The history of Stephen King books that have been brought to the big (and small) screen is huge. Usually the result are films that are worth watching and the expectations for the movie based one of his most famous books, The Dark Tower, were high. This series of books has a large number of fans, which means that a screenwriter and director have a challenge on their hands. When this movie finally came out, the first reactions by those who’ve read the books were pretty negative and perhaps that is understandable, because it’s impossible to include as many details in a film as in a book. But what if, like me, you don’t know anything about the books at all? Will you be able to enjoy it more? Continue reading
Category Archives: Fantasy
Coco (2017) – Review
For a long time Pixar was the animation studio that was the best in the field of computer animation and was known for its originality. The only film that initially got (two very good) sequels was Toy Story, but after the release of the very disappointing Cars it was no longer a given that every Pixar film was a must see. Although Inside Out reminded me of the “old” Pixar, other sequels like Monsters University, Finding Dory and Cars 3 did entertain, but didn’t manage to wow as much. The Good Dinosaur was a bit disappointing. In comparison, Disney has been able to score hit after hit in recent years with Big Hero 6, Frozen, Moana and Zootopia. So Pixar has something to prove and show that they still got it. Do they prove that with their latest film, Coco? Continue reading
The Great Wall (2017) – Review
Matt Damon is one of those actors where I basically watch every movie he is in automatically. In general his appearance makes a movie worth watching. When this movie was in the cinemas I decided not to see it as I didn’t find the poster very appealing. Once it was available on DVD I decided to check it out. The question is if a movie set in China in the year 1000, starring Matt Damon (amongst others), works? Continue reading
The New Adventures of Aladin (2015) – Review
The number of VOD-platforms keeps growing, which sometimes can make it difficult to make a choice as not every service offers the same content. Still it can sometimes be worth looking around and recently I was asked if I was interested in seeing The New Adventures of Aladin, which is available through Walk This Way (a platform which focusses on European productions). It is a new version of the well-known story, but with some modern influences. Continue reading
A Monster Calls (2016) – Review
Before I start this review…yes, the tree in this movie looks a lot like Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy, which probably is coincidence and besides that he’s completely different…now back to my regularly scheduled program:
Kids dare to let their fantasy run wild. A simple stick can change into almost anything and each new space they enter is filled with potential for new stories. Their fantasy can also be used to deal with difficult situations where the things they make up might give them comfort. Continue reading
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) – Review
The Harry Potter franchise was (and of course still is) a very successful range of books and movies. I once started watching the films, but I’ll have to admit that I eventually stopped watching. After a couple of them I simply lost interest and I never returned. I didn’t know J.K. Rowling kept writing books and was involved in expanding the universe which in the end has resulted in this film, the start of a new franchise. It wasn’t a movie I had any feelings about, but which I decided to give a chance. Continue reading
Survive Style 5+ (2004) – Review
Survive Style 5+ was a movie I picked for my Blindspot movies last year as I read a glowing review from a fellow blogger. Going in I had no idea what I could expect, but with a title like that and the fact that it is a Japanese movie I was prepared for it to be something strange. Which it certainly was! Continue reading
Westworld (1973) – Review
One of the most impressive new shows this fall is HBO’s Westworld. Not only the concept of the show, which is about a realistic wild west world themepark where the people “working” in it are actually androids that are there to be used (and abused) by the rich visitors. It looks amazing as well and it’s definitely a must-see. And that’s even without mentioning the impressive cast, including Jeffery Wright and Anthony Hopkins. Still the idea of this show isn’t original. It all started with this 1973 movie, which even got a sequel named Futureworld and also had spinoff TV show (Beyond Westworld), which was cancelled after a few episodes. After having seen all the episodes which have aired of the new show I was curious about the movie which started it all. Continue reading
The Huntsman: Winter’s War (2016) – Review
The number of fairytales which have had a remake during the last couple of years in the form of a live action version has been huge. In general they are pretty fun to watch. Earlier this year The Jungle Book managed to impress, but that doesn’t mean this is the case for all of them. Snow White and the Huntsman tried to turn the classic story into a movie epic, but didn’t succeed. Now its sequel The Huntsman: Winter’s War has been out for a while and the question is whether this is a movie that needed to be made. Continue reading
Can a computer write a good script? Sunspring shows the first results
What will our future look like? And then I’m not even talking about the climate or a political situation, but mainly about technology. Artificial intelligence is quickly evolving and Google has recently shown that self learning computers are able to beat the world champion at the game Go. A movie like Her already shows the development it is going through might eventually to something which is able to think better than a human. The impact of that on society will be enormous. Will a technology company still have a need for programmers or testers when artificial intelligence can do their work effortlessly, 24 hours a day and much faster? Continue reading