My Filmviews

My opinion about the movies I watch, your reaction

Tag Archives: Documentary

Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)
8 comments

review documentary Murder on a Sunday (2001)

I’m always fascinated by documentaries which show the justice system at work. Maybe it’s because I studied law, but the process always is interesting to watch (even though all my knowledge of the American system comes from movies) and Murder on a Sunday Morning shows a lot of that. The case is about an elderly couple who was on holiday in Florida. They were at their motel and a black man robbed them, killing the wife. The man gave out a description and only 90 minutes later 15-year-old Brenton Butler is arrested and positively ID’ed by the husband and the police have a signed confession. It seems like a closed case and is taken to trial. When that trial starts it becomes clear that it is all but a closed case and that the police might have not done everything they should have. Continue reading →

Unraveled (2011)
4 comments

Review of the documentary Unraveled

When you hear the name Bernie Madoff, you probably immediately think about a white-collar criminal who lost his clients billions of dollars (an estimated 18 of them). The name Marc Dreier might not be known, but Madoff is the reason you might not know him. Only shortly after Marc Dreier was arrested everyone started looking at Madoff, but Dreier also was caught for financial crimes (also hundreds of millions). He did so with his law firm and over the years managed to get more money then he should have by fraudulent behaviour. The risks he was taking were getting bigger and bigger and because of the financial crisis he was finally caught. This documentary was shot when he was under house arrest awaiting his trial and has him talking about what he did and how he feels about it. Continue reading →

Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
12 comments

Review of the documentary Searching for Sugar Man

Some stories are almost too strange to be real, but this documentary tells one that will have you captivated. This movie is about Rodriguez, a musician I had never heard of before. He’s an American artist who never made it there, but who played a big part in the history of South Africa. He had a big following there and any serious South African record collector has to have his records besides those of greats like the Beatles. Unlike the Beatles though no one seemed to know anything about him. Not where he lived or even if he was still alive. There were crazy stories about how he had died, but nothing could be confirmed. Until two people decided to find the truth about him. Continue reading →

West of Memphis (2012)
4 comments

Review of the documentary West of Memphis

Last year I watched and reviewed the Paradise Lost trilogy, three documentaries about the Memphis Three. These boys (16,17 and 18) were the suspects in a the murder case of three 8-year-old boys. They went to trial and were convicted. The movies were hard to watch because of the subject matter, but were very important, because they made a case that the three convicted boys might be innocent. The case got international attention and through the years the documentary makers kept coming back to the case with new insights, which eventually set them all free. West of Memphis also looks at the case and the question is whether it brings anything new to the table after watching the 400 minutes of Paradise Lost documentaries. Continue reading →

The Island President (2011)
2 comments

As many of you know I live in the Netherlands. It’s a country which is mostly below sea level, but through good watermanagement the dutch have managed to keep it all dry. I personally live at one of the lowest points of the country (more than 6 meters below sea level), so this documentary was an interesting watch. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives also has an issue with water, only he has the problem that his country consists of many small islands and as the sea level is slowly increasing and washing away parts of the country he’s got a very big problem. If nothing is done the country will disappear under the sea. This documentary looks at his struggle to convince other countries to change the CO2 emissions to slow down the effects global warming has on the sea level. Continue reading →

Cinemania (2002)
8 comments

Review of the documentary Cinemania

As a movie blogger we all have a healthy “obsession” with movies. Most of us love reading about upcoming movies, checking out the latest trailers and discuss the latest movies we’ve seen. Movies are a big part of our lives, but there are people where that healthy “obsession” turns into something which takes over their entire lives. Cinemania looks at 5 of these people in New York who’s lives only revolve about going to the cinema. Continue reading →

The Imposter (2012)
8 comments

Review of the documentary The Imposter

When you are a parent, one of the most frigtening experiences is when you can’t find your child. With three kids in the house it’s one we haved experienced twice, with one of the kids not being home at the time we agreed upon. You wait a bit longer, but when they don’t show up a sense of panic starts to develop and you go out of the house to try and locate them. When you can’t you really start to freak out and even if you try to stay positive you can’t help thinking of the worst. The family of Nicholas Barclay has experienced that situation and weren’t able to find him anymore. To their surprise the got a call a couple of years later out of Spain where they heard that Nicholas was found. They must have been overjoyed by it and went to pick him up, but as the title of this documentary already suggests, they didn’t meet the person who they thought they were meeting. Continue reading →

The Queen of Versailles (2012)
3 comments

The financial crisis has had a big impact on the world during the last couple of years with people losing their jobs and homes, banks disappearing and a real estate market which isn’t as healthy anymore as it once was. As this documentary shows though, it has also hit the rich and powerful. David Siegel has been very succesful in building his Westgate Resorts empire by timesharing luxury apartments. He has earned millions which he would use in constructing new buildings resulting in one of the big towers in Las vegas, which cost him 400 million dollars. He claims he’s so powerful that he is responsible for president Bush getting re-elected, which he admits doing in a way which probably is illegal.

He lives in a huge house together with his wife and 8 children and together they decided they wanted a new house. They wrote down what they wanted in their new house and inspired by a trip to France they want it to resemble Versailles. They had so many wishes for the house that once building started it turned out that it would become the biggest house in America. When you look at the numbers, 90,000 square-foot or 8360-square-metre it’s hard to imagine how big that is. They payed for it in cash and immediately put a mortgage on the unfinished building to invest in the company. They were on their way of realising a huge dream, until the financial crisis happened and everything was halted. Continue reading →

Pink Ribbons Inc. (2011)
6 comments

Review breast cancer documentary

Breast cancer is something I’m sure everyone is aware of and Pink Ribbon has been a big reason for creating that awareness. It’s a horrible disease, which unfortunately still can’t be prevented, only diagnosed and treated through chemotherapy, radiation and amputation and still that doesn’t give complete guarantees. It’s a disease which has hit close to home as my grandmother died from it years ago after treatment started too late and it hit even closer to home when my mother was diagnosed with it a couple of months back. Luckily she is a very strong woman and is going through all the steps (having her last chemo two weeks ago and starting radiation soon). Continue reading →

Mansome (2012)
18 comments

Mansome is the latest documentary from Morgan Spurlock, who is known for his light-hearted way of making documentaries. They are usually more entertaining than informative and if you know this going in they can be very entertaining. This documentary is all about male grooming. What makes a man a man? Continue reading →