100 Streets opens with a text that is spoken by a boy who lives in a bad area, who is part of a local gang in London. He tells how everyone has a moment in their lives, no matter how small, that can determinee the rest of your life. It struck a chord with me. For example, if I had not started working in a particular place when I was a teenager, my taste in music would have been different, I would have never met certain important people in my life and I would not be the person I am today. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 2016
Fences (2016) – Review
There are several actors who have taken a step towards directing at a given moment and so did Denzel Washington. In 2002 he made Antwone Fisher, in 2007 The Great Debaters and last year Fences. A film based on a Pulitzer and Emmy winning play by August Wilson, where the main parts in the film are played by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis who also played these on stage. Continue reading
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016) – Review
If someone asked you to name some long running movie franchises, Resident Evil probably wouldn’t be one you’d think of. Still this movie series started in 2002 and this one is the sixth installment. Despite the fact that these movies didn’t receive many positive review, it managed to appeal to a specific audience and still made more than its production budget back. So The Resident Evil movies might not be well-regarded, but they are known for action, horror elements and of course Milla Jovovich as the protagonist. Like the title already makes clear, this is the last movie in the series (even though a reboot has already been announced). Continue reading
A Kind of Murder (2016) – Review
When you watch as many movies as I do, there are sometimes titles which you really don’t want a review about. Movies which are nice to watch and can be good, but of which you really don’t want to be too critical (or simply don’t have much to say about). And it sometimes happens that I decide not to write about such a film, despite it deserving some attention. A Kind of Murder is a movie which does a lot of things right, but which at the same time isn’t one everyone should see. Continue reading
Tom and Jerry: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2017) – Review
When you do a quick Google search on this movie you quickly realize how many people think this is one of the worst ideas ever, which is also realized badly. Why would you add Tom and Jerry to a movie classic? Before watching it I was completely unaware of the controversy. The 1971 original has been a personal favorite of mine which I still enjoy watching. I watched a lot of Tom and Jerry as a child and as my daughter is also a fan of them (and hadn’t seen Willy Wonka yet), I decided to check it out, on a DVD which also contains 60 minutes of other Tom and Jerry shorts. Continue reading
American Anarchist (2016) – Review
I can still remember the time when I first got on the internet. It was at the end of the nineties and the web was a completely different place from the one it is now. For most it was new and exciting and almost everyone I was in class with spent so much time on it that they had to redo the year. We were all at an age where we were looking for the extremes, where we were playing a game of cat and mouse with the system administrators, making sure that we could get online and onto message boards at moments when we weren’t supposed to. Anything you could think of was easy to find, even more extreme stuff and one of the was The Anarchist Cookbook, written by William Powell. Fortunately no one actually did anything with the information, but it was just cool to show others you had found something like that. But this infamous book has been used a lot since its publication in the seventies. It has recipes for bombs, making silencers, drugs and other things to attack others. In this documentary director Charlie Siskel talks to the writer of the book. Continue reading
Top Knot Detective (2016) – Review
Ronin Suirai Tantei, also known as Top Knot Detective outside Japan is a TV show from the eighties, starring Takashi Takamoto. Besides that he also wrote and directed it. In this documentary several people are interviewed who were involved with the show together with old VHS-video of the show, of which the originals have been destroyed by the production company because of controversy surrounding Takamoto. Or at least that’s what this movie wants you to believe. Continue reading
Mindhorn (2016) – Review
A while ago Mindhorn appeared on Netflix, which looked like a very silly film. However when I’m in the right mood I am willing to give movies like that a chance (Kung Pow still is one of my favorite comedies) and this seemed like one I might enjoy. Continue reading
Betting On Zero (2016) – Review
In Dutch we have a saying which translates to “The death of one, means food for someone else”, which basically is similar to the saying “Their loss, your gain”. It’s something Bill Ackman follows closely because he is convinced that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme and will eventually no longer exist. He is so certain of this fact that he, together with his investors, has bought shorts on Herbalife shutting down for the sum of one billion dollars. This documentary doesn’t only look at his battle against the company, but also looks at Herbalife’s history, the way it operates and the many participants who eventually lost a lot of money because they believed that Herbalife would be the way for them to make the American Dream a reality. Continue reading
Comfort (2016) – Review
Each year I organise a filmblog get together in the Netherlands during which I rent out a cinema screen so movie bloggers can meet each other, watch a movie together, battle each other during a movie quiz and basically have a great day. Last year I decided to show this movie. Like last year’s title, It’s Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, it’s a movie which wasn’t released in the Netherlands so it was a first showing. This wasn’t the only similarity, as this movie also is about two people meeting and getting to know each other while they are struggling with some issues. But why did I like this movie so much and chose to show it? Continue reading