Category Archives: Violence

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Escape Plan (2013)

Escape Plan Review

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were two of the biggest action stars on the planet during the eighties and early nineties. Both have a lot of entertaining movies to their name and the two always made small jokes about each other in their movies (for example in Demolition Man you hear that Schwarzenegger was president, in Last Action Hero there is a poster of Terminator 2 with Stallone as the cyborg).

During that time the two didn’t appear together on-screen, but they did work together in setting up the Planet Hollywood chain. It would not be until The Expendables that the two shared the screen. For action movie fans it was comparable to De Niro and Pacino finally working together in Heat. It was only a short scene, but in The Expendables 2 it was expanded more. Still a true Schwarzenegger/Stallone movie still had not been made, until now with Escape Plan. Continue reading →

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Fruitvale Station (2013)

Review of Fruitvale Station

New Year’s Day 2009, Oakland. After a small fight breaks out in a subway, Oscar Grant and his friends are detained on the platform of Fruitvale Station. Various people are using their phones to record what is happening. The situation is chaotic and the people involved are on edge. The group starts arguing with the police officers and when the police decides to cuff Oscar Grant they are not able to. A few moments later he is shot in the back by one of the police officers and dies as a result.

When the video of this tragic event appeared online it received a lot of media attention. By many it was seen as an example of extreme and unnecessary force used by the police. This movie is based on that event and tries to give the viewer an idea of what the last day in Oscar Grant’s life looked like. Continue reading →

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R.I.P.D. (2013)

review of R.I.P.D. (2013)

As a movie blogger you carry around knowledge about movies. Whether or not you like it that knowledge will automatically activate whenever you watch any movie. You will notice specific techniques and sometimes recognise certain situations as they remind you of other films you saw before. It is next to impossible to ignore that and that’s something R.I.P.D. definitely has been struggling with if I were to believe the few reviews I’ve read of the movie. Continue reading →

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The East (2013)

Review of The East

Some of you may know Brit Marling as an actress who played in Arbitrage as the daughter of Richard Gere’s character. The actress doesn’t only act, she also wrote and produced Sound of My Voice, Another Earth and now this movie. Ever since I saw her in Another Earth I really enjoyed her work as the previously mentioned movies were unique. Both Another Earth and Sound of My Voice were stories set against a sci-fi background (an actual second earth and time travel respectively). Those elements did not play a big part of the story, but it gave those movies a different feel. Although The East does not contain a sci-fi angle it does share a similarity with Sound of Voice. It is about a woman who wants to become part of a group to investigate it (just like the main characters in Sound of My Voice). That group is called The East. Continue reading →

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This Is The End (2013)

Review of This is the End

In 2007 Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel did the short film Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse. It was a short film with just the two of them in a room, mostly arguing. I did not think it was that funny or interesting, but it was that short which would be the inspiration for this movie, This Is the End. The question is whether this comedy also disappoints or if it is comedy gold. Continue reading →

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The Lone Ranger (2013)

Review of The Lone Ranger

How often is your opinion about a movie influenced by looking at sites like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes? If I were to believe these sites The Lone Ranger is a movie I shouldn’t attempt to watching. On IMDB it only has a 6,6 and Rotten Tomatoes has 31% score. The movie is also a western, a genre I generally can’t really enjoy. Despite those scores I still was interested in checking out The Lone Ranger. Continue reading →

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We’re the Millers (2013)

Review of We're the Millers

Comedies to me are the oddest genre of all. The reason for this is that I can read 10 reviews about one specific movie and the opinions aren’t universal. Should it happen though that they generally agree chances are that I won’t think the movie is funny. Comedies are a bit like snacks. Everybody likes them but one person will rather eat chips while the other goes for chocolate. They are hard to suggest if you don’t know someone’s taste. If you look at the ingredients on the box, We’re the Millers has some well-known ones: road movie, characters who don’t get along, mistaken identity and R-rated jokes. Continue reading →

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Empire State (2013)

Review of Empire State

When a movie is immediately released on Blu-ray/DVD in the US without having appeared in theaters that is usually a bad sign. It often means the quality isn’t very good and that the studio did not have enough confidence to spend money on advertising and making their money back. Over here in the Netherlands the movie, which is starring Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games, The Expendables 2) and Dwayne Johnson (Fast & Furious, Pain & Gain, The Scorpion King) will be played at the cinema. It made me wonder if Empire State, which is based on true events, good enough to appear on the big screen or if it should be sent to the bargain bin immediately. Continue reading →

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Pain & Gain (2013)

Pain & Gain (2013) review

When the average movie reviewer hears the name Michael Bay it will immediately bring up words like “lots of explosions”, “empty” or even “bad filmmaker” and looking at the scores that were given to the Transformers movies, The Island and Pearl Harbor you might even be able to write a piece to support that. Still I do think he has made some very entertaining movies like Bad Boys, The Rock and Armageddon. All those movies have a huge feel to them and for Pain & Gain I was expecting something similar. It turns out that this is a Michael Bay movie (it has the specific look), but in comparison to his other films it actually is different, somewhat smaller. It is also based on real events (ok, I’m already hearing you say “so was Pearl Harbor and we know how that turned out”) and turns out to be quite an entertaining film. Continue reading →

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The World’s End (2013)

The World's End review

I don’t know if you have the same feeling as I have, but I think 2013 has seen the release of a couple of very solid comedies. I really enjoyed watching This is the End, We’re the Millers (have not reviewed these yet) and now The World’s End can be added to that list. The comedic duo of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are back together in another adventure, which initially doesn’t seem that thrilling. Continue reading →