Non-Stop

This was exciting!

An US air marshal with a whole list of personal issues is getting texts from an unknown fellow passenger requesting a money transfer or every 20 min. someone will get killed. And that is what happens, because everything is made out to frame the air marshal, here played by Liam Neeson (finally not the "I will find you and I will kill you!" guy).

What follows is a guy trying to save himself and the passengers while everyone around him suspects that he is responsible for all of this. His only loyal aid is the woman that sits next to him on the plane, while everyone else is eyeing him suspiciously.

Of course, passengers start taking things into their own hands, trying to overwhelm the air marshal. One person on board is law enforcement himself, working for NYPD, and rallying the troops around him.

In the end, of course, the Liam Neeson character will be redeemed and become the celebrated hero that saved all but a few lives (the ones killed in 20 min. intervals).

Pure entertainment.

7/10

Barefoot

Believe me when I tell you that this remake has nothing on the original. Somehow they managed to suck all the charm out of a lovely story.

The original film is German and bears the same name (Barfuß). It was written and directed by Til Schweiger, who also plays the lead. Yes, you know him from Inglourious Basterds. The barefoot mental patient is played by Johanna Wokalek. The film - as it came out in 2005 - was fine the way it was and did not need an Americanization.

Rather than go into the details of the remake, let me just tell you about my biggest disappointment: Evan Rachel Wood or, rather the character she portrayed here. She plays Daisy as a ditsy blonde, hopping from one embarrassment to the next for - I'm guessing - cheap laughs. The character (of a different name) did get her fair share of laughs in the German film without trying so hard. Whereas then she was mentally ill, here she is just plain stupid, at times even crass - a far cry from the quiet sweetness and innocence that Johanna Wokalek brought to the same role.

This is the kind of film that makes me wish that American audiences finally got over their arrogance about foreign films and learned how to read subtitles. Their lives would be so much richer for it.

Oh so disappointing.

3/10

Lucy

This film works on the premise that a human only uses 10% of his/her brain. While this is not quite accurate it's probably just as well. We don't watch action films for their scientific soundness. My guess would be that most would watch this particular one for Scarlett Johansson. And maybe the shooting and reckless driving and stuff.

Granted, this is fun and all.

However, for me there was one big nuisance. People walk through this film in broad daylight, in crowded areas clearly brandishing guns and nobody reacts in any kind of way to that. Seriously, if you have a bunch of Koreans taking machine guns out of the trunks of big black cars in the middle of Paris, someone would see, no? Sure, it doesn't matter one way or the other for the way the film turns out, but nevertheless it is cause for irritation.

The film is visually cool, the premise is interesting, the shootouts are plentiful and the inclusions of animal scenes to hint at what is about to happen (a mouse right before stepping into a mouse trap representing Lucy right before entering a fateful meeting) are kind of cool, too.

There are some scenes that look like a tribute to Terrence Malick (the locust in Days of Heaven, the dinosaurs in The Tree of Life) and evoke a similar WTF? reaction, but they do make a weird kind of sense in Lucy.

Interesting. Entertaining. Imperfect.

6/10

Interstellar

This is all kinds of awesome. It looks great and it is engrossing. Everything that a sci-fi film should be. And I have absolutely no idea what was actually going on. Also a standard in a sci-fi film.

Lemme see if I can convey what happened - as I understand it.

Cooper used to be an astronaut and is now a corn farmer. The year is sometime in the future. Not sure when. The bookcase corresponds with his daughter Murph, or so she thinks. What or who truly communicates could be anything from a poltergeist (Murph's initial idea), 'them' or maybe Cooper himself from the future. Anyway, the message is either coordinates or the word 'stay' or both. The coordinates lead to NASA, where Cooper runs into his old pal Dr. Brand. He is recruited to go on a mission to find an alternative planet for the people of earth, because the one currently occupied is dying and/or killing them all.

Plan A is to find a planet and take earthlings to that planet. This turns out to have never actually been a viable option. Dr. Brand simply made up this story for people working on the project to keep working on it. Because (presumably) you will work harder to save yourself and your families than all mankind.

Plan B (and this is the one that was always going to be put in action) is to send frozen embryos to whatever livable planet is discovered on the mission and sort of reinvent mankind.

Cooper goes on the mission under false assumptions. So, apparently, does everyone else on the spaceship with him, including Dr. Brand's daughter. Of course, time passes with different speeds depending on where you are in the universe and whether or not you go through a wormhole/black hole. The difference on the other end of the hole relative to time on earth is 1 month = 7 years. This sucks for someone who left behind his two young children, as Cooper has. When he realizes what this could mean, the mission becomes more desperate for him. He needs to complete the task as quickly as possible. But then he learns of Dr. Brand's rouse and several complications along the way make the mission even harder.

While Cooper and his fellow astronauts are off in space, back home on earth life moves on for his children, as well. The son, Tom, takes over the family farm and the daughter, Murph, was always a potential scientist. After she learns of Dr. Brand's story and plans, she tries saving mankind from her end, as well.

And yes, I know how all of this sounds.

I maintain that I barely understand whatever was going on onscreen. But it sure is pretty to look at.

8/10

The Sisterhood of Night

Under normal circumstances I would not be remotely interested in watching a film about a group of high school girls that form a secret club or cult or whatever. The title even has the word sisterhood in it. I mean, come on. (I have yet to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.) However, these are not normal circumstances because Kal Penn is in this.

I actually enjoyed this film. Believe me, I am as surprised as you.

The premise is as stated above. A group of high school girls meet in secret to do secret things that nobody not in that group knows nothing about. The girls even quit Facebook. How suspicious is that? But when you are a curious high school girl yourself and excluded from the group but still want to know more about it or at least appear to know something about it you have to simply make things up.

From there, things just spin out of control. Rumors start flying and since the sisterhood is vowed to secrecy, they do not counter any of the accusations about what they are doing out at night in the woods. Then the parents catch half a whiff of something fishy happening and things go from bad to worse.

So, you have this pot full of secrecy, rumors, peer pressure, overly protective parents and the almighty internet in the hands of mindless teenagers. This can only lead to tragedy. And it does. This, however, is not a secret because a voice over tells us so at the very beginning.

Then, when everything comes out and the sisterhood turned out to be nothing at all what everyone thought it was but - rather unexpectedly in today's teenage culture - a net of safety, basically, the film becomes positive and beautiful and forgiving. Kitschy, yes, but it made me happy nonetheless.

7/10

Kingsman: The Secret Service

After getting home from the movie theater just now, the first thing I did was go to imdb.com and checked the rating Kingsman: The Secret Service has there. And just as I remembered, people seem to like it. Why is beyond me.

To me this was all just very underwhelming.

Sure, it is fun to watch Colin Firth, who we all know from playing very sophisticated gentlemen, beat the shit out of a bunch of drunk half-wits in a pub. I love Colin Firth. Who doesn't? Also, I always approve of Michael Caine and Mark Strong. Obviously.

But even though the action sequences are quite impressive (the church massacre, the heads exploding) and you can see that a lot of money went into the production, I found it all just very underwhelming.

I admit, I laughed a few times and joined the choir of Awww whenever JB, the pug (no, not for James Bond or Jason Bourne but for Jack Bauer), was shown. But I was not entertained as much as I hoped I would be.

Mostly, I found the training bits very annoying. Couldn't have cared less about any of the would-be recruits (not even the one I was supposed to care about). And, man, did Samuel L. Jackson's lisp grow old quickly, or what?

Meh! sums it up quite well.

5/10

13 Sins

Imagine you're having a really crappy time, lost your job recently, your fiance is pregnant with your first child, both your father and mentally challenged brother need expensive care and you sit in your car with an annoying fly. Your phone rings and someone offers you $ 1,000,-- to kill said fly. Easy enough, right? Then they offer you more than triple that amount to eat that fly. Wouldn't it be at this point that you decided that this particular game may not be for you?

Yeah. And that is why neither you nor I are the main characters in this film.

We follow a desperate man who has just been through all of the above as he takes on tests, challenges, whatever that get - you guessed it - worse but also earn him higher amounts with each completed task. And of course that ominous voice on the phone has ways to put pressure on him to avoid you from backing out but where is the line that makes him stop?

Well, we can't really say because whenever the poor guy wants to quit, there are ways to make him understand that he simply can't.

Of course, there would be bidders following the game and throwing around big money. Basically, this is like Rat Race, but without the comedy. Which is not necessarily saying that this isn't entertaining. It certainly is.

I guess the message is that desperate people will do desperate things. Probably not too far from the truth.

6/10

Houdini

No doubt, this two-part mini series is entertaining.

However, one would have expected something airing on the History Channel to stay a little closer to the truth. Houdini a spy? Pah-lease. For the details of what was constructed out of thin air you may consult Wild About Harry.

The series could also have done with a little more structure. Linear is always nice when it comes to a biography, That way one could also limit the voice overs. Not a fan of voice overs, even in the sexy voice of Adrien Brody.

My biggest issue was probably with the music. The score was made up of mostly heavy metal/industrial type music. I kid you not. This, cool though it may be, seemed really out of place for a story set in the early twentieth century.

The acting, from all involved, was very good. Adrien Brody is brilliant as ever, as was the woman playing his wife Bess (Kristen Connolly, who looked awfully familiar to me, but I cannot place her. Looking at her filmography doesn't help. Cabin in the Woods couldn't possibly have left that much of an impression and I have seen next to nothing else she was in.), and the (invented) assistant Jim was lovable in all his childish adoration of The Great Houdini (he also looked oddly familiar, but that is probably because he reminds me Flea, but what I probably know him from is 8 Mile).

Anyway, if it is entertainment you are looking for, look no further.

If you want to know more about Harry Houdini, go here.

6/10

The Theory of Everything

Bring your tissues!

If you approach the film without expecting to learn anything about how time works and what theories Prof. Hawking has given the world, you'll be just fine. As romances go, it is rather special. Of course it is. Nothing like a hardship shared with a loved one and the deterioration of a brilliant man, who nonetheless defies the odds given him to make you ball your eyes out.

Eddie Redmayne is brilliant. Oscar-worthy? Absolutely.

My heart goes out the the equally brilliant Michael Keaton in Birdman. He pulled off quite the astonishing feat himself, but (alas!) what chance can he possibly have against someone portraying a real live person of high standing that has a disability to boot. Now that is a role to sink your teeth in and however great you are in any fiction film, you should have picked a different year to be great in.

As for the film itself, well it is quite the kitsch fest and can't hold a candle to some of the Oscar nominated films it is up against, BAFTA for best British film of the year or no (not that The Imitation Game is that much better). But I am sure there is an audience for it. Granted, I'm not it.

My overall score takes into account the sheer greatness of Eddie Redmayne's performance.

6/10

Which brings me to my overview of this year's Oscar crop. At this point I have watched all but one of the best picture nominees and the one missing is American Sniper, which I have currently no interest in watching at all (I may yet, but....). I will probably get to the others in this here blog, eventually, and give a more detailed reasoning. (Yes, I am fully aware of what the rest of the world thinks of Boyhood. I simply believe people are blinded by the effort and time that went into it and want to like it much more than they would if they were to ignore that. And there are other, better films about 'ordinary life' that did not get the attention, because they were made more conventionally.) Anyway, here is my list of favorite to least favorite...

Whiplash
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Selma
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
Boyhood

See, Boyhood is not a bad film per se, it is just that I liked the others better.

Wish I Was Here

Before the film started, Zach Braff swept in, said 'hi' and told us how the film was financed (Kickstarter crowd funding, first film of its kind in this regards, apparently) and then was off again (busy, busy).

It was short, but sweet and the whole thing was free, so who am I to complain?

If you have seen Garden State, the tone of Wish I Was Here will feel familiar. Again, it is about family. Again, it is about death. The death is that of the father, who is suffering from cancer and it is obvious from very early on that he will not have long. Through this situation, Aidan - who has a slew of problems of his own - tries to keep the family together, which also means getting his brother Noah (Josh Gad - and who knew he can actually act?) to come see their father, despite their differences.

It is funny and sweet and heartbreaking. Also, cute kid actors.

7/10

A Long Way Down

Turns out Pierce Brosnan doesn't always annoy the hell out of me after all. I actually quite liked him in this. He still got way too much screen time (compared to the others) and I would have preferred more Toni Collette and Aaron Paul and less of him and Imogen Poots (whoever she is).

I vaguely remembered the story, as I had read Nick Hornby's book and very much enjoyed it at the time. The translation to screen was pretty decent, I thought. Sure, the book is better. It almost always is. And, yes, Toni Collette played the same role she did in About a Boy (Nick Hornby again and still suicidal). But I enjoyed myself anyway.

It helps that I loved Breaking Bad and - consequently pretty much anyone that was on it - appreciate Aaron Paul. So much so that it actually outweighed my dislike for Brosnan. I'm not sure I would have watched A Long Way Down with only Toni Collette tipping the scale. Lucky I did.

Another shortish review here, but that is really all I got.

6/10

Guardians of the Galaxy

What to do on a rainy day in New York City? Watch a film, of course.

Now, on paper, I should not enjoy a film like Guardians of the Galaxy. I have never been much of a sci-fi fan to begin with and I am so over comic book films and superheroes. But, you know what...it was fun.

What set it apart from the pack for me were the raccoon, Groot, and the Awesome Mix of (mostly) 1980s tunes.

Most of the full-on action scenes were downright stupid and I don't quite see the point of disguising a handsome man like Lee Pace. I mean if you got it why not show it off, ya know? Fortunately, it was also very funny (Groot FTW).

Of course, I couldn't retell the story if my life depended on it. Something with a metal globe that everyone wanted to get their hands on and the main character turned out to be much more genetically blessed than he appears...and he appears just fine, thankyouverymuch.

Zoe Saldana is showing up a different hue this time around. Here she is green instead of blue. Seriously, girlfriend needs to find herself a film that does not play in outer space.

7/10

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

What is one to do on a 7+ hours flight? Watch a movie, of course. Preferably, a film that does not require one to think too much about what is happening on screen. So, action flick it is.

This happened midway between London and New York and the film chosen was Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Actually, it was the second attempt at a film. The first try was Fading Gigolo, which sounded awesome on paper but turned out to be very dull and it also made Vanessa Paradis as ugly and uninteresting as it possibly could, so I turned that off after a mere 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, Jack Ryan wasn't much better. After serving up the oh-so-tragic-but-totally-heroic intro of the war wounded Ryan and his way back to strength, aided by the insufferable Keira Knightly character, Ryan is recruited by the shady Kevin Costner character (I couldn't be bothered to remember any of the names) and soon appears to be the only undercover hot guy with brains available to assist in a covert operation in Russia - because that is where the bad guys still operate because Russia = bad and Hollywood simply has no other concept of any nation serving that particular purpose while still seem somewhat believable as a highly sophisticated nation (all the other baddies are in the religious extremist/Muslim category and they all live in dug-outs, wielding machine guns manufactured in the US).

Anyway, as if all of the above wasn't cliche enough, the Russian is played by a Brit. Because, of course he is. Luckily, that Brit is Kenneth Branagh (the films sole agreeable feature). He plans to attack *gasp* Wall Street. And who is the one who figures this out? The Keira Knightly character. Because, of course she does. What other purpose besides distraction device could she possibly serve?

Jack Ryan and his cohorts save the day.

Because, of course they do.

2/10

The Purge: Anarchy

Now that I have almost caught up on Masterchef Australia, I finally get around to watching actual films again. And already I am back to watching horror film.

This new chapter in a franchise that could probably go on forever, because - let's face it - this story could actually go anywhere (time and place). And why not, as long as it is this entertaining.

The Purge: Anarchy is set in 2023 and the setting - rather than the gated community of part one - is a big city, where a random group of strangers end up on the street together for some reason or other. First saved by a man out to take revenge on his son's killer (by car), they end up making their way through the night in unity. They have to fend off the usual suspects as well as military - because the people do not kill each other enough, therefore threatening an increase of poverty and the New Founding Fathers can't have that - only to end up in the middle of a family argument carried out with guns.

They constantly stumble from the frying pan into the fire, ending up as game for the rich and the beautiful. This time around, the government and the purgers doing their dirty work with and for them have a new opposition seeing through their tactics. And they fight back.

Although starting from the same idea as the first part, this is a very different film that may be missing the claustrophobia of the previous film but adds a number of new threats to the people who just want to make it through the night alive.

6/10

The Fault in Our Stars

The beauty of ticket contests is that sometimes you get to see widely anticipated films before their official release date. Case in point: The Fault in Our Stars - an exclusive premiere, one week before its official local starting date (and even before it premiered in the US!). Even better, not only did I win two tickets to this, but a friend also won, so there were four of us.

I've had my difficulties with the book, as I detailed in my other blog. Primarily, I didn't care much for the book version of Augustus. The character was less annoying in the film, I felt. (My friend S. found his constant grinning annoying, though.) Apart from the story with the previous, deceased girlfriend, which fell between the cracks, the book was thoroughly covered. Sure, it took its liberties here and there, but the essence of the story remained.

The translation to screen worked beautifully and the end product is much more enthralling than the book would have led me to expect. The acting was exceptional on all fronts (Willem Dafoe!) and even though there was a lot of laughing in the theater throughout the first half of the film, there was just as much sniffling and nose blowing through the second half.

We laughed. We cried.

7/10

The Other Woman

I had no intention of seeing this film. The premise sounded like everything I dislike in a film. But I won tickets to it. Sure I'll go if it's free.

To my surprise I ended up enjoying it. Yes, I still detest bathroom humor of any kind and I can do without people vomiting in purses (something I recently encountered on film twice), but if I block that from memory, the film was still pretty entertaining.

Most of the credit for this goes to Leslie Mann. She plays the betrayed wife that gave up everything for her husband and does so in a whiny, clingy way that borders on the annoying but never quite falls onto the wrong side of an imaginary thin line on that account. Cameron Diaz does what she always does and what (sadly) appears to be the only thing she is any good at. Why Kate Upton is in this is beyond me. The wife/lover duo would have been sufficiently funny and menacing without the blond bimbo hanging around. I can confirm, that her boobs jiggle when she runs (I know that boobs do that from experience, thankyouverymuch) and that she is good at playing dumb. (Too good?)

Despite the little hick-ups this was fun. Also, New York.

6/10

The Nut Job

I like animated films. I do. But they still need to try a little harder than this.

The story is nothing new - group of animals have to work together but don't realize that their 'leader' (in this case a raccoon) is a total scumbag. They believe everything is for the good of all and listen to everything raccoon says with wide eyed wonder. Then there is the anti-raccoon, a squirrel, who is a bit of a loner and has previously crossed raccoon.

They have to find provision for the winter and it takes a multitude of shitty moves before the group wises up to raccoon's insincerity and the squirrel's bigheartedness. The story plays out with all the usual puns and nothing overly exciting happening that hasn't happened many, many times in some variation before.

There are some cute moments (mostly involving a dog) and an evil little girl scout (who is pretty awesome, to be honest) and a rat that somehow follows the title character squirrel everywhere despite the squirrel being a total asshole to the rat (which is all a front, really, because he actually likes the rat a lot but doesn't want to show so as to not taint his rough-guy front). The rat, by the way, was played by the same rat that was already in Ratatouille (a little worse for wear nowadays).

Meh.

4/10

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I wholeheartedly embrace Wes Anderson's weirdness in films. If you don't appreciate the garishness of the colors and the awkwardness of dialogue you will not like this film.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is only the backdrop to a story of false accusations of murder, jail break and a strong bond between concierges of world-renowned hotels across Europe. When an elderly woman (played impeccably by the wonderful and wonderfully weird Tilda Swinton) dies and leaves the priced painting Boy with Apple (which depicts, yes, a boy holding an apple) to M. Gustave, concierge to the Grand Budapest, her family frames him for her murder. With help from a whole array of weird characters, Gustave escapes from prison and is proven innocent.

It is colorful. It is ridiculous. It is awesome.

And everyone is in it. Everyone. Ralph Fiennes, the aforementioned Tilda Swinton, Adrian Brody (sporting a fantastic hairdo), F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Jude Law, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson, Karl Markovics. Also, several cameos.

Then, of course, there is the utterly unknown Tony Revolori, as Gustave's constant companion and protege, who more than holds his own around the onslaught of brilliant actors.

The story may be contrived, complicated and told in fitful, hurried, overloaded dialogue, but this is everything we have come to expect (and love) from Wes Anderson, who has always stuck to his guns. Finally, people seem to get it on a much, much bigger scale.

8/10

RoboCop

I know I have seen the original RoboCop. I mean, I must have. Right? What I remember from it is...nothing. So I went to the new version of it with a fresh mind and not expecting anything.

First off, I don't really know who the guy is that plays the lead character, Joel Kinnaman. Yes, I am aware that he is in the US version of The Killing (did anyone need that?) but beyond that, no idea. Playing RoboCop is not really the best means to show your acting range, though, now is it? The rest of the cast is really high profile in comparison. I haven't seen Michael Keaton in a while (last time would have been in The Other Guys), Gary Oldman is apparently in everything now, the totally forgettable looking Abbie Cornish is there and the great, underrated, underapprechiated and underused Michael K. Williams.

So far, so good.

Then, of course, there is Jay Baruchel. Why the hell is Jay Baruchel in this to ruin an otherwise enjoyable, fast paced, action packed, sprinkled-with-jokes film? His voice has an annoying quality that would only work for a muppet and he is not much of an actor. *sigh*

But lucky for me and the rest of last night's audience there is also Samuel L. Jackson. His involvement alone makes this worth seeing. He plays a right-leaning, opinionated TV personality with his own sorta political show. And he very much approves of robots let lose to guard the streets of US cities. And he gets to swear. A little. At the end. He is awesome.

Sure, the film is no revelation. Neither is Joel Kinnaman. Some of the shootouts are very, very noisy. But the in-between jokes and irony make this entertaining.

5/10