Opinion as a Movie-freak

 


Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Horror (?),Thriller
Country : USA
 
Cast :
Arron Kinser : Paul
Marissa Pistone : Lily
Spencer Garrett : Frederick

Director :
Arthur Romeo

Summary

Tragedy strikes married couple Paul and Lily, when Lily's father dies. Lily has her father cremated, brings the urn home and now Paul has to come to terms with the death of his father-in-law whom he had despised. The situation gets a bit frayed when the lid to the urn mysteriously disappears, and Paul begins to experience happenings no one else is aware of. 

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Thriller
Country : USA
 
Cast :
Briana Evigan : Kelly Taylor
Garret Dillahunt : Johnny Gaveneau
Charlie Tahan : Tom Taylor

Director :
Carlos Brooks

Summary
In Montgomery County, Kelly Taylor is ready to go to college and takes her autistic brother, Tom, to a specialized institution. However, the bank informs her that she does not have sufficient funds in her account to honor her check. Her stepfather, Johnny Gaveneau, withdrew the money from her account the day before. When Kelly arrives home, Johnny reveals that he used the money to buy a tiger for his 'safari show' project. In addition he has the house reinforced, in order to protect it from hurricanes, so all the windows and external doors are covered with wood. When Kelly awakes, she finds that the starving tiger is inside the house and Tom and she are trapped with the ravenous animal.

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : SF/Drama
Country : Canada
 
Cast :
Gillian Anderson : Marika
Haley Joel Osment : Erol
Rufus Sewell : Gabe

Director :
Richie Mehta

Summary
After the disappearance of a young scientist on a business trip, his son and wife struggle to cope, only to make a bizarre discovery years later - one that may bring him home.

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Crime/Thriller
Country : France/South Africa
 
Cast :
Orlando Bloom : Brian Epkeen
Forest Whitaker : Ali Sokhela
Tanya van Graan : Tara

Director :
Jérome Salle

Alternative title: City of Violence

Summary
As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain. Today, Ali is chief of the homicide branch of the South African police in Cape Town. One of his staff is Brian Epkeen, a free-wheeling white officer whose family was originally involved in the establishment of apartheid but who works well with Neuman. Together they have to deal with crime that inevitably exists in sprawling areas of un- and under- employed people, crime exacerbated by gangs, both local and from other parts of Africa. Their job gets even more difficult when the corpses of two young women are found.

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Horror/Thriller
Country : USA
 
Cast :
Ron Perlman : Chilcoat
Mark Webber : Elliot
Devon Graye : Michael

Director :
Daniel Stamm

Summary
Elliot Brindle is a bright, meek salesman, drowning in debt - and desperate as he's about to marry the love of his life. Upon receiving a phone call informing him that he's on a hidden camera game show where he must execute 13 tasks to receive a sum total cash prize of $6.2M, Elliot dismissively follows through with his first two instructions: swat the fly that is currently bothering him, then eat the fly. With thousands of dollars suddenly appearing in his bank account, Elliot remains skeptical, though comforted by the knowledge that he can stop playing at anytime if only to lose every penny that he's won. Trapped into the horrors manipulated by unseen spectators, Elliot's need to complete the game escalates as the tasks grow more extreme, to a devastating point of no return.

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : USA
 
Cast :
Liam Neeson : Bill Marks
Michelle Dockery : Nancy
Julianne Moore : Jen Summers

Director :
Jaume Collet-Serra

Summary
Bill Marks is a former cop who after dealing with his daughter's death by drinking, is now an air marshal. While on a flight from London to New York, Marks gets a text telling him that unless 150 million dollars is deposited to an off shore account within 20 minutes someone will die. He tries to tell the other air marshal, Hammond but Hammond doesn't believe him.

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Thriller
Country : USA
 
Cast :
JJ Feild : Moordenaar
Eloise Mumford : Anna
Max Minghella : Tom Miller

Director :
Joe Johnston

Summary
An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose.

Nederlands hier ...


Genre : Biography/Crime
Country : USA
 
Cast :
Spencer Lofranco : James
Mary-Louise Parker : Tracy
James Woods : Lt. Falton
Ving Rhames : Conrad

Director :
Trevor White

Summary
The true story of James Burns who, as a teenager goes from the suburban street gangs of Denver to a maximum-security prison cell surrounded by hardened criminals. In this unlikely setting, will James emerge with hope and a brighter future?

Summary
James and Lily live off the grid, raising their young daughter in a cocoon of comfort and sustainability. When a mysterious mass text ripples its way across the country, triggering a crippling, apocalyptic cyber attack, their home transitions from sheltered modern oasis to a fortress for the estranged old friends that show up at their door for protection and community. The unexpected reunion--abundant with revelry and remembrances, generously enhanced by organic wine and weed--is quickly undermined by the slights of the past, the spark of lingering flirtations and the threat of a locally grown new world order.

Genre : SF//Drama
Country : US
 
Cast :
Caroline Dhavernas : Becky Snyder
Adrian Grenier : James Palmer
Kerry Bishé : Lily Palmer
Ben McKenzie : Nick Randworth

Director :
Denis Hennelly

Summary
Theodore is a lonely man in the final stages of his divorce. When he's not working as a letter writer, his down time is spent playing video games and occasionally hanging out with friends. He decides to purchase the new OS1, which is advertised as the world's first artificially intelligent operating system. Theodore quickly finds himself drawn in with Samantha, the voice behind his OS1. As they start spending time together they grow closer and closer and eventually find themselves in love. Having fallen in love with his OS, Theodore finds himself dealing with feelings of both great joy and doubt. As an OS, Samantha has powerful intelligence that she uses to help Theodore in ways others hadn't, but how does she help him deal with his inner conflict of being in love with an OS?

Genre : SF/Romance/Drama
Country : US
 
Cast :
Joaquin Phoenix : Theodore
Scarlett Johansson : Samantha 
Amy Adams : Amy

Director :
Spike Jonze

Summary
A small group of everyday passengers on a speeding London commuter train battle their warped driver who has a dark plan for everyone on-board. 

Genre : Action/Thriller
Country : UK
 
Cast :
Dougray Scott : Lewis Shaler
David Schofield : Peter Carmichael
Iddo Goldberg : Jan Klimowski

Director :
Omid Nooshin

Summary 
Victor, a rising gangland player, has infiltrated the crime empire run by ruthless kingpin Alphonse, with the single purpose of making Alphonse pay for destroying his once happy life. As he meticulously orchestrates his vengeance from his high-rise home, Victor watches and is watched by Beatrice, a mysterious young woman who lives in the apartment across from his. On the surface a fragile woman-child, Beatrice seethes with a rage of her own. When she uncovers Victor's dark secrets, she threatens to expose him unless he helps her carry out her own campaign of retribution. Each fixated on avenging the past, they devise a violent and cathartic plan that could change their worlds forever.

Genre : Action/Drama/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Colin Farrell : Victor
Noomi Rapace : Beatrice
Dominic Cooper : Darcy

Director :
Niels Arden Oplev

Summary The year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years - and it's meant billions for OmniCorp's bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy  is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer.

Genre : SF/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Joel Kinnaman : Alex Murphy
Gary Oldman : Dr. Dennett Norton
Samuel L. Jackson : Pat Novak
Michael Keaton : Raymond Sellars

Director :
José Padilha

Summary
Set in 79 A.D., POMPEII tells the epic story of Milo, a slave turned invincible gladiator who finds himself in a race against time to save his true love Cassia, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy merchant who has been unwillingly betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts in a torrent of blazing lava, Milo must fight his way out of the arena in order to save his beloved as the once magnificent Pompeii crumbles around him.

Genre : Action/Adventure/Drama
Country : Canada/Germany

Cast :
Emily Browning : Cassia
Kit Harington : Milo
Carrie-Anne Moss : Aurelia

Director :
Paul W.S. Anderson

Summary
Two veterans of the Bosnian War, one American, one Serbian, clash in the Appalachian Mountain wilderness. Ford is a former American soldier who fought on the front lines in Bosnia. He has retreated to a remote cabin in the woods, trying to escape painful memories of war. Kovac, a former Serbian soldier, seeks Ford out, hoping to settle an old score. What follows is a cat-and-mouse game in which Ford and Kovac fight their own personal war.

Genre : Action/Drama
Country : USA/Belgium

Cast :
Robert De Niro : Benjamin Ford
John Travolta : Emil Kovac
Milo Ventimiglia : Chris Ford

Director :
Mark Steven Johnson

Summary  
An idyllic hunting trip organized by Craig Thompson and his three friends is disrupted when he finds out that his fiancee and witness fool around with each other behind his back. To make things worse, his cousin seems to change into a killing machine, while a Chupacabra virus spreads rapidly and locals transforms into zombies.

Genre : Horror/Comedy
Country : USA

Cast :
Matthew Albrecht : Craig
Isaac Harrison : Lance
Dru Lockwood : Tom
Jarrod Pistilli : Jerry

Director :
Tyler Glodt

Genre : War/Drama
Country : USA/Germany

Cast :
George Clooney : Frank Stokes
Matt Damon : James Granger
Cate Blanchett : Claire Simone

Director :
George Clooney

Summary
The Monuments Men is an action drama focusing on an unlikely World War II platoon, tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and returning them to their rightful owners. It would be an impossible mission: with the art trapped behind enemy lines, and with the German army under orders to destroy everything as the Reich fell, how could these guys - seven museum directors, curators, and art historians, all more familiar with Michelangelo than the M-1 - possibly hope to succeed? But as the Monuments Men, as they were called, found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements.

Mijn mening

"If you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed.”

"The Monuments men" is a terribly boring movie. Thank God there were people during the 2nd World War who were concerned about the cultural heritage and with a selfless commitment went to the battlefields of Nazi Germany to recover the looted artworks. It's a story based on true events, but I still doubt if it was necessary to make a film about those events. In "The Guns of Navarone" they gathered ​​a commando to destroy those damn huge cannons. In "Saving Private Ryan" a group of soldiers got orders to look for a certain Ryan (of course) whose brothers been killed on the battlefield. In "The Monuments Men" some old aged connoisseurs of art, sacrifice themselves to find stolen artworks. They also could have called it "Saving a Private Collection". But this one isn't that heroic and exciting. You would expect this to be a masterpiece with such a cast and such an original story about the 2nd World War. Ultimately, it isn't a movie of the same valuable level as those pieces of art they tried to save.

George Clooney co-wrote this film, has directed it and also plays the lead role as Frank Stokes, an art expert at age who puts together a group of eight other art historians, architects and professors to go to distant Europe and find some lost art. It's also a race against the clock since the Russians are also keen to get those artworks in their possession. For the Russians, it's a kind of payment for the losses they suffered during the war, while "The Monuments Men" have the noble aim to deliver it back to the original owners. The other members of the group consists of the three American greybeards Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), Walter Garfield (John Goodman) and Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban), the Englishman Donald Jeffries ( Hugh Bonneville ) who apparently has to make up for something, the Frenchman in exile Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) and James Granger (Matt Damon) and Sam Epstein (Dimitri Leonidas).

Again Clooney looks like the perfect son in law and behaves as usual as a charming Hollywoodstar. I'm constantly amazed about the fact that no matter what Mr.Clooney does, his hair always looks immaculate and well groomed. It seemed as if there is still a renowned stylist on every corner in this recreated-to-rubble Germany who has the time to fix his hair again. For the rest, it seems like an "Ocean's Eleven" in uniform. Even the conversations with Damon look like a duplicate of "Ocean's Eleven" : such a jovial, toneless and dry informal conversation between two close friends. Same routine.


Matt Damon plays again the smiling charmer who tries to help himself using his pitifully poor French (To be honest, I couldn't understand anything he said) on his way to Paris, where he will meet a woman called Claire Simone (Cate Blanchett). Claire is the curator of the Jeu de Paume, a former art museum that became a depot of stolen art. She could possibly point out the locations where the Nazis have hidden their loot. However, she is an old-fashioned young woman who stubbornly refuses to help him, out of fear that it would disappear in the hands of the U.S. The fact that this frigid aunt suddenly felt her hormones working and encouraged Damon to clean up the produced cobwebs during the war, after she was so kind to ask if he was a "good husband", I found a useless and meaningless filler which had nothing to do with the rest of the story.


The most enjoyable performances were done by the comic trio of the whole gang: Murray, Goodman and Balaban. Although their efforts unfortunately couldn't save the movie. Murray walked around again as if he could care less. The famous dry humor was briefly interrupted by one of the most moving moments: playing a vinyl record he received with a Christmas message of his daughter and grandchildren. An intimate moment between all the misery of war. Goodman was again the lame softy you expect anytime to emit a thunderous roar of laughter, but also has its sad moment when he and Clermont ends up in a crossfire between the two armed forces. Balaban is an irascible rascal who has one great desire when they arrive in Europe : the opportunity to kill somebody over there.


Don't expect action packed war scenes because the art rescuers follow the advancing forces during the whole movie and arrive in every historically known location after the Germans and allied forces have left. There are countless films about the horrors of the 2nd World War, but this story was still unknown to me. That made it more interesting to watch. The fact that there are two Belgian cities in the movie where valuable works of art were stolen , is also something that aroused my curiosity. The sometimes amusing dialogues and funny moments are interspersed with touching moments and a few moralizing and corny moments . But overall it was just a weak movie. In content it's not really an epic story : a group of elderly men running back and forth through Germany looking for paintings and sculptures . That they made a 2 hour movie about that, is in itself an achievement .

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB