Each year a new Woody Allen movie is released and every year movielovers wonder whether this one will be worth watching as they aren’t always of the same quality. For each Midnight in Paris there is a To Rome with Love. That last movie had Jesse Eisenberg and in this movie it’s him playing the starring role. He’s Bobby, a young man without much experience who has moved from New York to Los Angeles in order to find a job. Continue reading
With Road Trip, Old School, Due Date, Starsky & Hutch and the Hangover movies director Todd Philips has gained a lot of expertise when it comes to comedies, specifically those full of crude humour. So you’d probably expect the same thing when it comes to his latest movie, War Dogs. Seeing Jonah Hill on the poster only seems to confirm so. But War Dogs is a movie which is based on a true story, so you’d think there would be no room for the tone of Philips typcial type of humour. Does he manage to tell this stroy in a convincing way? Continue reading
Regularly I come across movies where my expectations are extremely low. They are usually titles I steer clear from and occasionally might give them a chance once they are out on DVD/VOD. Storks was one of those movies which also didn’t get much marketing. But when the kids had a week off from school one of the things I usually do is to take them to the cinema. The youngest one wanted to see this movie. I hoped, like with a dentist appointment, that it would be quick and painless. I didn’t expect I would enjoy this movie so much. Continue reading
After having watched Best in Show earlier this year as part of my Blindspot movies, I was interested in seeing more work by Christopher Guest. This director is known for his mockumentaries, ensemble casts (where various actors return regularly in various films) and his special ways of working, where most of what you are seeing is improvised. Mascots is his latest movie, which is available exclusively through Netflix. Continue reading
Timecrimes, Groundhog Day, Triangle, the tv show Day Break, +1 and Edge of Tomorrow, they are just a few examples of movies in which the main character gets stuck in a time loop. A piece of time in which the same events keep taking place and where the main character uses his knowledge of them to outwit everyone and hopefully escape. It’s “High concept” which is fun to watch. Netflix has stepped into this genre with ARQ, a relatively low budget film (according to director Tony Elliott shy of two million dollar). Is this a must-see for Netflix subscribers? Continue reading
After seeing this dutch movie at a festival something stood out when I listened to other people talking about it. The reactions were mainly positive, but they all ended with the words that the movie was good “for a Dutch movie”. It’s like saying “Yeah, he’s pretty good in tying his shoes….for someone who only has one arm”. In other words, many Dutch people don’t feel that the quality of Dutch movies is high.
I have to admit that I’m someone who mostly skips Dutch productions because for a great movie like Wolf there are more than ten stupid romantic comedies. The fact that a movie like Aanmodderfakker won a golden calf (one of the highest prizes a movie can win in the Netherlands) is something I still don’t understand. Recently I tried giving Dutch films more of a chance and watched one on Netflix. And in the same week I watched this one. Did it manage to change the image I have of Dutch movies? Continue reading
We all know that the amount of news and information available to us is extremely high. So chances are that you might miss some stories. That was the case for me with this case around the American Amanda Knox. According to this documentary searching for her name on Google gives you 7 million results back, but I had missed all of it. Luckily you don’t need any knowledge before watching this documentary, which is available through Netflix. Lees verder
What’s the reason we watch movies? Is it to be entertained? To experience art? Or simply to kill time? The answer will differ from person to person, but movies do offer us the ability to experience something someone else is going through. While watching you might recognise something of yourself in a chracter or how you react to events which you normally don’t encounter. Movies also can be a reflection of what is going on in society. It can look at a specific issue (like the use of drones in films like Eye in the Sky and Good Kill) and make the ethical side understandable. It can make us face our biggest fears. Horror movies might be the first thing you’ll think of, but this is also the case with dramatic films. Bastille Day is about terrorism in Paris. After the various attacks all over Europe it’s a sensitive subject, which is why I started to watch this movie with mixed feelings. Continue reading
How often do you listen to covers of well-known songs? Unless you are at a company party or a wedding where you’ll encounter cover bands, it probably won’t be that often. The reason for it is simple: The original song is usually better. With that thought in the back of your mind it is really weird that when it comes to movies people love visiting covers of movies, although it is called a remake then. And usually they aren’t as good as the original. The reason to make them though is obvious. For the studios it’s a fairly easy way to make money, using nostalgic feeling to audiences in the seats. But what if you don’t produce a remake for the money, but puerly because you love a specific film? That doesn’t happen as often. I can remember it from the brothers in The Wolfpack, but they only did it to entertain themselves. Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb were three teenagers who, after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark, decided to remake every shot in the film. Continue reading
A couple of months ago I read about an initiative over here in the Netherlands called “Filmthuis” (which translates to Moviehome). It’s one I was very enthusiastic about: It offers a selection of movies which currently are playing in the art house theaters, which you can also watch from your own home. So they are released simultaneously in the cinema and on demand. It’s a great first step to a future in which you can hopefully do this for any film, because not everyone has the possibility to head to the cinemas as much as they would like to. After reading about it I admit I hadn’t used it, until I read that the new documentary by Werner Herzog (one of my favorite directors) would be available through this service on the day of its release over here (a couple of weeks ago).
So I set up my screen, started the movie on my laptop and sent it to the screen with AirPlay through my AppleTV. These are all things I don’t think about and really take for granted, but they weren’t possible 40 years ago (or even 10 years ago). Werner Herzog is someone who has a lot to do with technology. He doesn’t have a mobile phone and claims not to know much about the internet. With his curiosity he looks at various aspects of the web during ten chapters. Continue reading