The Lunchbox (2013) – Review

Review The Lunchbox

Movies which are set in the present often have the issue that when characters communicate it is really direct and quick. If they are not meeting face to face they will send each other instant messages or tweets. It’s communication which doesn’t have much meaning and is all about instant gratification. The moviegoing audience has become accustomed to it. Not only in the way these interactions are shown, but also the speed with which stories are told. I know quite a few people who refuse to watch older movies because the are too slow (which is a shame of course). So what is a filmmaker to do when he wants to build a relationship between two characters, but wants to do that over a longer period of time without the two meeting each other? Director Ritesh Batra has found a great solution for that in The Lunchbox and the end result is a very strong film. Continue reading

Pleasantville (1998) – Review

Review Pleasantville2016 Blindspot Films

As it’s already may I realised that I was starting to get behind on my Blindspot movies as I had only seen two out of the twelve titles I picked. So time to spend some time on watching some more and Pleasantville seemed like a very interesting film. The only thing I heard about it in advance was that most of this movie was in black and white, but that color slowly was introduced. That is partly right, but the movie is much more. Continue reading

The 5th Wave (2016) – Review

Review The 5th Wave

After a couple of big Young Adult franchises like Twilight, The Hunger Games, Divergent and The Maze Runner which were all successful other new potential ones keep trying to repeat that success. The 5th Wave is another one that tries. But the question is whether The 5th Wave is different enough to stand out within this genre. Continue reading

Le Tout Nouveau Testament (2015) – Review

Review Le Tout Nouveau Testament

Everyone person has moments where they think about their existence. Why are we here, what is our purpose, is there really free will and what will happen after our death? These are all philosophical thoughts, question you can talk very long about, but which we all won’t be able to get a definite answer to. They are the secrets of life, that mysterious thing we can’t grab, no matter how much we would like to be able to. But what would the world look like when you would know how long you would still have to live? Would you make different choices if you knew that you wouldn’t be around in two years? It is one of the few subjects in Le Tout Nouveau Testament. Continue reading

Phantom Boy (2015) – Review

Review Phantom Boy

When it comes to animated movies almost all of them involve either talking animals or princesses. That doesn’t mean there is something wrong with that (the recent Zootopia is a good example), but I often get the feeling there aren’t enough variety within the genre. So it was refreshing to see Phantom Boy approach its story differently, with a lot of originality as well. Continue reading

Paradox (2006) – Short movie review

Review paradox

Shorts have a challenge: in a short amount of time they have to set up a story or concept which immediately grabs your attention and Paradox is able to do that very well. A man wakes up at the bottom of a well and sees another man there. The two start a conversation and they quickly find out that they are both from different time periods. The question is who of the two is right? Continue reading

A Hard Day (2014) – Review

A Hard Day review

Luckily I don’t have them often, but there are these days when everything you do seems to go wrong. Trains don’t run, appliances suddenly stop working, food doesn’t turn out the way you want, you name it. Murphy’s Law often seems to be right: Everything which can go wrong, will go wrong. And that’s exactly what the main character in this movie experiences himself. Continue reading

Zootopia (2016) – Review

Recensie Zootopia

It’s always exciting when a studio releases a new movie which isn’t a sequel. Releasing such a movie can be a risk (Gods of Egypt is a good example), because making films is not cheap, especially when they are completely computer generated. Disney has been on a roll lately with Wreck-it-Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6 (and of course the Pixar movies), so it was exciting to see what they would bring with Zootopia. Continue reading

The Terror Live (2013) – Review

Review The Terror Live

The Terror Live is a movie I had planned to write about a while ago, but the week I was going to publish it, the attacks in Paris happened and that made me think. A lot of the movies I’ve written about this week have something to do with bombs. For the moviegoer they are a source of entertainment, excitement and spectacle. But sometimes we see the real damage they can do in real life. I made me wonder why we’d still choose to see those type of movies? In my opinion it is partly to be able to experience something we normally wouldn’t be able to. We can escape our everyday life for a moment and face our biggest fears, but then in a safe environment. Sometimes though (like after the attacks) fiction and reality come too close together and it will feel wrong to enjoy such films.

In the past various shocking events have had their effect on movies. A scene was removed from Gangster Squad after the cinema shooting in Aurora, Colorado and the director of Die Hard with a Vengeance thought about removing the opening explosion because of the events in Oklahoma. At those moments scenes like could be considered insensitive/in bad taste. Continue reading

The Beauty Inside (2015) – Review

Review The Beauty Inside

How important is you appearance to you? For many people it will be a very important deciding thing, because it plays an important role in the first impression you make on others. It also will influence how you feel about yourself. In the entertainment and fashion industry it seems the only thing you are judged on and where getting older isn’t allowed. But what would happen if you couldn’t do anything about your appearance? What would happen if you woke up inside a different body each day? That’s the reality the main character in this movie, Woo-Jin, faces. r