Denzel Washington is one of those actors who you will know is responsible for solid performances in entertaining movies. Of course there will always be a couple which are weaker (2 Guns for example), but it is an actor who always gives his best. The Equalizer is his latest film. Continue reading
“Hi, my name is Nostra and I’m an addict” were the first thoughts that ran trough my mind after watching the documentary Fed Up. Luckily I’m not alone in this and it’s actually most of society that is as well. We all consume something which stimulates our brains even more than cocaine: sugar. I have to admit I eat candy each day, but even if you don’t chances are that you consume more of it than you actually realise, often above the daily recommended limit. There are lots of product in the supermarket which contain it, even ones you wouldn’t expect to have it. Continue reading
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
When it comes to games various documentaries have been released during the past few years. One of the best of them is, without doubt, the King of Kong, in which Billy Mitchell tried to win the Donkey Kong record from Steve Wiebe. It managed to really show what was happening the subculture of old arcade games. A couple of the people in that documentary also appear here shortly, but besides a short history lesson, including interviews with the maker of the first arcade game, the maker of Defender and Robotron and various world record holders, it is mainly about the story of Richie Knucklez. Continue reading
The first How To Train Your Dragon was, for many unexpectedly, a very well made movie which also got a lot of praise for its use of 3D. Some people even visited the cinema several times because they knew they would not be able to experience it the same way they do in this. I only watched the first movie once but also really enjoyed it. Except knowing that in the original a small town learned to live with dragons I forgot almost everything else about it before watching this one. I did wonder how Dreamworks would be able to go further with the story. Continue reading
There are some movies which manage to enchant you during their running time, which pull you into a world you like to stay in a bit longer. Chef, which is directed and stars Jon Favreau, this is done by the swiftly moving story, the atmosphere, the awesome soundtrack and of course the food. It also stars many great actors and actresses like Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, John Leguizamo, Dustin Hoffman and Bobby Cannavale in both big and small roles. Continue reading
If there is one artists who had a huge impact on a specific music genre than James Brown fits the bill. A quick look at the “Rap Sample FAQ” shows a long lists of artists who have sampled his music. James Brown had a long and very successful career with some ups and downs. Just like biopics about other artists (think Walk the Line and Ray) Get On Up tries to tell his life story. Continue reading
It’s 1944 and the end of the second world war is approaching. Dietrich von Cholitz (Niels Arestrup), German military governor of the occupied Paris has received the assignment from Hitler to destroy the whole city, making sure the allies will find nothing but debris. It will mean all famous landmarks will disappear. The most effective way to get this done is by blowing up all bridges crossing the Seine, resulting in a destructive flooding of the city. It would mean the loss of many lives.
A Danish diplomat, Raoul Nordling (André Dussollier), who knows more than he shows, is trying to change the mind of the governor in this historical drama. Continue reading
I’ve written about it before, but I’m someone who grew up playing videogames. Starting on the first Pong machine my father bought almost every game console/computer which came out and it is something I continued. I played games on the Atari 2600, MSX, Commodore 64, Amiga, Mega Drive, Dreamcast, Playstation etc. Although time is currently an issue (I can’t dedicate as much of it to gaming as I’d like to and I might only finish a maximum of 4 or 5 games a year) my gamer heart is still pumping. The history of gaming doesn’t hold too many secrets for me. Besides reading Edge magazine for years I also have read several books about the subject. Now there is this documentary which you’d expect, purely base on the title, to be THE ultimate movie about the subject. The question is: is it? Continue reading
The passage of time is one of the facts of life. The moments we remember are only a fraction of what we experience in our lives. It sometimes is unreal to see how quickly we become older, but also to see how fast kids grow, learn and develop their own identity. With Boyhood director Richard Linklater has delivered a unique movie which shows the journey a boy takes into becoming an adult man, all over a period of three hours. He hasn’t done this in the way other directors approach this (by working with different actors for the various ages). He filmed this over a period of twelve years, working with the same actors. Continue reading