During one of my blogathons I read on Rodney’s Fernby Films, that this movie had a lot of impact on him, which made me curious about it. For him growing up it was a movie (besides The Neverending Story) which gave him the idea he could be more than he was. It was the main reason for me to add this movie to my Blindspot series this year. Of course it also helped that this is a science fiction movie from the eighties, which also comes with a lot of nostalgia. Continue reading
Earlier this year an open letter appeared online, which was signed by many important scientists and business men, including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, which called for building in security measures into the artificial intelligence systems which are being developed. There is a good reason for that, because the developments are going quickly, especially when a company like Google is investing in it. The first steps are already being made with self driving cars and personal assistants on your phone like Siri, Cortana and Google Now, but it is not hard to imagine that in our own lifetime we will see ourselves conversing with artificial intelligence which feel like real people. The movie Her managed to show the romantic side of that, in which someone fell in love with such a system. Ex Machina shows another side of it. Continue reading
I regularly get requests from various (new) directors who have made a movie and ask me if I would be interested in reviewing it. Through the years I’ve learned to be very careful accepting as generally the quality usually is pretty low and it is just a bit harder to write something negative when you feel the hope and the belief in their product and you know you’ll have to hurt that a bit. I recently received a request to review The Cobblestone Corridor, directed by Erik Bloomquist. I decided to check out the trailer for his movie and it had me intrigued. Not only because the story looked interesting, but also because it looked very polished. I had a bit of hope that this short movie actually was worth watching. Continue reading
There were a couple of years where I just stopped watching TV shows. The main reason for this was the fact that they take up so much time when compared to movies, but last year I decided to dip my feet into the world of television again and have loved shows like Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Black Mirror, The Bridge (original version) and many more. Recently I watched this Australian show, which because of its length, just six episodes, was nice and short. Lees verder
When director and writer Brad Bird attaches himself to a project, there is enough reason to take notice and anticipate the end result. He directed movies like The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, but was also responsible for the exciting Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Tomorrowland is his newest “live action” movie. Is the end result worth watching? Continue reading
The Swimmer is one of those movies that probably wouldn’t be made. The concept of it sounds odd: A man, Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), is visiting friends and realizes that all the houses between where he is and his home all have a pool. He sees it as a river through the valley and decides “to swim” home, meaning that he’ll have to swim through each of them. Continue reading
Before you read anything about The Maze Runner or before you start watching it, it’s important to know one thing: This movie is based on a series of books and this is only the first one (the next one will be released in September). With that knowledge in the back of your mind you are mentally prepared that this film doesn’t have a real ending. Not knowing this could result in a frustrating experience. With that out of the way, what is this movie about? Continue reading
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been very popular since the eighties. When growing up I watched the cartoons as well and even though I liked them I never bought the action figures. My pocket money went to the He-Man action figures and BraveStarr and after I stopped watching the cartoon I never checked out the turtles again. The characters were kept alive though in various new cartoon series and movies, but the image I have of them is still from the very first cartoons, where “Cowabunga!” was heard a lot. Continue reading
Most big animated movies you watch now are computer generated. There aren’t a lot of studios anymore who still animate by hand, simply because computer animation gives more possibilities and the market has proved that those type of movies are more successful. Fortunately there are still some studios who prove differently. Of course when it comes to animation Studio Ghibli is still showing the heights this format can rise to.
When it comes to stop animation than most people will probably first think of the studio who is responsible for Wallace & Grommit and Shaun the Sheep, Aardman Animations, who definitely make enjoyable films. But to me it is Laika studios who is the current emperor in this arena. The Boxtrolls is just their third movie, but with Coraline and ParaNorman they have already proven themselves worthy. With this movie they raise the bar again. Continue reading
There are times when you are endlessly browsing through Netflix when you come across titles which don’t ring any bells. Parallels is one of those, where I didn’t know the actors either. What I thought was interesting though was the science fiction element of the film (or series, but more on that later) which is all part of the title: Parallel worlds. Continue reading