You want to turn off your brain for 90 mins and have fun? Go see: The secret life of pets! It’s a film filled with a lot of pets who are running around the city of New York for reasons I will not spoil. Even when there is not much that can be spoiled, because the story is really predictable. Don’t expect a new Toy story or Inside Out with a heart felled story. The whole film is about the funny pets/animals and the different between them. Pets vs ‘unchained animals’, dogs vs cats, old friends vs new friends. Some of those things work others don’t.
The best part are the pets and the stereotypes based on their looks. I wouldn’t call them characters because none of them have any background. They are just one layer nothing more. So stereotype is the best description for the characters. They are funny parts and if you don’t question too many thing you will have a fun time. But because of the lag of depth it’s a kid film in my opinion. Because they seem the have tons of fun sitting behind me. I laughed form time to time and was entertained after I turned my brain off 30 minutes in.
Watching this move was exhausting for me and not because it so appealing or thrilling but because of the camera work. This camera doesn't stop moving for a second. I mean for real, it's moving the whole time even when 2 people are just talking. All of the shots are filmed in this 'dynamic' way which should give you feel like you right there within all the chaos and tension. Unfortunately it didn't. It isn't my cup of tea. I prefer steady camera work with wide shots so I can see whats happening instead of guessing. Take Mad Max Fury Road as a example. That's how action should be filmed in my opinion.
Besides the rushed editing and filming the movie was oke but not as good as the previous 3 Bourne films ( not counting Bourne Legacy ). The story was kinda predictable but well developed with a uninteresting side plot about a Social media platform. Which tried to get a deeper meaning by involving privacy rights and such. It didn't worked out for me at all. By far the most boring parts of the movie. The actions scenes are done very well as the acting. I didn't even see Matt Damon in the film it was all Jason Bourne, he played the roll almost flawless.
Overall I was entertained because I love film but on a sketchy level. When you don't except a masterpiece and like action and aren't having a headache at the moment you will have some fun with it.
I wish that I had an opening sentence as cool as the openings (tracking)shot of the new James Bond film 'Spectre'! Because I don't, so I will just start with sharing my opinion. I had high hopes for Spectre. Mostly because of the director, Sam Mendes, who delivered some good movies and because of the more dark and realistic tune the latest Bond films had. I have the feeling that they followed that more dark, grimy and realistic style since the success of that style on comic books films like The Dark Knight. Which is completely fine for me because I like it!
Specter matched my expectations on most area's. The film was beautiful filmed, they created awesome shots with shadows, lighting or reflections. This was one of the best aspects of the film, combined with the fluent directing/editing style of Sam Mendes. All of the camera work was done great expect a run-chasing scene after 5 minutes. That was full of shaky camera work what distracted me. Luckily they didn't filmed the other chasing/fighting scenes that way.
The storyline grabbed me from scene one until the 2/3 of the film. After that I had some small issues with the set-up of some events/confrontations. This was due by the nativity how some characters approached the situation. That when something bad happened I was like... “Yeah what did you expected if you hand over your gun at your opponents Headquarters with 100 guards”. That took my out of my mood a few times. I tried to put those thoughts away because you could say that it are just 'Bond clichés'. Which are more than likely to pop up in a Bond film.
Overall I had a great time and I'm looking forward to see Specter again. For the breath taking shots, funny Bond quotes, hot Bond girl, great acting by Mr. Craig and Mr. Waltz, smooth directing and entertaining action scenes!
I have been waiting for this film for months now, simply because its made by Denis Villeneuve. I have seen most of his films and really liked them. For those who don't know who he is, he is the director of the Oscar winning film 'Drive' and the insanely strange but awesome film 'Enemy' and one of my favorite films of 2013 'Prisoners'. So let get this review started!
First off this film is dark and grimy but incredibly gorgeous. That aren't normally words that fit every well with each other but Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins make it happen. But let me start this review by the beginning, the plot without spoilers. The film centers around a female FBI agents who fights against drug related crime in the USA. She does a shocking discovery which makes her kinda obsessed to stopping this crime. This role is played almost perfectly by Emely Blunt who sells the whole 'tough female' role perfectly by subtly showing her emotion while stay 'professional' about the job. She got asked to chase the head of the drug cartel in Mexico. The movie is many about pushing your own norms and values for a bigger purpose. Which is a very heavy subject. It reminded my of the movie Unthinkable, which has kinda the same subject. The whole situation brings up a lot of tension between the USA and the cartel but also within the government forces. Along the way you really feel the pain and suffering from the main character who is strangled between her emotions and morals about good and bad. This deeper meaning really attracted me to the film, it was interesting and made me think about mine own.
Besides that we have to talk about how fantastic this movie is filmed. They created this grimy and dirty environment where the drug cartel was the boss and murder was daily business. They did this by amazing wide shots combined with the music and acting. The place really came to live for me. Every shot that filmed was set up gorgeously, you can pause this film at 20 different times and just make a picture of it so you can hang it up in your house as art! Just gorgeously done by Roger Deakins ( director of photography) and Denis Villeneuve (director). Other thing to mention was that night time really felt like night time. There wasn't a moon that shined so fiercely that the actors faces are well lighted. No I was really, dark with some small light sources. Which really contributed to the suspension of the film.
Overall this film was insanely beautiful filmed, even with the sometimes disgusting thing that were shown. The acting was very good and the story was decent with a deeper meaning about personal norms and values. For me it was an awesome experience and I'm looking forward to see it again!
Thank you Denis Villeneuve for matching my high hopes!
Ridley Scot is back! After some less interesting movies he succeed to make an great one again! It isn't the greatest movie I have ever seen but I couldn't recall one fault or issues with this film. The acting was great especially with his carry Matt Damon! The rest of the cast did fairly good. Matt Damons character stranded on Mars and wants to find a way to survive until he is rescued. This is the main part of the film which was surprisingly funny. Mainly due to the optimistic attitude that Matt Damons character had. It was even funnier than some comedies I have seen this year. Besides that there are some really suspenseful scene with are handled very well by Ridley Scott. He build the suspense fairly slow but great. They also created a great setting of Mars, it really felt like a place which was gorgeously filmed.
Overall I would gave the film a 8,5 but unfortunately Trakt would allow me to give that many hearts so I rated it a 8. Simply because I liked my 9 rated films more than this one. Nevertheless I had a really good time with this entertaining, greatly directed and interesting film.
I had some mixed feeling after watching this movie. The first and second part were nice to watch, a bit slow but interesting. But the final part, the end, really disappoint me. It felt really rushed and I missed a few thing that were important for me. For instant, the motivation of the 'bad guy' but also the way it conclude, or exactly didn't conclude at all. Which isn't a necessary thing for me, but this time I just don't felt it. It wasn't a smashing end to a promising start.
The way the movie is filmed was a bit slow but looked good. The acting was oke, i didn't felt the intense emotions for the character of Ryan Reynolds. I'm not sure if this is because of his acting or how the character was written. Overall the first hour and a half are enjoyable but the ending is weaker than the rest of the film what really tempered my enthusiasm.
Everest made me feel like I made the climb myself. The whole movie was really intense and compelling. After a few minutes in you already start caring about the characters because they are so credible and played flawless by all the actors. At a certain point the film also get really emotional which really hit me, quit unexpected because the story isn't really new or surprising. Nevertheless my eyes were glued to the screen, mainly due to the gorgeous directing and editing finished off by the outstanding actors.
You would here me say that its a perfect film but I don't have any real problems with it. Everything felt right, the camera work, the setting, the characters, the emotions and the story. They say its a true story, but to be honest I don't really care. Because the film was so well crafted I felt the emotions and not because it 'really happened'.
Who every reads this, please go see Everest in theaters. My theaters was almost empty unfortunately. I promise you, you won't get bored at all!
Insane, interesting and watchable.
Those three words sums up the new Netflix series 'Narcos' for me. The Columbian drugs trade is the central topic of the serie and especially the big boss Pablo Escobar. But it isn't a show reel about his 'gangster lifestyle' or crimes. The whole story is told for the perspective of the DEA agent who was stationed in Colombia during this time. This was due by the insane amount of cocaine which was transported to the USA.
The insane and interesting part are caused by the story and because it is 'based on true events'. Which makes it truly insane, for instead that he made some much money that he didn't cared that rat eat away millions of dollars per year. That the 'fun fact' about it, the part that was interesting for me was the way he build his empire and handled his business. Because this isn't fiction I was interested in another way. Of course I watched it out of an entertainment perspective but noticed that I was sucking up information as you do with a documentary. I see this as an big plus for the series, it entertained me and educated me on the subjects history.
What made it really watchable for me was the way the story was set-up, told and filmed. The first episode is mostly told by the voice of the DEA agents which tells how Pablo started with the business. This is filmed really smoothly and you get to know a lot without getting overly fed with info. The acting is done really good by the whole cast and especially the lead character Pablo Ascobar. The filming, editing and set up of the shots was done pretty descent. I had no problems with it, but I wasn't blow away by it.
I had some few small issues with the series. Sometimes further on in the series I had the feeling that they gave some information to clearly or 'over obvious'. Like they don't trust you to make the connections yourself. For example: something happened between person A and B. That person C would ask person B in the next scene 'What happened with you and person A'. That kinda felt like they wrote that scene only for the audience to make sure that they would get it. I had this feeling like 5 to 6 times in total. No big issues but they could have a little more faith in us! Secondly, the story starts off with a 'flash forward' were a certain event occurred. At the end of episode 8 you get to know the details of this event. Which didn't felt right to me, because they showed you something that would come back in ep. 8 which isn't the final episode. For me works this way of story telling better when it is the finale event of a series/movie. Besides that I didn't think that, that specific event was that import to start with. The last thing that I want to mention is the ending, of course without spoiling anything. The end was kinda unexpected for me. It wasn't a nice rapped up end without any questions. Which gave me mixed feelings, I like to be challenged to think but it felt a bit to rushed. Maybe they could have ended with some info written on screen.
Anyways it was a insane story which was interesting for the beginning to the end and I think its really watchable for everyone who likes series!
To start this review off, I'm not a fan of horror movie. I don't like it but I went to see this one (which is a semi horror) because its made by M. Night Shyamalan, who made great movies like Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.
Oke, this movie was weird for me. Nevertheless I was interested most of the time mainly due to the weirdness and camera perspective. The whole film is showed for the camera held by the main characters. Which makes the scenes 'not perfect' and different compared to other movies. Of course there are more movies who tried to work with the hand held camera style but they did it realistic and great. The two main children in this movie did a really good job. It didn't felt like they were acting and felt natural. That was pretty impressive. The rest of the cast is also fine.
Next up I will try to explain the 'weirdness' of this movie and that is the story and the characters. The characters felt really weird to me and thats kinda what they are. But it felt over the top with not enough motive for their behavior. Sometimes it felt that they did things only to scare the audiences. Not that the movie was full of jump scares, because they tried to building suspense which was oke. But I couldn't get in to the story that much. Overall the movie was great for a filmmaker point of view but as a viewer I didn't liked it that much. Nevertheless I had a interesting time with this movie which isn't my cup of tea!
Southpaw is an enjoyable movie about the struggles of a light-heavyweight boxer champion. This isn't a film with 80% of the screen time within the ring. Its more about the hard life of the boxer outside of the ring. Overall the story is pretty forward. So don't expect awesome plot twist like in Gone Girl or so. I didn't mind that the story was kinda predictable and I will try to explain why. For starters, Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the main role in this movie and he knocks it out of the park with his performance. He is such a good actor who carried the whole movie! Besides that I think Forst Withtaker deserves a 'honorable mention' for Forest Whitaker. Secondly the charterers felt real to me. I could relay with them, even when they made bad choices. I could understood why they did it. I think Kurt Sutter had a big role in this, he is the writer of the TV series Sons of Anarchy. So he knows how to write a character. The last thing that made it enjoyable was the whole why of filming. This was done pretty decent, there were some weaker parts but overall the film looked and felt good to me. Overall southpaw is a decent movie to me which I liked to watch mostly because of the outstanding performance of Jake Gyllenhaal.
It was kinda what you would expect from it but than 10 times more over the top. It isn't my cup of tea but still I can appreciate it although I had a hard time with the camera work in the action scenes. They use the 'Michael Bay shot' all the time ( turning the camera 360 degrees around the actor with a lot of stuff in the background ). This needs you to make it all feel really epic, which it does. But is use way to much. The same goes for the shaky cam in action scenes and the cutting to close ups. Fans of those kind of movies will probably adore it, I had a fun time watching it onces but wouldn't watch it again.
I think Disney did a decent job with Project T aka Tomorrowland. It's kinda a modern Cinderella story with a inventors touch to it. Which was very clever at times, how they did come up with new instruments or tools. The story begins with a back story of the 2 main characters. This happens in a interesting way, it grabs you attention and holds it. This adventure keeps on going until the last part, which was the least good part in mine opinion. All by all it's a pretty good movie with a interesting story and some environmental undertone. The visual effects are great and some goes for the acting.
One of the best compliments you can give to a movie is that it takes you and wouldn't let you go before the end credits. That's what Max Mad did to me. The whole movie is so intense that my eyes were glued to the screen. The cinematography is gorgeous and make a world come to life. The main characters feel real and you can rely to them. I like it when a main characters isn't the 'invulnerable' hero, so you feel more tenses in the scenes because 'it could go wrong for him'. All this is directed in a perfect way. All of the action is filmed with a steady cam, thank god! No shaky cam but steady and wide shots which make the action scenes a real experience. I have no real faults with this film, I loved it from begin to the end. So I would recommend it for everyone who wants an awesome 2 hours.
It was kinda what you would expect from it but than 10 times more over the top. It isn't my cup of tea but still I can appreciate it although I had a hard time with the camera work in the action scenes. They use the 'Michael Bay shot' all the time ( turning the camera 360 degrees around the actor with a lot of stuff in the background ). This needs you to make it all feel really epic, which it does. But is use way to much. The same goes for the shaky cam in action scenes and the cutting to close ups. Fans of those kind of movies will probably adore it, I had a fun time watching it onces but wouldn't watch it ever again.
While I walked in the theater I expected a good movie. Because I liked the concept of the story as it was set-up in the trailer. But mostly because I 'trusted' Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman to pick a good movie to play in. While I walked out the theater I had different thoughts unfortunately. The film was disappointing to me and I will try to explain why. It wasn't the acting and 'world building' but I disliked the directing, screenplay and filming.
First of the directing and filming, all of the action scenes where flooded with shaky cam. This was handled very badly in my opinion. I couldn't figure out what was happening most of the time. Due to the shaky cam, number of cuts, close-ups and the peace of all that. That was the main reason why I disliked 'Safe House', which is also made by Daniel Espinosa. It almost felt like he was trying the make the filming and directing 'not perfectly on purpose' to make it 'real' but it didn't worked out at all! It all felt kinda clumsy and there were way to many meaningless shots overall. There were some exceptions, some shots of the cities and area's they visited where beautifully. They really landed the rough and dark tone that they successfully tried the show. Although they over did it sometimes.
Then the screenplay or script, which is based on a 'best selling novel', again! First of you get a nice back story of Tom Hardy's main character, which felt real to me. All of the other characters felt a bit empty, like they were there to fill a place that was written for them. That made it almost impossible for my to understand the characters and the decisions they make. I also missed the whole balance in the story. The first part was way to long ( set-up ), the middle was rush ( plot kicks in ) and the final party ( ending ) was also rushed and kinda unbelievable. I think because of this I wasn't sucked in to the story. The second and third party felt way to easy and straight forward. Like solving a child murder case which is spread over thousand of miles is easy. I think the story could be told in a better and more interesting way.
Overall I was disappointed by Child 44. The dark Russia after WWII was displayed intense but the story lagged suspension and balance. The action scenes sucked even more than the conversations because of the directing and filming methods they just. Tom Hardy did is part good but not brilliant and unfortunately Gary Oldman's characters was barely in it. I give Child 44 an 5 aka 'Meh'! Thanks for reading!
This movie is just FREAKING AWESOME on so many levels! The music, acting, vibe, originality, characters, directing, building up suspends, score and the angels in which this masterpiece is filmed. For example, to give you the 'vibe and intensity' of the music that they are playing by switching from instrument A to instrument B at the same angle, like you're watching it for your own seat. They don't cut to the next instrument but they sweep the frame instead of cutting to it. Those small things suck you right into it and made me love this movie. I already watched it 5 times and couldn't get enough of it. The greatest part of the movie is the ending, this has more suspends building than all of the 'world is going to be destroyed within 1 minute if hero name doesn't save us' films I have seen. I would recommend this movie to everyone!
Great show so far, just finished 1x08. The characters have good en reliable back stories, so most of the things they do make sense. In my opinion that's important to 'believe' a story. Besides the good acting and the original no linear story telling, the show is filmed beautifully. They use nice angles and lighting combined with several long tracing shots during action scenes. For example in a fighting scene, sometimes the 'fighters' aren't even in the frame but fighting in a room while the hallway is filmed as they come in and out of frame. You have to figure out what's happing by listing instead of watching. This is done in a great way and let you rely even more with the main character ( who's blind ). The script is good with a lot of dept certainly with the main characters, the filming and directing is outstanding in my opinion. I would recommend watching it, even if you don't like the classic 'super hero' movies or series. It's more a crime/thriller series than a 'super hero' series so far. I will keep watching!
