Movie Reviews

I thought I really liked this one but I probably confused Waterworld with The Postman. This one, I still like but not very much. The first half is good when the world is built. Nice ideas although looking back at it nowadays it’s hard to believe that this one was one of the most expensive movies ever at its time. I guess it were the costs of building everything manually instead of generating it in the computer.

What marred my enjoyment, was the end. There is a dryland and it’s a South Sea paradise? Come on. It’s hard to believe that humanity adapted to the flooded Earth for a hundred years but didn’t come across dryland before. Although the way they adapted is occasionally really funny like the bandits rowing their rusted tanker.

Which brings me to my last issue. It wasn’t clear to me that this in fact is an environmentalist movie. Good Kevin using windcraft, the bandits moving on the last oil. Finally discovering a sustainable future in dryland. Not that I’m criticizing it. The movie was at least 20 years to early with Global Warming now being the name of the game.

Maybe, I wasn’t in the right mood when I watched this as I just was bitten by a dog and had too much aggression myself. Maybe, I was a bit disappointed as I really liked the book and the film felt like a thinned down version of it that needs the knowledge of the book to fill in gaps while not providing its own interpretation. It still was ok with a nice style but it didn’t feel extraordinary in the sick way of the book.

Might be my favourite bad movie of all time. Everything’s so voluntarily campy that it’s stylish again. The plot seems to be a typical simple action movie plot but there’s a lot of irony at work here which might not always be obvious. I really enjoyed it when I watched it at cinema on release and a handful of times since then on TV. Paul Verhoeven’s direction just is aligned with my taste. Do you want to know more?

Watching this movie physically hurts. It’s one of those movies where you see terrible things coming and want to shout at the actor not to do it. But it always will happen. A great movie about a heroic loser.

A very sensual movie. The sensuality of perception, of food, of doing the daily chores, of erotic tension. To give room to this sensuality, the storytelling is slow but in focus. The imagery is carefully constructed, rich in detail but held in muted colours. Scarlett Johansson never has been more memorable than here. The movie has aged and could need a contemporary HD treatment. But there’s so much to discover that I don’t mind and its one of those movies I could jump into somewhere in the middle whenever it runs on TV.

I haven’t read the book. That might have helped my impression of this movie as I couldn’t be disappointed by a lack of depth. Thus, the movie entranced me by the time it concluded. The final scene really got me and evoked a deep feeling of loss. What more could you ask for in any media than this. And I liked the story akin to those great 70’s SF movies even if it isn’t more than a setting.

Titane is out to shock you. Gory scenes with announcement are a staple here. Violence is the name of the game with Titane compulsively killing people. Nudity is frequent but the longer the movie lasts the more absurd it gets. Like seeing the monster from Alien naked.

Titane is also out to grab you. First, the music has to be named. Lots of great songs and there are scenes where the interaction of a song and setting is highly fascinating, albeit mostly in a weird way as well such as the all-male firefighter party. Speaking of the scenery, it’s striking how much the well-worn teal and orange look is used. Good parts of the movie could be taken as stills and immediately posted on Instagram.

The major weakness of Titane is that it doesn’t lead anywhere. It’s all effects, sound and eye candy but ultimately the plot can be told in a few sentences. Cronenberg’s Crash meets Alien in an exploitation movie. But it does many things so well that I don’t care about its weaknesses.

Fantastic trash movie when it’s celebrating the trash part. The initial scene is a good example. Approaching Mega City 1 is so over the top and so cheaply made that it’s great. Also, the final scene with Sylvester riding away on his judge bike in his Versace costume is so ridiculous that it can’t be anything else than outstanding.

Where the movie falls short is in its action parts when it aims to match more ordinary action movies. Most notably, this is obvious in the last third when Judge Dredd hunts down Judge Rico with the chase and the fights. I ignore these parts in my rating as I love the garish comic style of the rest so much.

I watched this the day I registered on Tinder. Nowhere else than on this platform and in this movie it becomes as obvious how you are a mere product as a single human that is to be sold. It’s a calculating cold effort, no matter what all the advertising for partnership sites and apps wants to make you believe.

The Lobster is pure genius. Laconic, subcooled, merciless in atmosphere. A great setup with the hotel you are registering with once you are single, giving you 45 days to find a partner or else be transformed into an animal. And a most relentless resolution that made me cringe on the couch.

I completely forgot this one but it was one of my favourites in the 90’s and it’s still comfort food today. The characters aren’t deep or particularly original but hey, they are my generation and the movie features young Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston.

Interesting characters with all shades of grey. No one’s really good, some are really bad. A lot of dudes have to die. So far, so good. But hasn’t aged too well as a genre movie and looks really old as many of those early colour movies do.

Nostalgic comfort food for anybody who grew up in the 80’s. Love the music, especially Mark Safan’s Win in the End. Seems he never released anything outside of movie soundtracks. The story is predictable, a classic underdog plot. But it’s fun. One of those movies you can zap in anytime when it runs on TV and watch it for some time.

I’ve watched this for the first time at the end of the 80’s as a teenager. Even back then, it impressed me and I never forgot that it was special. I didn’t remember much more than that there was a scene in a porn cinema and that it was a slow movie.

On my rewatch, I was most surprised how photographic this movie is. Almost every scene could be taken as a still and posted today on Instagram. It would work. What nowadays is easily achieved with filters, must have been meticulous work back in the 80’s. It has all the looks popular in photography nowadays. Bokeh balls, colour contrasts clearly not natural but impressive, bright melancholic desert shots. The plot plays out in a series of those stills even when it’s moving.

It’s obvious that Wim Wenders is a fan of America. The wide landscapes, cars, the dilapidated streets and small towns. The one thing I didn’t notice back then but now as a man well into his middle age, is the fascination of the middle aged Wim Wenders with young beautiful Nastassja Kinski and the unlikely love story of an old lad with her. Dirty old men are all alike.

Emancipation, self-determination and romance in ancient China. What a poetic martial arts nonsense with a serious lack of gravity and coherence. Memorable scenes abound but the movie shows its age nowadays and isn’t as fascinating anymore as it was when I watched it back then at the cinema. Still alien though.

So again friends are the solution. Jennifer Connelly constantly reminded me of my first girlfriend. And the 80’s soundtrack with lots of Bowie songs coupled with the Muppets Show provide for a movie still unique 35 years later, albeit with lengths.

Has its moments but lacks the surprises of the first movie and the main story drags and isn’t that interesting. Still worth a watch but not everything is awesome anymore.

Awesome in its uniqueness. The intro is memorable as a low-fi version of James Bond intros. Driving to the end battle in a NSU Ro80 is hard to beat. And is f…ing Chuck Norris who plays the baddie with the highlight of the choreography being Bruce Lee ripping off Chuck’s chest hair. Bruce Lee will forever be remembered for his stylized acting and his high-pitched battle cries.

The film and sound quality is among the worst I’ve ever experienced in any movie. No idea what they did there. Nonetheless, this is on a level with his first movie Big Boss and I think I enjoyed his second movie a bit more. Still, cool and genre-defining.

Unbelievably bad film quality. No sharpness at all and repeatedly colour aberrations. Add to this clunky acting and you have a pass. Normally. But there’s something special here. It’s the beginning of an aesthetic that found its culmination with Quentin Tarantino and Kill Bill. It’s not as visible yet in this first Bruce Lee movie as in the second one. But it’s already recognizable. And then there is this awesome soundtrack. There’s a title tune I knew but never knew that it’s from this movie. And there are a handful other great titles as well. Easily understandable why this title kicked off a whole genre.

A teenage comedy for 50 year olds who have been teenagers in the 80’s. The music is an important part of this. Wave is focus but it starts out with Motörhead and even though it denigrates Genesis, they are featured. The first movie produced by Weinstein I knowingly watched since the Me-Too scandal.

More arthouse than mainstream and successfully pulls off the feat of not failing as a successor of the iconic original. Expands the question of what constitutes being human in an interesting direction.

I’ve seen this two days after Three Billboards. Obviously, Frances McDormand is playing herself in both movies and both are about her. Which isn’t a bad thing. She is the perfect cast for this laconic glimpse into the dark side of the American Dream. It’s one of the rare movies that gives you cues to start thinking about yourself and your life. At times, it’s overly exerted and too much in your face but I can forgive this easily. An important movie showing us a true van life, not the fake Instagram #vanlife.

An uneven movie. Great as a whole with unique twists, pleasantly far away from mainstream sensitivities but some astonishingly awkward scenes as well in this one. And having seen this one and Nomadland within two days, it becomes obvious that Frances McDormand is playing Frances McDormand.

Foreseeable underdog movie which is nonetheless quite moving. Would be great if not for the one-sided and not true-to-reality focus on the chauffeur. No wonder given that the script is by his son cashing in on the job of his father.

Even if this movie is a rip-off, it still had the benefit of making me aware of Dr. Don Shirley of whom I hadn’t heard of before.

A competent production. Stylish, at times funny, cool soundtrack. Much too obvious and blunt in its message during the movie part with the racists being ridiculous dumbasses throughout while the final few documentary minutes deserve the directness and raise this movie to another level. Unluckily, it only will be watched by the people supporting the message anyway and the ones it wants to reach will condemn it. So BlaKKKlansman ends up as another proof for the growing and uncurable separation of America.

A hack job. Recycles some elements from the best Ritchie movie Snatch, adds LOTR battles including the war elephants, mixes the King Arthur legend with modern fantasy standard and uses solid but worn dark-blue desaturated imagery to play it safe.

Fun at times but ultimately lacks anything special to warrant a view. The score is great though.

A psychogram on the making of a super villain. Nature and nurture. A great movie but not for the Marvel super hero crowd.

A feast for the senses. The desaturated imagery draws you in. Obviously, piano music features a prominent role but the sound effects are much more important than in most other films as well. Steps, doors, environment. The story is told slowly to give room to setting moods. Classic arthouse.

Classic whodunnit with the mandatory final confrontation of all suspects. Has the subtle pleasure of crossing off a checklist.

Yes, it really is Marcy Rhoades as femme fatale! Fright Night is a cheap B-movie but a good one. It sparkles with ideas and knows not to take itself too serious while never becoming cringeworthy. The humorous spirit transforms the low-cost special effects, costumes and masks into appropriate decors. The 80’s soundtrack rocks.

Usual well-made Coen fare but kind of pointless this time for me. No need for an agent movie satire.

Ahead of its time in its storytelling. Until the very end, I couldn’t get used to the obvious omissions in the plot. You know why a scene such as Bonnie meeting her family for a last time happens. But you never learn how it came to happen.

Today, this would be an action movie. There’s enough action here as well. But at its heart it’s a film about characters. About outsiders wanting more than they could have.

Gluten isn’t the core of the issue. It’s the whole agricultural industry with usage of glyphosate and food processed to death. I’ll buy bread from the bio bakery from tomorrow on.

Intellectual rom-com that surprisingly works for me.

Calm country. First and foremost works through the music, then the moody landscapes and finally Jeff Bridges. I liked it even though I don’t have any need for yet another movie about a wrecked alcoholic.