Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), a helicopter pilot for the army, wakes up disoriented on a passenger train. He doesn’t recognise his girlfriend (Michelle Monaghan) and jumps when he sees his own reflection as he doesn’t look the way he remembers. Moments later he wakes up again, but now finds himself in a capsule in front of a monitor with a woman telling him what he should do and warps back to the train. Slowly he finds out that there is a bomb on the train and it is his assignment to find it and the person who planted it. Continue reading
Category Archives: Mystery
Hanna (2011)
If you look at the number of action movies that have a female protagonist and compare it to the number of action movies starring men you will notice that there are not that many female action heroes. With Alien James Cameron showed that women can be vulnerable, but at the same time are able to handle guns and fight evil. This meant more females in these type of roles, but if you´d ask me to name female action stars I´d probably be done pretty quickly. The only woman I would be able to mention is Angelina Jolie who has shown she can kick ass with the Tomb Raider movies, Salt and Wanted.
Hanna (played by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)) the next action hero. She´s only 16, but has been raised in solitude in the north of Finland by her father (Eric Bana). They live in a desolated area where no other people are around and they survive by hunting. Her father is constantly testing Hanna to see if she´s able to defend herself. All her knowledge comes from her father and an encyclopedia. She has never heard any music and has had no contact with anyone except her father. It´s no surprise that there is a moment where she starts to get curious about the world and wants to discover it. Her father helps her to get in contact with the outside world. Her first experience isn´t a positive one and it´s the start of a journey through Europe filled with suspense and action. Continue reading
Beautiful Life (2011)
The Dutch film industry has produced quite a lot of fun kids movies. Films like “Het Geheim”, “Kikkerdril” and “Het Paard van Sinterklaas” are all entertaining movies for the smaller movie audience.
Beautiful Life (the Dutch title would translate to My Grandfather the Bank Robber) is another one that can be added to the list. It tells the story of a father/grandfather (Michiel Romeyn) who after the death of his wife is seen as someone with dementia. His granddaughter Grace (Zoë van der Kust) doesn’t really believe it as she sees how he is struggling with his loss. She tries to help him as much as she can. She doesn’t know her own father as she never met him. She only knows his name and that he was from Surinam (one of the former Dutch colonies). Her mother doesn’t want to tell her why he wasn’t around for her. When her grandfather shows her his picture it ignites the flame for her to begin her search for some answers to her questions. Continue reading
Paul (2011)
With Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have proved that they have lots of chemistry together and that they can make enjoyable movies. These two friends are back now with their vision of a science fiction movie: Paul Continue reading
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Determinism and free will are two concepts that are complete opposites. Is your path through life already fixed or is it you who makes all the choices? These are the ideas that The Adjustment Bureau takes to build its story on. Matt Damon is politician David Norris, a very succesful and driven man who is about to make it big in politics and could even go as far as the White House. When he meets Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) his life changes when he finds out that there is no such thing as coincidence. Continue reading
Gwoemul (The Host) (2006)
With Memories of Murder and Mother director Joon-ho Bong has shown that he’s one of the best South Korean directors there is. In between these movies he made Gwoemul. Is Gwoemul (probably better known as The Host), a monster movie (literally) which confirms this again? Continue reading
Primer (2004)
There are some movies, which you have to see several times in order to start understanding their stories. Examples of this are Donnie Darko and Memento. Some people call these “mindfuck” movies, as you’ll have to think quite a bit to get what the film maker wanted to say. It’s a genre which you either love or hate, as you’ll be thinking about these type of movies for days. I really love these type of movies so was looking forward to seeing Primer. Continue reading
The Thing (1982)
Antarctica, a cold and desolate place, which is only visited by researchers and the occasional tourist. In other words a perfect setting for a science fiction/horror movie as there isn’t any place you can hide, except for the camp you are living in. You also know that you will have to solve all your issues yourself as there is nobody coming soon to rescue you. Add to that, that you actually don’t know if the people around you are still human and you have the perfect ingredients for a tense situation where you don’t know who you can trust. Continue reading
Memories of Murder (2003)
Some years ago Quentin Tarantino shared his list of his 20 favorite movies since 1992, the year he started directing. There were three Korean movies on his list: The Host, Joint Security Area and Memories of Murder. Memories of Murder is about a police investigation into a number of serial killings that took place between 1986 and 1991 and is based on real events. Continue reading
The Chaser (2008)
An agent that has become a pimp, Women that disappear and a serial killer are the ingredients for The Chaser, a South Korean crime thriller. Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) runs an escort company and notices that a couple of the women he is using are not coming back. When he sends one of his girls, Mi-jin (Yeong-hie Seo), to a customer he finds out that he has sent her to the same customer the other girls went after they disappeared. He decides to track him down as he’s worried about Mi-jin. He managed to find him (a role excellently played by Jung-woo Ha), but there is no trace of the woman. When both of them are arrested it’s the start of an exciting search for the missing woman in a race against the clock. Continue reading