Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara (Big Bad Wolves)

According to Quentin Tarantino this is the best film of the year 2013. Although I would not readily agree, I can see why he likes it. Part of it looks almost like an homage to the Mr. Blonde/cop/ear scene in Reservoir Dogs. I don't think it actually is.

This is one hell of a film, though.

The story starts right in without much of a set up. Four men 'question' a suspect to multiple murders. The whole things gets caught on tape (because everyone has a cell phone) and ends up on the internet. The suspect hast to be released in the aftermath. Not that it does him any good.

The man is a bible studies teacher and suspected of kidnapping, drugging, raping, beheading and killing little girls. With the video and all, the school does not have much choice but to suspend him. And then the father of one of the girls and the police officer that orchestrated the beat down both decide to take justice into their own hands. After one initially knocks the other out to get his hands on the culprit they then join forces to try and extract the information where all the missing heads of the murdered girls are.

This is when it gets really ugly.

The film, for all its brutality (few and far between), is beautifully shot and well acted. What is interesting is that for the longest time, it is not clear whether or not the teacher actually did kill the girls. Don't worry, all will be revealed in the end, but by then it may already be too late.

8/10

The Book Thief

What a wonderful book The Book Thief is. I remember that when I read it (it's been a few years) I absolutely loved it. The idea of the story being told by Death himself (I always thought of the narrating Death as a he and apparently so did the people making the film) was different and interesting. All the bitterness and hope that the story held made it a very rewarding reading experience, however sad the book may have made me.

Of course, they would make it into a film. And even though this is a valiant effort, there are just so many little things that didn't sit well with me, which took away immensely from the experience.

My biggest problem, one that almost made me turn off the film several time during the first half hour or so, is that most of the dialogue is in English - with German accent. Why? Can filmmakers please make up their minds. If you want to be realistic, you will have to have German speaking actors and subtitle the film. Or, if you want to tell the thing in English than fucking do so. Nobody needs to hear a German accents (and at times a bad imitation of one) to know that the people portrayed in the film are supposed to be Germans. I hated that!

And if you find a girl that can play the lead role and sort of master the accent (just imagine, they got an actual German boy to play a German boy!) why don't you give her anything to do but look at everything and everyone like a deer in headlights. She can do wide eyed. Bravo! Beyond that, we have no idea whether or not this girl can act.

All of this made me enjoy the movie far less than I should have, because it was a constant source of annoyance that kept me from actually getting into it.

Read the book instead.

3/10

R.I.P.D.

You know what? This is not actually as bad as it is said to be. Sort of like a new take on Men in Black, only instead of aliens you have bad dead people that somehow escaped their final judgment. The job of the Rest In Peace Department is to bring them back where they belong.

It is garish. It is ridiculous. It is stupid (of course it is).

But it also has Kevin Bacon. So there is your saving grace. He plays a bad guy (kind of a douche bag, really). He eventually turns out to be the big cheese among the dead ones on earth, even though you go through a big portion of the film before you find out that he is, in fact, dead. There is a reason for him not looking like the rest and - more importantly - not smelling like them. But there is no need to get into that.

What I found funny was that the R.I.P.D. duo of Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds look very different to the living. They have earthly Avatars. Roy (Bridges) is a hot blonde bursting out of her dress and Nick (Reynolds) is an elderly Chinese man.

Also the dead people look rather cool once their fake mortal shell has been busted (through the help of Indian food or, more specifically, cumin).

Not a milestone, to be sure, but entertaining nonetheless.

It is what it is.

5/10

Oculus

Siblings Kaylie and Tim have been through some traumatic stuff together. When they were children, their father shot their mother and little Tim shot his dad before he could choke Kaylie to death. The very 'sick' mother had previously coked Kaylie nearly to death but - in a moment of clarity - thought better of it.

Now Tim is out of juvie (I think) and Kaylie has (re-)acquired an antique mirror that used to be in daddy's study. The mirror, of course, being the source of all evil. They team up (Kaylie's idea, Tim is not so sure) to get video prove of the evil mirror and its supernatural powers and - possibly - destroy it for good. Why they would think that they would be able to destroy it is not quite clear, since they have previously attempted to smash it with golf clubs - to no avail.

Anyway, the Tim character (grown-up Tim) walks through the entire film like a deer in headlights. The grown-up Kaylie version is very resolute and seemingly void of all emotion. That is until she kills her fiance. Or maybe not. He later walks around looking distinctly undead and may not have been there in the first place. See, the mirror has many tricks up its sleeve.

At some point the childhood story and the grown-up story merge and the little Kaylie and Tim run into big Kaylie and Tim repeatedly. It's a memory thing. I think. Who knows? It's confusing, anyway.

In the end, the contraption that is supposed to smash the mirror (yeah, right) is set in motion by Tim, who doesn't check where his sister is at this point. He has been experiencing a number of incidences that would have convinced him that things may not be what they seem and something that he is looking at may not be there after all (and vice versa). So, of course, when the would-be mirror smashing anchor (or whatever) swings down, it ends up killing Kaylie. Lapse of judgement, Tim, wasn't it?

More confusing than actually scary. You get the gist, but I'm not sure it is actually worth it.

4/10

Inside Llewyn Davis

I love most of this film.

The one thing that annoys me, though, is the Carry Mulligan character, Jean. Whenever she is on screen she is very angry. And I am not sure what the point of this angry character is and why she does not seem to have any redeeming features other than being pretty (apparently everyone wants to fuck her, we are told frequently).

Other than that, things are pretty near perfect. Oscar Isaac is wonderful. He is also a great singer. I love folk music, especially the kind from the 1960's, so the music in the film is right down my alley. And the nod to Bob Dylan in the end is nice.

The story is that of the title character sort of drifting through life, here represented by showing 'a week in the life of'. He hops from couch to cough and does in fact not have a set address. Every now and again he will get a paying job, however ridiculous ('Please Mr. Kennedy'). On occasion he will take chances, like hitching a ride to Chicago which in the end comes to nothing.

There is a host of strange characters along the way, as are in most Coen Brothers films. My favorite is probably Roland Turner, played by John Goodman, who sits in the backseat during the drive to Chicago and shares life lessons Llewyn is not really interested in hearing.

Also, a cat.

And wonderful singing, especially by Oscar Isaac.

8/10

Europa Report

One of the better sci-fi films I have seen in recent years.

Never mind that this is a 'found footage' film, which are usually pretty blah (no explanation needed, because the footage is so sketchy. Well, *shrug*, we tried.). Here, the images are clear most of the time because they are supposedly transmitted with high tech equipment and filmed with steady cams from within a spaceship.

An international group of astronauts if on a mission to collect probes from the fourth largest moon orbiting Jupiter, Europa. There is supposedly water under the icy surface and in space travel terminology water = life.

After having gone the furthest for any human ever, the crew eventually loses contact with mission control. While the head of the mission is shown in an interview detailing when they lost contact and what the findings and failings of the mission were, one crew member (Rosa) also talks straight to the camera in an interview setup, This initially made me think that maybe the crew - at least in part - survived. It is only later that it becomes clear that is is part of the footage that was sent back home after communication had been re-established. But it was already too late for them at that point.

The deaths of the crew members are rarely extremely violent, and if they are, there are no clear images of it. Some deaths are heartbreaking - in particular the first one, when James cannot return to the ship because he got hazardous matter onto his space suit and even as it dawns on him what this will mean, he still pushes Andrei, whose glove has ripped and who is losing oxygen quickly. back into the safety of the inside of the ship.

Also, and thankfully, there are no big arguments as so often appear in films involving a group of people in a dangerous situation and confined space.

Some of the cast I don't know and some are rather well-known - Embeth Davidtz is the head of the mission, Michael Nyqvist (of the Swedish Millennium Trilogy) is Andrei, Sharlto Copley is in this as the unfortunate James and Daniel is portrayed by Christian Camargo (the ice truck killer from the first season of Dexter).

Not sure why this film stayed well under the radar last year. It deserved a wider audience.

8/10

Bad Words

Through a loophole in the rules, a grown man named Guy Trilby enters a spelling bee competition with the goal to win the entire thing. This, much the confusion and anger of parents and organizers alike.

He is sponsored and traveling with a journalist who tries to entice him into spilling the beans on why exactly he is doing this. She doesn't really get much out of him, tough, and instead gets a little help from an FBI agent, who owes her. Turns out, Guy is the son of the main organizer of the national event.

As he survives round after round he also befriends a little kid that is one of his fiercest opponents. The two become fast friend and are the last two standing, with either one trying to throw the competition. The little kid wins and Guy leaves the scene with a note for his father.

Kinda sweet.

6/10

After Earth

Will Smith is not afraid of anything.

Jaden Smith is afraid of everything. And he is very, very worried.

They are Cypher (the elder Smith) and Kitai (the younger Smith) Raige and their home has been Nova Prime since mankind was forced to flee what used to be their home planet because they finally killed of the environment. Or something.

There are many evil forces to fight off, apparently. The most vicious come in the form of a space monster (a poor man's H.R. Giger thing), the Ursa. To re-connect with his son, who blames himself for the death of his sister, who was herself killed by an Ursa a few years earlier. Why then there is an Ursa as cargo on the ship that takes Cypher and his offspring on the father's last mission, I do not know. If they explained it, I don't remember.

Another thing I don't know is how Diego Klattenhoff ended up in this for one (and only one) scene. The scene, of course, is very significant and depicts a show of level of respect for Cypher that he does not yet have himself for his son. As the scene happens you just know that this will be repeated with Cypher showing little Kitai the respect he will have earned by the end of all this. You just know. Also in this, in the background but with lines (!) is David Denman (Pam's original fiance on The Office).

Through a number of misguided decisions by Cypher (not as big a honcho as he is supposed to be, huh?), the ship crash lands on earth (*gasp*) and breaks into. Survivors: two (guess who!). Father is injured and sends son on a mission to find the other half of a ship and retrieve the beacon to contact the home planet that will come to collect them.

The son flips out at the drop of a hat and is either scared shit less or angrily crying and whining like a 4-year-old. Also, his liquid oxygen (or whatever) is running lower than should be and when daddy tells him to abort mission because he would, you know, suffocate under normal circumstances, he defies him and jumps off a cliff (literally). Of course, he is always going to make it, despite many an angry animal out to get him. He is a Smith after all and saving the world, the father, everything and you-name-it is in his film DNA.

The last great obstacle is the Ursa. This is why it was brought along on the ship! To make the final act of the film more exciting! Kitai prevails, leans to control (or possibly eliminate altogether) his fear and saves himself and daddy. Now repeat Klattenhoff scene.

All is well.

3/10

Scenic Route

Old friends Mitchell and Carter are on a road trip together. We don't know from where to where they are going, but they are in the middle of the desert (Nevada?). Mitchell is on crutches. Again, we are never really told what happened.

What we do know is that Carter stages a car breakdown because they don't talk anymore like they used to and he manufactures a situation where they have no choice but to talk. And while they're there he goes off on Mitchell for having given up on his dream on becoming a musician and marrying the "rebound-girl" after breaking up with the love of his life.

But first, they kick the shit out of each other. This happens before the credits. Mitchell has a broken nose and a bloody face and Carter does not move after one final blow. This is the intro.

Then we go back to the previously mentioned car trouble and the fight (first verbal) that follow after Carter's go at a life intervention and Mitchell finding out that his friend has simply removed a wire from the car to keep them stranded. He owns up when a passing car offers them a ride into town. Before the helpful man is allowed to drive off, Carter has to start the car to prove to Mitchell that he fixed it.

It is only after the driver left and some more fighting that the car is really broken. More yelling, blaming each other and the fight from the beginning follow. Mitchell comes to and Carter is still not moving. Mitchell mourns over the body of his friend and eventually starts digging a grave in the desert. As he pulls the body towards it, however, it tunes out that Carter is still alive. When he now realizes that he was about to be buried, he loses it and storms off.

The reunite and suffer together through the heat during the day, the cold nights and the lack of water. As a last ditch effort they stumble off in the direction where Mitchell thinks a town may be and eventually come to the remains of what used to be a small group of houses. But at least they find water.

And then suddenly a cell rings and they have reception again (hurray!) and are saved.

Or are they?

6/10

Open Grave

When Sharlto Copley (whose name, turns out much much later is actually Jonah but we will go with "John Doe" for the time being) wakes up he has no clue who he is or what is going on. But that's alright, because neither do we.

And why is he in a pit full of dead people (hint: this is the open grave from the title)? This will be later explained.

Why are his joints cracking? This will not be addressed.

He digs himself out of his grave and stumbles after a Japanese woman he has seen looking over the edge. When he comes upon a house he finds a group of handsome strangers. They are not quite sure who they are, either, but they have found pictures and hints from which they have deducted their names.

One is quite handy with weaponry while another appears to be speaking several languages fluently (French, Italian, Latin). The Japanese woman, meanwhile, doesn't speak at all. The consent is that she does not know English, but later is said to be mute (but not deaf, mind you).

Piece by piece the handsome circle of, um, friends? co-workers? random strangers? start remembering out of context bits of informatiion. When put together, these probably make a pretty clear picture of what happened. But, alas, they only exchange their recollections too late in the film to be of much help.

They also get attacked by obviously sick people that like hurting themselves. One of them is entwined in a barbed wire fence and lures the weapons expert (he is there to protect the group) with cries of help. As soon as he gets the chance, however, he offs him and laughs hysterically.

Some of the locals are not sick but hurl insults at the Copey character. They are the ones that call him Jonah and tell him to get away from them with his injections. Our group of handsome survivors start doubting themselves, because everything points to them - or maybe only Jonah - having conducted some sort of experiment that caused the whole dilemma.

But, luckily, as more memories return, they are the good guys, after all. They are there to help the infected people. Alas, they failed. When some sort of (untested) medicine wears off, they start forgetting again. Rough.

As their numbers dwindle, only three scientists and the Japanese woman are left standing. When they hear the helicopters coming, they believe themselves to be safe at last. But the soldiers are their to dispose of any witnesses of the disaster. Of course they are.

John Doe/Jonah flees and hides in the - you guessed it - open grave where all the bodies get dumped. The Japanese woman is remarkably self sufficient. She escaped the soldiers unscarred and rescues him out of the pit. At this point he is back to where he started - with no memory of what happened.

Luckily, another scientist (his lover, but he has forgotten that and she is dead now) wrote him and herself a note. Unluckily, he doesn't even see it among the bodies.

Lucky for us, then, that her now-deceased off-voice reads it to us and explaines that they were there to help and the Japanese woman needs to be protected because she is immune to the plague (their words, no mine). She urges Jonah to keep up the good work.

But how will he ever know?

As ridiculous as the storyline gets at times, this is surprisingly decent. Most of all, it is well made. The sound of the joints cracking in the beginning alone is very intriguing.

Good bit of entertainment. Just don't think too hard about the little things here and there. They are inconsequential, anyway.

7/10

August: Osage County

When watching August: Osage County you will know right away that this was first a play. It has that dependency on great acting to get the story across in an entertaining way because the scenery is very limited and mostly confined to inside a house.

The actors in this are of the highest order. Every single one of them brilliant in their roles and, really, it's a shame not one of them was awarded an Oscar. If Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine beat Meryl Streep's Violet to it, my expectation for that performance are sky high.

And it is Meryl Streep together with Julia Roberts that carry the film, supported by the rest of the stellar cast.

The family gathers for, first, the disappearance and, then, the funeral of Beverly Weston and as the three daughters and Violet's sister descend upon the house with their families, wounds - both old and new - soon break open and every conversation turns into an argument.

All relations are cracked to begin with but some will be broken beyond any hope of repair after a few days, when Violet is left alone with her housekeeper because everyone gets away after yet another explosive scene.

Brilliant.

9/10

The Double

The Double is Richard Ayoade's second feature film after Submarine (2010) and even though the tone and pace is similar, this is infinitely darker. It has the look and feel on 1984 and the work place could be another room from John Hurt is about to enter at any moment. In comparison with this, however, The Double is almost light in topic.

Simon James, the main protagonist, has been working at the same, dingy place for 7 years but has made barely an impact. One of his co-workers actually refers to him - quite fittingly - as "a bit of a non-person". He has been pining for Hannah and spends his evenings looking at her through a telescope from the house right opposite where she lives.

One day his lonely existence is shaken by the arrival of his doppelganger, James Simon. James is everything that Simon is not - self-assured, charming, noticeable and a go-getter. After Simon's initial shock and bewilderment of why nobody appears to be fazed by the two looking exactly alike, the two seem to be getting along. But soon Simon is doing chores that get attributed to James and Hannah, of course, falls for the wrong guy.

It is all very bleak with moments of hilarity and scenes that could be right out a David Lynch film (the elderly band performing at a mandatory company event!). The film is peppered with Japanese (?) lounge music and a perfectly fitting orchestral score.

I admit that I am not a fan of Jesse Eisenberg, because I argue that he has been playing the same role in pretty much every film he is in (or, that I have seen him in). Here, at least, he gets the chance to play two characters with very different characteristics. Still not convinced that his acting chops are up to scratch, though.

Anyway, the film just keeps getting weirder and weirder (in a good way). Not many films these days are this interesting.

7/10

The Human Race

In the land of the deaf, the one-legged man is king.

Or something.

A group of people (I think there are about 75) are randomly picked up from some random street corner in some random town and find themselves in a gated area. They each hear their own voice in their heads telling them to start running and follow the arrows. Also, make sure to not step on the grass because you will be killed. Don't try to escape because then you will be killed. Make sure you are not too slow because if someone overlaps you - yes, you guessed it - you will be killed.

We are supposed to care for a few of these people while others are not given any traits at all. We are not even sure how many there were to begin with, anyway, and most of these people we will not miss.

The film starts off with a very mean little twist. Pre-credits we are introduced to Veronica, who sits by her dying sister's bedside and later gets diagnosed with the same for of leukemia she lost the little girl to. But she won't let it bring her down and starts getting really active, running at night and all, and despite the initial bad prognosis she is actually on the way to recovery.

Then, when at the game (for it is a game), the first she (or anybody) does is....step on the grass. Apparently, she is not the main character after all.

Then....restart.

This time we see two soldiers in the desert. One is practically carrying the other, who has lost a leg. Jump to a few years later and one of them (he who is in one piece) is working with disabled kids (he knows sign language, which will come in handy later) while the other (the one-legged one) gets drunk and has a string of one night stands. Together, they end up in the game as well. Should we care for these two? As they are there are no more back stories coming we can take it as a sign that yes, yes we should.

We do briefly meet two runners, both deaf, as well.

So, the crowd starts moving and whenever someone gets killed, you own voice in your head will give you the current total of survivors. This is very exciting for the two deaf people, who hear anything for the first time.

What follows is running, some unity while the group might actually try to stick together to save an elderly man who simply is unable to run and is about to be overtaken. Of course, there will be a few loners that only look out for themselves. One of them (bad guy in yellow shirt) just runs off. Old guy's head explodes.

From then on it's anybody for themselves (more or less).

Towards the end, deaf boy is trying to get into deaf girl's pants, with everybody about to die and all, but she makes it very clear that he is in the friend zone. This causes a bad rift between the two, some unwanted fondling and a push onto the grass.

The last two people standing are the deaf girl and the guy with one leg. There is an initial idea for the two to not hurt each other, but the girl has obviously gone round the bend (and who wouldn't?) and pushes him onto the grass, as well. However, he manages to move back to safer ground by only walking on his crutches and never touching the grass with his one remaining leg. He comes back and kills her.

And then....

They had to go and ruin a perfectly average film by making the game the work of some alien race that is going through different species from different planets and having the survivors of each group then move on to the next contest, this time all winners against each other.

Just....no.

2/10

Dead Man Down

More often than not I agree with the user ratings on IMDB.com. Dead Man Down currently holds at 6,5/10, so I expected to be entertained but not too impressed with the film. Also, I don't much care for Colin Farrell, which further lowered my expectations.

What a pleasant surprise this was (if you can call a film about a man seeking revenge for the murder of his family "pleasant").

Victor aka Laszlo (I wonder if this is deliberate. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up "Victor Laszlo".) has been working on an elaborate plan to take out an entire crime organisation responsible for killing his wife and young daughter two years back. The film starts when one of Alphonse's henchman, Paul, is found murdered. Paul has gotten a little to close to uncovering who has been sending his boss all these photos of Alphonse with the eyes scratched out and pieces of another picture, that still has the revealing bits missing.

So Victor has to start improvising. His mission is further complicated by his neighbor Beatrice, who lives opposite his apartemen and can see inside. She witnessed Paul's murder and instead of reporting it to the police she blackmails Victor into helping her with her own revenge. Beatrice is disfigured since a car accident. She was hit by a drunk driver who got a sentence of all of three weeks. This will not do and she asks Victor to kill him for her.

The elaborate plan starts spinning out of control and all the while another guy from the organization is getting closer to learn what Paul found out. In the end, it all comes to blows at Alphonse's residence in one massive shoot-out.

I thought this was actually quite brilliant and the supporting cast alone is well worth the time. Also, Colin Farrell never looked this good. Still not much of a fan but Damn! Plucked his eyebrows and all.

8/10

Carrie

Um.

Okay, so from the beginning. Margaret White is giving birth. Apparently, she does not know what is happening to her. She thinks she may be dying of something, cancer maybe. Ridiculous! She knows how she got pregnant ("Your father took me," as she later yells at her daughter) so she would know what is going on.

The Carrie as portrayed by Chloe Grace Moretz is just a little too pretty to be a realistic outcast in the context of the high school she is in. The other kids - good or bad - are just bland. Sue is the ultimate goody-two-shoes, as is her boyfriend Tommy (he is such a lovely boy). The girl playing Chris cannot hold a candle to the one from the original.

And what about the big scene?

So the car crashing into nothing was kind of awesome, but everything else about Carrie going total mayhem on all her high school colleagues is ridiculous in so many ways. The telekinesis massacre from the original film (and, indeed, the novel) was just slightly outside of reality. Here, it goes way overboard. Not only does Carrie move her hands in weird ways whenever she moves something but...SHE FLIES!

Never mind that it was totally unnecessary to remake the near perfect 1976 version of the Stephen King story, but why did it have to feature that much slo-mo? Why did the blood have to spill down (in slo-mo, of course) four fucking times from four different angles? We've been through all the hand moving as opposed to Sissy Spacek's scary wide eyed stare of doom. And why, oh why, did there have to be a musical interlude? I am not kidding, there is a musical bit, when everyone is getting ready for prom.

And, well, yes, Chloe Grace Moretz is just no Sissy Spacek. Not even close.

3/10

47 Ronin

This is the seventh time, the (apparently) famous Japanese story of the 47 Ronin has been made into film. The tale must have quite the impact on the Japanese, as the graves of the 47 (or, there should be 46, if the retelling in this version is to be believed, shouldn't there?) are still honored and visited every year to celebrate their bravery. The films came out in 1947, 1958, 1962, 1978, 1994 and 2010 before Hollywood got its fingers on it and threw big money towards a lavish production.

The men seek revenge for their master, who has been tricked to lose his honor. But the shogun, benevolently, allowed him to day an honorable death anyway. His former samurai are forbidden to take revenge on the villain, who - for good measure - throws the number 2 guy, Ōishi, in a dungeon for a year, also the period of time he allows the master's daughter to mourn her father before having to marry the villain.

When the year comes to an end, Ōishi is freed and looks for the 'half breed' Kai, who may or may not be a demon (yes, of course he is...sort of), and who is also in love with the aforementioned daughter. Ōishi finds Kai in some Pirates of the Caribbean looking harbor (I could swear I saw Captain Jack Sparrow), where is enslaved and has to fight creatures that have been reused from the production of The Lord of the Rings, no doubt.

Together they find the other ronin, some of whom are none to happy to have Kai back. But there is a lady to save from an unhappy marriage, so they put their differences aside for the time being and go off to find weapons worthy of their cause. Luckily, a much younger Kai once fled from a magic forest, where swords grow. He leads them back their and arms the men.

The rest of the story is scheming the forbidden revenge. They suffer setbacks, mostly courtesy of the witch that the villain employs (at her worst she turns into a whirling mess of cloth and disguises herself as the evil cousin of Falkor the Luck Dragon). But they are let into the fortress of the villain on his wedding day by hiding with a theater group (Trojan horse, if ever there was one) and kick some ass, save the girl and behead the evil villain.

The shogun, ever the gentlemen, berates them for disobeying his order of non-revenge and allows them to day honorably, as well, save for Ōishi son, who is spared so that the brave man's bloodline can continue.

All this is spectacular to look at, no doubt. Who cares if the acting is wooden (it is, after all, Keanu Reeves we are looking at)? I had fun, although I cannot confirm the exact number of the ronin involved, as it seemed to fluctuate quite a bit. They officially announced themselves to be 47 at around the 1 h 23 min mark, after they had already suffered some casualties. Oh well, whatever.

A revelation this is not. The historic accuracy is highly doubtful. The acting is average at best (except for Ōishi, Ōishi is awesome). But it is beautifully shot and you can tell where the budget went.

6/10

Her

On the risk of repeating myself: Joaquin Phoenix is a gorgeous, gorgeous man. True, it took me a minute to get over the 'stache, but even that most horrible of fashion fads (yes, it looks bad on everyone) cannot hide the fact for too long.

Also, I'm sure we can all agree that he is a brilliant actor on top of this. For a film like Her nobody of lesser acting ability would do. It takes a lot to keep an audience focused and involved in a film that mostly shows the same person throughout. Here, he is put into a film that is all atmosphere. The surroundings, however bleak at times, are stunning. The music is pretty, too.

Much has been said about Scarlett Johansson's exceptional performance as the voice that Theodore, the character played by Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with (and she/it with him). The few actual supporting actors around Phoenix are ideally cast, as well. Amy Adams especially (also not at her best looking), who plays the role of old friend, gives an understated and believable performance.

Of course, the film is not perfect. The operating system ("Samantha") tends to be annoyingly whiny at times and I am sure that the relatively slow pace is not for everyone, but the story is beautifully embedded into a bleak yet beautiful world.

You won't see many films like this one.

8/10

Cottage Country

Todd and Cammie are at his family's cottage for what is supposed to be a romantic week to themselves. But then - much to their annoyance - his brother Salinger shows up unexpectedly with his girlfriend. It doesn't help the situation that the brothers are polar opposites. Anyway, the two get into a fight and Todd ends up accidentally killing Salinger with an ax. By accident, obviously.

This, by the way, is the highlight of the film. It is a sudden and hilarious WTF? moment.

Anyway, as the film progresses they first have to get rid off the brother's girlfriend. After they return from a canoe trip, during which they dispose of the body parts, the house if full of Salinger's friends. Todd and Cammie have to pretend to not have seen Salinger. Only one of the guests gets suspicious. Yep, you guessed it...he dies, but not before he alerted the local police of Sal and his girlfriend being missing.

The couple has to spin a wider net of lies to deflect any suspicions until goodhearted Todd can't take it anymore and want to turn himself in, much to the dismay of the ever more annoying Cammie. This leads to more bloodshed that leaves Cammie dead and Todd with a brain injury.

Sadly, this had so much more promise that the film never lives up to. Tyler Labine plays to his strengths as the hapless nice guy dealt an unfortunate hand, but the Cammie character was dis likable from the get-go which made her turning into a conniving bitch less interesting and not funny.

Side note, Todd's father is played by Windom Earle from Twin Peaks.

Oh, well.

4/10

Escape Plan

I was entertained, but I do have some issues.

Who in their right minds would put the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vinnie Jones and, um, 50 Cent (?) in a film with Vincent D'Onofrio, Jim Caviezel, Amy Ryan and Sam Neill? Surely, those two groups should have been in entirely different films. Preferably, the first batch would have made Escape Plan and the second group could have been in some serious film that requires some actual acting?

Stallone, Schwarzenegger and Jones are doing what they do best, which is looking and sounding angry, getting tortured or torturing, respectively, and generally kicking ass all over the place. They are good at it.

Vincent D'Onofrio is stuck behind a desk in a role that never gets off the ground, Amy Ryan is doing a lot of frowning and is against everything (especially when suggested by a *ghasp!* other woman), Sam Neill is a sad-looking doctor who only seems to remember his Hippocratic oath when Stallone asks for his help (what did he think he was doing in this tightest of all maximum security prisons anyway before?). Jim Caviezel, at least, gets a bigger platform than the other wasted talents. He is the bad guy in nice suit (and doesn't remind us of his Person of Interest character, like, at all) and he is good at it. That's something, I guess.

And 50 Cent has nothing to do except drive a car and hit a few buttons on a keyboard, his role made more believable by putting spectacles on him.

That all said, let me return to my initial statement, I was entertained, but the action heroes would have done that trick by themselves.

5/10

42

There are some stories that have such historical impacts that they need to be told. The story of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play Major League baseball, is one of them.

In a time when we high-tech sci-fi adventures and comic book based films are forced down our throats, a well told tale of bravery and overcoming adversary is a breath of fresh air. I'm not saying that I can't enjoy a decent blockbuster or graphic-novel-coming-to-a-theater-near-you (although, I am growing weary of that genre in particular), but give me a film like 42 as an alternative and I will choose it any day.

It probably helps to have an interest in baseball to begin with (I'm guessing the film plays better in America than any other continent). But even if you don't this is still a good story about post WWII racism in the US.

The film cast some of the usual suspects, Harrison Ford as the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers being an obvious choice, but the title role is played by relative newcomer Chadwick Boseman. Personally, I had never heard of him before. He is brilliant. As are all other actors, whatever side of the argument they are paid to be on in this film.

The one surprising casting would be that of the most vocal racist in the film and real life, Ben Chapman, manager of the Phillies during Robinson's rookie season. The role is played by Alan Tudyk, who we are used to seeing as a likable character. There is a short EW article about his (inspired, brilliant) casting, The nasty curveball of 42: Alan Tudyk puts an unexpected face on racism. Chapman's taunting of Robinson is the high point and low point (if you know what I mean) of the film.

Overall, despite the pathos and slo-mo sequences, this is well worth your time.

8/10