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This is a really great movie, with some disturbing imagery. David Ayer wanted to capture the everyday life of police officers in one of the most criminal districts: South Central Los Angeles, in a way that hadn't been done before; of course there are many movies that play in South Central Los Angeles, such as Colors, Boyz N the Hood, South Central, or Training Day, and especially compared to Colors you can find a number of similarities. Still, Ayer makes good on his promise: Similar to Colors we get a movie that in the first half seems totally random, we follow two around two cops, experiencing a lot of ugly stuff and soon some of these events lead to bigger events that unfold dramatically.

Different to Colors, however, Ayer focuses on the two cops. These are both young and in the beginning of their careers, and as two young guys their heads are full of shit, while their hearts are still in the right place. Even though being highly trained and professional when it comes to the job, they fool around a lot, and often just push their damn luck. They seem different at the beginning, yet they call each other brothers and you soon get to know why: Being in a car with each other nearly 8hrs a day makes for a really special friendship. In the Interviews Peña says that a third of the movie plays in the car, and I don't feel like that's an over-exaggeration. What's also interesting about this movie is, that for probably half of the movie "found footage" like shots where used. Gyllenhaals character "Brian Taylor" is filming his everyday for a class project, and both carries a camcorder with him as well as having his partner and himself wearing body cams on their shirts. Besides we often also get "ego perspective", especially when they move in somewhere with weapons drawn. Other great "found footage" like shots include cameras mounted on long weapons filming towards the actors, dashbord cams, etc.

These are however mixed with real camera work, and different to most found footage horror movies they are not used as long single shots, but all these different approaches are edited together to form great scenes. The pacing switches from slow scenes that are mostly driven by dialogue or off-duty scenes that seem mundane (e.g. the day that Brian has off with his girlfriend and has a special date planned from which we only get to see the drive with both of them singing to music playing on the radio), but that in their very special ways convey so much emotions, that makes you really love all of these characters, with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies. In contrast we get these highly thrilling on-duty scenes that are either packed with suspense or with fast pace action. Acting-wise we get a number of high ranking actors such as Anna Kendrick, Maurice Compte, Frank Grillo or David Harbour who just play small supporting roles with minimal screen time. The main focus lies on Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, and both are so good and excellent in their roles that you cannot imagine this movie with any other actor in their place.

So all in all this is a shocking movie with a - to me - really unexpected ending that shocked me. However, I found it could have had an even deeper impact if the ending was slightly different, and I would have loved it if it wasn't for the last scene.

Because I did it with the first two movies: The original title アウトレイジ 最終章, is finally a bit different - phonetically "Autoreiji Saishōshō", so not two English words, written in Japanese and pronounced totally strange - "Saishōshō" litterally means "Last chapter" (as does coda in music - so good translation there!), and it is the final installment in the Outrage movie series. The best things come in threes?

Well... at least I did not like this movie as much as I liked the first two movies, and that for a couple of reasons:

First, the story is far less interesting than the other two are: Otomo is living in exile, on the one hand because of a certain killing he did in the previous movie and second because after defeating the Sanno-kai, the Hanabishi-kai started executing the former Sanno-kai officials. Otomo builds up a new crime ring in Korea, however, when one of Otomos subordinates gets killed by a Hanabishi man on holiday, Otomo returns to Japan to settle the scores.

As you might imagine, this time the movie is pretty straight forward: Otomo returns to clean up. Different to the first two movies where it was a power play and different characters all followed their own internal motivations that only got unfolded slowly, leading to quite a few "aha" and even some shocking "i didn't expect that" scenes, this time, there was just one scene that I didn't see coming.

However, even though the story is straight forward, I somehow felt it harder to follow. And to be fair: I've watched all of these movies in original soundtrack with subtitles, so this is probably a contributing factor. However, I felt like in the first two movies the different characters where much more invested in, so you really knew who was working for whom and what was actually happening. Here, I felt, most things where conveyed in dialog, rather than in seeing the people interacting, so I somehow struggled to understand who was doing what with whom. Still, somehow I felt that it wasn't that big of a deal because I wasn't missing out on anything major.

Also I felt this movie did not add anything new to the world of Outrage - in the first movie we had the internal power play, the intrigues, the way these people treat each other and how one can rise and fall. In the second movie we had the revenge theme, as well as the external wars and in addition the tie ins with politics and the police.
And the third? Well it's a bit of the first and the second. Nothing new, nothing interesting that is explored. And also in the department of violence this movie is far less interesting than the other two movies who had far more awful killings and tortures, things that made you grit your teeth. Coda brings nothing new to the table.

What I liked, however, was the weariness that Takeshi Kitanos character Otomo exuded. You really feel his fatigue, his reluctance to return to Japan, and his retirement-like life in Korea, and this makes the ending so much more interesting. And of course, there is the absolutely captivating ending, that was really good.

Still, for me its the least favorite movie out of the Trilogy, with the second being the best.

アウトレイジ ビヨンド, phonetically "Autoreiji Biyondo", in English "Beyond Outrage" is the unexpected(?) sequel to Takeshi Kitanos 2010s Outrage, and picks up the story of the Yakuza bosses that started in the first movie.

Before you read on, please be aware that it is impossible to not spoiler a crucial ending point of the first movie - so only read on if you have at least watched the first movie (or better yet, watched both movies) or don't care.

As most of the people in the last movie died as a result of Katos power play, Kato as the new Grand Yakuza boss of the Sanno-kai clan has a all new family that concentrates on legitimate businesses, stock markets and influencing high-ranking politicians. By doing so the Sanno-kai gains in influence that the police find more and more problematic to deal with. But instead on stopping them with legal measures, the corrupt police detective Kataoka tries to initiate a Yakuza war between the Sanno-kai of Tokyo and the equally powerful Hanabishi-kai of western Japan.

Again we get the typical structure that we already got in the first movie, only this time, it's between fractions and not internally. Also, thanks to the first movie and the faith of Otomo, we finally get a character that you could at least feel some kind of sympathy for. The guy that got played even in the first movie, that however has some kind of remorse for some of the actions he did in the first movie, and that in this movie is the underdog, that on the one hand wants to rest, but on the other hand is pressured back into the game, and also feels the lust for revenge.

To me, this movie was a bit more interesting, a bit more surprising and a bit more thrilling than the first movie was, which is why I rate it a tad better, even though basically it's the same deal as the first movie.

One of the things that always shock people when I tell it to them is the fact that I really don't like the Godfather-Trilogy. To me it was really long and boring, not much happening, and I simply cannot get all the fuzz people are making around these movies.

Outrage - in the original アウトレイジ , which should rather be translated into the phonetically correct "Autoreiji", as Japanese people would translate this title to, is probably best described as the Japanese version of the Godfather-Trilogy. And surprisingly I really enjoyed the movie.

First of, we get a more interesting movie that is not too hard to follow, still in the beginning you don't really get what this movie is going to unfold into:

We start of with a great meeting of the Sano-kai clan, the Yakuza family that is reigning over the greater Tokyo region. The grand Yakuza leader Sekiuchi is displeased with one of his Yakuza leaders, Ikemoto, who in prison befriended an unassociated and rivaling Yakuza leader named Murase. Ikemoto is ordered to get Murase in line, however to do so would mean to break the holy pact he swore, which in turn would be dishonorable. So he orders his subordinate Otomo to steer up some trouble that would so that would make Murase to be in debt to the Sano-kai clan which in turn would have to make him swear his legion to the Sano-kai. However, what non of the bosses are expecting: This actually is clever power-play and a plot to shift a number of power relationships.

This movie is interesting in may ways. First we get into a Yakuza movie that is more modern than typical other movies. And this modernes is a topic that is picked up even in the movie. We have younger Yakuza bosses who do not follow the customs of the older Yakuza, e.g. things such as cutting off a finger to plea for forgiveness. It is also a clever plot at which end a chain of events have been released to find a really unexpected end.

Besides this, the movie has some really ruthless graphical violence that will make you clench your teeth. In the end, every one of these guys is a ruthless criminal, there are a lot of events you will simply not see coming such as the cutting of the face.

It is also interestingly filmed - there where a few very interesting angles, but all in all the camerawork is really slow and steady, and the transitions rather untypically: They simply fade to black and then start at the next scene. And as strange as this is, it doesn't feel bad. It somehow fits the overall style, both of the movie as it is made as well as it fits the content of the movie, i.e. the plot.

I was intrigued and it got my interest right from the beginning to the end. Something you probably haven't seen yet, if you are - like me - more into western movie productions.

I was re-watching this movie to prepare for the third installment of this series, and even though I am not that big on animation movies (I haven't seen a lot of movies that everybody seems to know, such as the Minions-movies, Hotel Transilvania, Wreck-it Ralph, the Lego movies, etc.). I normally don't watch these movies in cinemas, and I normally don't buy them on Blu-ray - so if not anybody else has them and I get to lend them, I end up not watching them at all.

"How to Train your Dragon" however really interested me, as I am - or used to be - a really big fan of dragons. And sadly there aren't any good dragon movies. Of course there is Dragonheart, which in my opinion is a master piece of that era. But what else is there? Yes, guest appearences in Harry Potter and the Hobbit. And then? I did watch "Reign of Fire" and it was in cinemas, when it was released - but I cannot remember much of it - except that I wasn't too thrilled. I only remember some unrealistic scenes where some actor managed to jump an incredibly unbelievable and therefore laughable distance - and that's all I can recollect.

So, "How to Train your Dragon" interested me, and I was really happy that I did watch it. I believe I've seen it in cinemas the first time, and in 3D, when it was released, and re-watched it 2014 where I rated the movie with 8/10 Points.

Watching it this time, I'd probably take away one point. It did wow me at the time, but seeing it nearly 10 years after it was released, I have to say that the story is pretty foreseeable, it is clearly targeted towards a younger audience, with mostly slapstick humor. Also the animation is a bit simplistic and does not compare with current standard. Never the less, this does not mean at all that the movie is bad.

It's a solid story, its done really cute, it has great characters, and it is still fun to watch - at least once. But it's nothing special - at least for the start. However, it's worth watching the movie and then continue with parts 2 and 3, because this series actually get's better with every movie, which is something that I really like about the series. And I believe that a younger audience will really enjoy it much more. So all in all a really good movie and worth a watch!

When you liked the first two movies you're probably gonna love the third This is one of the few movie series where each movie tops the previous one.

I missed the soundtrack that I loved in the second (and the first?) movie - in general I did not feel like the third one had a sound track that is memorable, but other than that, the movie is at the top of it's craft. The sound and sound effects as well as the visual effects are extremely good. I've seen it in cinemas in 3D and I can add: the 3D was also really ingenious. Right at the beginning of the movie I suddenly ducked because I thought somebody was throwing something from behind us to the front - only to realize that it was a sound and 3D effect of the movie. That hasn't happened to me since the introduction of 3D movies in the 00s. The new level of detail is incredible, for example the scales on Toothless, the hair of Hickup in the wind, the water, sand in the beach, the clouds in the sky or the fern leaves and grass in the wind - it's really incredible and a lot of fun to see - the style is of course the same as it was in the first movie 10 years ago, so really simple faces and forms. Still the added level of detail shows that DreamWorks is really getting out everything they can, animation-wise. This is really beautiful to watch, and worth your time just for the images. Also the style and tone of the movie has changed. Right from the beginning we get really dark atmosphere, fog, great camerawork - it feels like being in a Pirates of the Carribean movie when we are on the ghost ship - scenes that could easily be taken out of a action or even war drama movie. This is counterbalanced by really colorful art - especially in the "Hidden World" we are greeted with an explosion of colors, light and glowing effects.

But enough about the imagery. Let's take a look at the plot, which again is extremely dense and packed with a lot of side stories and elements. One of the main topics seems to be love and different facets of it: Love between lovers, love between friends, love as people grow, jealousy and letting go. Another important topic is growing up and being a grown up. What does it mean to take responsibility and to make decisions? And there are even social topics, such as making a group of people dependent from others, how to live happily, overpopulation, migration and immigration - boy this movie is packed. And all of these topics are handled really mature but in a way that this movie still stays a typical children's movie. I really liked this pretty much.

And if you are open for it, then this movie is extremely touching. There was a lot of sobbing in the screening that I visited, and a lot of watery eyes. This movie is extremely emotional and extremely touching.

Plot-wise I was surprised as the movie develops in a totally different direction than you would expect. 2 or 3 times I did not see the things coming the way they did, and expected something totally different.

So to sum up, I had really great fun with the movie, it is done incredible well, it conveys important topics and ideas in a very subtle way, it still has it's funny moments and great humor, that works on both grownups as well as children, it invites you on an emotional roller-coster ride and is technically really incredible to watch.

Everybody who loves animation movies should watch this movie and if you can, watch it in cinemas, and try to get a 3D screening. It's really worth it and a constant improvement of the series, as well as a great finale.

After the first part of "How to Train your Dragon" introduced us into a new world where vikings where fighting with dragons for their existence, where our two unequal outsiders managed to form a team that finally united dragons and vikings, in the second part of the series we revisit the viking village which of course has changed a lot. Instead of playing amusing sports with sheep and fighting against dragons, our vikings now ride dragons to play new and more exciting amusing sports with sheep.

Different to the first movie that had it's entire focus on the main story, this movie however opens a number of side stories: A father-son conflict between Hickup and Stoick, Hickups search for his identity, how to cope with new family members, as well as questioning deep friendships. We get happy moments, but also really dramatic and sad moments, experience a lot of rage as well as loss and grief. And all these things are just side elements to a typical action adventure story, where we have a main enemy - Drago - who is threatening the peaceful cohabitation of our dragons and vikings.

This movie will surprise you with topics that you wouldn't expect an "children's animation movie" to have, and to me, even the finale was pretty surprising, and also pretty touching.

Additionally this movie has a great soundtrack that goes right into your ear from the first minute, and compared to the first movie, the animations got even better, and the humor is a bit more mature that it was - as is our Toothless-riding Hickup.

It's a really good movie, a must see!

This movie is a typical Liam Neeson and yet this movie is also refreshingly different. It's like the title suggests: A typical Liam Neeson is what I would describe as a hot pursuit movie - and this time we get a cold pursuit. It's a pursuit non the less, but still different.

The movie plays in Kehoe, a skiing resort in the Rocky Mountains, and Neeson's character - Nelson Coxman - is a snowplow driver. If he wouldn't work, no one could enter or leave Kehoe, which is why he's nominated as citizen of the year, even though he just does his job. But when his son mysteriously disappears, Coxman realizes a set of skills he wasn't yet aware of and with this new set of skills he sets a lunatic chain of events into motion.

When I saw the first trailer to this movie I was a bit torn. On the one hand, I like Liam Nesson action movies - I think Liam Neeson is a charismatic guy and even though a lot of people hat them - and yes, of course they are all the same and all of them reinvent the wheel - I think those movies are great. But a comedy? With Neeson? Oh my... I was fearing something that was more silly and stupid than action, and this movie could become totally stupid.

Luckily I was wrong. To be fair - it isn't a perfect movie either. There are a few weaknesses, but all in all I was really entertained by it and had a smile on my face the entire movie. The humor is really subtle and rather dark. There are no one-liners, no punchlines, nothing that expects you to burst into laughs all the time. It's rather bitter sweet dark humor, that is rather intelligent, and not always worded, but often also just induced by the style of filming, the editing or inappropriate absurd scenes. For instance there is a scene where a corpse has to be identified, and it was stored in a bottom drawer, so after pulling it out, they need to use a lever mechanism - and it felt like taking forever that the guy has to move the lever up and down so that the table is actually at a height so that the bereaved could actually finally lift the blanket and identify the corpse. These scenes remembered me of the first two episodes of Six Feet Under.

Even though it is funny it also has a lot of serious moments, and the movie is also about loss, and coping with loss, and of course about taking revenge. The "cold" in cold pursuit can be taken literally - all in all the movie is pretty slow paced - especially compared to typical Liam Neeson movies - and this is also due to the setting and the way the movie is made. Still whenever we get to the action scenes, it will get ugly. And aesthetic - the movie tries to find a certain kind of aesthetics in violence and also is pretty innovative in the killings, showing scenes you've probably never seen before.

I would think to put this movie somewhere between "The Grey" and "Taken" - a typical Liam Neeson movie that plays slower than his other movies do, paired with the dark humor of shows such as in Six Feet Under or Death at a Funeral, just not as thick and obvious.

I was entertained, I found it refreshing, and really liked it.

Based on a true story, Diane Keaton plays a embittered widow who cannot uphold the luxury life she used to live with her husband, while Breandan Gleeson is portraying a cranky hermit who built himself a minimalist shack that is build hidden away on a piece of land, on which he is able to live autarkic. Now, of course exactly this piece of land has to be sold and it is Diane Keatons character that wants to chase Gleeson of the land, but in the process of doing so falls in love with him and at the end fights on his side.

I think the movie had great potential. It had a few really funny moments and of course grate actors. However all in all the movie lacks authenticity. It starts with the lack of chemistry between our two main characters - seeing them on screen you wouldn't believe that there are any feelings involved at all. There is too little build-up, too little investment in the characters, which is why they stay absolutely shallow. Even though the actors themselves are doing okay and the general idea and concept of the movie is okay as well, there is somehow no emotions at all.

To make things worse, this movie has just one song. One single theme, that - if you hear it without context makes you feel like you are watching one of these feelgood advertisements for some care product. Only, this positive feelgood melody is used throughout the entire movie, and I gout sick of it after the first quarter.

The plot is really slow, the characters sometimes not reasonable in their actions, but over all it is so foreseeable that I actually knew the entire outcome after the first quarter. Its a typical love comedy for the elderly from which we have seen so many already, and it doesn't add anything new to the genre that we haven't seen already.

A big negative point however is the ending:

After Keaton being the one pressuring Gleeson to fight for his land to be finally able to live out his days in peace and quiet as he always wanted, and to stand up for his rights and not to give in to the others who bully him arround against his will, at the end she is actually the one who pressures him into selling so that they could move in together. Wow. Seriously? Because he doesn't she breaks up and moves away, and in the end he sells, moves his shack onto a boat, because conveniently enough she lives at a river and now he is anchoring right in front of her house... Happy end.

Way to build someone up to live the life he always wanted only to then pressure him to do something else and force him by emotionally blackmail him...

For me this wasn't a nice movie experience, and these 4 points are just because of me liking the main actors and the few funny moments, but not for the movie direction, editing, sound, or overall plot.

After having seen the trailer and after hearing all the critics I wouldn't have watched this movie. I thought it would be stupid and boring, without much action and totally unbelievable due to the total disregard of physics.

I must say that after watching it anyways (I got the Blu-ray due to a coincidence) I was actually pretty impressed. Yes it doesn't reinvent the wheel, yes it's not a Die Hard, and yes, there are scenes that are laughable due to the afore mentioned disregard for physics. But in general, this is actually a pretty decent action movie - it's not full of jokes and stupid one-liners, it has some decent acting and it is pretty thrilling most of the times, and has some really clever ideas, beside the obvious crane jump for which you needn't study physics to know that it's totally absurd. It's still good for a laugh though and other than that, this movie was good fun.

If you like simple action movies, if you don't expect the next "Die Hard", "John Wick" or "Equalizer" but are also content with simple movies, this is one of the better ones worth a watch. Really. I've seen far stupid (e.g. that really horrible Die Hard 4.0).

I cannot believe I haven't written at least a small review on this movie, yet. This can be - no doubt - regarded as a classic already. It's the movie that revived the slasher era, who had it's "Golden Age" in the mid 70s to mid 80s, and then disappeared for a decade from the big screen. The genre of course wasn't dead, and enthusiasts where happy to get new movies to classic slasher movie series on direct-to-video releases. But in mainstream they disappered totally - untill - yes - until Wes Craven decided to make a slasher movie, that both, paid it's tribute to the slasher classics while also being fun and new, and more appealing to a modern youth.

Following Scream, we get 3 sequels and a number of new generation slasher movies, such as "I Know What You Did Last Summer", "Urban Legends", "Final Destination" and "Jeepers Creepers" and finally the "Saw"-franchise, and also finally created budgets for follow-ups and/or reboots on those 80s movies, such as Halloween, Cucky, Friday the 13th or Elm's Street. Not to forget the 2010s first(?) slasher television series that is also called Scream and steps into the fooprints of this movie. Now that deserves the term "classic" doesn't it?

The movie convinces you not by a scary killer or inspired new or especially hard kills, but by a really good base story an excellent cast that play some of the most lovable slasher movie characters, a witty meta-level about slasher movies and last but not least finally not a scream queen but a survivor girl. It is not by accident that Neve Campbell's Sindey Prescott survives, you never see her fall down crying between a still masked Michael Myers just to start screaming again the minute he get's up. No, instead she'll confront him, fight him, and stand her ground.

For me, the secret show stealers are however Courntey Cox's Gale Weathers and David Arquette's Dwight Riley - who together with Sidney are staples throughout the Scream series.

Then of course there is the iconic Ghostface, a great soundtrack, and a great supporting cast, including the antagonist, who isn't revealed until the end, so the entire movie you keep guessing. Oh and did I mention all the great references to the classics?

I don't know what's not to love about this movie. I've seen it a number of times, and I am not yet tired - I usually watch this around Halloween and nearly once a year, and up to now it never got old. If you haven't seen it, you need to watch it. If you have, you know what I'm talking about: It's a great atmospheric horror classic :)

As a kid and young adult I was never into Manga or Anime or Japanese culture, so I believe that I've actually never seen a Japanese Anime before this one. I did watch the Last Airbender series, though, but even though they use the typical Japanese Anime style I'd feel like cheating if I'd list that as an Anime, because it's a US production.

However, as someone that is interested in movies and talks to other movie enthusiasts, there are certain Anime movies that you will simply hear popping up. Director Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli productions for instance, and Princess Mononoke as one of his works is - according to many - something you should have seen. His works are celebrated as classics, even among non Anime-enthusiasts, his movie Spirited Away is listed in Steven Jay Schneider's !1001 movies to see before you die", and in the IMDB Top 250 movies you'll even find 6 of his movies, one of them being Princess Mononoke. This is just one reason why I always planned on giving those movies a try - I just never came around. Another one was just added recently as I started learning Japanese and saw it a good practice to watch movies in Japanese. And a third reason was a recent special in a YouTube format I like to watch (for the German readers: "Rocket Beans TV's Kino+"), where the guests talked about their Top 20 anime movies.

So finally I got myself the Blu-ray to もののけ姫. I actually really wanted to get the Japanese releases on Blu-ray but as they are extremely expensive, I settled for the German Steelbook releases which look fine as well (but unfortunately don't feature the Japanese Titles). Mononoke was the first I got, because it was the one with the lowest availability. It wasn't the movie that I was interested most in (that is actually "Spirited Away" but that is already out of print :( ), but it became the first I watched.

As someone who isn't that deep into Japanese Anime Culture the movie was somewhat confusing at the beginning. There where a few things I did not pick up, and this might have also been due to the fact that I watched it with original soundtrack and German subtitles - I feel like it's much harder to read subtitles on animated movies than it is on live action movies. But even though I was sometimes a bit confused about the behaviors, I generally enjoyed the movie. It had a few really cute ideas, e.g. I enjoyed the "Kodamas" as they are called - the wood spirits. And I liked the general idea of the Shishigami - the forest spirit. I did expect this movie to be much more about the girl (called San, not Mononoke - also she is not really a princess - so the title is a bit puzzling) though. However it is told entirely from the perspective of prince Ashitaka, who is actually a prince who got attacked by a vengeful spirit and tries to find a cure/and or the cause of the demons existence and finds it in Lady Eboshi and her Iron Town, who seek to destroy the forest and by doing so defeat all the Gods and spirits that dwell in it.

As you might already have heard out of the small plot summary, this movie bears a deeper meaning, and it is really strange from any western movie, because even though we get a typical antagonist, we actually never ever really get a showdown with her. She is still treated as someone who is good and protected by our protagonist, even though her actions are pure evil and threaten the world and are the cause of curses and wild demons savaging the nearby villages.

All in all, it's an interesting movie, it has a deep meaning that we should all think about, yet it is also really strange and at times confusing. I feel like I'll have to watch it a second time, and maybe at least once with German dubbings.

I was excited though. The art is beautifully done, and there are really creative ideas that went into this movie. I am probably still not an Anime/Manga guy - yet even I can realize that it is worth a watch.

Hey "Mortal Engines" - look at this: This is how it's done!

Both of these movies play in the steampunk/cyberpunk genre setting, both movies are about revenge, both movies have a female lead with a male sidekick that is also somewhat of a love interest, and both movies play in a fantastic world that has different rules and different factions. Both movies are CGI heavy and heave a lot of action/fighting scenes and a final enemy as well as sub-boss - everything such as it was with "Mortal Engines". With costs of $150m and $170m both movies are even in the same league budget-wise.

The difference - to me - was that while I was really interested in "Mortal Engines" I wasn't really sure what to expect from Alita, and after Mortal Engines being really bad (see my Trackt-Review here: https://trakt.tv/comments/209128) I wasn't too interested in watching this - we even pushed the cinema reservation 3 times before finally watching this (unfortunately it then wasn't shown in 3D anymore).

But be assured: Other than the similarities mentioned above, these movies don't share much else - especially quality-wise there is an enormous gap between both movies.

The plot: In a dystopian future the offspring of the survivors of "The Fall", a mysterious event in which all but one sky cities crashed back down to earth - the junkyard of the sky cities, the offspring of the survivors of the sky city falls spend their time with robotic enhancements, playing Motorball or being a Hunter-Warrior, while dreaming of getting the chance to move to Zalem, the last floating sky city, where live is rumored to be paradisaical.
In this setting Dr. Dyson Ido, a earth dwelling doctor and scientist and expert in cyborgs, finds parts of a cyborg in the waste-dumps of Zalem: An intact brain and heart combination - and he rebuilds her: Alita however does not remember anything from her past, and tries to make sense of what's happening around her as well as her origin.

So much for the plot. As you can see, there is a lot of plot already in this really short extract that I gave you. This is probably the biggest negative aspect: To get all of this background into one film. The movie manages this arguably quite well - if you are someone who needs an explanation for everything right from the get-go, you will probably have your problems with the story. If you can, however, just accept what you are given, and - so to speak - step into the brain of Alita who experiences everything from a clean slate as well, you wont have that much problems. I am of the second kind - I like comic books and in comic books it's often like that: You get presented a situation that you do not fully understand but you just appreciate the artworks, the little explanations that you get, and how the story unfolds. Alita is doing just that. And it's doing it very well:

With Christoph Waltz and Rosa Salazar we already get two really talented and lovable characters. Of course, Rosa Salazar is totally computerized and the thing that will stick with you right from the very first trailer are her huge eyes that make her look unnatural. Her CGI is however done extremely well, her facial mimics look ingenious and so you really like her right from the beginning. And this is a great plus - you find her likable and you identify with her (something Mortal Engines did not achieve at all). She is really cute in her naive ways, but you also realize right form the beginning, that she has her own mind, a great sense for justice and that she is extremely brave. After having established these two characters and the father-daugther bond that is to be, new characters get introduced, and while I was excited to see Jennifer Connelly her role is unfortunately a minor one. However, Ed Skrein as an enemy and Keean Johnson as love interest are really interesting characters. I really liked Keean's character Hugo and though that he and Alita had really great chemistry. And that's really seldom in a CGI and a Human character - but here it works absolutely excellent. There are other

Talking about the CGI: It's absolutely gorgeous. Everything looks great and realistic, and - different to most other CGI movies - you still get the felling that what's happening is intense and has consequences. This makes the fight scenes thrilling, e.g. when Alita faces Grewishka, and starts taking damage, this is actually pretty intense.

The running time of over 2h is pretty long, still you never feel bored or overwhelmed by fighting scenes and you never start asking "is the end near yet" - once or twice I wondered how it would end, just because we where already sitting at the cinema for a long time, and I dreaded an open end. Unfortunately in the end that's exactly what you get - an open end. Yet it didn't bother me as much as it bothers me with most other open endings - in a way this movie gets to a really satisfying closure in it self. Of course, it doesn't even begin to address even half of the questions that you might have, e.g. who is Nova, why is he doing what he's doing? Who is Alita, was her origin on the good side, or actually on the bad? Who threw her away, when and with what purpose? And what did she do all that time in Zalem? What was the Great Fall, why did it happen, who are the Martians, etc. pp.

Actually you might wonder if this movie did answer any question at all, and well - probably it didn't. But never the less, we get a really satisfying end. An ending however, that cries for a sequel, and I really really really hope that we do get to see one. This is of course unclear, due to this being probably the last movie that Fox has made as Fox (i.e. not under Disney), and Boxoffice results not being as high as expected, due to probably also many negative preliminary critics that I cannot share at all.

On the negative side however, I would say that over all the story isn't reinventing anything. It's a fish-out-of-water plot, you know who the end-bosses will be and the story develops in just the direction you'd expect, with a number of precursors.

I had a lot of fun in cinemas, I was really captivated, I loved the setting, I loved the characters, the CGI, the plot as it evolved. For me this is a must see, for anyone interested in cyberpunk/steampunk-ish movies.

This movie is the first from the incredibly great Laika studio that - founded in 2005 had the ambitious and totally crazy idea to specialize in feature film length productions of stop-motion animation movies. They started with contract work but right from the get-go they announced their first movie: Coraline. It took them 4 years and $60 million dollars, but in the end in 2009 Coraline was released. I was intrigued right from the first time I heard about this movie, it looked absolutely fantastic and I love Neil Gaiman on who's children's book this movie is based on.

Still it should take me all the other movies from Laika untill I finally got to this movie. More by accident, and because my girlfriend liked the cover, I bought "The Boxtrolls" on Blu-ray, which was therefore my first movie from Laika. Then - and because I really liked Boxtrolls as a stop motion picture - we got ParaNorman, and it was good as well even though we did not like it as much as Boxtrolls. Then we watched Kubo and the Two Strings (also on Blu-ray), which was incredibly well done, and finally I manged to secure a first edition release of Coraline. Wanting a first edition (wich in Germany comes with a Lenticular O-Card) was actually the only reason that we've watched this movie so late after it's release, because it was already sold out and I had a really hard time searching for it.

But here we are, I could finally see the movie and unfortunately I have to say I wish I'd seen it earlier. After seeing Kubo you are somewhat set up for a disappointment. Still it is a really great movie. The plot is rather simple but non the less good, and the effects are great as well though if compared to Kubo you can see how over the years this company has perfected it's craft more and more. The sets are non the less really fantastic and the effects which are all hand crafted are absolutely worth your while. Here it's worth mentioning that if you actually own this on a physical medium you'll probably get a ton of extras that are absolutely interesting and stunning. A lot of the "magic" is given away, such as how the fire and the fog where done, how the actual dolls look like, and how they make it that these doll animations look so incredibly good, how animations effects of certain scenes where done, such as the "garden scene", and also who is behind the voices and what these actors think about the movie and how it is different to what else they've done.

And if you see these, I am sure you get a totally different appreciation for this craft and Laika as a film studio. What they do is insane. And it is even more insane when you take into consideration that today you could do everything they do with the help of a computer. But they don't use computers, they do everything by hand. The sets, the puppets, the effects. Everything. That's insane. That shows absolute dedication to the art. And that alone is worth at least watching it once, even if you don't like animation movies. It's worth it.

Having said that, I also really enjoyed the fact that they hired great actors for their voice acting, including the - in my opinion - best child actor out there: Dakota Fanning. But also Teri Hatcher is really great and she voices three "distinct" characters which she does great. Also worth mentioning: Keith David!

To sum up: It's an insanely expensive, extremely well done stop motion movie, probably one of the last of it's kind (with Laika being the only one doing "major" Hollywood releases recently and on this level of perfection), with great artwork, a really great dark fantasy story, and fantastic voice actors. Don't be like me: Watch it as soon as you can! :)

I have to say it right away: This is probably one of the best German movies made in the last 20 years. And having gotten this out of the way, just sink your teeth into this next bit of information: It's a "No-Budget" production. This team started out with an idea, that was developed in free time and produced in free time just with the help of friends and family, and whenever they had something they could show off, they asked for any money they could get, to get the next bit of movie produced. All in free time, e.g. over the time of five years they filmed on weekends, using as requisites what they had. The result was something most people shook their head - famous directors said to just delete the movie as it could never work. The cool thing? The crew kept believing in it. As they said in the making off: "Often we said to our selves: We cannot do this, this can't work. And then we stopped and asked our selves: But why not? We are laughing? We're having fun? Maybe it will work?"

The end product was subtitled: "The most fucked up German fairy tale since the Brothers Grimm." And yes, that it is. Let me just say a few words on the story - but beware: The less you know, the better:

Two gangsters, after committing a crime and steeling a car, find a screen play in that car that - in the screen play describe what just happened since the movie started. It end's a few minutes after the screenplay is found, so the two gangsters, believing that they are in some kind of hoax, search for the author of that screenplay.

Javid: "If this screenplay is turned into a movie it's going to be the most retarded movie that has ever existed"

The movie is a really strange genre mix: it has action, it has gore and splatter, crazy shoot-outs, comedy, a revenge part, a love story, it has God in it, cannibals and even social criticism. All this is packed together in a movie that is captivating right from the moment it starts, that has great black humor, doesn't take itself to serious and has a plot that is surprisingly refreshing and has a really original story idea.

To make it short: This movie is just fun to watch, and whenever I think about it, it's fun again, and whenever I see scenes or hear other talk about it, I start smiling, so yeah. It's a must watch!

I've seen this movie in a sneak preview and I really liked it for the message it conveys as well as for the movie being different to all the other movies that you'll see. It is really slow, it takes a lot of time, has a lot of dialogues and is probably told for at least 40% in off-screen narration. I think this is something that is pretty brave.

Additionally I liked a lot of the scenes that where really artistic, e.g. the scene where you have Fonny with his sculpture and the camera circles around it and we have the smoke of his cigarette. I liked that a lot. And I liked the camera, e.g. in the beginning scene where Tish conveys her news to the mother - this is really great camera work, really great editing and aspects that make this movie really good. Another thing that got me right from the get-go was the music.

Now having pointed out all the positives, the biggest problem I have with this movie is in a kind a missing emotionality. Take Green Book for example: I really had a lump in my throat when Mahershala Ali stood in the rain and started screaming out his dialogue - that was intense. That gave you goosebumps. And I would have really liked to see something of that sort in this movie as well - the story is absolutely worth telling and could have easily included a scene of that kind. In a way it even has - that moment when the mother Sharon is in Puerto Rico. However, and I don't know why - it didn't get to me, which is why I was really surprised that this performance actually won an academy award.

However, I am not saying that the acting was bad. I liked the acting, there was great chemistry between some of the actors, especially KiKi Layne was really great as this young, dreamily-naive girl that just experiences first love. And Colman Domingo and Michael Beach as the two fathers where absolutely great as well and had some really great laughs. Equally good where of course the mothers, portrayed by afore mentioned Regina King and Aunjanue Ellis.

However, in the end, I feel like I wasn't as invested into the characters as I should have been, and I am not sure where exactly to pinpoint the guilt. One aspect I did not needed in the extend it was shown in the movie was the love scenes - we had a lot of those, and for a movie where there isn't much happening, you really wonder if it would have needed that many love scenes - maybe that time would have been better invested into further developing the characters and thus having the viewer more invested?

To end on a positive note: One thing that I actually realized, was the really settle but still very apparent switch of tone - while in the beginning you see this movie probably ending on a positive note, there is that one scene (the artsy one I mentioned before) where this feeling starts to tip over to the negative side - I wouldn't have been surprised if this movie had a really bad ending; and reviewing this movie I wonder if it maybe would have needed this ending ... e.g. I wouldn't have been surprised if at the end the scene from the beginning was something Alonzo was experiencing in his head right before successfully taking his life after having lost the trial

I am ashamed to admit it, but I've just seen this movie for the first time now (on Feb. 27th, 2019), so this review has to be seen in that context: We have 2019, so the movie is nearly 45 years old, I am in my mid thirties and a movie enthusiast since at least half of my life, so I've seen a number of movies already.

So, I probably cannot appreciate this movie as much as someone who has seen it in his early years or who was even lucky enough seeing this movie when it was released.

Yet, as you can already see, I really enjoyed this movie. It is incredibly iconic, and if you are a movie enthusiast you will probably recognize a dozen movies that where inspired by, or that pay tribute to this movie. I especially had to laugh at the scene with the white board.

Other than that, it has aged incredibly well. I watched a Blu-ray version that was released by Universal for their 100th anniversary and it has crisp images - there is only one image that is strange, but that's probably due to editing (the scene has both, near focus on a head in the foreground and far focus on the sea at the background and right at the border of these two images you have a really blurry line, so I guess, this scene consists of the image of two cameras that where joined together in editing) - a good sound quality, the dialogues weren't to stale, there are some really great images some of them where you wonder how they managed to achieve those shots in the 1970 on a small boat, and even though the shark puppets are not realistic at all, in general the movie manages to build up a really frightening atmosphere, and there was also one jump-scare-esque scene that really got me (and it's really seldom that I get scared like this by a movie). Also story wise it manages to captivate you and surprises you in the way it evolves. So even though it is that old and even if you've seen so many movies that you feel like you've seen it all, this movie will leave a mark and you will understand why people will tell you that it's one of the best movies.

From today's perspective I'd rate it 8/10, because a) the shark puppets made me laugh - they ARE really bad - b) it had a few lengths and c) some decisions did not make too much sense to me. But I gave it an additional point, because thinking of it, this movie has produced a milestone in cinemas, it is absolutely ambitious and for that time really extremely good produced. And most of all: It has inspired so many movies that followed. I didn't know how many actually where, but watching this I was reminded of a couple of films, and I guess the number is much higher and if I'd watched this one before I've seen all the other movies I would probably realized more movie inspirations than I was able to.

If you haven't seen it already (and let's be honest: who beside me hasn't?!) what are you doing? Please don't wait longer, you are missing out on general knowledge.

I am quite a Liam Neeson fan since I actively took notice of this actor due to his Qui-gon Jin role which was one of the only good things about Episode I. I've since then seen over 20 movies with him, and most of them are probably a tad better rated just because I like his character.

So I was really looking forward to this movie for a long time - Liam Neeson staring in an action movie against nature, in a nearly one-man-show, with a lot of positive reviews from people who've already seen this movie. Now that's got to be good doesn't it?

Well... the movie starts off really great. We have some workers doing seasonal work at an oil station in Alaska, which is not only a rough place location-wise, but also from the people. Liam Neesons character John Ottway is a hunter who's task is to guard the workers from wild animals. On their way back home however the plane crashes in the mountains, and only a hand full survive. The first survivors succumb to their wounds but soon they find themselves facing another enemy, that is picking the survivors for killing one after the other: A pack of wolves.

Liam Neesons character gets a really good background story, that makes his character interesting: He has lost everything and given up on live already, but when thrown into this live threatening situation his survival instincts kick in. There is something secretive in his character and we get to learn this while the movie enfolds. This makes the entire first half of the movie really interesting. Also they have a great location, with stunning pictures, a really high quality camera, and good performances, which I really enjoyed a lot. There is good chemistry between all the surviving characters which are totally different in style and believes, providing some room for arguments.

However, on the other side there where a few things I disliked. First of: The wolves, that hardly look anything like wolves. Here we get really cheap CGI and as the movie maker probably knew, most of the wolf attack scenes are in the dark and with hectic camera so you only see glimpses of the wolf. However I don't really enjoy shaky cams and rapid movements through hectic editing, so all in all this took a lot of excitement out of the scene because you actually do not see what happens but keep pondering about the few glimpses you get, while the action sequence is still going on. Also, the behavior of the pack of wolves is totally atypical: They don't hunt a group of men that are capable to defend them selves over days just for sports?

Also, during the movie the physical accuracy gets smaller and smaller - with the cliff jumping scene being the worst part of it. If you find yourself thinking: Well that's not realistic at all, that's plain idiotic, your brain gets occupied by other things than merging into the plot of the movie. And there are a number of these little things (like Ottway finding his letter after the crash which has been for hours in the snow but is still in excellent condition, or all the guys sleeping and not hearing how the one guy standing guard is taken by wolves just a couple of meters away, etc.), as well as movie mistakes (the letter has an re- and disappearing coffee stain throughout the movie).

In the end we get a 2hrs movie that feels really long and doesn't add anything new to the typical man vs nature survival movie (such as The Edge or the Mountain between Us, which I actually liked a bit better), that starts of really great but in the end gets actually pretty unrealistic and boring. And that's really sad, because they have some great scenes, really wonderful images, and a good Liam Neeson. But especially with high expectations that I had, this movie was mostly rather disappointing to me. It's still a solid movie, though.

"What is it." - "Blue light" - "And what does it do?" - "It turns blue"

At least in Germany this is one of the best known movie quotes that even people know who have never seen any of the movies in this movie series. After the excellent "First Blood" (10/10) and the rather disastrous sequel "Rambo - First Blood Part 2" (4/10), we get third installment "Rambo III", in which John Rambo has retired in Thailand, living peacefully among monks. However, when his former commander gets captured and his fate is left to him, Rambo decides to get active once more. He travels to Afghanistan and is aided by Afghan Mujahideen (i.e. people engaged in Jihad) who during the time of the cold war where of course supported by the U.S. army in their fight against the invading Russians under their communist regime.

Different to the last movie, this one is really good once again, even though in general there are a few parallels to the last movie: Rambo has to meet up with his contact, find a prison camp, sneak in, and get out the prisoner, which does not work right from the beginning, so he has to return, fight some more enemies until he can safe the prisoners. However, this time it's really captivating. The plot is sound, there aren't many plot holes, the action good, and not as overdone as in Part 2 - even though it's probably more. The enemy is interesting as well, and not as stupid as in the last movie. We also get some thrilling sneak and hide scenes, and a lot clever usages of blue light :D They are also hopelessly outnumbered, take some hits. Yet the body count is probably equally high as in the predecessor, and there are a number of rather innovative killing scenes that are really fun to watch.

Plus we also get some decent tag alongs that can actually pull their weight, have more personality and that actually have some chemistry with Rambo. So to me, while it cannot get near to the first movie in any way, it is still a solid, fun to watch and also fun to re-watch typical action movie that is captivating and never boring. Even though its a 102 minutes long time really passes by - something I could not say about the second installment that over long parts was boring and where I was often looking at the blu-ray counter to see how long it would still last.

And thankfully there wasn't yet another bad attempt to copy the ingenious monologue scene from the end of the first movie. Instead we get a text card just before the credits roll in:

"This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan"

For today's standards this seems rather awkward, but keep remembering: It where other times back then.

After the ingenious first installment "First Blood" of the Rambo series that in retrospect got a 10/10 from me, the second movie named "Rambo: First Blood Part II" can - in my opinion - in no way live up to its predecessor.

This starts with the premises that Rambo - a PTSD Vietnam veteran, who is imprisoned in a labor camp for his psychotic breakdown in part one - is send back to Vietnam (rather then sending him to a mental facility where he could learn to cope with his mental traumas)! And Rambo, of course, agrees to. Because yes, after the heart-felt monologue at the end of the first movie where under tears he describes explicit detail how he tried to scrap together his best friend who stepped on a mine, or how he was tortured by the enemy, this is exactly what you would do. As the tagline reads: "What others call hell, he calls home".

But okey, let's not argue on how well part 2 fits to part 1, let's take a look at it like a solo movie, because after all, except for the character names and their backstories part 2 really does not build upon part 1 at all - it seems like they did not care and wanted to do another kind of movie, so let's treat it as such.

Rambo is released early from prison because he is an expert stealth guerilla war human killer machine, and he is set back to Vietnam, to look at prison camps and - if he should find PoWs he is not to free them, but only take pictures and return. Makes sense to fly all the way to the US, do all the paperwork and go through all the suffering to get out an war expert, who is known to snap, just to have him take pictures... this get's especially weird as at the end it is revealed that all of this is actually a conspiracy and Rambo shouldn't have even seen any prisoners - anybody could have just taken pictures from the camp - they could have been totally staged - why go through the hassle to take a war veteran that is not even in on the plan, so that this plan is risked to be revealed?... but hey. Why not? Let's keep an open mind!

Rambo meets up with his contact, a girl named Co, who actually is just a tag along female hottie, probably to lure in young male viewers. She has hardly any relevance to the story what so ever, there is zero chemistry between the two actors, even though actress Julia Nixon puts her absolute best into acting as she fell in love at first sight. Still there is a romantic part and a dramatic turn of events that is so unbelievable - but I'll get to this later. With the help of her, he gets to a camp, does not obey his orders, but starts shooting everything down, and by this act gets both, the Vietnamese army as well as the Russian army on his tail...

If the plot itself isn't bad already, it gets really bad, when it comes to the action: With no regards on anything, Rambo gets to Vietnam and shoots up everything, using machine guns, bazookas, grenades, etc. to blow up straw huts. No settlety, no stealth, no intelligence that you would believe a green beret to have. There is however, a part that actually is pretty cool towards the end, where he gears up once more and kills his pursuers one by one, actually using guerilla warfare techniques (sneaking and hiding). Those are really fun to watch, but a small portion just before the end of the movie, and up till then the action is in general overdone and gets boring fast. And that's really sad because Part 1 had absolutely stunning and captivating action, that was so much more fun.

As already mentioned the plot isn't that good either: We know exactly from the beginning who the bad guy is, and as if that's not enough, there are not only a number of plot holes but also simply stupid mistakes. Our project leader seems to be a civilian, or at least he dresses as one, but has the rank of major, and operates form an army base but not with an actual army but mostly mercenaries. Still, in the movie he outranks the Colonel, who simply follows his orders even if he doesn't like them and even if they are straight immoral and criminal - there is nothing cool or interesting about Trautman at all anymore. And then there is the end: I mean, really? WTF! It was a conspiracy? The American major ordered the camp to be empty, so that they could fly in Rambo who would take pictures from one empty camp and that would have been proof that there are no PoWs in all of Vietnam? But by accident the stupid Vietnamese who rotate the prison camps put the prisoners into the camp anyways so that the one date that it was important this camp was empty it wasn't? Which is why they get in the Russians to kill Rambo so he cannot tell what he saw? Well...

The message is all to clear: The bad guys are the people wearing suits, who send the soldiers to Vietnam, then make them loose, by discarding them, and in the end it's all about PR. The US are the good guys, the Russians are the war hungry bad guys, and the Vietnamese are wild animals that are easy to kill... oh yeah, speaking of that: I also feel that the movie is rather stereotypical and in that sense a tad racist. Be it the so overdone and downright stupid fake accent of Julia Nixon, who has Asian roots but a native British father, is US-citizen and speaks perfect English, or the way this movie depicts the Vietnamese people (even the tagline does it by calling Vietnam "hell"), as well as the Russians. That alone wouldn't bother me to much - I mean, hey. It was the 80s, standards where different. But it adds up to all the other things I did not like about this movie.

And to close - we again get a kind of "nervous breakdown" monologue at the end, but while the monologue in the first movie comes unexpected, is ingeniously acted and makes you hold your breath, give you goosebumps and/or wet eye, this one will make you either laugh or yawn. Boy was that a bad attempt of tie this movie on to the first one. A really bad knockoff.

It really is a shame. I would have wanted to love this movie so much more. But 4/10 is the best I can do, honoring a) the few good scenes and b) the influence this movie had on pop culture. But I've rather seen Rambo III following into the footsteps of First Blood.

I haven't seen this movie for a really long time and just bought the new restoration from a 4k master on blu-ray and was happy to watch it. I thought it wouldn't be as good as I remembered it, because most of the time you realize that movies you liked in your childhood weren't actually that good.

That's however in no way true for Rambo (the German title of "First Blood" which is why I always got confused in the past when I heard the original title and thought that it was a part of the franchise I hadn't yet seen).

The restoration looks really good (except for some scenes that stand out because of their worse quality (mostly due to bad lightning in the original movie, I guess), and besides that, the movie is still really captivating, though it is in no way over the top. The car/motorcycle chase for instance - how unimpressive was the car flip or Rambo falling from the motorcycle? Still it was more captivating than a lot of modern movies with so overrealistic and fast paced cuts, that you just stop caring all together.

Also I totally forgot how funny Richard Crennas persona was: "God didn't make Rambo - I made him. I'm Sam Trautman - Colonel Samuel Trautman. I came to get my boy" - what an introduction :D And then follows a dick-measuring contest between Will Teasle and Sam Trautman. That is great acting. As is the acting of Brian Dennehy as the dislikable villain character - and of course we cannot forget the actin of our main character, portrayed by Sylvester Stalone - I also forgot how extremely moving the last scene was - I remembered that there was this critical moment when Rambo finally opens up to Trautman, but I forgot just how intense it was, and how unexpected it came. It feels somewhat displaced in a movie that builds up as an action movie with the underdog fighting the bad guys who unfortunately have the law on their side. And at the finale all of a sudden this change of tone - that is really bold, it's both strange but because of it strangeness so much deeper and better - as you are simply not prepared to what is going to happen. I always remember to feel sympathetic towards Vietnam veterans even though I am and always was a pacifist. I guess that is an impression that this movie left with me when I saw it the first time at my earlier teen years.

Last but not least I also really liked the sound track and the setting and locations are also really great. All in all a pretty good movie and factoring in that this movie had me so interested even though I've seen it a couple of times in my youth, and feeling that though it is so 80s it is still a movie that could captivate so many young audiences who have never seen this movie before, I am inclined to give it the best rating possible.

And because I mentioned the new blu-ray release: this is really worth a buy. There is more than 1,5 hours of extras, and these are pretty mixed - from the classics like interviews, making-ofs, trailers and featurettes to two serious documentaries, one on the Vietnam war and the other on the training of Green Barrets, as well as a fitness training featurette from the personal trainer for Rambo, there is a lot really interesting and unconventional ground covered. And the steelbook artwork looks just stunning as well :)

Willard is an extremely old movie, nearly 50 years old. Yet, even though it was pretty famous in its time and broke some records and influenced a number of movies to come, as also being fueling a genre with not yet many movies, it's rather unknown for most of the younger generations due to an rights issue due to which it wasn't also never released on neither VHS nor DVD. Fortunately this time is over now, and if you want to, you can get this movie in a stunning restoration on BD.

Judging such an old movie is often hard, what was cool effects then might be boring today and also acting and storytelling standards have since long changed. I can totally see how for new viewers Willard might not live up to the praises one might have heard. The movie isn't as thrilling and captive - it's even not an natural horror movie, even though this one influenced them heavily. It's rather a natural drama - the title giving boy "Willard" is in the center of the movie, his social awkwardness, not fitting in and being pushed around by everyone, until he finds his "release" by pushing around creatures of his own.

But there is a lot to this movie that one should take into consideration. First, and this is undesputabel - there are some great actors, most of all Ernest Borgnine, whom you will hate from the minute you see him. And then there is our main character Bruce Davison, who up to then did not have any acting role, kick-starting his career with this one. As for the rats, no tricks where used - they are all real, and in this movie 600 rats where actually used. These where not harmed - plastic rats where used whenever a scene was too dangerous. And because it is not possible to train rats, these could just be lured with tricks (like peanutbutter smears), and so a large number of scenes where improvised, and there are scenes that had 30 to 40 takes.

Willard was the first movie to ever use rats (many other natural horror movies with rats as protagonists followed), and set an precedence for many movies to come.

Given these background facts I am willing to add +1 points to my initial rating which would have been 6 points, totaling in 7/10. Definitely worth seeing if you are interested in movie history.

To put it up front: I am not a fan of boxing, it never really interested me. And thus I haven't even ever seen any of the Rocky movies. So you might think: "Why am I watching this? Can this review really be fair"?

Well, I can at least try? Give me a chance. The truth is: I really enjoyed this movie. I still cannot understand why everybody likes boxing so much - yet, this movie made it seem really interesting. The staging is really captivating, and the fight scenes look really authentic - it was a pain watching them bloodied up. It also had a lot of heart, and the actors where great. I like Tessa Thompson, I think she is a great actor - unfortunately she doesn't get much screen time and especially not much background - but hey: It's about Creed - and Michael B. Jordan is not only a good actor - he also makes you jealous as a man, because of his great physique. And Sylvester Stalone is also pretty decent.

All in all I was really entertained, would love to both, see the second movie in cinemas soon, as well as filling a gap in my cinematic education by watching the Rocky movie. What more can a movie like Creed hope to achieve? Keep in mind that I never ever was interested in boxing ;)

Worth your while!

7 Days in Entebbe is a movie that shows a dramatized version of the real historic events around a plain kidnapping and blackmailing that took place in 1967. Similar to movies like 13 Hours, this movie concentrates on planing a military coup to free the hostages, but different to other movies this one creates its drama by a theatrical dance piece.

This makes the movie unique when compared to other movies that you are used to. There will be a number of viewers that will probably be disappointed by this; others - like me will be extremely pleased by the fact to not have yet another movie concentrate on this story (that has been told in a couple of other movies already) the same way, but to actually have a movie that uses new innovative and intelligent aspects of art to dramatize a story that is otherwise heavily based on dialogue and personal emotions and personal doubt. that is what this movie focuses on heavily. We don't get classic good and evil - instead every character is put into a spectrum in which he decides to go to the one or the other direction, while not knowing if what they are doing is right or wrong. This is something that a few people critizise and I can understand it, because it makes the characters appear different than they where in reality. A lot of critics have pointed out that certain personality aspects are simply left out and that the historic personalities get off much better in the movie, downplaying the actual horror these people unleashed.

However in these situations I like to counter with this being not an accurate documentary but rather a entertaining movie. Movies are a form of art, and art is never something that is factually correct but always something that explores ideas and emotions, that points out certain aspects of life and explores them in great detail. This movie does nothing else. It presents us with characters that do extremely violent things but are still represented as the heroes, as a group of people that have a moral code, and that question their actions on every step and live with the consequences they unleash.

The movie is pretty captivating and interesting, even though it is heavily based on dialogue (which eventually starts to repeat itself) and where not much else is happening. It is captivating even though there is no action, no violence and no drama - which I think is a real achievement.

This of course needs good actors and we do get two really great actors. On top there is Rosamund Pike, who is not only acting extremely well (as I have no doubt since seeing here in Gone Girl), but also speaking a language that is not native to her. And she does so incredibly well - she has an accent of course, but after learning German only for this movie, that what she does here is incredible. It saddens me a bit, that only us Germans are able to actually appreciate this, and I hope so much that the German dubbing does not replace her original voice. Next to her we get german Actor Daniel Brühl, and he of course also is a great actor and one of my favorite. Other know actors include Eddie Marsan and Denis Ménochet, but non of them are really challenged in this movie, even though they are really good and provide believable performances.

And I really liked the dancing parts and the music. I had an earworm right after watching the movie and even looked up the theater group that performed for this movie - it is really good. And it really is something different.

Unfortunately I am pretty sure that this movie wont find many fans, but I recommend it to anyone open to seeing something different.

This movie is extremely hard to rate, as every word on the story will give away all the fun. You also probably shouldn't watch the trailer and additionally you shouldn't look up the other movie posters as they contain spoilers as well.

The only story you can know: "Rhiannon is a ~15 year old girl that is in an one-sides relationship with her boyfriend Justin. However, one day she gets to know a guy who turns around her entire life".

If you know me you also know that I don't have much love for romantic movies and romantic comedies and even less so if they are teenage romances (or romantic comedies). So it came as an absolute surprise to myself, that I actually liked this movie - which is due to its really strange and unusual story. This absurd idea makes the entire story totally interesting - however it is just revealed in the last third of the movie - two thirds you sit there and keep asking yourself what you are seeing and why you are seeing it and how this all fits together.

In the end, this isn't a classical teen romance story but touches aspects of the fantasy genre and explores a really strange kind of romance. And it's a really great idea and a great take.

There are a number of weaknesses though. Most of all, I think the movie doesn't explore it's idea deeply enough. The romance part is still the main aspect of the movie, and we get a large number of scenes that just focus on teenage romance. One could have shortened this part just a bit and instead could have gone deeper into the aspect of this personality, into the problems and into what this kind of romance actually means. It especially also has an aspect of unconventional love that could have also found a number of parallels to our modern society.

Also the story telling moves towards banality when getting towards the end, even though I liked the resolution.

To end on a positive note: The cast is really good - all of them young actors who despite lacking the experience are already great actors that probably have a great acting career in front of them.

It's not a movie that you'd had to have seen - still, anyone who loves the genre should definately watch this one as it will give you what you love but yet also give it an entirely new spin on things.

I was lucky to catch this movie in the sneak preview, otherwise I wouldn't have watched this one, as it did not seem to be any interesting.

I was expecting something in the direction of Bliar Witch Project when watching the trailer, and I though that as a found footage movie this would be as bad as all the other found footage movies I've seen (I am absolutely not a fan).

However, this was totally different and a total surprise for me - I found it to be pretty innovative to have the entire story told from the view of a computer screen (though now, having seen Unfriended, I have to see that it's actually not that original). The actor was pretty decent, the way of story telling worked really well and there where a number of surprises and turnarounds I did not expect.

The only criticism I have where those scenes that where a bit "too much", telling and showing the obvious to the viewer as long and in such detail that even the most stupidest person couldn't have missed it. You feel like the director thinks the viewers are extremely stupid sometimes. That was a bit unsatisfying but only a small flaw in an otherwise pretty great movie. It's really entertaining and a positive surprise. Definitely worth a watch!

In a prologue scene this movie starts by introducing the main characters an our team: A special task force that operates outside of the law and is supported by bleeding edge high tech gadgets, that allow them to infiltrate buildings without problems and leave as fast as they came, leaving no traces for the police to find.

We then get the background story of our main protagonist James Silva, portrayed by Mark Wahlberg, as timelapse in the opening titles, and then the story finally starts: Our main setting is Asia, we have Silvas team on a new mission - a raid goes totally wrong and Silva is extremely hard and unfair with his team (which he is the entire time from this point on). While at the US embassy from where the team operates, they get a visit from a local (portrayed by Iko Uwais) who has some important information for the team, that makes them want to dirve 22 miles through the city towards an airport. To do so they terminate their contracts and call out the "overwatch" operation - a voice over explains: Now our team is stateless and therefore they become something higher, something special, something overly patriotic. And of course these 22 miles become running the gauntlet....

I was looking really forward to this movie from the very first trailer, and I was totally in the mood for this movie as I was already watching M:I 1-6 and The Equalizer one and two, so I was in the mood for a good action movie. I also loved the premises: An paramilitary operation team operating in a foreign country being outnumbered while a catastrophe emerges - that reminds me of movies such as Black Hawk Down or 13 Hours which are two of my most favorite movies.

The action scenes on this movie are pretty realistic, it seems reasonable what each character can bear unless they break down (much better than most other action movies), the wounds look realistik and our team gets cut down one by one pretty fast. The action isn't reduced to only shootings and fast car chases, but also include man to man fights, and of course Iko Uwais is the guy that stands out most, who will show us some pretty crazy moves and fighting choreographies. These aspects as well as the question what this movie is probably aiming at story-wise make this movie really interesting to watch and also pretty entertaining.

However, the story is also the strongest negative aspect: It is incredible muddled, and many things have to be explained with an voice over from the off, so that the viewer gets whats actually going on. Also there is absolutely no character development, and the crew stays as shallow as possible, making nearly everybody replaceable. Therefore you also don't have any sympathies towards any of the characters, allowing for no emotional bonds to evolve and ultimately in the end you don't care about any of the characters dying, steeling those scenes the dramatic effect they should have had on the viewer. And even for the main character we hardly know anything, except for the view pointers in the opening titles, but that's not enough and even worse: His character is the most exaggerated and therefore does he not only become unsympathetic with the viewer but also unbelievable.

To add to the confusion, a number of story elements are told either via an interview with Silvas (that seems to be taking place in the future), or by cutting either into a top secret hight tech operation center, or an Russian aircraft (it is not explained why). These cuts are both unnecessary and often also don't bare any logic, and you could have left them out entirely and the movie would have still functioned. Even in these scenes with again high ranking actors such as John Malkovich, non of the characters is essential in any way and totally replaceable. And most of the dialogues either consist of exchanging hostilities or of technobabble.

And even though Uwais is great, after the first fighting scenes one will be pretty disappointed because most of the fighting takes place in the dark and additionally there is a lot of cuts, so that a lot of fun is taken out of these scenes.

And then there is the finale, which to me was a kick in the teeth. The resolution seems so artificially constructed, stupid and is also full of logic holes that it takes away a lot of the fun, as you start to believe that the filmmakers question your intelligence. Worst of all, it's an open end that seems to be made for a second part. In no way was this satisfying.

This movie had great potential but wastes it entirely.

The main character in this movie is a Captain Joseph Blocker (portrayed by Christian Bale) , a veteran in the wild west, who is a living legend for his merits in the American Indian Wars with an reputation as a ruthless killer. Waiting for his retirement he gets one last mission, that goes against his entire believes and that he only attends because he would be court marshalled and lose his pension if he doesn't: After 7 years of imprisonment the Cheyenne war chief and arch enemy Yellow Hawk should be brought to a reservoir, and Blocker and his company are task with safely escorting the war chief through enemy territory controlled by warring Comanche Indians.

This movie has totally conviced me. The storytelling is sensitive and precise, and is supported by really great imagery of the landscape - if you can, watch it on the big screen. This visually stunning picture is supported by a great and fitting score. Even though the movie is really long and mostly really slowly, it is not boring at any time. There are a few action scenes but they are sparse and most scenes are slow and quiet, as the main focus of this movie is what our characters go through emotionally and how they are believes are challenged during this mission, as well as how they cope with the things happening to then during this mission.

For this to work, the movie needs good actors and of course with Christian Bale we get a high class actor that delivers an absolutely great performance: Wow. He's supported by Rosamund Pike who actingwise is his equal. Both of them have a great chemistry going on, and it is ingenious how often they converse just with looks and gestures, without seeing a word - yet the viewer gets exactly what's going on, what the characters feel and think. They do this so well that at the end I had goosebumps when for instance Pike looks thoughtful and melancholic, then tears starts running over her face and in the next moment, she wipes them away, contains herself and puts on a natural smile. Wow.

It is really seldom that I feel like clapping in cinemas, but here I did. This is an absolute recommendation beyond the typical blockbuster mainstream, absolutely worth watching. Great movie!