Opinion as a Movie-freak

Genre : SF/Adventure
Country :USA

Cast :
Asa Butterfield : Ender Wiggin
Harrison Ford : Kolonel Graff
Hailee Steinfeld : Petra Arkanian

Director :
Gavin Hood

Summary
The Earth was ravaged by the Formics, an alien race seemingly determined to destroy humanity. Seventy years later, the people of Earth remain banded together to prevent their own annihilation from this technologically superior alien species. Ender Wiggin, a quiet but brilliant boy, may become the savior of the human race. He is separated from his beloved sister and his terrifying brother and brought to battle school in orbit around earth. He will be tested and honed into an empathetic killer who begins to despise what he does as he learns to fight in hopes of saving Earth and his family.
My opinion

There's only one kid on this launch with any brains at all so far, and that's Ender Wiggin.

Brace yourself for again a graphically stunning looking SF, with a strong beginning, a story that will make you frown your eyebrows and a fairly disappointing end. It's again based on a book I haven't read. The good news is, it's not a very complicated story. It's not that you'll be completely lost after a while because you didn't read the book in which the details are usually described. You'll notice as the movie progresses that it's a youth book. I couldn't get rid of the impression that this was a sort of "Harry Potter in Space". A magic boy possesses certain qualities that adults have been looking for since a long time. He's repeatedly called "The One" (an echoing reverberating sound effect wouldn't be out of place here) and he's apparently a wet dream of the leader of the cadet school (Harrison Ford). Of course, this little boy is looked at as an emerging hero and hailed for his intelligence that others apparently do not possess cause of a momentary brain disorder. Strange, because after all they also belong to the select group of highly intellectual kids. Well anyway, it leads to resentment, jealousy and hate. But our friend Ender eventually turns the tide and gathers together a fan base to protect the earth's population against the oncoming swarm of Formics.
As I said already, this SF is an eye catcher. I bet the "Special Effects" department has spent a lot of money on this one. It looks nice, crispy and flashy. As a SF fan you'll start to drool for sure. The comparison with recent works such as "Oblivion", "Elysium" and "Prometheus" is obvious. Even "Gravity" is included when it's about the images from space with a beautiful planet at the background. I even got flashbacks from earlier films like "Battlestar Galactica," "Independence Day" and "The Black Hole". Generally you can say that it looked fine and worked out into perfection. The space battles in both the simulator and the real one, looked pretty impressive. The alien spacecrafts that moved like a flock of starlings was magnificent to see. And indeed, the heroic deed by Mazer Rackham looked like a duplicate of scenes out of "Independence Day".
The performances were usually excellent. No Oscar material, but nothing that really annoyed me. Asa Butterfield was a convincing Ender. Harrison Ford was a confident Colonel who has no problem with the fact that they actually are training kid soldiers. Viola Davis, the psychologist on board, was a convincing motherly military. And the rest of the little ones did what they had to do: or they were from the beginning an adoring friend of Ender (Petra and Co) or buggers who immediately began to tease him. Moisos Arias was the best example. In Ender's place, I would have kicked this South American annoying brat into space.
The thing that started to annoy me was the content of the story. Indeed it's kept simple and rather childish. Initially I don't have a problem with that. The run-up to the training was fascinating to watch and kept my attention. I just started to question myself about the usefulness of the whole training since later on, they didn't make much use of it anyway. It looked like a sort of "Quidditch" but then in space suits. And you could also win the game by getting someone of your own team through the opponents gate, instead of throwing a ball through it! It was a pleasure to see the various team members floating around in those glass balls. But that was it. Only some floating around! The idea of those little guys learning a kind of Lasergun teen game and afterwards using real war material to teach those aliens a lesson, kind of felt unreal and surrealistic. The lack of explanation about the relationship between Ender and his brother Peter and sister Valentine was kind of a disappointment. I wanted to know more about that. It would have been interesting material. And as a grand finale Ender suddenly transformed into a Good Samaritan and was outraged about the fact they have lied to him. I thought they were preparing him for this task anyway and that he fully understood that. But no, the little fellow got extremely mad and suddenly he unravels the complete mystery and goes on his last mission as Admiral to accomplish a promise he made. Deep disappointment !
I can only conclude that it's a visually delightful film. The story is of a childish level, but is actually still a bridge too far for the youngest. But I found the end a huge letdown that screwed up the rest of the movie.
My rating 6 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Drama/Biography
Country: USA

Cast :
Matthew McConaughey : Ron Woodroof
Jennifer Garner : Eve
Jared Leto : Rayon

Director :
Jean-Marc Vallée

Summary
Dallas 1985. Electrician and sometimes rodeo bull rider Ron Woodroof lives hard, which includes heavy smoking, drinking, drug use (primarily cocaine) and casual sex. He is a stereotypical redneck: racist and homophobic. While in the hospital on a work related injury, the doctors discover and inform him that he is HIV+, and that he will most-likely die within thirty days. Ron is initially in angry denial that he would have a disease that only "faggots" have, but upon quick reflection comes to the realization that the diagnosis is probably true. He begins to read whatever research is available about the disease, which at this time seems to be most effectively treated by the drug AZT. AZT, however, is only in the clinical trials stage within the US. Incredulous that he, as a dying man, cannot pay for any drug which may save or at least prolong his life, he goes searching for it by whatever means possible.
My opinion
I swear it, Ray, God sure was dressin' the wrong doll when he blessed you with a set of balls.

I admit. Everyone will probably repeat this infinitely times. The acting of Matthew McConaughey is irrefutable top level. I'll do it just one more time ... the acting of Matthew McConaughey is top level ! After I saw him in "The Lincoln Lawyer " where he plays a lawyer who works from out of his Lincoln, there was a sign of sheer acting talent in the movie "Mud". "Mud" isn't an average movie. You like it or you hate it. But it it does show that he isn't an ordinary actor. The metamorphosis in "Dallas Buyers Club" is even more spectacular. Physically it must have been quite a sacrifice in order to lose that much weight. The image of him lying in the hospital next to Rayon and his hospital pajamas reveal a skinny leg, is shocking at the time. How he plays that hotheaded Woodroof sometimes, is really a joy to watch. With that Texas accent he talks like a cheeky rascal and a few moments later it sounds flattering and seductive. He likes to taste the pleasures of life : Sex , Drugs and Rock 'n Roll. I must admit I hardly recognized him at the beginning with that big mustache, those big glasses, the stetson on his head and that skinny body. The moment they told him in the hospital he had AIDS was memorable. The way he reacts is a perfect display of how a heterosexual person would react that never used hard drugs (using a needle). He denies it completely and rejects the assumption to have AIDS. Instead, he returns to his camper and organizes with his drinking buddies a wild orgy with lots of booze, cocaine and willing rodeo ladies.
Jared Leto plays the role of Rayon brilliantly. A transvestite who tries to bound with Ron, but gets taunted by the latter in a humiliating way. The moment Rons friends turn their backs at him (also a strong fragment) and they avoid him like he's a leper, is the point he starts tolerating Rayon, although he keeps making teasing remarks. Leto was convincing as an addicted but attractive transvestite.
During the whole movie there is an interaction between dramatic and humorous moments. There is the monopolizing role of the FDA in terms of legalized medication. They focus more on the profit margins and seem to forget about the effective healing effects of certain medications. You can enjoy the humor both in conversations as in certain situations that arise. The bond of friendship that develops gradually between Ron and Rayon is the main storyline.
Frankly, it was hugely entertaining until the club was founded. From there it was a little less interesting and actually more of a boring presentation of Ron who travels the world looking for suppliers and new drug cocktails. And again a fight against the FDA while Ron gradually degenerates (although this isn't actually shown explicitly). A strong,humorous and touching start that significantly begins to captivate to the end. Personally I think the role of Eve by Jennifer Garner even was a minimal contribution to the whole. The doctor in Mexico was, compared to her, a more interesting character role.
In "Philadelphia" the movie got weaker by dragging in the cliche court scenes. In this movie it's the constant fight against a government agency such as the FDA which begins to irritate. But despite that, it's a hell of a movie, with two excellent performances done by two excellent actors.
My rating 7 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Horror/Thriller
Country : UK

Cast :
Rosie Day : Angel
Sean Pertwee : Goran
Kevin Howarth : Viktor

Director :
Paul Hyett

Summary
The Seasoning House: where young girls are prostituted to the military. An orphaned deaf mute is enslaved to care for them. She moves between the walls and crawlspaces, showing the little kindnesses when she can. When fate brings the men that murdered her family and the reason she ended up in the whore house, a chain of events begins that will end her captivity ...

Genre : War
Country : Australia

Cast :
Johan Earl : Wilkins
Tim Pocock : O'Leary
Martin Copping : Jennings

Director :
Johan Earl,Adrian Powers

Summary
When an allied charge on the German lines goes horribly wrong, one man finds himself stranded in No Man's Land. Reuniting with two other survivors, together they must help each other as they charge into the unknown across the muddy wasteland as the Germans quickly hone in on the desperate trio. Tensions rise between the soldiers as they are surrounded by explosions of grenades with the constant rattle of machine guns in their ears. Time is running out as they make their way back over enemy lines as an impending attack could soon take them out.
My opinion
An Australian attempt to create an image of the terrible battles that were held in WWI. They managed to show that on a small scale. Military units in dirty miserable conditions, sitting in mud and other dirt waiting until they were driven into a certain death. The whistling of bullets and explosions of bombs. The fear in the eyes of young soldiers who probably didn't even know what this war was about.
The image I'll remind of this movie was that of the arrogant superior who, without hesitation, gives an order to attack, although this would lead to a needless bloodshed. Because this was totally unnecessary and pointless in this stage of the battle, since they were planning for a heavy bombardment on the German positions. It was a showcase of egocentric display of power. I don't understand how come those hundred men in the trenches don't jump on that fagot coward collectively and chased him on the battlefield with a gun.
Anyway, the introduction of this film is the rush towards the German position, realizing  that no one will reach the other side alive. Don't expect grand heroic scenes like in "Saving Private Ryan", but rather limited images and close-ups. A clear sign that this is a low-budget film. The three soldiers Sergeant Major Wilkins , private O'Leary and Corporal Jennings , survive the massacre and end up in no man's land between the two lines. The rest of the battalion is spread over the mud-filled grounds. From here on starts the biggest part of the movie, because going back to their own trenches takes time. Corporal Jennings is very badly injured (A full leg torn away) which makes that the withdrawal is not so evident. This section is therefore extremely boring. It's not because of the acting. The acting is still acceptable despite the circumstances . But to be honest, a slowly receding threesome is not much to work with and to get an exciting story.
Eventually they made up a parallel story in which the wife of Sergeant Major Wilkins plays a leading role. She's pregnant and wants an abortion. Something that wasn't obvious to do at that time. Eventually she asks the help of a nurse who doesn't have experience with this operation. Obviously this ends up in a complete tragedy. And what a coincidence ! This nurse is the fiancée of Corporal Jennings, who at the same time ceased to live on the battlefield.

"Forbidden Ground"  mostly succeeded in visualizing the atmosphere and the horror in WWI, now 100 years ago. In terms of content, it's a disaster and the story itself is a bit far fetched.
Het verdict 2 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Biography/Crime
Country : USA

Cast :
Michael Shannon : Richard Kuklinski
Winona Ryder : Deborah Pellicotta
Ray Liotta : Roy Demeo

Director :
Ariel Vromen

Summary
Richard Kuklinski is working as a porn film lab tech until his mob bosses persuade him to change his career into that of a contract killer. For years, Kuklinski gains a reputation for cold blooded professionalism even as he raises a family who are kept in the dark about his true career. Unfortunately, mob politics ultimately forces him to secretly work independently with the psychopathic Robert 'Mr. Freezy' Pronge.

Genre : Drama
Country : USA

Cast :
Cuba Gooding Jr. : Eugene
Dennis Haysbert : Searcy
Malcolm M. Mays : Tahime

Director :
Jake Goldberger

Summary
Ex-felon, Eugene Brown, establishes a Chess Club for inner city teenagers in Washington, D.C. It's the story of a man who wants to give those Afro-American kids something they never had : a future.
My opinion 
Apparently "Life of a King" is the true story of the ex-detainee Eugene Brown who founded a chess club in the slums of Washington, to keep teenagers of the streets and to teach the philosophical significance of a game of chess. I say "apparently"  because I read on the internet that the real Eugene Brown only gave chess lessons at an elementary school, and certainly not at a high school. Also he would be too afraid to hang around with teenagers driving fast cars, waving with guns and trade drugs. So this movie is 95% fiction. The idea to establish a chess club for underprivileged children came from one Sergeant Michael Brown (no relation incidentally) who served in the fire department in Washington D.C.
Whether it is a slightly modified version of the real facts, actually isn't relevant. I thought it was a fascinating and poignant film about underprivileged kids who escape reality every day and don't think a descent education is important. They flee into the criminal world and turn against the social values. "Life of a King" belongs in a list of films that have appeared over the years. The content is twofold. On the one hand we have the rebellious youth rejecting any form of authority except that of a local criminal. On the other hand, we have some good Samaritan who believes that these young people do have a future and tries to help them. The subject is nothing new and there are a whole series of movies with a similar theme. From "Boys Town" and "Blackboard Jungle" to "Class of 1984" and "Dangerous Minds" . In all these movies a figure emerges who has the will and patience to put the derailed youth back on track. The biggest cliche in all these films is the fact there needs to happen a tragic accident before everyone comes to their senses.
Cuba Gooding Jr. plays a wonderful part. I'm not a big fan of Cuba, but I thought this was a magnificent performance. He always has such a somber and sad look on his face that perfectly fits this role. A broken man after a long imprisonment who realizes that his only purpose, just like a pawn in a chess game, is to protect an important person and at the end gets sacrificed. That's the message he tries to convey to the young kids. Clifton (Carlton Byrd) is the leading figure of the young ones who's dealing for a local drugs lord. He's the only one who doesn't believe in the chess game of Eugene but immediately realizes that the latter is not quickly intimidated. Tahime (Malcolm Mays) is the timid boy with family problems and follows Clifton blindly until the end. Peanut (Kevin Hendricks) is the soft hearted of the classroom and gets handed the role of victim.
The message Eugene wants to tell, is that life is like a chess game. Once you understand and apply that to daily life, there are opportunities to escape the downward spiral. At times I found it very moving. But you have to admit that this is just an average movie with the usual cliches and predictable situations. This movie will finally end up on some TV channel that broadcasts more of this moralizing, with life stories filled, movies.
A beautiful rendition in a well known framework.

My rating 6 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Horror
Country: USA

Cast :
Bill Moseley : Sheriff Depford
Jesse James : Johnny Petrie
Magda Apanowicz : Emma

Director:
Colin Theys

Summary
Johnny Petrie learns on his 18th birthday that he was adopted after inheriting a farm in Maine. Eager to start a new life, Johnny leaves home so he can began afresh in this "new" dwelling. However, Johnny soon discovers that the farm, which has been abandoned for eighteen years since his natural family died, harbors a horrifying history about the deaths of said natural family.
My opinion
A movie that comes in my list of a mediocre but "not quite good" horror movie. Things started very promising. The apostate priest who, cause of a strange reason, kills his whole family. His wife and two older children are killed in an explicit way. Of course one member of the family remains unharmed. The newborn Brian was hidden by his older brother in a drawer. Thus the ritual can not be accomplished and the priest nails his family on a cross and eventually commits suicide. What the actual ritual is, is not really clear in this film. A bit of a weird idea of the priest to connect Christianity to a primitive religion of Egypt.
The start wasn't that bad. How the priest slaughters his family gave me the impression that it would be an acceptable horror movie. I could predict that in the distant future the saved son would return to his home as a teenager and would be confronted with his mysterious past. The introduction of Brian and his kind of weird mother pointed out it was clearly a low-budget film. Once the mother goes to the hospital and the boy, now called John Petrie, goes to the town where the house is for sale of which he's the only heir, it gets a little better and even at times a little exciting. The cliché ingredients are again used such as ghosts  appearing around the corner, creaking floors and doors that open by themselves. There were also moments when something appears behind someone and afterwards there is nothing anymore when that person turns around . It's all in there, and after the umpteenth time you're kind of bored of it. There's only one commendable moment in the whole film as Brian stands next to his old crib.
Then there is the introduction of Emma. A girl that came from i-don't-know-where and moved into the house, because it was already empty for some time. She wasn't very convincing and changed spontaneously from an arrogant kid to a loving and seducing teen girl. They are complete strangers for each other, but suddenly it seems as if they know each other for years. Together they come to the incoherent and incomprehensible discovery what the priest was trying to achieve and something is brought up as the "fifth nail". Then there's a senior police officer who retired after the incident who's still looking for the truth. They will organize a seance to find the solution.
And from here on it just get worse. The ghosts look abominable and the effects look very outdated. When victims return as living dead and want to finish the unfinished task, it really starts to look completely amateurish. In particular how the kids save themselves in the final scene. That looked like a really old 70's horror movie. The highlight was a zombie falling into a nail that finished him of.

A mixture of all sorts of horror genres with a strong start, but a historically bad ending

My rating 3 /10
Links : IMDB

Genre : Drama
Country : USA

Cast :
Luke Ganalon : Antonio
Miriam Colon : Ultima
Benito Martinez : Gabriel

Director :
Carl Franklin

Summary
A drama set in New Mexico during WWII, centered on the relationship between a young man and an elderly medicine woman who helps him contend with the battle between good and evil that rages in his village.
My opinion
I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and beautiful.

A simple and beautiful imaged coming-of-age story. The film is based on a novel by Rudolfo Anaya, an American author and one of the founders of modern Chicano literature. Antonio tells the story of him growing up in New Mexico under the watchful eye of Ultima, a curandera or healer. Ultima has knowledge about healing herbs. Most people see her as a person who possesses supernatural powers and cures diseases caused by evil spirits. Those diseases are believed to be a punishment from God. Others see Ultima as a kind of witch ( Bruja ) who can transform into an owl. Antonio accompanies her while she collects medicinal herbs. He visits with her the sick and begins to understand the connectedness of nature with the process of healing even though he never gets an explicit scientific explanation about the healing process, how she casts spells onto witches or why she sometimes decides not to intervene.
Don't expect a flashy entertaining and action-packed movie. Despite the film proceeds in a sluggish manner while creating an image of this community in Guadalupe, the film was able to captivate me. I've never read the novel. So I can't judge whether the film follows the book to a great extent or not. The main part of the film shows the relationship between Ultima and Antonio. You notice immediately that there is a very strong link between those two from the first moment they have met. The fragments where Ultima passes her knowledge of medicinal plants and herbs to Antonio, are beautiful and very emotionally. The moment Ultima is on her way to heal an uncle of Antonio is actually a key moment. There is a curse on him by the daughter of a local resident named Tenorio Trementina. Eventually, Antonio faces a kind of exorcism, followed by the application of a kind of voodoo ritual.
The ongoing theme is Antonio's Christian faith that is developing, while being confronted with primitive rituals . The moment he celebrates ​​his First Holy Communion and supposedly be one with God, he sees the chance to get an answer on a question about Narciso. The fact that he receives no response ensures that there is doubt about the whole Christian faith. The death of a boyfriend who disbelieves cause there's been done so much injustice to him, probably also has a big influence.
The acting of Ultima and Antonio by Miriam Colon and Luke Ganalon is excellent and credible. Colon is a female Mexican version of "Gandalf" with a strong personality despite her old age, and a furrowed, tanned face that radiates wisdom. However, the best player is Ganalon. Superb acting. The supporting cast is perfectly chosen.
So if you want to experience a zen-moment among all the other action-packed and exciting movies, then you should try this film.
My rating 7 /10
Links : IMDB