The original Alien movie is a masterpiece, which I’ve awarded a 10. I liked it so much because of the tense situation the crew of the Nostromo ends up in. The spaceship was made up of narrow corridors and an unknown enemy that was slowly taking out all crew members. So I was really looking forward to seeing Aliens, as I wanted to see more of those tense situations. Continue reading
Set in the future, Monsters tells the story of a NASA spacecraft that took some samples from another planet, but crashed in Mexico after re-entering the atmosphere. The impact on Mexico is big because after a while new lifeforms start to appear. The problem is so big that half of Mexico is labeled as infected zone. To make sure the creatures don’t spread out, America has built a big fence around the zone and tries to fight the monsters and kill them all (without much success). During some seasons there are more of them around and it is dangerous to travel, with parts of Mexico cut off from the rest of the world.
Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy, who starred in In search of a Midnight Kiss ) is a photographer on assignment. He has to try to take a picture of the creatures. When he calls his boss to inform him about progress he is told to pick up his daughter (Whitney Able) from the hospital and to escort her to the coast where she will be able to safely travel home. He’s doesn’t really want to do it, but has no choice in the matter and listens to his boss. Continue reading
What’s the best way a filmmaker can visualize dreams on the big screen? Of course there are the nightmare scenes where the person suddenly wakes up, sweating, but how do you show that very surrealistic feeling you have when you dream? With Inception Christopher Nolan showed his vision about dreams. The movie had some great effects (like the city folding up and all the action in the hotel), but despite these effects and the nice sets the dreams themselves were not that strange, sometimes almost normal. This is not the case with Paprika and it shows how fantastic and scary dreams can be and it does so (at least I think so) better than Inception. Continue reading
There are some movies that have scenes which you will never forget. For me The Fly is one of those movies. It tells the story of Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), a scientist who is doing research on teleportation. He’s a genius and manages to actually make it a reality. When he decides to teleport himself it turns out he’s not the only one in the machine. As the title already suggest a fly also is present in the machine, and The Fly shows what a human/fly hybrid could be. The reason that I remember quite a lot about this movie is because of the excellent special effects and make up, which are sometimes quite gross. Continue reading
London, an alternative 2008. Global warming has taken its toll and big parts of London have disappeared below the water. Rutger Hauer is Harley Stone, he’s a cop who lost his partner. He has been chasing his partner’s killer for a long while and he can sense when the killer is near. He likes to work alone (but as it usually goes in these type of movies) a new partner assigned to him. Harley doesn’t stop his search. The killer is still out there and when new murders occur they manage to get a lot closer to him. It turns out that the killer is not who they expect. Continue reading
The essence of a movie can usually be described in one sentence, which gives you enough information to get a feeling what the movie is about. This sentence has been formed based on an idea. When that idea has been thought up the script writer start expanding on it. Together with set builders and many other people involved in preparation they are the architects who create the world in which the movie will be set. This can be a single room or many locations, anything is possible.
When preparation is done the director and actors step into the world and take care in filling in all the small details. They do this by improvising, making changes to scenes or shooting it a specific way. All this takes places within the confines of the concept for the movie.
When the movie finally has been edited, it’s up to the person that goes to the cinema to step into this temporary reality. If the movie is a good one you’ll disappear in it, the world around you no longer exists and you forget that you are sitting in a chair at the cinema. You are actually in the place that is shown on the screen. The ending of the movie is the shock that takes you back to reality. If the movie was powerful and had some messages that resonate with your own ideas they might even become part of your own values. If that’s the case, the whole team behind making the movie has made a masterpiece.
Inception uses this concept, but instead of movies they use this on dreams. Christopher Nolan ( Following, Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight) shows his vision on what’s possible in your dreams, but has he managed to create a masterpiece? Continue reading
In the not too distant future it will be possible to live longer by buying artificial organs on credit. At least, that’s the vision of the future according to this movie. When you can’t make your payments in time, you will be visited by employees of the Union, the company that sells these organs.
Remy (Jude Law) and Jake (Forest Whitaker) are the repo men of the company and they will visit people to get the organs back. So when you see them it means you won’t be in the land of the living much longer as they take the organs right on the spot. Continue reading
What’s the first thought that goes through your mind when you hear the title “Eyeborgs”? For me there were two things:
1. B-movie
2. Associations with the Terminator movies (so some science fiction)
The second point made me decide, despite point 1 to give this movie a chance. My expectations were not very high. The only well-known actor that is part of the cast is Danny Trejo and he’s only in 2 scenes if I remember correctly. Is Eyeborgs a movie worth watching? Continue reading
Hot Tub Time Machine is, like you’ll probably guess reading the title, not a very serious movie about time travel. It’s a comedy in which a couple of friends, who really haven’t been that close for a while, decide to back to the place they used to go to during the holidays when they were young. They hope to revive the good old times. Unfortunately the little village has lost its former glory and they decide to enjoy their time there, despite the initial disappointment. They all jump into the hot tub and enjoy the alcohol. When they wake up the next day, the village has transformed. Continue reading
What are the consequences of the choices you make? That’s the big question that’s asked in Mr. Nobody. It’s 2092 and Nemo Nobody is the last mortal man on earth. The rest of humanity has found a possibility to live forever (it’s not made clear why Nemo is not using it). At age 118 he’s big news as everyone is waiting for his death. A journalist manages to get into his room and ask him to tell about the life he has lived. Nemo starts his story and it seems like he’s not telling about his life, but about several different lives. Continue reading