If there is one director where I never want to miss one of his movies at the cinema, it is Quentin Tarantino. Although I did not see Reservoir Dogs at the cinema, I have been to each and every following release. The movie was released here a while ago, but through various circumstance I was not able to go yet and was afraid I’d miss it, until this past weekend that was. Although it didn’t play on any big screens any more, I was very happy to be able to see it in the cinema. Continue reading
If it wasn’t for the its reputation, I would have never known about Delgo. Chances are you have never heard of it either, but it’s a movie known as one of the biggest wide-screen release flops of all time. This 40 million dollar animated movie opened in over 2000 screens and only made around 500,000 dollars in its first weekend. Now I’m not someone who cares much for numbers, because they don’t say a thing about quality, but for this movie I was intrigued. Why were they so bad, was it badly marketed, a movie released at the wrong time or just a really bad movie? Continue reading
Everyone has got actors and actresses they will watch in almost any movie they are in. I have several of them and one of them is Matt Damon. Looking at his career there were some movies that weren’t as good as others, but I do always enjoy his performances. Promised Land is a movie about fracking. If it wasn’t for the documentary GasLand, which I watched last year, I wouldn’t have an idea about what it was. It is a way to extract natural gas from the ground using a combination of chemicals. As that documentary showed, the effects of it can be devestating. It showed that people effected were able to put a flame next to their tapwater and it would catch fire. In Promised Land Matt Damon, together with Francis McDormand, play two gascompany representatives. Their job is to have people sell the rights to their land for a nice bag of money so gas can be extracted. Continue reading
The Thieves could easily be compared to a movie like Ocean’s Eleven. With a star-studded cast of well-known Asian actors from Korea, Japan and Malaysia, including Yun-seok Kim (The Chaser, Nameless Gangster, The Yellow Sea), Simon Yam and Gianna Jun (My Sassy Girl), the movie tells the story of several crews working together to pull off a big heist in a casino in Macau. The movie was a smash hit and was seen by almost 13 million people when it was playing in the cinema. Unfortunately it seems that in the west it hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Continue reading
When growing up I developed a passion for videogames. Fuelled by my father, who would always buy the latest computers/consoles, I started playing them when I was very young and I never really stopped (although I don’t play as much as I used to, mainly because of time constraints). If there is one thing videogames generally are not very good at it’s telling stories which manage to involve you emotionally. Sure games can frustrate you sometimes, but it’s not often they will make you care much for the main character or sweep you away in the story. It’s basically all about experiencing action. Gangster Squad to me is like the videogame version of The Untouchables. The story is about the same, but it lacks the emotional impact and cranks up the action. Is that a bad thing though? Continue reading
Hyde Park on Hudson isn’t a title which will mean much to you if you don’t know much of American history (like I did). The title references the house president Roosevelt had near New York. It was a place he stayed regularly if he wasn’t in Washington. The movie is set just before Hitler started his war in Europe. The English see the threat and the king decides to come to Hyde Park to get support from Roosevelt. The movie tries to depict the historic characters as normal people, including their flaws, but does the movie manage to do that? Continue reading
Being human means having some very basic needs. We want to be able to keep ourselves warm with a roof over our heads and enjoy our food. The need for affection and love is very strong too, coded into our DNA. We need to reproduce in order to secure that DNA and make sure a part of us keeps living. Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) also has these needs, but because of polio can’t move his muscles. He can talk and move his head slightly, but he needs constant help and can’t survive for more than three hours without his iron lung, a big machine which helps him to breathe. He’s very religious and a poet and despite his disability leads a life in which he does achieve a lot. He knows that despite his mental health (and wealth) his body will give up long before he wants it to. At age 38 he has never had sex and when he is asked to write an article about the problems disabled people have with sex he decides he also wants to experience it. Continue reading
Movies offer a way to make dreams reality. Strange worlds which are thought up can become reality on the big screen. Christopher Nolan did it literally with Inception, showing trains travelling on roads and streets curling up. Upside Down kind of takes that last concept and creates a visually stunning world, or rather worlds as it shows twin planets, very close together.
This means that instead of the sky you will see another world (if you live at the northern part of the bottom planet). Such a concept needs its own rules of course and during the intro it is explained that each planet has its own gravity and that if an object is taking to the other world, the gravity of the originating planet will still effect it. So an object can fall up unless it is balanced out with something from the other world to weigh it down. The last rule is that objects from each world can’t touch each other too long or they will start burn up. It’s in this world the story of Adam and Eden takes place, which probably won’t surprise, is one of forbidden love. Continue reading
Expectations are a very important factor to your enjoyment of a specific movie. If you are looking forward to a specific film all year, chances are you will be very disappointed by it. Another thing to factor in is the environment in which you watch it and who you do that with. Personally I prefer not watching trailers or reading much about upcoming movies to keep my expectations low and really don’t mind heading to the cinema by myself.
When it comes to Premium Rush I didn’t know much, except that it was about bikers and that Joseph-Gordon Levitt was starring in it. So did I like it or was I disappointed by it? Continue reading