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

Micmacs (2009)

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has proved with Amélie (which currently is part of the IMBD top 250) that he’s able to create a dreamy, almost fairy tale like world with special characters. As a viewer you can’t help to be mesmerised with the way it makes you feel. It truly is a feel good movie (which I have recently watched again after watching this). Although different, Jeunet tries again to create such a world. Does he succeed? Continue reading

Animal Kingdom (2010)

After the death of his mother teenager Joshua Cody (James Frecheville) is forced to move in with his grandmother, Janine “Smurf” Cody (Jacki Weaver).
She lives together with her three sons, who are all criminals and suspected of various criminal activities like armed robberies and dealing drugs. The police is constantly keeping an eye on them. It doesn’t take long before the Cody boys involve Joshua in their way of doing business. Will Joshua be able to resist the temptation? 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

Sucker Punch (2011)

When I first heard about this movie I thought it sounded pretty interesting. A movie with dragons, zombie nazis, samurai, robots, helicopter, beautiful women and action sounded very good. After watching about 10 seconds of the trailer I stopped watching it as I knew I just had to see this movie. I went to see it as soon as it came out. Question is whether this film is just as fantastic as it sounds? Continue reading

The Happening (2008)

Before I watched The Happening I already heard a lot of bad stories about it. M. Night Shyamalan supposedly was losing his magic touch he once possessed. Of course I like to make up my own mind about things, so decided to watch The Happening myself.
A word of warning: Normally I try not to spoil too much about what happens in a movie, but for this one I’m going to make a big exception. So if you don’t want to read spoilers stop reading now. Lees verder

Middle Men (2009)

Since the start of the internet a lot of things have changed in the way people do business. You used to have to go to a shop and listen to someone in a store to tell you everything about a product without knowing if they were making stuff up. With a bit of googling you can now find more information about a product yourself. As a result the function of a shop has changed quite drastically. The internet has also changed the music industry forever. Any song you would like to listen to can be found within seconds and as a result the record sales have dropped dramatically.

The porno industry has rode the internet wave as well, using it to spread their “product” easily. It’s no longer necessary for customers to go to a dodgy shop to buy a video or some dirty magazines. Just a couple of clicks and a credit card are needed in order to enter the world of adult entertainment. Middle Men tells the story of the first steps of this industry onto the internet. Does that make this movie the The Social Network for the internet porn industry? Continue reading

I Saw the Devil (2010)

Revenge movies. It’s a genre in which South Korea seems to be specialised. At least that’s my conclusion after having seen several of them. These films are not afraid to show violence in all its gruesome detail and manage to shock and make you feel something while you are watching it. I Saw the Devil takes the revenge idea a bit further than expected as just getting revenge once does not seem to be enough. While you are watching you will feel uncomfortable about this story in which Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee (The Good, The Bad, The Weird)) wants to have revenge on a serial killer, Kyung-Chul (played by Min-sik Choi (Oldboy)), who has murdered his wife. Continue reading

Rango (2011)

When the first Toy Story came out it was an event, watching a completely computer generated picture was something very special. By now it seems like almost every kids movie is computer generated and it’s hard to keep track of the amount of new ones coming out each year. For every Toy Story 3 there are ten animated movies which you will have forgotten in a couple of months. After I saw the first trailer of Rango I couldn’t wait to see this though, as the look of the film made it stand out from any other animated film and I wanted to find out if this movie is forgettable or if it has “greatness”. Continue reading

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Tron: Legacy was a movie that had a lot of promotion. Disney had high expectations of the sequel to the 1982 original and threw a lot of money at marketing the film. It was almost impossible to not know the movie was coming. If you didn’t see the posters, you would see the toys, the games or other products. Even when I bought my Nokia N8 it had some clips of the movie installed on it. The phone also appeared in the film itself, so it’s logical, but it does show the reach Disney has to get you to notice this film. Luckily I don’t judge movies based on their marketing and promotion, because if I would have done that this movie would have surely received a 10. Of course the most important question is whether or not Tron: Legacy is a good movie. Continue reading