Tag Archives: 2013

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Blackfish (2013)

Blackfish

Ever since I saw The Cove my thoughts on keeping dolphins in captivity have changed. When I was on holiday this summer most of the people wanted to go to a sea aquarium to see them and take pictures with them. I didn’t feel like going and enjoyed a day at the beach. Blackfish is not about dolphins, but it is about what goes on in places like Sea World, in particular in regards to the killer whales. These huge animals are impressive to look at and have been trained extensively to perform all different types of tricks, but that is the only side the public sees of the killer whales. When one of their trainers, Dawn Brancheau (who had a lot of experience and had worked with the animals for years) was killed by one of them the public only saw a news story and a statement by Sea World that the cause of the death was a trainer error. Blackfish investigates if this really was the case and questions the practise of keeping these animals in captivity. Continue reading →

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All Is Lost (2013)

Review of All Is Lost

The packaging of this movie in its DVD or Blu Ray form could have blurbs on it like “most realistic depiction of man versus nature” or “the ultimate movie about survival”. Unfortunately that does not automatically means that All Is Lost is a good movie though, something everyone will be able to enjoy. Could you imagine Life of Pi without the animals and narration? Or 127 Hours without the main characters talking to the camera? Buried without the phone? Those descriptions come pretty close to what this movie is. Except for a voiceover at the beginning of the movie this is almost a silent movie. Over an hour in Robert Redford (who I guess plays himself since we don’t get to know anything about the person he is playing) screams “FUUUUCCCKKKK”. Which was about the same thing I thought about the movie not having finished yet. Continue reading →

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From One Second to the Next (2013)

Review of the documentary about texting while driving

If you would ask me which movie director I though is one of the most interesting I would really only have one answer ready: Werner Herzog. He has made so many interesting movies and is such an interesting person himself that I always enjoy checking out his work. He’s someone who will effortlessly make a documentary, then a feature film but will also appear as an actor. From One Second to the Next is a documentary he has made in cooperation with the biggest phone companies in the US. Its goal is simple: To convince you that texting while driving is something you simply should not do as the consequences can be devastating. 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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jOBS (2013)

Review of the movie about Steve Jobs with Ashton Kutcher

Whether or not you have Apple products in your home, you can not deny that the company has had a huge impact on the world of computers, music, telephony and apps. In each of these markets it has managed to change the landscape or even create new ones, with others trying to get the same success. A driving force behind this has been Steve Jobs. With his death in 2011 many felt that an inspiring man had left us. Not knowing much about him I decided to read the biography written by Walter Isaacson. It turns out that he was a difficult person to deal with, someone who did things differently and would ignore specific things if they did not help him in some way. He also inspired and had ways to convince people to do things they might not think possible. He was a perfectionist and even cared about the look of circuitry (it needed to look clean) even if nobody ever got to see it. jOBS tries to do what The Social Network did for Mark Zuckerberg. Does it succeed in its goal? 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 →

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Man of Steel (2013)

Review of Man of Steel (2013)

Superman is one of the most beloved superheroes there is and after the failure of Superman Returns in 2006 it couldn’t take that long before the franchise would be rebooted again. Man of Steel is that reboot and it is directed by Zach Snyder (300, Sucker Punch, Watchmen). After the success of the Batman trilogy the writing team of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer would pen down the script. The result is Man of Steel, which just like Batman Begins tells the origin story of the superhero again. Continue reading →

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2 Guns (2013)

2 Guns review

Just one look at the poster was enough reason for me to go watch this movie: 2 Guns. Denzel Washington. Mark Wahlberg. With a title like that and those actors I was expecting to have a great time with an entertaining action movie. The movie started out interesting: Two men who head into a sleepy town to prepare a bank robbery. Without knowing anything about the movie I was looking forward to a great 109 minutes. Unfortunately I should have prepared for utter disappointment. Continue reading →

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Killing Season (2013)

Recensie van Killing Season (2013)

Robert De Niro and John Travolta have both made names for themselves in Hollywood. Both have some memorable movies to their name and both have made some memorable movie choices later in their career. On paper Killing Season sounds like a movie which could be very interesting as it is about an American soldier (de Niro) who fought in former Yugoslavia and a man who came in contact with him during that war (Travolta, who plays his role with a heavy Eastern European accent) and now has sought him out back home to seek revenge. Set in isolated woods with no form of communication, except with each other, the two play a deadly game of cat and mouse/hunter and hunted. Is Killing Season the next Deliverance or doesn’t it even manage to kill time? Continue reading →