Onward (2020) – Review

Onward review

The current corona crisis has not only changed daily life, the impact on the film industry is also enormous. Film companies can no longer make new films and titles that are about to be released are postponed, sometimes even by a year. Other titles, the films that are not blockbusters, will appear on VOD platforms without ever seeing the cinema (or only very shortly before the closure of cinemas). One of those titles was Pixar’s Onward, which was recently available for rent in America and is now available on Disney. Continue reading

One Cut of the Dead (2017) – Review

One cut of the dead recensie

A huge number of films are released every year. Many will never receive much attention and no one will remember them. And even if they get attention, it doesn’t have to mean they’re actually memorable. I myself occasionally see in my statistics on this site titles of films that no longer ring a bell, even though I have written a review about it. Only when viewing the stills do I only remember which one it was. However, the reverse also happens. Films that also came out in a specific year, which received little or no attention, but have managed to build a name over the years. That’s the case for the Japanese zombie movie One Cut of the Dead. I kept reading positive messages about it. After watching the film, those are quite justified, this is a movie made for film lovers to enjoy. Continue reading

The Gentlemen (2019) – Review

The Gentlemen recensie

Although director Guy Ritchie has been working for more than 20 years now and is responsible for titles such as Aladdin, The Man from UNCLE, and the Sherlock Holmes movies, it’s his first two movies that are still my favorite. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch were delightful British gangster films that stood out for their pacing and humor. With The Gentlemen, Ritchie returns to his roots. Continue reading

6 Underground (2019) – Review

6 underground review

You can interpret the above spectacular photo of the Netflix movie 6 Underground in a number of ways. Visually your eyes are immediately drawn to it. Why is an Audi flying through the air? Are those explosions or did someone just play with fireworks? What is actually going on here? Especially the latter is a question that I regularly ask myself when I see a Michael Bay movie. A director who is able to create visually attractive images, but then pastes so many in a row that you as a viewer sometimes lose the overview. When it comes to depth storywise it’s often lacking and because of that the action often feels empty. Does Bay manage to restrain himself a bit here? Continue reading

The Art of Self-Defense (2019) – Review

The art of self defense recensie

I think Jesse Eisenberg is an actor who generally has little variation in the type of roles he plays. They are often of uncertain or clumsy types. If you have seen an actor do something a lot, a kind of tiredness can develop. You simply don’t feel like seeing the same thing again. If you look at the trailer of The Art of Self-Defense, that would be enough reason to skip the film. Still, I didn’t and I have to conclude that this is one of my favorite films of the year. Continue reading

The Farewell (2019) – Review

The farewell recensie

When The Farewell opens with the text “based on an actual lie”, the viewer has no idea what to expect. Does this have to be interpreted comically? Or is that not the intention? It soon becomes clear what is going on. Billi (Akwafina) is calling her grandmother in China. What is immediately noticeable is that they both do not tell each other the truth. The grandmother does not tell her granddaughter that she is in the hospital for an MRI examination of her lungs, Billi tells her that everything is going well with her and meets friends while that is not the case. Lies are a common thread throughout the film. However, the biggest lie is that Billi’s grandmother has lung cancer, but the family decides not to tell her. The whole family travels to China, supposedly for a cousin’s wedding, to visit her one last time. Continue reading

Shazam! (2019) – Review

Shazam film recensie

After Wonder Woman and Aquaman, DC slowly starts to move away from the extremely dark settings that Zack Snyder, among others, created. A positive development and this movie continues that line with perhaps the most colorful film (at least in terms of marketing), Shazam!. The character was once more popular than Superman (and was originally called Captain Marvel). DC started a lawsuit against the publisher in the 1940s (because Captain Marvel looked too much like Superman) and eventually bought the rights. Despite that eventful history, it is the first time that Shazam! appears on the large screen. Does director David F. Sandberg succeed in making it memorable? Continue reading

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019) – Review

Between Two Ferns the movie recensie

The web series Between Two Ferns, in which Zach Galifianakis interviews famous people in a very special way, has always been entertaining to watch. By means of his questions he actually criticizes the other and makes them more or less embarrassed, but his guests like to play along. The short format resulted in a lot of funny moments and it now has made the transition to a full movie on Netflix. But does such a concept work if you have to fill 82 minutes? Continue reading