How do legends form? How is it possible that some stories are forgotten within a few months, but others are still read centuries later and are still being told? Could it be because a specific story holds a lesson, like the well-known fairytales do? Or is it because the story is so unbelievable that it is exactly that which inspires its listener/reader? The admiration only increasing the more beautiful the story is, even if it might not be grounded in reality. It is something the best movies do. This one looks at the legend of Hercules. The son of the god Zeus who managed to defeat an unbeatable lion or who cut off the heads of the Hydra. Continue reading
Category Archives: war
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Time to return to Middle Earth one final time to conclude the story of The Hobbit. Although I wasn’t a fan of the first movie in the trilogy (it was way too slow with not much happening) I thought the second movie delivered what I was expecting, exciting sequences, introduction and development of characters and a finale which had me wanting more. Having not read the book and seeing where the second movie ended, with Smaug on his way to Lake Town, I couldn’t wait to get back into it. Having now seen it i’m not that excited anymore. Continue reading
The Wind Rises (2013)
When it comes to the field of animation Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend. He co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio known for its high quality animated films, including My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Miyazaki has been working in the industry for more than 60 years and thus it was inevitable for him to announce his retirement. Before he did do that though he has worked on his The Wind Rises, which will be his last movie. Continue reading
Fury (2014)
War is hell and for Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (Brad Pitt), Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Peña) and Grady ‘Coon-Ass’ Travis (Jon Bernthal) that hell comes in the form of a tank they have named “Fury”. The group has been working together for a while, with Wardaddy taking the lead, and they have lived through many horrible situations. The American tanks are weak compared to the German ones and they have witnessed fellow crews finding their death. Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) has never fought before, has been trained to speed type and has never seen the inside of the tank. Still he is assigned to join these men on the Fury, who aren’t too happy with that. Norman quickly finds out what war is about as the American troups slowly move further into Germany. Continue reading
Patria (2014)
Ambition can take you quite far and Patria is a good example of this. First time director Klaas van Eijkeren wanted to make the first Dutch movie about the first world war. He based the story on the letters soldier Arthur Knaap (Timothy Flohr) sent to his father while he was fighting. This Dutch-Indonesian young man lived in France and decided to join the foreign legion to fight in the trenches. It is clear that van Eijkeren really invested a lot of time in his research to transform this into a full length film. Ambition unfortunately doesn’t always mean that you will be able to get your passion project financed, which van Eijkeren had big issues with. He finally managed to get a small amount of money, 15000 euros, and decided he would make the movie with this very limited budget. Continue reading
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Does such a thing as talent exit? Was your favourite artist of director really born that way? Or was it something else? Is it possible that they have become as good as they have simply because they put in enough time to learn their trade? As someone who likes learning new things I really don’t believe in talent. It is all about gaining experience, making new techniques your own and repeating something a lot. If you put in enough time you will become good at it. Of course the speed you learn that skill might differ from person to person. Edge of Tomorrow proves that with enough time you will be able to amaze everyone, but in this case that might take you a couple of lives. Continue reading
The Monuments Men (2014)
Moviestars are an important factor to get audiences in the cinema seats and movies with a huge cast of stars often mean lots of success. With actors like George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin and Bob Balaban you can’t say that The Monuments Men lacks stars. The film has been directed by George Clooney and is set during the second world war. It is based on a true story. Despite all that the movie didn’t have the success the studio expected and most reviews weren’t very positive. Still I was curious to find out if this movie really was that bad. Continue reading
Noah (2014)
When I heard the news that de director of my all time favorite movie (Black Swan) tackling the story of Noah I was very curious about the result. Darren Aranofsky is someone who knows how to stir the emotions of his viewers. The characters in his movies often struggle with strong emotions which often has psychological consequences on them. I found it interesting that an atheist would be bringing this story to the big screen. With a budget of more than 125 million dollars he would be able to fully develop his vision, which is now available to watch. The question is whether or not you should see it. Continue reading
Saving General Yang (2013)
Althought the average moviegoer will mainly watch movies coming out of Hollywood, there are a lot of very good movies made in other countries. The past couple of years I really started appreciating South Korean films. Movies like My Sassy Girl, Old Boy, The Host of No Mercy are just some examples of movie I really liked. The Chinese movie industry has also a lot of amazing films. Most people will know Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but there are tons of other movies to check out like Hero, Curse of the Golden Flower and the many Ip Man films. I have to admit that I should be watching more Chinese made movies, but it is something I don’t get around to often because there is such an overwhelming supply of movies I want to check out. Continue reading
Lone Survivor (2013)
How much should the title of a movie say about its content? With some movies you will have no idea what it’s about reading the title (for example John Carter), there are also movies where it’s very clear what you can expect (think Alien or E.T.). Lone Survivor doesn’t leave anything to the imagination either, but if you don’t like spoilers (and since I don’t even watch trailers you can imagine how I think about them) this title almost completely ruins the tension building of the film. If the title is not enough, within the first seen it actually shows you who the one survivor is. This is something I found very hard to forget while watching. Continue reading