Idris Elba is Malcolm Gray, who is part of a secret team that does various missions all over the world. During one of their missions in Eastern Europe things don’t go as planned and Malcolm leaves scarred, both emotionally as psychically. When he’s back in America he locks himself in an apartment to allow himself to find out what went wrong and who’s responsible for it. Continue reading
How do you make a movie in which a director, who has been dead for 30 years, plays the main part? Double Take tries to give a possible answer to this question. Alfred Hitcock “stars” in this movie where he meets an older version of himself. The makers have managed to find an interesting way to bring their story to life. Continue reading
Julia Roberts and Clive Owen starring in a spy movie? I thought it was a weird combination, but as I really like spy films I decided to give it a chance. Is it worth watching? Continue reading
Most of you will know the classic fairy tales. When you were a kids you heard the stories about Hansel and Gretel, little red riding hood and Snow White. These stories have been told for centuries, but despite their age they are still being told as they have some magical qualities and a deeper truth which will teach something to kids. The lessons learned are usually about the fear of something evil, which has to be defeated.
According to Wikipedia an ondine is a mythological water nymph and as it usually goes with people telling stories, they get changed and local elements are added to it. In the Irish version of the story the nymph is called a Selkies which you will see after a seal sheds of its skin to change into a human.
This movie has based its story on this fairy tale. Syracuse (Colin Farrell) is a fisherman who finds a woman in his net, Ondine (Alicja Bachleda). The woman is still alive and tells him that she wants no one to see her. Syracuse takes her to a deserted house where she’s able to stay. She joins him on some fishing trips and every time she sings a song he catches more fish than he ever does.
Syracuse is divorced and has a young daughter, Annie (Alison Barry), who’s in a wheelchair and regularly has to go to the hospital for dialysis. When she finally receives an electric wheelchair she gains a lot more freedom and go out on her own. She discovers the secret her father is keeping from her. Continue reading
Robert Duvall has been acting since the sixties. He has acted in a lot of well-known movies like The Godfather series, Apocalypse Now and Falling Down. When I hear his name I always have to think about his role in Falling Down. He played a likeable cop who is about to retire and has to chase a lunatic who is terrorizing the city. It’s the first time he really stood out for me and I have been enjoying his acting ever since. He was also excellent in We Own the Night for example.
Duvall really makes Get Low the movie that it is. He’s the recluse Felix Bush, who lives alone on his own piece of land. A lot of stories are being told about him, although no one seems to know whether or not they are true. Because of these stories everyone seems to fear him, especially when he suddenly rides into the nearby town. He knows a lot of stories are told about him and he has an idea which allows him to hear all of them. Continue reading
Tangled is based on the brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel. Disney has taken this original story and modified it heavily. Rapunzel’s hair is magical and can give back youth and heal wounds when a magical song is sung. Rapunzel also doesn’t stay in her tower as long as was the case in the original story and there is no prince involved.
Did Disney change too much of the story or has it managed to give it a nice new twist to give it a breath of fresh air? Continue reading
Gaspar Noé is a director who stands out. With Irreversible (a movie which I have not seen) he has shown he’s not afraid of controversy. The movie had a rape scene which was close to 10 minutes and something that was hard to watch for a lot of viewers. With Enter The Void Noé attacks his viewers again, although less extreme (although there are still some very explicit scenes). It’s more an attack on your eyes and ears, which already begins when the movie starts. You’ll hear loud music and see a lot of flashes. The flashes are something that will return all during the movie, so if you are sensitive to them it’s better to skip the movie as you will get a seizure. Enter The Void is a movie that can’t be compared to anything else I’ve seen. I would almost describe it more as an experience instead of a film. Continue reading
The Abyss is a movie which I had not seen before. It tells the story of a diving team that are asked to find a lost nuclear submarine, but find something else they were not expecting. It’s the first of Cameron’s films where he used extensive CGI to tell his story. When you look at the scene in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 goes through the glass of the helicopter you see that this movie allowed it. Cameron’s use of CGI has only increased over the year resulting in the almost complete CGI movie Avatar. Continue reading
As it’s the last day of the year I think there is no better way to end it by reviewing my movie of the year by letting it skip the queue of upcoming reviews. With Black Swan I had the same feeling as I had with The Social Network. I was wondering how a movie about a specific subject, in this case ballet, could be interesting. If you check out the dance movies which came out lately you will notice that most of them are targeting a young audience with the drama in those films being equal to the levels you see in your average soap opera. As I try to never watch movie trailers and try to know as little as I can about films in advance, I was in for a big, but very pleasant, surprise. Continue reading
Sometimes a movie can have more impact on you if you don’t know anything about it. I try to do this as much as possible, because you usually won’t have high expectations and won’t be disappointed as quickly. This is also the reason I usually skip most trailers as well, unless it is for an action movie where the story is not as important.
I hardly knew anything about 13, expect that Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke were in it. For me those names are enough reason to see a movie, so I was looking forward to seeing it and really was not disappointed. I will try to tell as little as I can about the story. Continue reading