The profession of investigative journalist is a challenging one. You have to get information that others want to keep a secret and you run a lot of risk to get it and publish it. When your research has to do with the government, who then does everything possible to make sure it isn’t published, it is a battle of interests. The government is ultimately elected by the people, but on the other hand there may be secrets that are of national importance. On the other hand there is the freedom of the press, which should be able to write about anything. We saw the collision of interests in the past few months, for example in America, where the president rejected certain news organizations because they had written about him in a way that did not fit him. That is, however, of all times, as The Post shows. Continue reading
Avengers: Infinity War (2018) – Review
Although I never was into comics, I have been watching the Marvel movies ever since the first one came out. They are always something I look forward to as they offer great entertainment with their usual mix of action and humour. Through the years the Marvel movies introduced audiences to both characters which everyone knew (The Hulk, Iron Man), but also some which only hardcore comic book fans knew (Guardians of the Galaxy). The fact that almost every movie has been successful has meant that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has grown immensely and that fans (including myself) can’t afford to miss any of them. Although most of the movies are stories on their own, they do have a greater arc in them, which has slowly been building towards something big. A movie which has (almost) each and every character from the MCU in it, but also in which the stakes are extremely high: Avengers: Infinity War. Continue reading
Movienight suggestions: What the Gyllenhaal?
So you want to organise a movie night with friends and would like to present them movies belonging to one genre. Movies they might not have seen yet, but which could surprise them. Which movies should you show? It can be a tricky thing to do. With this new series I regularly try to suggest two (or more) movies which will fit nicely together. This time two movies starring Jake Gyllenhaal. After seeing these you’ll surely have some discussions about what exactly happened and listen to various theories. In other words, real “mindfuck” movies. Continue reading
Rampage (2018) – Review
Here we go again, another videogame movie! The track record this genre of movies has is extremely poor and naming great movies is almost impossible. There have been enjoyable ones (still got a soft spot for the original Mortal Kombat), but usually they end up being very disappointing. There are various reasons for this, but usually you don’t play videogames for their stories. Videogames were never that cinematic and although that has been slowly changing it has always been about a player having fun executing the action which is happening on screen. Rampage was a game which basically had no story at all, except that you could control a giant monster which could smash buildings and eat people. It was all about the action, so the makers of this film only needed to do that right in order to stay true to the game. But as showing all action doesn’t work (I’m looking at you Michael Bay), some story is needed as well. Continue reading
Downsizing (2017) – Review
The environment remains a hot topic, which of course also makes its way into movies. As the world gets more crowded, temperatures rise and we still do too little to change it all you might wonder how we could solve it. In Downsizing a brilliant solution has been invented: To make people smaller (roughly the size of a finger). That way a community of small people will create only one bag of trash in four years, which would take an average family only two weeks. Small people use less energy, don’t need as much food and it seems to be the perfect way to do something about the environment issues. Director Alexander Payne (Nebraska, The Descendants, Sideways) tries to turn that idea into an interesting movie, but unfortunately doesn’t completely succeed. Continue reading
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) – Review
I have to confess that I did saw the original Jumanji for the first time last year. And although the CGI clearly was made in a different era, it was still a very entertaining film that not only had moments of tension, but also an emotional charge thanks to Robin Williams and his character. A board game came to life and everyone who played it was obliged to continue playing until the end, if you could at least survive the various attacks of different animals. A remake was not really necessary, but if a film is successful, you can almost guarantee nowadays that it will get made. I was not really looking forward it, but the fact that Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart (together with Jack Black) would play the leading roles and were fun to watch in Central Intelligence, I hoped that Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle would turn out to be fun. Continue reading
Things you hear too much in movies – Part 2
There are lines which you hear too much in movies. In part 1 I already focussed on some. Time for part 2! Continue reading
The Many Faces of… Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain was born on March 24, 1977 and raised in Northern California. At the age of nine she became interested in dancing and by the age of thirteen she was in a dance troupe. She played Juliet in the stage play of Romeo and Juliet, which was staged by a professional theater company which took the production all over the Bay area. She attended Juillard School in New York after an action in the Romeo and Juliet production encouraged her to audition for it. She was accepted and she became a member of the drama divisions. She played in several plays. She moved to California and started appearing on TV shows in 2004 (pilot for Dark Shadows, ER, Veronica Mars, Close to Home and Law & Order). She made the move to movies, which has turned out to be a great move as she has been making a name for herself. She has acted in movies like The Help (for which she earned an Oscar nomination), The Tree of Life, Texas Killing Fields, The Debt and Lawless. She starred as the driven investigator looking to capture Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty and has had more leading roles since. Continue reading
Tomb Raider (2018) – Review
Two months ago I decided to take a break from blogging on my Dutch site. I did this for various reasons and have not returned writing and it has given me a lot of time to spend on other things which aren’t movie related, including gaming. If you’ve been reading this blog for a longer time you might know I’ve been gaming since Pong machines, but during the last couple of years I didn’t play as much anymore. With my newly found “extra time” though I decided to play some games I had bought and once started (probably something like three years ago).
One of them was 2013’s Tomb Raider, an very good looking game which was a reboot for the franchise. It made the character a more realistic person, both physically and in her reactions to what she was going through. She was very vulnerable. The game quickly got me hooked and I finished it within two weeks and found out there was a sequel available (Rise of the Tomb Raider), which I immediately ordered. It was even better and I finished that yesterday. Wanting to head to the cinema I asked my oldest daughter pick out a movie she wanted to see, which happened to be Tomb Raider. With both games really fresh in my mind I was interested in seeing if it would follow the same storyline and portray the character in a similar way. Continue reading
Rapture (2018) – Review
When it comes to hiphop, Netflix has a pretty solid offering of interesting documentaries (Bad Rap, Hip Hop Evolution, The Defiant Ones, Fresh Dressed, Stretch and Bobbito: Radio That Changed Lives, The Art of Organized Noize, Sample This) and movies/series (Roxanne Roxanne, The Get Down) about this music genre. I’ve watched all of them and although some of them are disappointing, in general they provide a lot of interesting information/entertainement. The latest addition is Rapture. According to the Netflix description hip-hop stars describe what defines them as artists and the effect they’ve had on culture beyond music. During (almost) each of the episodes the focus is on one artist. These are a mix of old and new artists: Logic, Nas & Dave East, G-Eazy, 2 Chainz, T.I., Rapsody, Just Blaze and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie. As I’ve been listening to hip hop less the last couple of years I didn’t know anything about Logic, Dave East, G-Eazy, Rapsody or A Boogie, so I was interested to learn more about them. Continue reading