Roger's Watchlist - Movies by the day

April 27 2024

I remember quite clearly that I was genuinely shocked when Last Action Hero was revealed as a mega flop at the US box office. I just could not understand this because I had a great time in the theater and now, more than 30 years later I found myself having a blast watching the movie again, laughing at the funny premise, marveling about all the great cameos (Tina Turner, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick or Sir Ian McKellen for example), the Easter Eggs all over the movie (Stallone as Terminator…) and the satirical look at the movie industry. Of course the origin of this disaster were my friends the idiot critics who did not understand any satire element. Schwarzenegger was executive producer here, he admitted being very hurt by the reception of the movie. However the financial bad response in the US was more than compensated by a great success in Europe and the rest of the World. Today the movie has somewhat of a cult status, it had a great cast alongside Arnold featuring Charles Dance as the villain, with Anthony Quinn, F.Murray Abraham (“The guy who killed Moe Zart”), Tom Noonan, Bridgette Wilson and Mercedes Ruehl. Last Action Hero remains a great action movie, it has a tongue in cheek humor that is rarely equalled and just can’t really age.

Story : 9,27 Cast : 9,14 Entertainment : 9,42

Note : 9,28

April 26 2024

Did post war Germany start the tradition to put chart-topping singers as leads into movies even though they couldn’t act? Well, many German comedies during the 1950’s, mostly lightweight musical fodder, used about every popular singing talent and even Hollywood jumped on that wagon when they started casting Elvis Presley or Ricky Nelson in movies. This particular movie, Freddy, die Gitarre und das Meer featured Freddy Quinn, an Austrian singer having gained popularity in Germany with songs about abroad adventures, life on the world seas and the never ending yearning for home soil. Quinn was not an actor, he basically played himself, but his 8 movies which he did until 1964 were all box office hits because the movies reflected Quinn’s own life and the life every average German longed for. This particular movie had Quinn play a seaman stranded in Hamburg trying to reach Canada but falling in love with a feisty waitress and meeting a young orphan on the lam. It surely isn’t a masterpiece but it has a more realistic tones than the kitschy musicals that were dumped on German audiences and it surely is watchable.

Story : 6,44 Cast : 5,87 Entertainment : 6,22

Note : 6,18

April 25 2024

In 2005, tired and annoyed by what he perceived as greediness of American movie studios who were only interested in big budget productions with great benefit potential, Woody Allen, who had made movies only in and around New York city for all of his career, decided to go to London to find financial backers and direct movies in the UK. After Match Point which proved to be one of his greatest successes in the new century, Allen decided to direct and return to acting alongside Scarlett Johannsson and Hugh Jackman in a light hearted crime comedy called Scoop in which a supernatural encounter leads journalist wannabe Johannsson on an investigation involving rich guy Jackman who might be a serial killer. Allen chose to portray Sid Waterman a small time magician who assists the young journalist in her endeavors. The idea for the movie and the execution are rather cute, so is the chemistry between Jackman and Johannsson. Now whenever Allen chose to step in front of the camera, his character was that of the nervous guy full of complexes, basically playing himself, which is the case in Scoop as well. That is sometimes very funny but it can be very tiresome as well. Here it is unfortunately the latter. I do think that Allen in front of the camera makes director Allen’s movie worse. Some call it one of his worst movies but despite Allen’s acting antics, I rather liked the goofiness of the plot, I adored Scarlett Johannsson and I’d take this Allen movie anytime over his dreary dramas.

Story : 7,31 Cast : 6,31 Entertainment : 6,55

Note : 6,72

April 24 2024

In the late sixties the Western genre in the US was clearly on the decline, while Sergio Leone vowed audiences with his movies. Yet Hollywood had some more aces up their sleeve and in 1967 Rough Night in Jericho was such an exception. It features Dean Martin in the rather unusual role here as the baddie, while the lead hero part was taken by George Peppard with Jean Simmons and John McIntire co-starring. The theme of the movie was indeed rather stereotypical, the outsider taking on the town tyrant, but the whole movie is extremely well acted, doesn’t let up at all and keeps the viewer on edge. Martin is a deliciously menacing villain and throughout the first half of the movie when the two leads seem to be cozying up to each other you would seemingly root more for Dean than for George. This is assuredly one of the better Western productions at that particular time period, it surely is not responsible for the further downfall of the genre in the US.

Story : 7,24 Cast : 7,73 Entertainment : 7,79

Note : 7,59

April 23 2024

In 2025 we will have the pleasure to see the 5th installment of the Tuche movie series, a series which started very innocently with a rather unnoticed theater run back in 2011. It would take 5 years for a sequel to see the light of day only because the original gained a fan fellowship due to TV transmissions and DVD rentals. So, in 2016 it was time. The American Dream hit the ‘white trash’ French family who had hit a 100 million lotto jackpot and subsequent to events in the first movie had sent their prodigal youngest son to tne US. On a whim, our proletarian family departs for the States with the expected chaos and mayhem following them. Let’s say that the first movie had grown on me during its runtime because I did not know what to expect. Here, I knew full well what would happen and I liked the sequel quite a bit more than the original. The filmmakers had been lucky to reunite the actors from the original movie around lead actor Jean Paul Rouve. If you like this kind of humor paired with a great dose of satirical winks to today’s society, especially the typical American greed, then you will have a good time.

Story : 6,27 Cast : 5,43 Entertainment : 7,11

Note : 6,27

April 22 2024

I was hoping for a movie like One Week with Marilyn when opting for Daliland, where a specific time in a celebrity’s life would be retold in an interesting portrait. Obviously, this feature took on a period in the life of one of the most well known painting artists of all time, Salvador Dali, interpreted by Sir Ben Kingsley. The story of Daliland concentrates on the 1970’s, when the artist lived in a NY hotel, strapped for cash to sustain his extravagant lifestyle and numerous parties. The story is told through the eyes of a young assistant, yet except for Kingsley’s portrayal of the painter, there is absolutely nothing to take from this picture except a seemingly endless party sequences, a few jealousy fights between Dali and his wife Gala, played by Barbara Sukowa, and the everlasting search for cash. I’d have hoped to get a more insightful look into Dali, but this movie just can’t deliver. So let us hope for a real biopic and forget this one quickly.

Story : 4,25 Cast : 5,87 Entertainment : 3,87

Note : 4,66

April 21 2024

After watching Taylor Hackford’s Against All Odds I did understand how Phil Collins’ song that concludes the movie went on to become a worldwide chartbreaker while the movie couldn’t really ignite any fireworks. Let’s face it, it is too long, the plot is too difficult to follow during the latter half, stylish boredom all around. It is quite telling that a 5 minute car race between James Woods and Jeff Bridges characters is about the best sequence of the whole movie and if Rachel Ward had not been the female lead, I am pretty sure that the movie would have fared worse than finishing the 39th highest grossing movie of 1984. Bridges and Woods don’t really do much for the story, only Richard Widmark and Jane Greer (an actress who played Rachel Ward’s part in the 1947 noir Out of the Past of which Against All Odds is a remake) make welcome appearances. In essence, Against All Odds is quite a disappointment, I will have a look at the original 1947 despite my dissatisfaction with this remake.

Story: 6,03 Cast : 6,11 Entertainment : 6,01

Note : 6,05

April 20 2024

How is it possible that every big critical and box office bomb does not really deserve harsh treatment in my view? For me, Argylle is fun through and through. Sure, sometimes it comes over as a bit silly, but once again I tell myself that I watch movies to have fun and not to write page long essays trying to convince myself that a movie is bad. Bryce Dallas Howard plays a successful spy novel author who gets suddenly drawn into the real world of espionage when the stories in her books seem to become awfully close to real events. A flurry of action ensues in a story carrying quite a lot of twists and turns in a movie featuring an eclectic cast. Henry Cavill and John Cena play Howard’s incarnations of her literary heroes while Sam Rockwell is the real life spy trying to protect the writer. Add to these actors Catherine O’Hara, Bryan Cranston, Ariana DeBose, Sofia Boutella and Samuel L. Jackson and you can understand that director Matthew Vaughn had big plans for this feature with another movie teased in a mid-credits sequence. With disastrous box office results, I doubt that any sequel will happen which is a real shame. By the way, the blonde villain LaGrange in the opening sequence is singer Dua Lipa. What an appearance.

Story : 7,63 Cast : 8,84 Entertainment : 8,22

Note : 8,23

April 20 2024

It’s Michael Douglas against the Japanese. Ridley Scott’s 1989 movie clearly targets the cultural, social and historical differences between the Western countries, especially the US and Japan. Douglas’ NY cop is full of prejudices against any foreign culture and a few scenes do feel awkward today in this new social climate, yet seemed an acceptable story ingredient back in 1989. Besides this Black Rain is a tight crime movie whose plot does necessitate some attention from the viewer. It does not live on its action scenes alone, it is also a study on both Michael Douglas’ and Andy Garcia’s characters when confronted with their Japanese counterparts. Ken Takakura who plays detective Masahiro does an excellent job opposite the whirlwind that is Michael Douglas here. Black Rain became a box office success and another hit for Ridley Scott after Alien and Blade Runner, his next movie would be called Thelma & Louise. Great entertainment but no popcorn movie.

Story : 6,84 Cast : 7,29 Entertainment : 7,47

Note: 7,20

April 19 2024

True Crime these days is one of the hottest topics in media. Podcasts, TV series, documentaries, streaming platforms, True Crime is everywhere. This movie refers to yet another dark chapter in the history of US serial killers. At the end of the 1940’s, Raymond Martinez Fernandez and Martha Beck would become known as the Lonely Hearts Killers for meeting their unsuspecting victims through personal ads, posted in newspaper lonely hearts columns. Lonely Hearts spends a big part of its runtime following the detectives on the case, how they came onto the murderous couple and how they finally managed to arrest them. John Travolta, James Gandolfini and Scott Caan play these cops while Jared Leto and Selma Hayek star as the murderous couple. The movie recounts the criminal facts for which the couple was ultimately convicted yet does not delve into speculation about any other murders (the number of suspected victims was close to 20) even though for artistic license it shows Leto commit some murders which in truth never happened. In the end, Lonely Hearts is an interesting look back at another sad episode of madness and crime. I just wondered how they came to cast Hayek as Martha Beck. Beck was an obese, not very good looking woman and the fact that Selma Hayek was chosen to portray her is quite bizarre. I venture to say that filmmakers were intent to make Beck a good looking character to attract viewers, they should have stuck to the historic truth.

Story : 7,04 Cast : 6,31 Entertainment : 6,06

Note : 6,47

April 18 2024

When I first heard of Underwater, I thought it would be a bit like Sylvester Stallone’s Daylight (Tunnel catastrophe) and this is also how the movie starts when an apparent earthquake devastates a deep sea drilling station deep down in the Mariana Trench. The whole frantic scramble for rescue by the surviving crew which includes Kristen Stewart, Vincent Cassel and T.J. Miller soon morphs into an Alien homage though when unidentified species, not the nicest animals, attack the human and start decimating the survivors. Finally we cross over into clear Guillermo del Toro territory for the final act when the cause of the ‘earthquake’ becomes obvious. At the end I wished that the filmmakers had kept the rescue storyline because the undersea monsters just didn’t really tick my senses and the end does indeed seem quite ridiculous. The parallels to Alien meanwhile become obvious as the story goes on, acting is quite good, especially Stewart and Cassel are doing their bit to keep the story flowing. Interesting fact though. This was the last movie being released as a 20th Century Fox movie in 2020 before Disney’s takeover. Even more interesting: The movie was actually shot in 2017 and lay dormant for the better part of 2 years.

Story : 6,02 Cast : 6,58 Entertainment : 5,72

Note : 6,11

April 17 2024

Les ripoux was a huge public success in France back in the 80’s, its sequel Ripoux contre ripoux released in 1990 suffered a bit from the fact that the original movie’s plot was basically thrown out to arrange a sequel which was never really planned. Astonishingly, it took then 13 years for a third part to see the light of day. Director Claude Zidi managed to come up with a story that enticed actors Thierry Lhermitte and Philippe Noiret (in one of his last movies before his death in 2006) to come back.Ripoux 3 is a great homage to these two characters, manages to tell a great funny story and looks fresh even though Noiret does show his age, which makes him even more sympathetic. This is a fitting end to the history of the two cops with golden hearts. Unfortunately Ripoux 3 was not a big success in theaters, it lost money and even without the death of Philippe Noiret the saga would have ended there. Ripoux 3 is a movie I liked a lot and does not deserved a harsh treatment by critics and public alike.

Story: 7,27 Cast : 7,42 Entertainment : 8,27

Note: 7,65

April 16 2024

I did not really know what struck me more with Becky. The audacity of screenwriters to let a 13 year old girl dispense so much bloody violence or seeing Kevin James made up as a Nazi extremist with swastika tattoos. Actually, the comedian is quite good in the villain’s part, it might just go against him that his increasing dialogue throughout the runtime makes the Doug Heffernan shine through. It’s any actor’s curse who has been successful for so many years in the same part. Kevin James’ appearance aside, Becky is just the style of gory revenge thriller that I do really appreciate. The fact that the main character doing the gory stuff is Becky a 13 year old teenager with serious issues adds even more zest to an otherwise a bit sterotypical structure which has been used in so many movies of the same genre. Lulu Wilson the actress had her fair share of appearances in horror movies prior to playing Becky: Deliver Us From Evil, Ouija, Origin of Evil, Annabelle: Creation are just a few features she has starred in. However, it seems that the Becky character has had the most impact on her career as the success of this movie triggered a sequel: The Wrath of Becky.

Story : 7,38 Cast : 7,42 Entertainment : 8,24

Note : 7,68

April 15 2024

I did not know anything about this movie when I picked up the Blu-Ray, the title hinted at time travel and I really did not expect a lot but it just was an absolute joy to watch. Made during pandemic times Le visiteur du futur is based on a Web series, later a TV series that ran for 50 episodes. The movie is basically a follow-up to the episodes but any prior knowledge is not necessary. I was laughing hard just after the first 3 minutes and honestly, I kept smiling or laughing throughout the 100 minute runtime. I guess that filmmakers did not really have the biggest budget but the multilayered and colorful sets are extremely well done. The humorous plot makes you forget quite quickly that most actors were unknown to me, and you’ll enjoy the movie as it is, a great, well paced ride.

Story : 8,49 Cast : 6,24 Entertainment : 8,79

Note : 7,84

April 14 2024

Together with Lola (1981) and Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss (1982), Die Ehe der Maria Braun makes up what is known as the BRD trilogy by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, movies in which the congenial director took on stories set in the late 1940’s and 1950’s those years which saw the genesis of the new Bundesrepublik Deutschland. In this one, the first trilogy movie, Fassbinder sets his eyes on Maria Braun, a young woman played by Hanna Schygulla learning to adapt to the harsh realities of postwar Germany, becoming the mistress of a wealthy industrialist while staying true to the love of her husband. Hanna Schygulla, one of Fassbinder’s muses stars as Maria, even though Fassbinder had been trying to cast Romy Schneider for a long time. The movie is a great look at post war Germany, the first Fassbinder movie gaining critical and commercial success. The director had cast a lot of the actors belonging to his inner circle and whom we would always come back to for his movies. Besides Schygulla, we see Hark Böhm, Gottfried John, Klaus Löwitsch and Günter Lamprecht. Interesting fact: Fassbinder and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus collaborated during 15 of the director’s movies. This would be the last. Ballhaus would go to the US and get 3 Academy Award nominations for his work.

Story : 7,04 Cast : 7,41 Entertainment : 7,07

Note : 7,17

April 13 2024

There is a reason why Nicolas Cage was considered one of the biggest movie stars during the 1990’s. Aside from his Academy Award win for Leaving Las Vegas, Cage starred in what many still see as the holy trinity of action movies: The Rock, Face Off and Con Air, all being released in 1996 and 1997. Con Air, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Simon West, has in my opinion the best cast and most assuredly the best villain of the three movies. John Malkovich delivers an acting masterclass as Cyrus, the Virus Grissom but the whole ensemble cast including Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, John Cusack, Mykelti Williamson, Dave Chappelle, Danny Trejo and Monica Potter is first rate. Con Air has to be the action movie featuring the most noise, the loudest explosions I have experienced in a long time and the Las Vegas finale is absolutely breathtaking. Cage delivers the part as ex- convict, ex US Ranger, Cameron Poe flawlessly showing a decent Southern accent and forgetting his sometimes over the top acting conveniently. Con Air is a fantasy for action aficionados and I enjoyed it thoroughly throughout.

Story : 8,95 Cast : 9,21 Entertainment : 9,39

Note : 9,18

April 12 2024

Margarethe von Trotta is a German director whose movies are often critically applauded yet do not necessarily draw people to the cinema theaters. Her favorite subject in her movies is the relationship of sisters, yet this feature does not necessarily imply at first that it carries yet another sibling story. Sophie, played by Katja Riemann, is sent by her father to the US because he has seen a photograph of a woman, an opera singer (Barbara Sukova),who is the doppelgänger of his deceased wife. The story develops into a search for family secrets, revealing some quite interesting twists in the history of these people and of course revealing that Sophie and Caterina, the singer, are in fact …… (shocking spoiler coming up : S….s). I had not seen von Trotta’s movies beforehand and I was a bit apprehensive that I would be exposed to some slow moving, very melodramatic tearjerker. It was quite the contrary, this was an engaging, very interesting view, seeing good actors tell a really fine story.

Story : 7,44 Cast : 7,38 Entertainment : 7,99

Note : 7,60

April 11 2024

One of the earliest Charlie Chan movies to survive, The Black Camel is a very interesting part of the long running series. Here, Charlie is not accompanied by one of his son but by an overzealous, absolutely annoying assistant called Kashimo. The movie was shot almost entirely on location in Honolulu and gained a lot of press coverage as one of the hottest movie stars at that moment, Bela Lugosi, was part of the cast. The star of Dracula, which had just come out a few months earlier was also the reason for the box office success of the movie which dealt with the murder of a big movie star and her dark connections to another killing a few years earlier. Even though The Black Camel did not feature ingredients which made the series such a long running fan favorite for years, it does carry many elements that became a staple of Charlie Chan features for years like the Chinese proverbs used by the detective, his large family or the final reunion of all suspects leading to the unmasking of the culprit. Lugosi was a very big name to appear in a Charlie Chan, his horror counterpart Boris Karloff would also join this club, when he starred in Charlie Chan at the Opera a few years later.

Story : 6,41 Cast : 7,29 Entertainment: 6,26

Note : 6,65

April 10 2024

The Cameraman is widely believed to be the last ‘real’ Buster Keaton movie. Having signed with MGM after winding down his own production company, Keaton falsely believed that he could continue to work like before. Unfortunately he was very wrong. His idea for The Cameraman was still picked up by the studio and most of his ideas were worked into the movie, but Keaton lost his directing job (even though he co-worked with the official director) and was fortunate that he could insert some of his improvised acts into the script. The shared dressing room sequence with Edward Brophy is one of the greatest comedy scenes imagined by Keaton. The Cameraman has to rank among Buster Keaton’s best and certainly funniest movies. He also has a great female partner in Marceline Day and an even better partner late in the movie when he picks up a small monkey. Now I do not know how they managed to teach the monkey, but this primate did better acting than a lot of the human actors. With The Cameraman, MGM falsely believed that they had integrated Keaton’s genius into the studio machinery. They were awfully wrong. In hindsight Keaton said that signing with the big studio was the worst mistake of his life. None of his subsequent movies were successes.

Story : 8,74 Cast : 8,44 Entertainment : 9,03

Note : 8,74

April 9 2024

Every B-movie that resembles a Charlie Chan mystery, featuring a hero sleuth is another discovery for me to enjoy. Bulldog Drummond might not be the most well known screen detective, but the movies are short, well made, can generate excitement and despite a small budget are endlessly interesting. This is the third Bulldog Drummond movie I had the pleasure to watch and once again John Barrymore, a major star during the 30’s gets first billing above the lead actor John Howard. The barely 60 minutes long plot revolves around the chase for a suitcase with a dangerous explosive inside. 8 movies were made by Paramount between 1937 and 1939, so 5 more to watch.

Story : 6,49 Cast : 6,07 Entertainment: 6,93

Note: 6,50

April 8 2024

Despite Omen III : The Final Conflict getting demolished by critics and audiences in 1981, optimistic producers wanted to continue the saga in the early nineties and turned to TV to release Omen IV: The Awakening with the intention to make a series of TV movies. In some countries it even got a theatrical release but this was basically only a rehash of the original story with a young girl taking over as the devilish child. The cast was virtually unknown to me with the exception of Michael Lerner playing a private detective. The fact that it was made for TV prevented more graphic violence so the deaths provoked by the young girl happen off screen which was another negative aspect and did not help the movie at all. It did spell the end for The Omen franchise until an attempt at revival in 2006 and another one in 2024. This iteration of The Omen had run its course by 1991 and it was a good thing that it did, truly.

Story : 5,18 Cast : 3,77 Entertainment : 4,44

Note : 4,46

April 7 2024

Sandra Bullock starred twice in sequels of her own movies : Speed 2 was a global stinker and Miss Congeniality 2 did not really get away much better in critical and audience reviews. The actress herself today is rather dismissive of those movies saying that she won’t appear in any sequels anymore. In my opinion Miss Congeniality 2 is treated rather harshly as I found it quite funny and entertaining. Granted, the fact that it was filmed and set in Las Vegas certainly helped. The story sees FBI agent Gracie Hart (Bullock) spring back into action when her friend Cheryl, Miss United States (Heather Burns) and Stan, the pageant boss (William Shatner) get kidnapped. Hart, now the public face of the FBI, partners with Sam Fuller (Regina King), a grumpy female agent and her new stylist Joel (Diedrich Bader) and takes matters in her own hands when she is rejected by the local FBI agent in charge. I missed Michael Caine dearly, he was the genial counterpart in the original. Neither Candice Bergen nor Benjamin Brett came back but filmmakers were able to get celebrities like Dolly Parton, Octavia Spencer and Regis Philbin make cameos. One of the villains is played by Nick Offerman before gaining fame through TV series like Parks and Recreations. If you take into account Octavia Spencer’s brief cameo, three Academy Award winning actresses (Bullock, King and Spencer) star in this movie and it did not hurt their careers. I had a good time watching it.

Story : 6,45 Cast : 8,22 Entertainment : 7,31

Note : 7,33

April 6 2024

Only a year after the original Don Camillo movie and its enormous success, a sequel was produced reuniting the belligerent priest with the communist and not less belligerent mayor of the small Italian village. Both Fernandel and Gino Cervi came back for this movie picking up the story right after the original’s end which sees Don Camillo being exiled to a godforsaken mountain village while Peppone goes to battle with a rich owner about a piece of land on which the community wants to build a dam to prevent floodings. The situation pleases neither one as Don Camillo misses his conversations with Jesus on the cross while Peppone can’t get along with the new younger priest who is too peaceful. There are a lot of the same successful sequences which pleased audiences so much in the original, however the story is more disorganized than the plot of the original film. Nevertheless, the movie is fun from start to end and the more dramatic finale integrating devastating floods that really happened in 1951 in Northern Italy into the storyline is an enhancing element. 3 sequels were still to come, on to the next.

Story : 7,44 Cast : 8,52 Entertainment : 8,24

Note : 8,07

April 5 2024

On several occasions after watching movies that featured Michael Cera, I noted that I found the actor quite exasperating, full of mannerisms (Paper Heart is a telling example). Maybe it is the actor’s choice for quirky parts paired with his preference to play awkward characters that puts me off. Youth in Revolt is yet another movie where Cera affirms his predilection for said parts by appearing as the awkward teenage boy yearning to lose his virginity. The movie has the advantage to be quite funny and it benefits from a few great names which appear throughout the story in albeit sometimes very small parts. Let’s mention Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Rooney Mara, M.Emmet Walsh, Justin Long and Ray Liotta. This quite wonderful cast saves the day and also my opinion of the movie as neither Cera nor his female partner Portia Doubleday are really ticking my senses with their performances. The movie is certainly not to rank among my favorite romantic comedies, yet it has good moments throughout, but overall I must say that there are better movies around.

Story : 6,41 Cast : 6,44 Entertainment : 5,84

Note : 6,23

April 4 2024

Based on a short lived comic series (2003-2006) that was published under the DC banner, The Losers was another attempt by Warner Brothers on establishing an action franchise at around the same time when the Marvel Universe began picking up steam. The story around a team of disgraced US military guys going after a megalomaniac CIA agent called Max is eerily similar to the basic structure of The A-Team and it didn’t help that The A-Team movie was also being released at the same time. The Losers was, despite an interesting cast a box office failure. Led by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, Idris Elba, Jason Patric and Chris Evans completed the cast. In hindsight the failure of this movie was a blessing for Evans who shortly after completing this shoot, was chosen to portray Steve Rogers/Captain America. Now, The Losers is an action extravaganza with its fair share of explosions, a rather complicated story and a quite childish performance for the character of Max the villain(Patric). It may not have merited the failure at the box office but the critical rather negative reviews are somewhat fitting. Another aspect I did not really appreciate were obvious signs that film makers were expecting a quick green light for a sequel since the movie’s finale points toward another adventure. A bit presumptuous.

Story : 6,44 Cast : 6,44 Entertainment : 6,21

Note : 6,36

April 3 2024

I really thought that The Assignment was based on a comic or a Manga and was quite surprised when I read that it is an original screenplay Walter Hill collaborated on from 1978 that would be made into this movie almost 40 years later. Anyway, I was interested what the director of movies like 48 Hours, Streets of Fire or Red Heat was doing some 30 years after his career pinnacles and while I personally did like this rather peculiar story, I could understand why the movie got lambasted the way it was. It is easy to understand why transgender communities were disappointed by the ‘forced gender reassignment surgery’ plot even though Michelle Rodriguez managed to portray the character very realistically, especially her scenes as the male version are impressive. Unfortunately the scenes between Sigourney Weaver and Tony Shalhoub, reunited after both appearing in Galaxy Quest were slowing down the story enormously. The whole background motivation reasons could have been explained better than through endless back and forth sequences. In general it was something different, not necessarily a subject most people are comfortable with, but it was another look at an action movie scenario, and in my view it was kind of refreshing.

Story : 6,47 Cast : 6,74 Entertainment : 6,05

Note : 6,41

April 2 2024

Movies from ‘poverty row’ were generally very cheap productions made between 1930 and the start of the 1950’s by lower-tier companies working in an analogue way to major studios but on a significantly reduced budget. So major movie stars were not present in The Man From Texas. It is a formulaic Western about a bandit wanted across many states who seeks to shed his gangster image for his long suffering wife. While keeping up his raids on banks and stage coaches, he helps a poor widow keep her house to demonstrate his sincerity. There is nothing much to say about this movie except that I found it quite entertaining for such a b-movie. It was astonishingly tame with no real gunfights nor fistfights but it had some originality which I appreciated.

Story : 6,02 Cast : 5,21 Entertainment : 6,11

Note : 5,78

April 1 2024

Even big name pairings can produce horrible duds. Granted, neither Charlize Theron nor Johnny Depp were at the pinnacle of their careers yet, but I figured that a common sense that this script was basically going nowhere would keep them from committing to this project. The Astronaut’s Wife is basically a sad rehash of Rosemary’s Baby when Depp’s astronaut husband gets replaced by an alien entity who impregnates wife Theron. Apart from this short synopsis the movie has nothing more to offer, no suspense, no thrills, no jump scares and a very unfitting finale basically destroys the whole plot that unfolded for 100 minutes prior. Let’s say that this is not really the movie I was expecting, sometimes I will be surprised but this time I was utterly disappointed.

Story : 5,41 Cast : 5,77 Entertainment : 4,26

Note : 5,15

March 31 2024

Linking the 1944 movie to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the monumental opus written in the 14th-15th century in Middle English, might not be entirely accurate even though the story is set in rural Kent and the three lead character are on their way (pilgrimage) to the town of Canterbury. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger proceeded to shoot the movie in this part of England just after German air raids had partially destroyed the historic sites and heavily damaged the cathedral. It is an homage to the rural countryside, to the resilience of its population during wartime and as a sign that everyday people were the true heroes, they proceeded to cast unknowns in the lead in their picture. Three people, a US soldier, a British Army officer and a young woman who has joined the Woman’s Land Army, join forces to identify a prankster who approaches women at night and smears glue in their hair. While all 3 of them have ulterior motives to go to Canterbury, they proceed to identify the culprit before getting on with their lives and go separate ways. Out of the three leads, Sheila Sim stands out. Later, Lady Attenborough, she would appear in the premiere of a West End play by Agatha Christie, called The Mousetrap alongside her husband, Sir Richard Attenborough before ending her career. A Canterbury Tale is a peculiar, slow moving story, that impresses much more through its cinematography of the English landscape than through its plot. Nevertheless I was surprised that I found the movie quite engaging.

Story : 6,35 Cast : 6,32 Entertainment : 6,08

Note : 6,25

March 30 2024

During the World War II years Hollywood film studios contributed to the war effort by making patriotic movies highlighting the American soldier heroes and vilifying the Nazi enemy. Throughout these years audiences were encouraged to purchase war bonds. David O.Selznick decided to go another way. Instead of making another war movie, he chose to produce an epic about the American Home Front, telling the story about a Captain’s wife and the teenage daughters left to fend for themselves when the husband gets enlisted. The movie became a box office success, featured Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple, Joseph Cotten and Robert Walker. It would be nominated for a number of Academy Awards yet only winning one statue for Best Music Score. More interestingly however was the fact that the script asked for romantic scenes for the married couple Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker. This would become noteworthy, since Jones was by then involved with Selznick himself with Walker aware of the relationship, making the screen kisses and embraces very awkward for both actors. Divorce would follow soon enough and Selznick would marry Jones a few years later. Since You Went Away was branded as overlong and inconsequential by movie critics since the movie was geared to a happy ending anyway and despite a tragic loss it would become clear to the viewer that righteous and courageous families would prevail against any tragedies thriwn at them.

Story : 6,44 Cast : 6,84 Entertainment : 6,72

Note : 6,67

March 29 2024

I am pretty sure that without King Kong, the whole fantasy and science-fiction genre would look pretty different today. King Kong is the leading reference for any fantasy movie because of its breathtaking special effects. You have to remember that this movie was made 90 years ago and its special effects do look better than those of many other movies made much much later. Interestingly enough, King Kong is based on a story written by crime author Edgar Wallace. King Kong became such a success that many stories involving animal monsters, prehistoric worlds saw the light of day, and remakes were made in 1976 and by none other than Peter Jackson in 2005. Kong: Skull Island even introduced a new franchise around the big ape in 2017. Noone however will be sble to rival with the original movie, Fay Wray’s screaming or the epic ending on top of the then new Empire State Building. I noted however a few interesting facts while watching : Kong is only introduced about 47 minutes into the story. The first three quarters of an hour are what you would call today a buildup, it is however littered with dialogue that would not be acceptable any more today. The iconic jungle scenes with Kong battling various monsters only took about 35 minutes, but without a doubt they are the most exquisite sequences in a 1930’s movie for sure. A watchable and endlessly rewatchable piece of cinematic history.

Story : 8,21 Cast : 7,27 Entertainment : 9,54

Note : 8,34