The profession of investigative journalist is a challenging one. You have to get information that others want to keep a secret and you run a lot of risk to get it and publish it. When your research has to do with the government, who then does everything possible to make sure it isn’t published, it is a battle of interests. The government is ultimately elected by the people, but on the other hand there may be secrets that are of national importance. On the other hand there is the freedom of the press, which should be able to write about anything. We saw the collision of interests in the past few months, for example in America, where the president rejected certain news organizations because they had written about him in a way that did not fit him. That is, however, of all times, as The Post shows. Continue reading
Tag Archives: score: 7
Rampage (2018) – Review
Here we go again, another videogame movie! The track record this genre of movies has is extremely poor and naming great movies is almost impossible. There have been enjoyable ones (still got a soft spot for the original Mortal Kombat), but usually they end up being very disappointing. There are various reasons for this, but usually you don’t play videogames for their stories. Videogames were never that cinematic and although that has been slowly changing it has always been about a player having fun executing the action which is happening on screen. Rampage was a game which basically had no story at all, except that you could control a giant monster which could smash buildings and eat people. It was all about the action, so the makers of this film only needed to do that right in order to stay true to the game. But as showing all action doesn’t work (I’m looking at you Michael Bay), some story is needed as well. Continue reading
Tomb Raider (2018) – Review
Two months ago I decided to take a break from blogging on my Dutch site. I did this for various reasons and have not returned writing and it has given me a lot of time to spend on other things which aren’t movie related, including gaming. If you’ve been reading this blog for a longer time you might know I’ve been gaming since Pong machines, but during the last couple of years I didn’t play as much anymore. With my newly found “extra time” though I decided to play some games I had bought and once started (probably something like three years ago).
One of them was 2013’s Tomb Raider, an very good looking game which was a reboot for the franchise. It made the character a more realistic person, both physically and in her reactions to what she was going through. She was very vulnerable. The game quickly got me hooked and I finished it within two weeks and found out there was a sequel available (Rise of the Tomb Raider), which I immediately ordered. It was even better and I finished that yesterday. Wanting to head to the cinema I asked my oldest daughter pick out a movie she wanted to see, which happened to be Tomb Raider. With both games really fresh in my mind I was interested in seeing if it would follow the same storyline and portray the character in a similar way. Continue reading
Gifted (2017) – Review
Although the director of (500) Days of Summer had a lot of success with this film, his two Spider-man movies starring Andy Garfield weren’t what a lot of people were expecting. Webb returned to his roots with this smaller film, Gifted starring Chris Evans. Continue reading
My Name is Nobody (2018) – Review
At the start of this documentary an Italian restaurant waitress shows the viewer the many pictures plastering the walls. She explains which celebrities are shown, who have all visited the place in the past. During that moment you realise that that knowledge about those people in the pictures, once she is gone, will be lost forever. The people on the pictures were famous during the height of their careers, but they also, unless they played a very important role in history, will be forgotten within decades. And with that the pictures lose their meaning as well.
Director Denise Janzée tries to do the reverse here, based on a picture. It is a world famous photo of a class showing two little boys, who will later turn out to be icons of Italian cinema: Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in America) and composer Ennio Morricone, who wrote a lot of iconic movie scores. Between the two little boys there is a third. There is a name written on the picture in pen, but besides that nothing is known about him. Is it possible to find out more about his life based on that name and the picture? Continue reading
Black Mirror – Season 4 review: Metalhead
If you keep up with the technology news, you’ve probably heard of Boston Dynamics and their robot creations. It started with Big Dog that has been developed into Spot and the Spot Mini . But also creations like Handle , Atlas to the almost frightening Wildcat. Where these developments will possibly end is the subject of this episode of Black Mirror. Continue reading
Bushwick (2017) – Review
Not every film is a masterpiece, but that is not necessary. It is sometimes wonderful to just watch a stupid comedy or simple action movie. When those kind of movies can entertain you, they have achieved their goal. I did not know in advance what I could expect from this action film, in which Dave Bautista and Brittany Snow play the main roles, but I was able to have a great time with it. Continue reading
Bright (2017) – Review
Last year Netflix was involved in a fierce battle around Bright’s rights. They eventually managed to offer more than big studios like Warner Brothers and MGM and payed 90 million dollars for this title. The film is directed by David Ayer, who seems to specialize in police dramas (End of Watch, Training Day, Street Kings) and also major films such as Fury and Suicide Squad, is a title for which expectations were high. With famous actors in the main roles, Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace, this is the type of blockbuster for which you would normally head to the cinema. Now you can see it at home after a few clicks on your remote control.
It’s something not everyone is happy about (last year there was a heated discussion at the Cannes Film Festival about what services such as Netflix mean for film in general. Of course the convenience of watching it at home is very nice, but is Bright a title that is worth watching? Continue reading
The 80s: The Decade That Made Us (2013) – Review
Time flies and sometimes I sometimes forget that not everyone I know has experienced the 1980s consciously. For me, that was the biggest part of my childhood and it means that the songs of cartoons like MASK, Inspector Gadget, He-Man or series like Knight Rider, ALF and The A-Team manage to make me nostalgic. But this decade was, of course, so much more than that and this documentary series by National Geographic takes the viewer through an important period in six episodes, which would form the blueprint for the world today. Continue reading
Birth of a Nation (1915) – Review
I have to admit that I wasn’t really looking forward to watching Birth of a Nation. Because of its racism it is a controversial movie, but at the same time it’s also one which has been very important to the medium of film. Plus it’s also a movie with a running time of tree hours, which is very long for a silent movie. I decide to take my time watching it on a lazy Saturday afternoon and just experience it. Continue reading