Tag Archives: score:8

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Chappie (2015)

Review Chappie

Whenever director Neill Blomkamp has finished a new movie, I always look forward to it. The South African director had his big breakthrough, partly thanks to Peter Jackson, with his fantastic District 9. Not only the story it told was fascinating, but the effects were extremely convincing (which isn’t a surprise if you know he has a background in 3d effects). He followed it up with Elysium starring Matt Damon, which didn’t exactly receive glowing reviews, but which I personally really enjoyed. Chappie is his third movie. If you look at his first short movie from 2004, Tetra Vall, you immediately see the similarities between the main character from that with this movie, also a police robot in Johannesburg. Has Blomkamp managed to turn that short film into a fascinating feature film? Continue reading →

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Behind the Candelabra (2013)

Behind the Candelabra review with Matt Damon and Michael Douglas

During the high point of his career pianist Liberace was the highest paid entertainer in the world. His shows, just as his outfits, were extravagant and flamboyant. He was extremely popular and kept his public image under control. He made sure that nobody saw his private side as he knew that if people knew he was gay that he would lose a big part of his fans. With Behind the Candelabra director Steven Soderbergh looks into that private life. Continue reading →

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The Iceman Interviews (2003)

Review of the HBO documentaries with Richard Kuklinski

After having seen The Iceman, I wanted to see an interview with Kuklinski I saw years before. It was fascinating to listen to him talk and you could imagine him killing people without much thought. I had no idea where I had seen the interview, so I headed over to Youtube to try and see if there would be anything there. To my surprise it had the three complete interviews he did which HBO: The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer (1992), The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman (2001) and The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2002). I decided to watch them all in one go and it was a captivating watch. Continue reading →

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Samsara (2011)

Review of the documentary Samsara

How would you feel if you were brought to a museum where you saw a lot of beautiful things, but none of them had signs? You would not be able to tell who made a specific painting or what the story was behind that wooden fork you just saw. Would you be able to enjoy that visit or would you quickly lose interest? That’s the question that came up when I was watching Samsara, which is best described as a documentary which takes the viewer on a journey around the world. Often you will not have an idea where in the world you are though. Continue reading →

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The Navigator: A Medieaval Odyssey (1988)

Review of time travel movie The Navigator: A Mediaeval Odyssey (1988)

Time travel has always fascinated me. When I was young I loved reading the “Suske en Wiske” comics, where a time travel machine was regularly used to help go on an adventure or help someone out. I might not read the comics anymore, but the idea of being able to visit the future or past and see what’s different from the time we live in is extremely compelling. Although I’ve seen quite a lot of movies which feature it, it turns out there are quite a lot of them which I have not seen yet. Time to change that as I’ve begun to slowly work my way through some of them, with this movie being the first. Continue reading →

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The Hunt for Red October (1990)

One of my new year resolutions was to rewatch more movies and this is one I was meaning to see again for a long time. When I saw this first during the nineties I loved it and played the music of it a lot (which is mostly a Russian choir singing). As I watch a lot of movies I thought I had forgotten a lot about it, but as I started watching it all came back and enjoyed it as much as I did before. Continue reading →

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Run Lola Run (1998)

Time is a funny thing, something we can’t stop and the decisions we make can’t be changed. We may look back in hindsight and know we should have made a different choice, but at the time it seemed like the best one. Relatively small things can have big consequences and I know for a fact my life would have been very different had my first job been somewhere else. I would not have met some of my friends who shaped me into the person I am today. I wouldn’t have met specific people, did the sports I did and love the kind of music I do now. This movie looks at how those small changes can have a huge impact on the lives of its characters and explores the possibilities. Maybe not as grand as Mr.Nobody does, but the concept is very interesting. Continue reading →

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Robot and Frank (2012)

Review of the movie Robot and Frank

Growing up the visions of the year 2000 were always interesting to see and I always loved programs which showed the future. Robots would be everywhere and could do a lot. It never happened that way, but still we all have things in our house which you could label robots. Just think about a dishwasher, microwave or phone which you can actually talk to and have do things. But still, I still dream of the day that something which actually looks like what we think a robot is, will be in your home, helping you with everything only for the price of electricity and maintenance.
In the world of Robot and Frank that dream has been turned into a reality, but it doesn’t mean everyone is happy with that development. Continue reading →

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The Thieves (2012)

Review of the Korean film The Thieves

The Thieves could easily be compared to a movie like Ocean’s Eleven. With a star-studded cast of well-known Asian actors from Korea, Japan and Malaysia, including Yun-seok Kim (The Chaser, Nameless Gangster, The Yellow Sea), Simon Yam and Gianna Jun (My Sassy Girl), the movie tells the story of several crews working together to pull off a big heist in a casino in Macau. The movie was a smash hit and was seen by almost 13 million people when it was playing in the cinema. Unfortunately it seems that in the west it hasn’t received the attention it deserves. Continue reading →

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West of Memphis (2012)

Review of the documentary West of Memphis

Last year I watched and reviewed the Paradise Lost trilogy, three documentaries about the Memphis Three. These boys (16,17 and 18) were the suspects in a the murder case of three 8-year-old boys. They went to trial and were convicted. The movies were hard to watch because of the subject matter, but were very important, because they made a case that the three convicted boys might be innocent. The case got international attention and through the years the documentary makers kept coming back to the case with new insights, which eventually set them all free. West of Memphis also looks at the case and the question is whether it brings anything new to the table after watching the 400 minutes of Paradise Lost documentaries. Continue reading →