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
We all have our personal obsessions. Healthy, positive obsessions are nothing to worry about, whether that’s very temporary, like really obsessing about something you would love to buy and reading lots about it/watching YouTube reviews and not being able to wait till it arrives on your doorstep (or is that just me?) or wanting to learn everything there is to know about a specific subject. An obsession can give you a drive, a motivation to do things and push you towards an impressive end result. But an obsession is also able to go the other way, making you lose sight of everything else and get you to a point where you no longer function normally and might hurt others by your behaviour. The Perfect Guy shows what can happen in such a situation. Continue reading
When I heard that there would be a Batman versus Superman movie my heart didn’t start racing at all. Even though the Christopher Nolan Batman movies were worth watching, the last two Superman movies didn’t impress. The fact that Zack Snyder was responsible for Man of Steel and also would be directing this one didn’t make me feel euphoric.
Then I started to think about the central point of this movie. If these two superheroes would fight each other would there be any question about who would win? One is a rich guy with some gadgets and the other one an alien with superpowers who only has one weakness which is kryptonite. Despite all my concerns though I did decide to see the movie, because I expected Snyder wanted to prove himself after the criticism he got for Man of Steel. Besides that the studio behind the movie needs a hit and also show the DC universe is worth checking out as well. Continue reading
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
London Has Fallen is a ridiculous movie. One which is filled with moments that are unbelievable or happen because of extreme coincidences. Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler are back again for this sequel to Olympus Has Fallen as the American president and his bodyguard. This time it isn’t the White House which is attacked, but as you might guess, London.
All the world leaders head to the city after the prime minister has unexpectedly passed away. And just before the ceremony is about to start and all the heads of state are still on their way, terrorist attacks happen all over town which according to the film must have taken years to plan, but which in reality are completely unbelievable. If you were to believe this movie central London has been flooded by terrorist who have infiltrated security forces everywhere and know exactly where each of the world leaders can be found and targeted. Continue reading
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
I’m someone who did not grow up reading comics. I occasionally read Donald Duck or Spike and Suzy, but I did head to to the bookstore every week to buy them. The Marvel comics therefore never registered with me and I wasn’t really interested in them. But thanks to all the movies and series in recent years, I understand why people love the Marvel comics. Every superhero does have his/her own characteristics, which means there is always one which appeals to you. After seeing Deadpool last week it did make me interested in reading comics with him. Through the films and the various series you get to know these characters and the quality of them is usually high. After the fantastic Daredevil it released the next super hero at the end of last year: Jessica Jones. Continue reading
Although I personally was not a fan of Birdman, the previous film by Alejandro González Iñárritu, I think he is a director whose films I’m always interested in seeing. Babel impressed me and his 21 Grams is in my top 100 favorite movies. On a technical level he has grown a lot and through his collaboration with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (who worked on movies like Gravity, Children of Men, Birdman and The Tree of Life) you are assured of visual splendour. The Revenant is certainly no exception. Continue reading
Film is a powerful medium to convey certain ideas or situations in a sensitive and subtle way to others. It can open eyes because it shines light on the dark past of a country (for example The Act of Killing ) or results in changes (such as Blackfish). In recent years there were several revolutions in various countries in the Middle East. Not all of them have achieved the desired result, but it has showed the world how powerful it can be when everyone speaks up. Tunisia also belonged to those countries and it is the place where this film takes place, on the eve of Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution. Continue reading
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