West Side Story is a title that was not part of my Blindspot films this year, but I still was very curious about it. A musical from the sixties that won no less than ten Oscars and that I never came around to watching. When I saw this film was available on the inflight entertainment system this past summer I thought it was a good choice to kill some time. Continue reading
When you hear information about a new movie from someone, it’s a good idea to listen carefully. When someone mentioned Atomic Blonde and told that it was directed by David Leitch I thought he said David Lynch. Now you have to understand that I am not someone who loves the work of Lynch, so I didn’t want to see the film anymore. Fortunately, I later heard that there was a connection with one of my favorite action films of the last couple of years, John Wick, and when I read more about the film, my mistake became clear. I’m glad that I saw the movie in the cinema, because for fans of action it is an unmissable title. Continue reading
The number of Korean films released annually in the cinema over here is minimal. Of course it is a matter of supply and demand, but it is unfortunate to see because so many good titles are made that can not be viewed here and are often not even released on DVD. Fortunately, Netflix is offering more and more Korean films, including this Netflix original. Continue reading
When Straight Outta Compton came out in 2015, it was a huge success. And as things go with successful films, others see a “formula” that can be repeated in order to achieve the same result. It meant at the time that various hip-hop related films were announced that would also thought of becoming “unexpected hits”. One of them is All Eyez on Me, which looks at the life of rapper Tupac Shakur, who was shot in Las Vegas at the age of 25, at a time when there was a lot of tension between artists on the west and east coast Continue reading
Although director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovic, the Ocean’s Eleven films, Che, The Informant) announced in 2013 that he would stop making films that sad news. Yet saying something and sticking to it turned out to be difficult for him. He directed the The Knick series for HBO, helped Spike Jonze to edit Her and made his own “cuts” of well-known films available online. He had never really been away and now he “officially” is back with Logan Lucky, which to quote the film itself is an Ocean’s 7-11. In other words, a “heist” film, but in a setting that is a lot less glamorous. Continue reading
Although the end of Game of Thrones is slowly approaching, I had never seen the show until recently. That also means that I do not immediately associate Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jaime Lannister in GoT) with that series. The film I mainly know about is the Scandinavian film Headhunters, in which he is the bad guy. A great actor whom I wanted to see in a different role and Shot Caller appealed to me. I love prison movies (see my top 10 for this genre) and since this title is partly set there and Coster-Waldau looks like a gangster on the poster, I was very curious. Continue reading
The thing about going on holiday and long flights, is that there usually is a big selection of movies available to watch. Of course you have the big blockbusters, but also titles you’ve never heard of before. Unconfessional was one of those titles I found underneath the Korean movies section. And as you can’t quickly check IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes while flying to see if it’s worth watching, it gave me the feeling of visiting a rental store and picking a movie purely based on it’s picture and a short description. Continue reading
“Film is life without the boring bits” is one of the lines from Their Finest and an important reason why we love movies so much. If they are good, they offer a world for one and a half to three hours in which something is constantly happening, whether it is a lot of action or small personal moments. It is a period in which you do not have to do anything yourself and yet experience a great deal. Really good films are able to move you or give you a different view of something that you normally do not think about. And that all starts with someone who has a good idea and knows how to turn that into a fascinating script. That is partly what this film is all about. Continue reading
The Incredible Jessica James is a Netflix movie which premiered in January at the Sundance festival, when Netflix bought the rights for distribution (one of several titles for which this happened). Only a few months later, the film was already available on the popular VOD platform. How good is this “indie” film? Continue reading
“Do the right thing”, it is so easy to say, but it is not always easy to make the right choices in your life. There are setbacks which make it hard to make a decision, people who do not share your opinion or oppose you or you may not have what you need to achieve a goal. To occasionally make a choice that you know, deep down, is not the best in the long term, but still yielding results is tempting. But even in a situation where emotions rise, it is a challenge not to go along with it, to keep thinking. What this can lead if this doesn’t happen is something which Spike Lee shows in Do The Right Thing. Continue reading