After recently watching Monsters University I just had to revisit the movie which made me fall in love with its world, Monsters Inc. Although I remembered most of the story it was good to see it again and at the same time see if the two movies are consistent (the quick answer: not entirely) Continue reading
While on holiday in South America recently I decided to watch Only God Forgives on my tablet. Late at night while the temperature was still very high, the mosquitoes were enjoying my feet (something I only realised after I finished watching this movie). It turned out to be good atmosphere though for watching this latest movie from director Nicolas Winding Refn. Continue reading
Chili, a country which is perfectly located for watching the stars. Its vast desert provides an area which isn’t polluted by the city lights. For astronomers it is the place to watch the stars. Their light has sometimes travelled billions of years before being caught into a telescope and someone’s eye. Astronomers, just like archeologists, look into the past trying to answer many questions. One of them states that actually we all live in the past. Everything our eyes sees first needs to travel some distance. Even if it’s just a millionth of a second, we are seeing something which isn’t the present. The history of the galaxy can be seen with telescopes and through memories the past of a country can be remembered, which in the case of Chili is a chilling one. Continue reading
What makes a good documentary, what does it need to be appreciated? To me it does not need to be about a subject I am interested in. No, a good documentary will manage to make you care about its subject, no matter how boring or crazy it might initially seem. SOMM is about the world of the sommelier. Now I had no idea what the word meant before watching this, but after seeing SOMM you won’t forget it. This movie is about people trying to pass the exam to become Master Sommelier. Continue reading
Translating real events into a compelling movie can be very difficult. You have to stick to the facts, but also still tell a story within those facts. Various movies have been made related to 9/11 and although they might have captured part of what happened you still know you are watching something which was recreated. If you were around on 9/11 you will remember the day vividly. Most people will know what they were doing and how they heard about it. They remember the impact it had on everybody, even if you were not living in the United States. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of movies and documentaries about it and was not expecting this documentary to add much. As it turned out I was quite wrong. Continue reading
When you are going to see a movie, even if you don’t know anything about it, you go in with certain expectations. Of course you hope the movie you payed for is going to be good, but that is not what I’m talking about. You expect that you will join a character in his or her journey, getting to know them and care for them (even if they are bad). You might also expect a three-part setup, one introducing the character, the second something happening to them and the third act resolving their issues. Not many movies stray away from that formula and if they do they can divide opinions. I personally love those type of movies, 21 Grams and Pulp Fiction are prime examples. The Place Beyond the Pines maybe does not cut up its story in the same way as those movies, but it will not meet expectations people will have about it. The trailer of the movie does not prepare you for what the movie is providing and in this case this is a good thing. Continue reading
The way you discover a new movie can set some expectations about it. If I see a lot of positive scores for a movie I expect that I will also like it, which doesn’t always happen of course. If close friends suggest a movie you assume you will absolutely love it, because they know your tastes (of course it doesn’t always work if your taste in movies is very different). This movie got suggested by me by a friend who does have the same taste in movies, so I was looking forward to it. I quite like martial arts movies, so going into this blindly I didn’t know this movie was semi-biograhical, telling the story about the man who would be Bruce Lee’s teacher. The movie also happens to be in the IMDB top 250, so I was surprised I had not seen it yet (since I’ve worked through most of the list). Continue reading
A while ago I wrote an article about the death of DVD and Bluray as I think we are slowly seeing a move from ownership to access. Sites like LOVEFiLM, Netflix and the Apple store which stream movies, make it very easy. It’s so easy that when I wanted to rewatch Die Hard, which I actually own I was too lazy to seach for it and decided to stream it. It made me realise that DVDs are not so important to me anymore.
I had been meaning to rewatch this movie for a long time, but after watching the very disappointing A Good Day to Die Hard I was in a rush to watch it cause I needed a reminder about how awesome the first movie was. Continue reading
When growing up I developed a passion for videogames. Fuelled by my father, who would always buy the latest computers/consoles, I started playing them when I was very young and I never really stopped (although I don’t play as much as I used to, mainly because of time constraints). If there is one thing videogames generally are not very good at it’s telling stories which manage to involve you emotionally. Sure games can frustrate you sometimes, but it’s not often they will make you care much for the main character or sweep you away in the story. It’s basically all about experiencing action. Gangster Squad to me is like the videogame version of The Untouchables. The story is about the same, but it lacks the emotional impact and cranks up the action. Is that a bad thing though? Continue reading
There are some movies which seem to fly underneath the radar and don’t get the attention they deserve. I hadn’t heard of Pitch Perfect before until I saw it reviewed on a fellow blogger’s site. I saw the poster and looked at the trailer (because I expected not to watch it) and really wasn’t sold on it. Then more positive reviews started coming in and I just couldn’t ignore the movie. Is it really perfect or slightly out of tune? Continue reading