was decent, I wouldn't expect less from these guys, and the damned thing must have been entertaining for the young kids but it was certainly not enough for me. For Ryan Reynolds, it was yet another flop at the box-office and the guy got really lucky that 'Deadpool' managed to salvage what was left of his career. Anyway, to conclude, even though I have seen worse, even from DreamWorks animation, I still didn't care much about the damned thing and I don't think it is really worth a look.
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A good movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 23 January 2018 09:27
(A review of Amnesia)I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I always had a weak spot for Barbet Schroeder's work and since this movie was available on Netflix, I was quite eager to check it out. First of all, I have always been wondering how the Germans of my age or younger are able to deal with the traumatic past of their country and, since this movie was exactly dealing with this subject, it was really intriguing to me. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the sweet and gentle relationship involving this young man and older woman and the 2 actors involved gave some solid performances. Still, it wasn't completely flawless though. Indeed, the first thing that bothered me was the fact that Martha was speaking English with such a very obvious German accent so it seemed rather unbelievable that all these other German characters wouldn't figure out right away that she was either German or at least that she spoke the language fluently. Concerning the directing, it was decent enough but one of the final scenes taking place in a supposedly amazing club in Ibiza was just downright pathetic and so poorly put together. Seriously, pretty much nothing worked in this scene but, fortunately, it didn't have a huge impact on the rest of the movie. Anyway, even though it was nothing really amazing, it was still pretty good and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Barbet Schroeder's work.
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An average movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 22 January 2018 10:08
(A review of Bad Words)I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Jason Bateman, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it turned out to be a decent watch, to be honest, it was anything really amazing though. First of all, I don't think I really cared about the whole concept. I mean, spelling bees competitions seem to be rather tedious and the idea of having a 40 year old guy joining such a competition after finding a loophole didn't make it really more entertaining, I'm afraid. Furthermore, his friendship with one of these kids was generic and the reason why he actually did all this was actually seriously predictable. Indeed, through the whole thing, he was keeping it as some kind of huge secret but it was actually fairly easy to figure it out. At least, Bateman obviously had a blast with this character and, since he was also directing, he had a lot of freedom so he was definitely fun but, unfortunately, this movie didn't have much else to offer. Anyway, to conclude, even though it didn't really impress me, it was still a solid directing debut for Jason Bateman and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.
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A good movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 21 January 2018 09:43
(A review of Immortal)I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago and since I had it on DVD, I was quite eager to check it out again. First of all, I have always been a huge fan of the Nikopol trilogy so this movie was pretty much a must-see for me but I strongly advise to read the comic-books first to have a better grip on the story which can be pretty challenging. Concerning the visuals, even though they were quite amazing when I first saw this movie about 10 years ago, I have to admit that they didn't grow old very well. Furthermore, I think it was a mistake to have only a handful of characters played by some real actors and the rest CGI animated. Indeed, they should have chosen one way or the other as this mix turned out to be rather awkward. Still, as far as I’m concerned, the whole thing remained quite fascinating to behold and I especially loved the story of Horus coming down to Earth to break havoc. Anyway, to conclude, it is probably not the easiest science-fiction flick to watch but I still have a weak spot for the damned thing and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre or if you are interested in Enki Bilal’s work.
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A good movie
Posted : 7 years, 3 months ago on 20 January 2018 10:33
(A review of This Is the End)I wasn't really sure what to expect from this movie but since there was a really cool cast involved, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, To be honest, I didn't expect that I would enjoy it so much and I'm surprised it didn't get more attention when it was released. Indeed, the damned thing was just hilarious and easily one of the funniest movies I have seen in a very long time. For once, most of the jokes worked but Goldberg and Rogen went way beyond that and delivered something meta and, in the process, not only they did make fun of themselves but also of the whole concept that movie stars might be more interesting or worthy than any regular person. In fact, they are all egoistical and egomaniac cowards and, even though they played some exaggerated versions of themselves, I couldn't help thinking that they are probably not really much better in real life so their approach definitely showed some guts (OK, Michael Cera is probably not a major drug addict but you get what I mean). Eventually, my rating might have been even higher but a few details slightly didn't really work for me. First of all, why the Apocalypse? It felt rather random to me. Then, the lack of women involved seemed also like a missed opportunity. Indeed, I was glad that they managed to bring back Emma Watson but she was gone within 5 minutes and her connection with this gang was just too thin in the first place. Anyway, to conclude, even though it was probably not a masterpiece, I really enjoyed the damned thing which was seriously entertaining and it is definitely worth a look.
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