Man of Steel (2013)

Genre : Fantasy/Adventure
Country: USA

Cast :
Henry Cavill : Superman
Michael Shannon : Zod
Amy Adams : Lois Lane

Director :
Zack Snyder

Summary

A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.

Getaway (2013)

Genre : Misdaad/Actie
Country: USA/Bulgarije

Cast :
Ethan Hawke : Brent Magna
Selena Gomez : The Kid
Rebecca Budig : Leanna

Director :
Courtney Solomon

Summary
Getaway is the gritty, exciting action thriller from Warner Brothers in which former race car driver Brent Magna is pitted against the clock as he commandeers a custom Shelby Super Snake Mustang, taking it and its unwitting owner on a high-speed adventure at the command of a mysterious villain on a race against time to save the life of his kidnapped wife.

The Butler (2013)

Genre : Drama/History
Country: USA

Cast :
Forest Whitaker : Cecil Gaines
Oprah Winfrey :  Gloria Gaines
John Cusack : Richard Nixon
Robin Williams : Eisenhower

Director :
Lee Daniels

Summary

Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with her addictions and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.

War Horse (2011)

Genre : Drama/Oorlog
Country : USA

Cast :
Jeremy Irvine : Albert Narracott
Peter Mullan : Ted Narracott
Emily Watson : Rose Narracott
David Thewlis : Lyons

Director :
Steven Spielberg

Summary

To his wife's dismay farmer Narracott buys a thoroughbred horse rather than a plough animal, but when his teenaged son Albert trains the horse and calls him Joey, the two becoming inseparable. When his harvest fails, the farmer has to sell Joey to the British cavalry and he is shipped to France where, after a disastrous offensive he is captured by the Germans

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : SF/Drama
Country : USA

Cast :
Keanu Reeves : Klaatu
Jennifer Connelly : Helen Benson
Kathy Bates : Regina Jackson

Director :
Scott Derrickson

Summary
Dr. Helen Benson is summoned to a military facility with several other scientists when an alien spacecraft of sorts arrives in New York City. Aboard is a human-like alien and a giant robot of immense size and power. The alien identifies himself as Klaatu and says he has come to save the Earth. The US military and political authorities see him as a threat however and decide to use so-called intensive interrogation techniques on him but Dr. Benson decides to facilitate his escape. When she learns exactly what he means when he says he is there to save the Earth, she tries to convince him to change his intentions.

The Call (2013)

Genre : Thriller/Misdaad
Country : USA

Cast :
Halle Berry : Jordan Turner
Abigail Breslin : Casey Welson
Michael Eklund: Michael Foster

Director :
Brad Anderson

Summary
Jordan Turner is an experienced 911 operator but when she makes an error in judgment and a call ends badly, Jordan is rattled and unsure if she can continue. But then teenager Casey Welson is abducted in the back of a man's car and calls 911. And Jordan is the one called upon to use all of her experience, insights and quick thinking to help Casey escape, and not just to save Casey, but to make sure the man is brought to justice.

Only God Forgives (2013)

Genre : Misdaad/Drama
Country: USA

Cast :
Ryan Gosling: Julian
Kristin Scott Thomas : Crystal
Yayaying : Mai
Vithaya Pansringarm : Chang

Director :
Nicolas Winding Refn

Summary

Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a man and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian's brother murders an underage prostitute, the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand. Julian's mother Crystal - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'.

Crave (2012)

Genre : Drama/Misdaad
Country : USA

Cast :
Josh Lawson : Aiden
Emma Lung : Virginia
Ron Perlman : Pete

Director :
Charles de Lauzirika

Summary
A photographer who is haunted by the urban violence and decay around him, retreats into an inner world of dark fantasy. Those dangerous visions come to reality with deadly consequences when his intoxicating new relationship with a beautiful young woman goes wrong.

The Wolverine (2013)

Genre : Fantasy/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Hugh Jackman : Logan
Tao Okamoto : Mariko
Will Yun Lee : Harada

Director :
James Mangold

Summary

In modern day Japan, Wolverine is out of his depth in an unknown world as he faces his ultimate nemesis in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality, emerging more powerful than we have ever seen him before.

My opinion
What they did to me, what I am, can't be undone.

Despite the fact that "The X-Men" were never my favorite superheroes, this film could still fascinate me. The script wasn't entirely accurate and you ended up with a huge number of questions in some situations. It's a long time ago I've watched the original X-Men movie. And "The Wolverine" is the most imaginative character off course. It's therefore normal there are apparently a number of spin-offs about him. By choosing Japan as the location, the interference by the Yakuza was a logical consequence. The positive result is that you sometimes get flashy and highly entertaining action moments, with a mix of "Martial Art" and the cutting and slicing actions of "The Wolverine" as an excellent combination, presenting exciting movie moments. Unfortunately, these moments are extremely scarce. What a shame!.

Hugh Jackman is magnificent as "The Wolverine". A legendary role that fits him like a glove. Since there are no other fellow mutants, he has the difficult task to carry the whole film. He does, but unfortunately it is not enough to make it a real epic super-hero story. There's also the fact that the movie focuses on the personal emotional state of Wolverine and the process of dealing with the death of Jean Grey, his beloved. Apparently he is guilty for her death. Cause of the lack of any prior knowledge of the entire X -Men saga, those flashbacks were completely useless to me. Further, the role played by Rila Fukushima (Never heard of her before) as Yokio was a sublime addition to the main character. Her oddly shaped face made ​​her look like a bizarre partner. But it's the action she shows, with her ​​flashy moves, which made it a pleasant movie to watch. Tao Okamoto as Mariko was necessary for the overall picture, but otherwise I thought it was a kind of a pathetic performance. Especially the amorous part I didn't like although it probably was mandatory to use.

The story on its own was not very original, and as mentioned earlier, at some times it didn't make much sense to me. In a nutshell, you can summarize it as follows: Yashida, a Japanese industrial magnate is being rescued by Logan during the bombing of Nagasaki. Yashida is eternally grateful for that and invites him to japan. He wants to thank him just one more time before he pasts away. To redeem Logan from his eternal suffering and life, Yashida suggests to give that gift to himself so he can enjoy eternal life. Logan refuses and the assistant of Yashida (who is also a mutant apparently) implants a type of pacemaker in his heart.  His self-healing powers gradually disappear and he becomes vulnerable.

Eventually there remain a few unexplained questions . Wasn't it the case that those claws of Logan couldn't be destroyed ? After drilling in the knuckles of Logan the self-healing forces seep into Yashida , who also looks visibly younger after that. Yet only moments later he  dies from a simple stab wound. Weird ! From where did Viper come? What purpose did she have in mind ? She is a kind of mutant that knows a lot about different poison and shows a snake tongue as it suits her. Wouldn't it make more sense that she reduces Logan's powers, by implanting poison in his heart, instead of a futuristic type of parasite. And how the hell did she get that thing in there ? Did that intense french kiss help her getting it in there ? What was the skin replacement all about ? The do-it-yourself heart surgery Logan did, was a bit excessive ! How the hell did he get through his ribs? The high-speed chase on the train, even though you're a superhero, breaks with all the laws of physics. And my biggest question was : If Yashida really wanted to take over those powers, why take the risk to reduce Logan's powers so there could be a possibility he died ? He could forget about that eternal life if that happened !

In the end it's just another superhero movie in which the superhero rather looks like a sad,isolated individual whose superpowers slowly diminish. You have to be patient to see some action until the funeral of Yashida. But when that moment arrives, you're glued to your screen. Unfortunately that feeling doesn't really come back and you can only look at a kind of tourist guide of Japan in which all aspects of the country are reviewed. The end is unbelievable and sometimes downright ridiculous.

It's entertainment but not at an exceptional level.

Not quite so super ! 
My rating 5 /10
Links : IMDB

+1 (2013)

Genre : SF
Country : USA

Cast :
Rhys Wakefield : David
Ashley Hinshaw : Jill
Logan Miller : Teddy

Director :
Dennis Iliadis

Summary

Three school friends are present at the biggest party of the year where a mysterious phenomenon manifests and soon chaos erupts. Their friendship is tested, and the only thing left is their attempt to survive the night.

My opinion
You're all right man! Not like Teddy! He's a dick juicer!

After an hour I was hoping that at home the lights also began to flicker and my alter ego would appear to turn off this movie. This is an extremely tedious and immensely boring movie. More than an hour watching a probably glitzy rave with thumping bass and teenagers getting drunk. Teen girls that look at themselves as goddesses and thinking they look even more divine than the others. After a while it was a bit too much for me. It looked like "Groundhog Day" except that the time leap led to a double. The story was completely pointless and not at all interesting to follow.

An innocent stupid kiss is the beginning of the whole mess. After that there is some kind of impact. I thought it was a comet or so, but eventually it will be some kind of alien life form ! That's also something that bothered me about this movie. You don't have a freaking idea what's going on or what the cause of the phenomenon is. And in the end I still didn't know it.

Before you know it, all the protagonists are at a house party where you can admire irritant teens just hopping around and stumble over each other. Rhys Wakefield is the sucker that actually just wanders around at that party the whole time, looking for his girlfriend Jill so he can apologize for the mistake he made. And this process takes the whole movie ! Sigh.

In fact, I think he sometimes looks very bleak. First he has that dazed look. Then an obviously winning smile. And after that a crazy angry look. In "The Purge", this worked cause he played a psychologically unstable character. If some nudity is a reason for you to rate this movie, then you will appreciate +1, because Melanie surely is eye-candy. Especially when her double stands next to her also !

The time jumps are approaching more and more reality, but the party goes on. A game of tennis played with a fireball sets a few curtains on fire. No need to worry cause the sprinkler system comes to the rescue. The lighted tennis ball was a nasty bad SE.

The climax is the moment everybody is locked up with his alter ego in a summerhouse. I'm still wondering how that whole gang, first standing in front of the stage, got in that little shed. That was a bit cramming.

Anyway, the gang decides to murder the alter egos. What follows is a bizarre moment of hair-pulling hysterical girls and stabbing would-be assassins. In the end eventually everything turns back to normal and David was able to conquer Jill again. An awful and ridiculously simple story. This movie is only for teenagers who don't know or appreciate the words quality and sensible.

Eventually I hope I will never experience a time jump that brings me back to where I started watching this movie.

My rating 1/10
Links : IMDB

I Declare War (2012)

Genre : Drama/Action
Country : Canada

Cast :
Siam Yu : Paul Kwon
Gage Munroe : P.K.
Michael Friend : Skinner

Director :
Jason Lapeyre

Summary
Armed with nothing but branches, lots of imagination and just a few simple rules, a group of 12 year old boys are playing a game of "Capture the Flag" in the woods. However, the line between fantasy and reality fades while time passes. The childlike innocent game changes quickly in a dangerous thing, where the boundaries of friendship are shifted as the battle for victory progresses.

My opinion
I really wonder where the comedy part actually was in this movie, as stated in the genre section by IMDb. I rather felt sorry for some of the leading playing figures. I think that P.K. and Skinner would be very interesting study objects for aspiring child psychologists, and eventually could use some proper psychological assistance.

On second thought I ended up watching 90 minutes at a cinematic display of a game played in the woods like scouts members still play. But in this case performed by a group of youngsters with a lot of dangerous imagination. It reminded me sometimes of "The Goonies", but without the pirate ship and without Chunk.

At times the acting was very annoying and amateurish. All the characteristics of a low budget film were there : the same location all the time, endlessly running back and forth in some local woods, no expensive action scenes or props. Personally, I thought P.K. wasn't exactly a textbook example of a leader. He'dd rather gather in the group of most bullied boys at school.

The concept is original. It shows how children experience the adult traits like hatred, jealousy, love, loyalty and friendship. In reality this could also lead to similar incidents, unfortunately. Only the effect is weak and makes this film a slow, boring and totally not emotionally touching film.

My rating 2 /10
Links : IMDB

jOBS (2013)

Genre : Biography/Drama
Country : USA

Cast :
Ashton Kutcher : Steve Jobs
Dermot Mulroney : Mike Markkula
Josh Gad : Steve Wozniak

Director :
Matt Whiteley

Summary
The true story about one of the most famous and largest American entrepreneurs in history. JOBS tells the impressive story of thirty inspiring years in the life of Steve Jobs. 

My opinion
I expected "jOBS" to be a long stretched commercial for Apple, instead of a sketch of the founder of this quirky product. This wasn't entirely true, but it was close. I wonder how much input Jobs himself had in this film. Or was the script drafted without consultation of himself?

The disadvantage of a biography is that if the person portrayed is not part of your interest, you're probably going to find this a bland and boring movie. If I would watch a biographical movie about the driving force behind the Tupperware story, I 'd probably fall asleep and look at it disinterested. Obviously since I'm working in the IT sector, "Jobs " kept me in its grip. I saw the rise of the famous PC. I've been through it all : programming with a punch card machine, Winchester disks, C64 and C128, using floppy disks with, looking at the current standards, terribly little capacity and only used nowadays as a Frisbee, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Tandy TRS-80, the 286/386/486 DOS machines,.... And when I started my career in the world of the IT, the person who was about to offer me a job, asked me if I knew anything about Macintosh. I wholeheartedly said I did and the next day I was attending a course about DBase II and asked if they could tell me what the hell a Macintosh was. I was allowed to have a Mac Plus and for the first time I held a mouse (I thought it was bloody inconvenient) in my hand and I learned about dragging files and throwing it in the garbage bin. Nobody can imagine how groundbreaking and shocking this was for people who were used to work in a DOS environment and struggling with "CD" and "DIR" commands. A whole new world revealed itself thanks to Apple. Deep down, I still adore everything that has to do with Apple.

What did I miss in this film ? The technical side of the origin of the idea of this thought out product. We see the Apple II passing by. Lisa is mentioned. And then there is the creation of the Macintosh what leads to the seperation of Jobs and the Apple company. The Next passes and before you know it we look at the design of the iMac. That's it. No digression about the creation of the graphical interface. Who the hell got the brilliant idea of that mouse design ? Ultimately, the film is a self-glorification of the individual Jobs. We actually get to see a tyrannical person without any feelings. To be honest I think he was an arrogant bastard with no mercy. The people who started with him were put aside after a while and didn't share in the profit at the time it became a success. A programmer who showed no enthusiasm is fired on the spot. There's a child that he completely ignores and doesn't accept as his child. He sells his shares to destabilize the company. The debacle over alleged copying of Macintosh software by Microsoft (And I'm convinced it was a copy) is just a flash in the whole movie . They could have gone a bit further with this item. But it's undeniable ! He was a visionary with strong opinions about what the computer would mean in our ordinary life. It's also obvious that he turned out to be a sociopathic bully.

Aston Kutcher actually did a very fine job (What a quibble !) in portraying Jobs. The attitude, the wandering gaze and enthusiasm seemed sincere. Likewise, this can be said about the actors who formed the gang of computer nerds that stood at the cradle of Macintosh. A movie that won't make a deep impression on most people. I found it an enjoyable film that briefly allowed us to look at a product that is central in our lives, but in a different way.

My rating 7 /10
Links : IMDB

The Family (2013)

Genre : Crime/Comedy
Country : USA/France

Cast :
Robert De Niro : Fred Blake/Giovanni Manzoni
Tommy Lee Jones : Robert Stansfield
Michelle Pfeiffer : Maggie Blake

Director :
Luc Besson

Summary

A mafia boss and his family are relocated to a sleepy town in France under the witness protection program after snitching on the mob. Despite the best efforts of CIA Agent Stansfield to keep them in line, Fred Manzoni, his wife Maggie and their children Belle and Warren can't help but revert to old habits and blow their cover by handling their problems the "family" way, enabling their former mafia cronies to track them down.

My opinion

"Fuck”
What began as a morbid comedy ended in an implausible action picture. Judging by the cast, I still expected a more robust movie than that "The Family" ultimately turns out to be. The film is based on the novel "MalaVita" of Benaquista, which was translated to "Badfellas"  as the English version and (can you believe it ?) is also the name of the family dog​​. From the beginning I knew immediately where this was going to. So you can say that the movie was fairly predictable.

Sometimes it was pretty funny. Certainly the dialogues between Robert De Niro and Tommy Lee Jones were hilarious . The moody CIA agent who drags the former mafia boss around from place to place for years already to protect him and his family against the Mafia members who seek revenge. De Niro and Jones both have such a decrepit face that perfectly suits their characters. De Niro looks as if he just walked out of "Cape Fear". That guy has a timeless look on his face and is instantly associated with some gangster figure. And Jones walked straight of the "Men in Black" set. The scene where they go to an evening debate, and the planned American movie didn't arrive on time. As a replacement they play the movie "Goodfellas". Jones is getting nervous by the minute while De Niro enjoys himself while watching this mob-movie and probably relives his past. A damn hilarious and for me the funniest part in the whole movie.

Michelle Pfeiffer played a meaningless role as protective housewife who tries to keep her husband out of trouble, corrects her son when he uses offensive language and holds her daughters hand while pointing out the dangers in the love life of a young woman growing up. The only time she shows that she is married to a notorious gangster, is the moment she blows up a local grocery store. Brilliant !

The daughter Belle, played by Dianna Agron, has a beautiful appearance and looks as if she ran out of the movie "Bilitis" with that 70ish dress with bows and a hazy appearance. The romance that developed between her and the math teacher was obviously required material for this comedy, but wasn't a significant contribution to the film. I would have preferred to see Belle continue with that mafia-daughter-that-hits-others-with-her-cellphone kind of attitude.

The son didn't waste any time and soon emerged as a purebred organizer to get the whole school working for himself. A master manipulator and con artist in no time. Terribly exaggerated! What bothered me most was the feeling that it wasn't really a loving family. It was just a married couple with apparently two adopted children.

The moment I felt that this movie would go completely the wrong way, was the fact that the American Mafia family was housed in a tiny French village and all the people there all speak fluently excellent English . Some of them even with an American accent. And I doubt that the schools in France have the same mentality as in American High Schools. You could expect that the betrayed mafia members would find the running and hiding Manzoni family. The way was even far-fetched for this movie.

From here it turned into a semi-brutal gangster parody without a bit of a comical touch. The gangsters that appear on the scene are a complete caricature and start to massacre half the village in a nonsensical way. Starting with the police, the fire department, the CIA agents and then the surrounding residents. They are noticed by the Manzoni kids. Belle is sitting on the roof of the church because of her unanswered love. The son is sobbing on a bench in the train station while waiting for a train to Paris, because the school has reprimanded him about his criminal practices. For a son of a alleged mob member, he's a real softie. Eventually they both turn into true Rambo's and start to kick some gangsters ass, allthough those guys look professional enough and have enough experience in this terrain.

The major problem with "The Family" is that it's not really a comedy and not really a crime movie. It wants it both ways and finally fails on both attempts. A cast with stars as De Niro and Pfeiffer can't save this movie, despite being such heavyweights in the Hollywood landscape.

Quote of Linda Barnard in the Toronto Star: "While Besson knows his way around an action movie, he's not as adept at comedy The result is an often-violent, occasionally amusing fish-out-of-eau tale That plunks a family of wise. guys in the French countryside with predictable results. "

My rating 4 /10
Links : IMDB