Every year there are only a few films in which there are shots that amaze me. Moments where I wonder how they are made or that overwhelms me visually (but that might be a subject for a separate article). When you watch a lot of movies it’s much more difficult to get wowed and you hope to see inventive imagery that feel fresh/new. Initially, I had no idea that Upgrade would be a title that had such characteristics. It starts as a fairly average science fiction story, but from the moment above I could not wait to see what else the film had in store. Continue reading
Searching (2018) – Review
How much time do you spend behind a screen every day? If you had an app that would keep track, you might be shocked. We know the interfaces that we use in detail. Nevertheless, in many cases, films and series often choose to present us with an interface that is unfamiliar to us, even if it takes place in the present. A screen that has been specially designed for a film and should look sleek. As a result, as a viewer you have no strong connection with what you see. Searching is an exception. It is a film that takes place completely in operating systems that we know: Windows and Mac OS. Continue reading
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018) – Review
Although most of us can’t live without our phones anymore and spend many hours on social media, society (on a global scale) seems to become less social in the real world. Tolerance towards others seems to continue to decline. People more and more seem to be only interested in something when it is shocking or when someone is talked down to. Maybe it is because I am getting older, but I have the feeling that people complain more easily and are able to be heard (even go viral with it). Negativity seems to dominate. When you keep that in the back of your mind when watching the documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, this might be something to inspire. Continue reading
The Meg (2018) – Review
If it wasn’t clear before, the moment Jason Statham (playing an expert in saving people from the deepest parts of the ocean) swims towards an enormous prehistoric shark singing Dory’s “Just keep swimming”, you know that this is a movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously. And it shouldn’t, because this is a monster movie that has a ridiculous idea behind it. A billionaire has invested a lot of money to find out if the Marianas trench is even deeper than we thought. The first mission doesn’t go as planned and Jonas Taylor (Statham) is called to save the people from the bottom of the ocean. There they find the biggest shark that ever lived, a megalodon, which escapes from the deep and starts terrorizing people. It’s up to Taylor and the group he is working to kill it. Continue reading
Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018) – Review
Because of the quickly expanding content offered by Netflix it is really hard to keep up what is being added. Especially the last couple of months I haven’t been very active when it comes to movies and blogging in general. I do listen to a lot of podcasts and a couple where mentioning the title of this Netflix-special. As show by an Australian stand-up comedian which is supposed to be more than just entertainment, but also a deconstruction of the genre and which makes you think. I really wasn’t prepared on how much this artist would move and impress me. A show which you simply can’t miss. Continue reading
Zion (2018) – Review
When an specific event takes place that was witnessed by many people, you could ask all of them to tell them what happened and you will get different stories. Some will not only tell you the facts, but others might add extra layers explaining their feelings, the atmosphere and small details that make it come alive. Although documentaries are about real events, it is the way you tell them that can make or break a documentary. Just like any other movie it needs to be edited in the right way in order to make the viewer care about what you are seeing. A director like Werner Herzog is almost poetic in his voicovers for his documentaries and that really adds a lot. Zion, this short documentary now available on Netflix, unfortunately lacks a proper story. Continue reading
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) – Review
Sequels should only be made if you actually have a good idea that could work. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is an example of a movie where this obviously isn’t the case. After the park went out of control in the previous movie, the island has been abandoned and the dinosaurs lived as free animals. As that isn’t an interesting setup for a movie, they are now threathened by a vulcano on the island that will wipe them out once again. Problem solved you could say, but the government is thinking about rescuing them and not letting them go extinct. Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) is running the Dinosaur Protection Group in support of this plan. When the government decides against rescue, she is approached by Benjamin Lockwood who has a plan to relocate the dinosaurs to a new location where they can live “in peace”. She must convince Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) to join her. Once she does, they head to Isla Nublar and things don’t exactly go as planned. Continue reading
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018) – Review
Although many people will know Robin Williams from his stand up and his breakthrough tv show Mork and Mindy, I personally really only knew him from the movies he was in. Whether it were his comedic roles in movies like Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire and Flubber or his serious roles in Awakenings, What Dreams May Come, One Hour Photo, Good Will Hunting, Dead Poets Society. He was a very versatile actor who was worth checking out a film for. It came as a shock in 2014 when it was announced that he had taken his own life. This HBO documentary takes a look at his life, both his highs and his lows. Continue reading
A Quiet Place (2018) – Review
Sound is such a big part of movies, which by many is an overlooked aspect of experiencing them. Ever since the introduction they have added a layer responsible for how you feel, enhancing it or setting the tone. A lot of time is spent on perfecting it. Just think of an animated movie. When you watch it, it is a breathing living and very real world. But just like the frames themselves, every sound needs to be created in order to make swoop audiences away, whether it’s an action scene in Incredibles 2 or an emotional scene in Your Name. In horror movies too it is used effectively, often making or breaking a scene. A jump scare wouldn’t work as well if it wasn’t accompanied by a loud sound after some silence. A Quiet Place is a horror film which uses sound in a different way… Continue reading
Skyscraper (2018) – Review
We all feel a need to categorize the movies we see. It makes it easy to compare them to other in the (sub)genre and at the same time display our knowledge of the movie landscape. In most reviews I read about Dwayne Johnson‘s new movie Skyscraper (which is about a security analyst who has to save his family out of a burning tower taken over by some evil guys) it was compared to Die Hard and The Towering Inferno. But I don’t think you should make the comparison as those movies were quite different. The Towering Inferno was a disaster movie which happened to be about a fire in a high rise building. Die Hard was an action movie like this one, but a lot more realistic and believable. It’s better to not make the comparison and look at this movie for what it is: A summer blockbuster movie which wants to entertain its viewers by giving them a thrill ride. Continue reading