My Filmviews

My opinion about the movies I watch, your reaction

Delgo (2008)

Review of the animated movie Delgo

If it wasn’t for the its reputation, I would have never known about Delgo. Chances are you have never heard of it either, but it’s a movie known as one of the biggest wide-screen release flops of all time. This 40 million dollar animated movie opened in over 2000 screens and only made around 500,000 dollars in its first weekend. Now I’m not someone who cares much for numbers, because they don’t say a thing about quality, but for this movie I was intrigued. Why were they so bad, was it badly marketed, a movie released at the wrong time or just a really bad movie? Continue reading

Steamboy (2004)

Steamboy (2004) review

Steam. You might think the good old days when it was used to propel trains and boats are over and that it’s a technology of the past, but you’d be mistaken as it’s still used in nuclear powerplants to get the generators going. To me it’s amazing to think that such an old idea is still in use today. Steamboy is an anime in which steam is seen as the future and can be used for progress. Continue reading

Mary and Max (2009)

Looking at the screenshot above you might not know what to think of this movie. I probably would not have giving this movie a chance if I hadn’t seen it in the IMDB top 250. It made me curious about it, but didn’t get around to ordering it (usually buy my movies online). As I strolled through town I saw it in the window of a small record store and immediately went in to buy it. So is it any good? Continue reading

Arrietty (2010)

Studio Ghibli can turn normal situations into something special. In My Neighbour Totoro it made you believe that friendly monsters lived in trees, and in other movies that you can end up in unseen, hidden worlds (The Cat Returns or Spirited Away) and with Arrietty they try to convince us that small people live underneath our houses. They live on the things they borrow from us, which would be a perfect explanation why I have so many single socks, I guess they must be using them as sleeping bags or something. Continue reading

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Tron: Legacy was a movie that had a lot of promotion. Disney had high expectations of the sequel to the 1982 original and threw a lot of money at marketing the film. It was almost impossible to not know the movie was coming. If you didn’t see the posters, you would see the toys, the games or other products. Even when I bought my Nokia N8 it had some clips of the movie installed on it. The phone also appeared in the film itself, so it’s logical, but it does show the reach Disney has to get you to notice this film. Luckily I don’t judge movies based on their marketing and promotion, because if I would have done that this movie would have surely received a 10. Of course the most important question is whether or not Tron: Legacy is a good movie. Continue reading

Megamind (2010)

Through the years the focus of most movies has been on the good guys. Of course there have been some exceptions like the Emperor’s New Groove or the more recent Despicable Me, where the villain was the focus of the movie. Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell) is next villain to star in an animated movie, fighting he arch-enemy Metro Man (Brad Pitt). Metro Man is the superman of Metro City, which really annoys Megamind.
The two have been fighting for years, with Metro Man constantly winning. Megamind just keeps going until one of his plans suddenly seems to work and finally he can claim victory and is able to make his dreams come true. He takes over the city and is able to execute all his evil plans. This initially feels good, but the feeling doesn’t last long. Continue reading

Tangled (2010)

Tangled is based on the brothers Grimm story of Rapunzel. Disney has taken this original story and modified it heavily. Rapunzel’s hair is magical and can give back youth and heal wounds when a magical song is sung. Rapunzel also doesn’t stay in her tower as long as was the case in the original story and there is no prince involved.
Did Disney change too much of the story or has it managed to give it a nice new twist to give it a breath of fresh air? Continue reading

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

The second world war has had a big impact on Japan. It lost a lot of power, cities were left in ruins and the military was no longer important. I’ve been to Hiroshima and was at the spot above which the atom bomb was detonated and if you see that place and the accompanying museum you are really at a loss for words. I had the same thing when I visited the Tokyo war museum, in which there were a couple of rooms with the walls lined with only pictures of people who lost their lives during the war. It has made a big impression on me.

Grave of the Fireflies tells the personal story of Setsuko and Seita, brother and sister who try to survive the war. The loss of their mother has already changed their lives, but because of it Setsuko is forced to leave the town and take care of his little sister. As the Americans keep bombarding the country it is very hard to survive as there is hardly anything to eat. Every day they have to search for a way to survive. Continue reading