Nostalgia is something everyone and every generation goes through. If you look at the eigthies (for example Back to the Future) people were looking back at the fifties. It’s understandable. As people get older they long for the period they were growing up, so things which were popular 20 to 40 years ago are suddenly more popular. Whether it’s the TV shows you watched as a kid, the toys you played with or the game consoles that were popular when you grew up, people start looking for them again or collect them. It sometimes can also mean the resurgence of old formats. We already have seen this happening with LP’s, but this documentary shows it is also true for cassette tapes. Continue reading
The Bits of Yesterday (2018) – Review
Near the end of this documentary about retro gaming, collecting is compared to an addiction. People get a rush looking at the games and consoles they own, the new ones they are able to buy and comparing them to others. It’s a feeling almost everyone can understand and I myself was into buying and playing old consoles. I still have quite a lot of them, although I never look at them anymore. I’ve stepped away from them years ago and with that they aren’t as treasured as they once were and when I make the time to properly go through it all I will sell everything so someone else will be able to enjoy it. Distance changes your perspective. The same goes for movie watching. For the last couple of years I saw an amazing amount of films every year, but this year I decided to take a break from blogging (I actually stopped on the Dutch version of my blog) and I lost the need to try and see every movie that comes out and actually am fine with that. But back to this documentary. Continue reading
Review of the Royole Moon – Your personal cinema?
If I’m truly honest I would love to be able to see every movie in a completely empty cinema. No mobile phones from other moviegoers who can distract you, no people who come in late, talk through the movie or other frustrations. When I received a press release about it I was intrigued. It was described as “a mobile 3D-theater”. So in other words your own cinema, enabling you to watch movies without distractions. I decided to check it out and received the unit to test it out during two weeks. Does this product offer the ultimate way to experience movies to a movie fanatic? Continue reading
To Catch a Thief (1955) – Review
Some directors have made a name for themselves and as viewer you have specific expectations when you go see their films. Whether it is the violence, dialogue and references to other movies in Tarantino films, the weirdness of David Lynch’s work or the practical way Christopher Nolan shoots everything on film, you have an idea of what to expect. It is something you look forward to when checking their work out. Alfred Hitchcock is also one of those names. I’ve seen a lot of his work and love the look of them (of course because of the era they were shot in), the character interactions and of course (usually) the suspense. To Catch a Thief was a movie of his I hadn’t seen yet and added to my blindspot list for this year. It turned out to be slightly disappointing. Continue reading
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) – Review
On this year’s blindspot movies list I had added two eighties movies, which both had to do something with aliens. I decided to check out The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension first. There is something about movies from the eighties which I really appreciate which isn’t only because it is the era in which I grew up. The movies from that time have a certain feel and CGI wasn’t a big thing yet, which would mean a lot more creativity to realize some ideas. Because of that some things feel a lot more real and actually have weight as things were physical. This is also the case here. Continue reading
A Taxi Driver (2017) – Review
With all the American movies being released there is a huge risk that movie from other countries don’t get the attention they deserve. Although some of them get released to cinemas, they often don’t reach a big enough audience, making it hard for distributors to take a chance on them. Which of course creates a cycle you can’t get out of. Which sometimes is a shame, as they are a lot of movie worth watching. Recently I saw Bad Genius, which is amazing, but A Taxi Driver, a South Korean movie is also one you should check out. Continue reading
78/52 (2017) – Review
Unless you have encyclopedic knowledge about Alfred Hitchock and his work, the title of this documentary will not give you any idea what it is about. That’s bad marketing in my opinion and the only reason I knew about this film was because I read about it being shown at a film festival. Had I come across it another way I wouldn’t have even given it a look. The movie also doesn’t explain its title, but the numbers reference the infamous shower scene in Psycho. 78 different camera angles were used and there are 52 cuts to create an iconic and influential moment in movie history. It was a scene that took 7 days to shoot, which in the end resulted in only 45 seconds, which were very effective though. Is it possible to analyse that during an hour and a half in an interesting way? Continue reading
Brothers (2017) – Review
Within in Europe (and probably elsewhere too) there have been people who decided to go to Syria to fight there, usually with a religious motivation. Some return and the news about them is usually negative. But what do you do when you find out someone within your own family was seen last in Syria? That’s the idea behind Brothers (Broeders). Continue reading
Ocean’s Eight (2018) – Review
When the George Clooney version of Ocean’s Eleven (a remake of the 1960 original) came out, it was a hit and got great reviews. Director Steven Soderbergh managed to create a movie that was fast paced, slick and fun. It’s sequel stumbled and Ocean’s 13 in 2007 managed to be pretty good as well. Eleven years later there is Ocean’s 8, which doesn’t star (well, almost) any stars from the trilogy and isn’t set before the other ones as the title might suggest. This new version changes things up and replaces the cast with an all-female lineup who are planning a heist. Continue reading
Bad Genius (2017) – Review
For everyone there has been a moment while you were attending school where it was very attractive to cheat in order to pass that difficult exam. To make sure you don’t get caught, you think of ingenious ways to bring along information that’s hard for others to discover. When you eventually decide to actually use it, it can lead to some very tense moments. You feel like a secret agent who can’t stand out and has to copy some information. If you would translate that feeling to a movie, you’d end up with Bad Genius. A mix of The Breakfast Club and Ocean’s Eleven… Continue reading