Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

"Your magic is growing stronger. You need to learn control. But when we grow stronger the world grows more dangerous."... is an advice given in "Kubo and the Two Strings". An animation which seems initially to be addressed mostly to a younger target range. I don't know if it's hard or I'm really too lazy to unfold every piece of tale we have here, but one thing is certain: This is not a children's movie. Looks deceive. It's an allegory from start to end, which requires a lot and sometimes in-depth analysis to understand...

Kubo is a boy missing one eye living in a Japanese village, without a father and whose mother struggles somewhere between dementia and Alzheimer as days go by... One day, Kubo forgets to obey the rule of coming home before the night sets. So the fantastic threats saying that his relatives on the mother's side = 2 aunts and The Moon King - an evil grandpa from another world will come to take his last eye left become real. With a final appearance his mother saves him sending Kubo on his father's path, a great samurai, to search for a legendary armor made out of three pieces, which will solve the problem. The search or the armor?... That's one of the many questions left after the ending. Where you probably should become aware that everything you've seen it's probably a symbolic dream of the main character, and the effective reality in the movie is in a very tiny amount. Well, if you're in the mood for a bit of analysis :)...

Starting with the title, where it's relatively easy to infer that "the two strings" are the parents, and that the third string of the Kubo's shamisen is actually Kubo, the first line in the movie - "If you must blink, do it now." that initially might look like a bad cliche, but when it gets repeated seems to catch a meaning, and up to the ending with a short break on a black screen finished with a "The End" said before a really nice cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by Beatles, this whole movie is cryptic... So cryptic that at some point you get lost. I guess that not even the screenwriters could give a cohesive interpretation of everything it's there, some parts having maybe a different meaning independent of others. I could say that the result is quite close to Miyazaki's animes, where behind the childish facade lie often meanings that are much more mature.

As I said in the beginning, it's hard, both subjectively and objectively, to give an interpretation of what I've seen in "Kubo". I actually think there's a bit of room for a personal meaning to be found by everybody, the common element being: family. Maybe just a warning, and that's if you have issues in this area... think again before watching this, or expect some tears...

I've tried in the latest days to close the year, as usual, with an entry that's really worth watching - that's why the frequent posting :). I think I finally found it, so I'll allow myself to wish a Happy New Year! for a hopefully better 2017 & Happy Holidays! for what's left of this season ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5

P.S.: I don't know if somebody really went that far to think this on purpose, but there's a third verse in the final cover which says something like "I look at the world and I notice it's turning / While my guitar gently weeps / With every mistake we must surely be learning / Still my guitar gently weeps". Well, the same verse, in an older, demo version, sounds a bit different ... "I look from the wings at the play you are staging, / While my guitar gently weeps. / As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing, / Still, my guitar gently weeps.". Now, figure out, which and where fits in this story ;) ...

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

In 1665 Johannes Vermeer painted "Girl with a Pearl Earring", a portrait of an unknown subject (or a so called "tronie" = face/expression, to describe it more precisely). In 1999 Tracy Chevalier wrote a novel with the same name offering a story for the mystery behind the face with a pearl. And in 2003 the movie came out. Which I, looking for a more serene movie subject, I've decided to watch today.

The girl in the painting is identified in the novel as a maid hired by the painter's family. From here onwards we have a drama mingled with romance, which to be fair I was a bit afraid of, but my assumption that an artificial subject integrated in real history can't get too far fortunately confirmed. Or more precisely it stopped on time so I didn't get overly subjective on this. Therefore, the movie is indeed "calm", maybe even a bit dry in its story development. But I didn't decide to write this entry for the tale of a mistery as big as the painted pearl...

The main reason for which I would recommend "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is the way the movie is shot and backed up by the score. Eduardo Serra got an Oscar nod for his camera work in this back in 2003 and (since we're getting closer to the season) I think it's one of the situations when the Academy snubbed the right winner sending the statue at the time to "Master & Commander".. This doesn't matter that much. The result stays, where the light in the movie is used such that we have an entire series of frames that look basically like painted photo stills. Alexandre Desplat was not yet very known at the time among the composers in Hollywood, but you can clearly see here why he got to be. The conclusion is that if you want to watch a movie technically worked as less and less unfortunately are, no matter what you think of the subject, you should probably watch this...

Rating: 3+ out of 5

The BFG (2016)

Since a while ago I'm trying to get a bit more selective with the movies I'm watching due to the lack of time. And that sort of excludes from my "to watch" list the range of movies where the main attendance target is age <15. For "The BFG" I made an exception because long long long ago I've read the book by Roald Dahl, which at the time I liked a lot. Unlike other books by the same author though, as "The Witches" or "Matilda" that I've also seen on scree, or "Fantastic Mr. Fox" where even though I can't compare with the written material the video version was excellent, I always found "The BFG" hard to get into a movie. And I guess I was right...

The context puts face to face Sophie, a girl in a London orphanage and The Big Friendly Giant aka The BFG, who being discovered decides to take her to the giants land, a location probably somewhere close to the British coast and inhabited by other large humanoid creatiures, however less friendly and more hungry. Let's jump to the moment when the girl decides that action should be taken against an oversized cannibal threat, and what's a better solution than the help of her Majesty - the Queen of England. There are more details (in particular a connection between the BFG and Sandman), but let's stick to the essentials...

The reason why I thought "The BFG" hard to get on screen is not that much the difficulty of a realist integration of a giant in the real world, which is actually quite ok in the movie. Technically the production is gorgeous, and Mark Rylance "plays" the BFG part flawlessly. The issues is that the written tale somehow convinces the reader (well, at least a young one...) that the Queen, woken up in a normal sunny day, could have an official meeting with a fairytale creature + other stuff like that. In writing there's a way that this sense of "believable", within the limits of a fantasy, is kept. In the movie this mixture of real and imaginary a bit too forced... Something doesn't seem to work, but I have to keep in mind that we're talking after all about a children's movie, and I'm a bit older (around 20+ years) now than when I've read the book...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Rogue One (2016)

I'll make this short: "Rogue One" suffers of what I could define as the "Two Towers" syndrome... Meaning, the unfortunate position of a middle piece. Not to be confused with the second episode in a trilogy, or the k < n part in an "n"logy. A second episode doesn't generally imply a finality in the third. A middle piece is a filling between an existing beginning and an existing ending. That's what we have here. This never works. And still "Rogue One", really manages to bring "A New Hope" in the "Star Wars" line, compared to the force awakening of last year ... Even if we don't have much of a story, set somewhere immediately before Episode IV as an excuse to bring on screen back the Death Star together with some short Vader scenes (= good way to cash in $), the result still seemed closer to the original trilogy feeling. At least the details and the way the characters were built felt like that... Even so, it looked a bit too much driven behind as a side story in one single piece (oops, big spoiler), just not to hijack the public of next year's Episode VIII...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Allied (2016)

"Allied" is a movie that tries to answer three questions... How much can you trust somebody? How far can you go to confirm your trust? and How much trust can you have after you decided to go that far?... Well, as I said, the movie tries. Succeeding is another story ...

A movie is a movie and life is life. "Allied" is a romance before all, and as cynical it may sound, I'm afraid is hard to find some title in the genre that's relevant in respect with how things really are (or maybe I'm a lost cause, who knows...). We have Brad Pitt, an allied agent sent in 1942's Africa behind enemy lines for organizing an assassination, where he must team up, ex-French resistance. I don't know if it's love at first sight (yet another unicorn...) but things move fast in any case. Mission accomplished, British residence for the girl, marriage, a child, everything seems perfect despite the Luftwaffe bombings. Until the British intelligence breaks some news...

Well, I already went far enough with the subject and I would say as usual: "watch the movie" for what's following, but already the trailer gives you more. I think it's the worst I've seen this year. Fortunately I watched the movie before so it was still spoiler-free and I was able to discover something by myself. That the questions in the beginning might have also some other answers than I knew already :) At least in a movie...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Arrival (2016)

"If you could see your life from start to finish, would you change things?" ... says a key line in "Arrival". Which seems rhetorical now... But in the movie is well enough places to cover the obvious answer. Not so easy is to decide if you've watched a good movie or not ...

One (not sunny) day, on the Earth land some ... let's call them "obelisks", of alien nature, which obviously create lots of panic in the world. Who are they, where are they from, what they want, and other questions. The U.S. government recruits a linguist and a physicist to solve the mystery. Big spoiler: they brought a gift - the non-linear perception of time.

Normally, as all SciFis that somehow connect with "the time issue" I should've liked "Arrival". Well, didn't (really) happen ... Honestly I don't know if I should appreciate more that we finally have a media product that strongly supports that "time might bend", and in a way that wasn't overused = to be able to simultaneously see the future and the past, or if I should start bashing on how wrong I find the idea to be presented/justified/whatever ... Another big spoiler: how do you get to be "Dr. Strange" in "Arrival"? by learning "alienish" - meaning that if you understand a way of expression used by some extraterrestrial heptapodes this will some somehow unlock something in your brain that will allow to what party you'll be in a year ... sorry, that doesn't cut it, not for me ... Without any alien influences, now I foresee that I'll end soon this entry without further details because I wasted enough time with it.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Winter 2016 - Spring 2017 Movies Preview - Part 2

I'm writing again when I should normally be sleeping before an early morning flight, so I'll cut this as short as possible ( anyway, these previews are more about trailers, right? ;) ). So, in March we have a bunch of blockbuster releases, starting with "Logan" = a sequel to the solo Wolverine line besides X-Men. I thought I heard at some point that Hugh Jackman will give up on this character. If the new release is as "good" as the previous it would've been better ...

"Kong: Skull Island" is a reboot of the giant gorilla. In this case I doubt it's possible to be worse than the last attempt ...

To stick to the deja-vu area on subjects, the next one is "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword". The interesting part - this is directed by Guy Ritchie. I don't hope much for such combination, but if it manages to work there are chances to see this in the "best of 2017".

In Aprile we move from box-office to very indie. At least this is what "Sleight" seems to be. The only title for now in that month with a trailer out and worthy of mentioning.

In May we have the sequel of the best Marvel movie by now (say whatever you want, I'll strongly keep my vote on it). I'm not very convinced that "Guardians of the Galaxy 2" will level with the first, but if it gets closer it's still good.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales" is the fifth part of the series, bringing in Javier Bardem. For what purpose, you can check the trailer ;) ...

I've kept again for the end the "spring" title which is #1 on my waiting list. I think that since "Pandorum", at least based on the trailer, "Life" has the highest chance to get in the same "space thriller" zone where we have "Alien", "Sunshine" and not many others.

That's it for this preview round ;).

Winter 2016 - Spring 2017 Movies Preview - Part 1

We have lots of interesting releases this December, but as usual I'll just mention a couple. We start with one "made in China", which actually premiered at some festival earlier this year. "Old Stone" ("Lao shi") it's a debut thriller of Johnny Ma, a Chinese director with a Canadian education. IMDb gives a slightly higher than average rating for now, but we'll see. Based on previous experiences I tend to trust more the Far East productions ...

We'll stay on the Asian continent with "The Great Wall". This time we have an established director - Zhang Yimou ("Hero", "House of Flying Daggers", etc.) and a cast lead by ... Matt Damon, for something that looks like a sort of fantasy ... The first trailer (which didn't give so much info) seemed more promising. The second, however, made me doubt. Still, again, we talk about the guy who was behind "Hero", which I think it's the best wuxia (Chinese fantasy) ever made (and no, I didn't forget about Ang Lee).

Although I typically tend to get over the box office targets that already have enough publicity, I'll stop a bit on "Star Wars: Rogue One". The reason is simply that last year's "The Force Awakens" was so disappointing that I'm expecting something much better now, even though it's a spin-off, secondary story thread, SW branded money maker, tell it how you want... I still have higher hopes than I have for the "main story".

The fifth "Underworld: Blood Wars" enters cinemas tomorrow. The first two movies in this series made the difference from what else we have starring vampires & werevolves ("Blade" series, "Twilight" shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence, and others). The last two "Underworld"(s) unfortunately dropped to a much lower level. Maybe we'll have a comeback now ...

In January we have "Sleepless", a remake of "Nuit Blanche", a very good French action from 2011. Remains to be seen if the US version can top that.

"Split" is a horror by M. Night Shyamalan who, after a very long series of failures, incredibly enough (really, I don't know how he still got a budget) seems to get back in the shape he was in the beginnings of his career ("6th Sense", "Unbreakable"). At least that's what the critics say after several screenings in festivals...

"The Lego Movie" was a very pleasant surprise. High expectations for "Lego Batman" next February.

"John Wick" was a very unpleasant surprise. Low expectations for "John Wick 2" (so theoretically I should be pleasantly surprised now, right?).

We're closing February with "A Cure for Wellness", the title that seem to me the most interesting and #1 on my waiting list from this series. Gore Verbinski is a good director. Justin Haythe is a good writer. The only problem is that the trailer says a bit too much...

Soon, the Spring season ...

Inferno (2016)

... by Dan Brown, or "Torture" (of the viewer) by Ron Howard, is the last piece of the trilogy that started quite ok with "DaVinci Code" and continued less ok by "Angels and Demons". Tom Hanks is back as Robert Langdon, probably the person in academia who had the most thrilling life since Indiana Jones ...

The guy wakes up somewhere in Florence in a hospital which is so obvious is not a hospital that giving a spoiler warning is totally useless. Partial amnesia and a medic from UK who we don't know how she got in a ER in Florence, but we know that she was a little prodigy. Obviously Mr. Langdon doesn't smell any issue in all this context, somehow similar with him forgetting the name of that dark drink that wakes you up in the morning (a subtle excuse for giving credibility to an intrigue that's hard to cope with). However, Mr. Langdon is able to build up the path towards a virus hidden by a demented billionaire who wants to erase half of the world population for providing Earth with a brighter future (it's me, or this subject gets scarily overused lately ...). Well, so we get to a ride that spans the entire film, with an ending that makes you ask why you needed all that. Or how a demented billionaire who apparently is genius enough to design such a biological weapon (and also to become a billionaire) can have such a lame failsafe for his evil plan ...

There's not much more to say. The best part of the movie I think was the presence of Irrfan Khan who stole every scene he was in. That and also getting to see a bit of Florence and Venice. Besides these too much eye-rolling and spontaneously asking yourself "seriously?...", way too much ...

Rating: 2+ out of 5

The Accountant (2016) + 9 years of movie blogging

I have a theory, empirically verified ... best movies come to you when you need them most. At least karma hit me with this often enough to get convinced. Examples are too personal for this blog and I didn't count all of them, but just to give at least something... I've seen "A Beautiful Mind" in the Spring of 2002, at a moment when I really really needed something motivating to get me on track for my high school graduation exams. No need for more details. Another minor example... I've watched "The Accountant" two weeks ago when I was thinking that I didn't have yet a top rated entry this year on my blog + nothing seemed coming also. Well ... here it is.

The problem is that I postponed writing this enough to lose lots of ideas. The story's focused on a guy with a particular type of autism, who ends up making a career in bookkeeping for very shady people. Freelance work, middle men connections, temporary identity. But the job hides much more behind it ... Starting with a not so happy childhood, but special in a way that I don't want to spoil, up to the relations with close relatives and the reasons for picking such a "grey" job instead of anything else. The latest client seems though a movement into a brighter area. He's a guy running a giant company of medical engineering who seems to record losses somewhere in the midst of tones of financial reports. So things appear to get more legit. Unfortunately a retiring director in the financial crimes department of the Treasury decides to task an analyst with tracing our "accountant". Which seems to be the main problem of our financial guy...

I guess the movie script is by far the best built piece of dramatic writing of anything I've watched in 2016 regarding the way the action develops. It might have predictable parts, maybe some dialogues could be improved, maybe the first part seems too lengthy, but ... The way the twists are interleaved, the way (maybe a bit annoying in the beginning) of how the background story is given to you in small pieces, the at least three ending surprises (maybe not that big, but many), and above all the fact that in the second half "things are not as they seem to be" comes back so often as hidden tagline, this is what shows what good writing really is. Despite all critics that seem to pick exactly on this.

I'm at 9 years of blogging (counting also the Romanian version) and I'm more and more disappointed of what I see that cashes in at box office and is also appreciated in the media... Honestly, it's deplorable to witness over-inflated ratings for a blockbuster that has the simplest story and puts a lot in catchy visuals when something else that requires a bit more than two neurons to understand what's going on is bashed on the reasons of too many plot lines, too complicated, too boring and convoluted ... No it's not, but it needs more than two neurons - it's frightening though that more and more critics (authorized) seem to have a limit of brain cells around that number. And unfortunately the movie industry listens... Contrary to the TV, which seems to do much better in the series area (guess less $ for explosions VFX compensates with better stories). On the other hand, 9 years ago my life was more calm, much less stress, better health and more time for movies. So maybe the present situation might have an impact in finding hard something that I can rate with a 5/5 (and even when I do like now it still seems a bit subjective ...).

I have to admit (again) that I'm thinking on closing this blog. Besides the facts that my writing got awfully repetitive, I'm always doing it on the run, I'm not really able lately to keep my "standard" average of 1 entry/week, now I also notice the above. Still ... as long as we have some movies that deserve a bit of fighting against the mainstream criticism, maybe it makes sense to go on :) ...

Rating: 5 out of 5 (usor subiectiv)

Doctor Strange (2016)

No time, short entry ... "Doctor Strange" = "Diablo" meets "Inception" - for who played the Blizzard game I guess it's impossible not to see a link (from the colors to relics/artifacts, everything's there), and about Nolan's movie, well ... we don't have dreams, but we have an alternate dimension + time + others are there. What's not part of the sum above is the context/subject where everything is set. More precisely another Marvel super-hero, an ex brilliant surgeon, who irreparably damages his hands in an accidents and finds again his life somewhere in Tibet. But not as a doctor .. as a wizard/sorcerer who must get the world rid of dangers coming from other realms. That's the story. About the movie ...

It alternates between brilliant moments and abysmal scenes (somewhere at the intersection of cliche, childish and out of place = ex. "the comic relief" is way off way too often). Unfortunately the last category is dense enough to bring down the movie, but fortunately the first category is sometimes so good that keeps it above average. It's either bits of the script like thoughts on the end-of-life or more deep conclusions like - controlling time beats having an eternity in your hands. And still ... it could've been more. Or my usual issue with Marvel, too much box-office oriented :) ...

Rating: 3+ out of 5

Eye in the Sky (2015)

I didn't check, but "Eye in the Sky" looks like based on a play written for theater ... despite taking place in 4 different locations simultaneously. It's a situation thriller - short development, confined medium, closed context, time limit. No, I'm not describing "Phone Booth" ... but if we take the overall look we're not that far. A unit surveying the terrorist activity in Kenya gets activated when there's a report on several wanted names planning to meet in a hous in the area. Among these a British woman and an American citizen apparently prepare a suicide bomb attack. This information is provided with help of latest tech = a remote controlled "bumblebee". That's squad 1 - team on location. Squad 2 controls an airborne drone - "the eye in the sky", via satellite, and is formed of two US based pilots. Team 3 is somewhere in UK in a military unit coordinating the operation and led by Hellen Mirren. Finally, the 4th group is the decision committee = a gathering of British government representatives watching the events and sending approvals (or not ...) via an army general for actions to be taken. Quite complicated setup, isn't it?

Well, the plan is simple - a Kenyan special forces squad waits for an order to proceed in capturing the target group, but until they get a confirmed id the group moves to a different house. In a hostile area, where the only solution seems to be a well-placed rocket ... but the rocket will bring collateral victims ... and among the victims "the eye in the sky" detects a child, a girl selling bread ... So, it's complicated again.

All the movie is a cat and mouse game in the above context. Lots of irony to the politic class for the incapacity of assuming responsibility. Lots of criticism to the army forces for possibly rushed decisions. Although the ending might seem clear, if you look at the action up to there I don't know if you can give a simple answer on "who is right" ... this seems to change a lot up to the end. And that's probably the most interesting part of the movie ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

In Order of Disappearance (2014)

... or "Kraftidioten" in the original version of the title, is another revenge thriller, as the last post, but this time in a different packaging having a consistent taint of dark comedy a la Coen brothers. I had before reviews for movies made in Norway, and unlike the more eastern neighbors these generally were too dry/cold to give a lasting impression. This time is one of the few exceptions ...

Nils Dickman is an immigrant from ... Sweden who made a career in ... driving a snow plow somewhere in Norway, reaching the level of winning the "man-of-the-year" title from the local community. This peaceful life is torn apart one day by a police call announcing his son's death following an overdose. And this brings a storm to Nils' life (no pun intended). Depressed and not getting how this happened since his son didn't do drugs Nils starts drinking, getting close to a suicide attempt. His wife blames him for ignoring their son's issues and leaves. But somehow in the end the truth is found ... (well, the movie actually starts with that) = the overdose was not a voluntary act but executed as an order of a local mobster involved in drug dealing. And from here, well ... "the revenge story" ...

It's not actually much of a story, but the movie is extremely well supported by the build-up of the characters and the acting. Nils slowly advances in the hierarchy of the local dealers up to the two groups controlling the area. And we have here a vegan sociopath obsessed by cleaning and terrorized by his former wife and an old Serb (played exceptionally by a Bruno Ganz mimicking Marlon Brando) who has the unfortunate idea to hire his youngest son as a mule. Basically all the dark humor comes from short interactions and from the weird situations placed in what seems to be a normal life context. It reminded me a bit of Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges" and "Seven Psychopats". That's pretty much what we have here too ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sushi Girl (2012)

"Sushi Girl" is a revenge thriller with a common story that brings however an exotic note, mostly present in the title. Less in the movie ...

A guy is freed from jail after spending there several years following a robbery. His welcome party organized by the former gang members, who escaped the police but without the stolen diamonds disappeared without trace, is not a nice one. The reunion is organized by the group leader in a context taken from the Yakuza customs (even though we don't have any Japanese present) = a dinner with sushi served on a nude woman, inert, whose presence is meant to be purely "decorative". It's somehow predictable that the person will get out of her role, and at some point it's sort of obvious why is she there. Which I actually said already when I've placed this in the "revenge thriller" genre...

It's clearly a B movie with a low budget. Unfortunately it tries to compensate that with some excessive violence. Well ... maybe I started to get old and my stress level rejects some scenes, but I really think that if we would have less blood spilled we won't lose anything. In any case, the movie has some good points. On one hand we have Tony Todd as the main villain, a role that he played so often that's even hard to not be a good performance. On the other hand we have "the sushi girl", or more exactly her complete absence until the end, despite the fact she's there. She's so absent that you forget her, which is really what seems to be her official role in the scenes. And that actually helps for building some surprise effect for what's supposed to be "the final twist". Unfortunately not one that's really credible ... but well, it's a movie :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Shallows (2016)

"The Shallows" is a "Jaws" reinvented for the 21st century, but made on a 19th century budget. Not meaning that's a bad move...

Nancy, a student in the medical school considering dropping her college degree, finds a hidden beach in a sunny day, somewhere on the coasts of Mexico. Main target: surfing. Unfortunately, if for getting in the water there's no problem, there's a great white shark who doesn't agree about getting out. And like this we have a movie, where Nancy gets stranded on an isolated rock a couple hundred meters away from shore. If she manages to swim that far or not ... well, that's what's the movie about.

Blake Lively does what I think to be her best part so far in a movie (and no matter what you might think :) that's an objective statement). She's basically carrying the movie onward from the beginning to the end .. well, the shark has some screen presence too. The cast is quite reduced, talking about the budget, and the action takes place over an area that doesn't span more than a couple hundred meters, plus the movie is quite short. The effects and the editing count a lot though, enough that you can't think that this is a cheap production. Yes, the story's simple and is pretty far fetched sometimes ... But what shark movies are totally believable? It's fun, is catch as any survival story, and has enough sun to compensate the rain outside ;) So, it's worth watching ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Nerve (2016)

Fast movie, short entry: "Nerve" starts well, with an idea of an online game/social network where the users are split in two - players and watchers. The second category commands tasks to the first category and funds their accomplishment. As the trailer shows sometimes the players have to deal with extreme stuff. And as weirdest the task as better is the payment. Finally, after 24h the winner takes the the money. Or at least that's what the rules say ...

The story is catchy and seems believable up to some point. As main character we have Vee, a girl who gets more and more trapped within the game until things start complicating. The bad part is that: first, the ending seems a bit far fetched, and second: despite the clear main target that's somewhere in the range of 15-20, it still felt a bit too immature. Perhaps if I wouldn't have been working in IT I could get over the first part (= I'm subjective on that), but we can't get rid of the second ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Wailing (2016)

Yet another Korean movie that's more than you expected ... Not necessarily in the good sense. From what was I remembering the last time when I checked the IMDb title (in original "Goksung") it didn't have "horror" among the genres and the rating was higher. But this was in May ...

The movie is not bad. Somewhere in a Korean village people start to die. The local cop, a guy who seems the perfect character for any law enforcement joke, gets to the conclusion that the guilty person would be a Japanese man residing in the nearby woods and dealing with spells and other strange rituals as his daily hobby. For a while the movie keeps up a comic scent that 1) you can't figure if it's intentional or not but 2) it draws a lot from the pressure that builds up as the movie advances. However, this ends ... and at some point what seem laughable gets serious. This variation is probably the most interesting aspect in what we have here, towards the final the tension growing far from what we had during the first half. I don't know if I've seen anything similar in terms of contrast. However ...

Too much horror. And that's not the problem (even though with the age I tend to prefer movies that are more relaxed) but the way it comes is sometimes free, doesn't make sense and leaves too many open questions in the end ... There's a sort of climax in tha last part, where the main character has to choose who to trust, and the moment is built so well that you can feel the indecision. It's also frustrating in the end though, since you won't get a clear answer on which decision would've been actually better and why, and if it would've been possible to reach the end in a different way dealing with so many threads that you don't know if they're white or dark ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Black Sea (2014)

There's something about the submarine movies which gives a boost to the "thriller" factor, because that's the typical genre we have here - "Hunt for Red October", "Crimson Tide", "U-571", "K-19" and more or less even "Das Boot". "Black Sea" is no exception.

Something nice in this niche is that despite the limited context most of the times somehow we get a new original story. In "Black Sea" the action takes place in the present day. A sub captain in the commercial navy (Jude Law) is fired by his employer firm where he worked for more than 10 years. Since there aren't many open positions for a sub captain he decides to follow a tip given by a formare mate. Apparently the firm which fired him found out that somewhere on the bottom of the Black Sea lies a WW2 U-boat loaded with Nazi gold, but it was too complicated to legally try to get to it. However, a mysterious guy is willing to fund a private expedition. And like that we're getting on board of an old Russian sub, with a bunch of people quickly gathered to form a crew, half Russian, half British, all ready for the treasure hunt ...

From here onward we're between the classic theme of "if at the end are less alive, my cut is larger" and some sort of underwater "Moby Dick" where the gold is the whale and captain Ahab is Jude Law. The movie's catchy, but a bit over the top. First, for some characters the behavior change seems too sudden. Second, I'm not an expert in submarine technology, but what wee see sometimes is hardly believable at least compared to other movies. Thirdly, at some point it starts to look too much like a "horror" where you wonder who's the next who dies and if in the end there's somebody left alive ... ( spoiler: the answer is yes ;) )

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Book of Life (2014)

I wished to like "The Book of Life". I was expecting more. When I've seen the trailer long ago, I remember that for a second I had the same feeling I got ofter "How to Train Your Dragon" = the promo was hiding much more than the first impression it left me. I thought here will be the same ... Well, it was not.

The story starts with Manolo and Joaquin, two boys in a village in Mexico who both like Maria. Well, the story actually starts with a group of spoiled children visiting a museum, but let's leave the context of the context aside and let's get back to the context ... La Muerte and Xibalba, the two "gods" of the Mexican underworlds make a bet: who's gonna put the wedding ring on Maria's finger? The ruling of the realms beyond depends on the result. Just that until the wedding there's still some time left (really, like half the movie) ... Maria is sent to study in Europe and we move onward X years until she's back in the village. Meanwhile Manolo strives to continue the family tradition as a bull fighter despite his pro-life beliefs regarding the bulls, and Joaquin receiving a hidden support from his protective "god" made a career as a soldier who defends the town against El Chakal (= a big, evil and mean "bandido" who wants to pillage everything). Again backed up by his protective "god" Joaquin seems to win the bet ... by absence = like in a Shakespearean tragedy Manolo lets himself poisoned to follow Maria who passed out after a snake bite. The problem is that he doesn't find here in the other realm = two snake bites - Manolo's dose - are apparently more lethal than one snake bite - Maria's dose. So, she's coming back to life, and without a choice left she's getting ready to say "yes" to Joaquin ...

Ok, I've told already what's going on for half the movie. But that's the intro. The main story starts after. I didn't get into the Mexican mythology details because I don't want to spoile everything, but what can I say more is that what follows was disappointing. The premises are good and open up the room for a really nice story. But the room's left empty. The way things are solved is rushed, chaotic, exaggerated (not that I was expecting something realistic, but when in the end suddenly everybody gets along with everybody ...). It sort of gives the impression that after stretching the length as much as possible up to the middle, who wrote the script found out that there's a time limit to wrap up ... What a loss.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Signal (2014)

Immersive ... That's a one-word description for "The Signal". It's been a while since I've watched a SciFi that kept me so engaged. Two students at MIT and the girlfriend of one of them are on the road to California. At some point, they decide to take a detour to meet a hacker - nickname: Nomad. An IP trace leads them to an address in the middle of nowhere, at night, where the only thing they find is a deserted house. And now for a short time you feel you're watching something between "Wrong Turn" and "Blair Witch Project" and you ask yourself why IMDb listed SciFi and not horror. But that goes fast ... And we're suddenly transported to "The Matrix". Or .. well, we have Laurence Fishburne as someone who seems to lead a quarantine compartment of a facility where the three were brought after a 3rd kind encounter in the desert. A bit further we're moving to "The Cube", at least conceptually. Probably I'm not giving the best references - somehow the right one eludes me, but is better like this: that's the proof that what we have here is original enough (although sort of predictable) and .. I'm not giving spoilers :) About the camera, sound, etc .. you can see it in the trailer, or just go for the movie, it's really worth it ;)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Man from Reno (2014)

"Man from Reno" is one of those movies that makes you ask "why is this good?" while watching, considering that if you look over the story somewhere halfway it seems that nothing's stands out compared to a standard TV crime series. I'm saying that because I actually couldn't watch it all at once and I had enough time in-between to think about going on with the final part. And the decision was: yes, do it ...

So, what's worth seeing here? First of all, the movie is impeccable in the making as a whole. If we split it piece by piece - directing, acting, camera, editing, sound, I can't say any of those is exceptional, but all complete each other so well that the result keeps your eyes on the screen. What about the story?... Well, the start is pretty convoluted. A sheriff in a small county near San Francisco hits an Asian guy on a foggy night ... or better said the guy stumbling on his feet hits the sheriff's car. Long story short - "the victim" ends up in a hospital from where he runs away as soon as he's able leaving lots of unanswered questions. Meanwhile, a successful Japanese crime novel author checks in to a hotel in San Francisco where she gets approached by a charming guy ... who disappears after a one night stand. And somehow the search of the two missing persons intersects ...

There are many movies passing through your mind when you watch "Man from Reno". From "No Country for Old Men" (that I'm not really fond of) to "Talented Mr. Ripley" (that I'm not really fond of either). I've seen here what's missing there. Still I can't get over a turning point towards the end where (spoiler) things move from what seems a comforting calm solution to a very dark outcome ... But maybe it's just my taste, or too much daily stress that wants only happy-endings :) ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

A Hard Day (2014)

"A Hard Day" is a Korean production confirming (yet again ...) that if you look today over the Asian cinema you can find movies with a much clever script than the average of the Hollywood mainstream. What we have here is somewhere between a thriller and a dark comedy where the humor is sometimes dry, but for who had previous experience with the Korean cinema should be clear that's something typical. The story starts with a crooked cop from a crooked department who hits a guy on the road at night in an apparently fatal crash, while driving to set up the funeral arrangements for his mother. Meanwhile a nocturnal internal affairs raid takes over his office, and his daughter left in his custody after divorce keeps asking him on the phone for a chocolate cake. Getting back to his most pressing problem, the "apparently fatal" accident doesn't mean the victim will rise from dead - but I'm not gonna tell more ... I just thought that the trailer might make you think that "you know the story" and maybe a hint will help to the answer that "no, you don't".

It's a Korean thriller, so you can expect violence. I think the degree is acceptable compared to others. The series of unfortunate events that keep coming after the main character may seem taking exaggerate turns towards the end, but again ... it's at an acceptable level (and if you think something's a bit over the top, remember that "comedy" is listed among genres). Probably the worst minus I noticed is the ... title. It's completely random considering you can't even tell which "day" was more "hard", but doesn't matter that much ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Debt (2010)

"The Debt" is a good thriller ... if you're patient enough to wait for the halfway twist. Until then we have a story partly told in flashback of three Mossad agents tasked somewhere in the 60's with capturing the "surgeon of Birkenau" a Nazi war criminal hiding somewhere in the East Berlin. It's partly in flashback because the story actually starts 30 years after the events at the launch of a book covering the mission success. Inexplicably, one of the three commits suicide just before the book release festivity. Well, inexplicably until halfway in the movie :) ...

I would say something about the actors. More precisely about the casting. I can appreciate hiring a pair of actors for each of the three agents, as what I think it is a better alternative to an aging makeup that often fails, but the way the pairs were chosen is at least strange if not really confusing. You're initially tempted to associate the younger version of an agent to the other one and vice versa. Getting over this, I can't say the movie is exceptional in any aspect. The story, however, is quite well put together, it has that nostalgic/romantic part characteristic to the classic spy thriller genre that's nowadays sort of lost (we didn't have that in Bourne for instance), and the directing (John Madden) stands solid in the British tradition of this kind of movie. I would say that the result, especially considering the slow development, gets close to John le Carre ("Tailor of Panama", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "A Most Wanted Man") .. maybe even better sometimes.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Big Bang (2010)

Time for a short effective entry ... "The Big Bang" is a small movie, but with some big names on the poster. It got a small score with the critics, but it has a big knot of tangled threads resulting in a story that you can at least call catchy. The movie's rated R (= packs enough sex and violence to sell) but that's not the reason. It seems hard for me to coherently mix into a subject for a noir movie: corrupted cops, the Russian mafia, blood diamonds, quantum physics, love stories, natural disasters, philosophy, multiple personalities and an eccentric millionaire, all starting with a classic missing person case = the movie's context setting. More precisely, a private eye (Antonio Banderas) is hired by a former life convict, miraculously freed from jail, to find his mail girlfriend, who apparently doesn't seem to exist. And from this we somehow end up in the middle of a particle acceleator (oh yes, the quantum physics part is quite consistent ... at least quantity wise). Indeed, the movie is not perfect, gets a bit over the top with the "noir" stuff ... from the poster to the camera work (although strictly visual speaking looks ok) + of course the script (although here too we can close an eye for some witty punchlines). Overall I can admire the way this salad served in the first half gets a meaning in the second. And it's not because a hot scene in the middle giving a crash course of particles theory in an 18+ :) It's just a weird chaotic story that strangely works ... or simply a mix of some shallow science into dumb action, just enough to result in a watchable guilty pleasure.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Jason Bourne (2016)

"Jason Bourne" returns as the fifth episode in the series, after "Bourne Legacy" where we had the impression that Bourne is done (that's why it was called "Legacy"). Well, he's back. And as long as you forgot the first three movies this one works. Because otherwise I assume you would need to fill up many continuity holes. So, as a stand alone movie (well, including the references to the past) is a decent spy thriller. In brief, the "self-exiled" Bourne finds out that his own family history and its CIA connections include a bit more than what he knew. So, we end up with a personal vendetta mixed with an inner political intrigue + a consistent reference to lack of privacy in online social media. Of course we're getting a share of exaggerations and shallow scenes, but overall it's fine. Even on the technical side :) (I was complaining about the kinetic camera badly used last time .. well, here we have the counterexample).

Rating: 3 out of 5

Star Trek: Beyond (2016) ... and beyond ST Beyond

There's not much to be said about "Star Trek: Beyond" ... not much of good. Even the poster is bad. There's been quite some time since I've been so disappointed by a Star Trek. Question: What do you do if you need to write a story for a Star Trek and you don't have an idea? Answer: Recycling. What's making this worse than normal is doing it so poorly right after the previous movie where we've seen an original and stylish re-inventing of a classic villain (Khan). What we have in "Beyond" is more or less the original background of Khan (well .. somehow they managed not using it in the previous movie), attached to a different villain in what turns in the end to be a simple shallow revenge story ...

In the intro we have Enterprise crashing in pieces on a far away planet as result of an attack from an apparently unknown race, lead by a guy with typical "evil alien" looks who wants a weapon incidentally present on board of the ship. The context: long ago another Federation ship got wrecked on the same lost planet, that remained lost for a while, sufficiently enough that the captain to develop a mutation extending his life as well as his revenge wish for being forgotten. Spoiler: who's the "evil alien"? ... if it's not obvious, you'll probably get it early when you see the old shipwreck for the first time in the movie. However, there's a bunch of other stuff hard to get. Not because they're not so obvious, but because they don't make any sense ... Starting with why the guy didn't leave the planet, considering he's in command of an entire army capable at least to reach the nearest inhabited outpost (his target in the movie actually) ... And that's only one. Honestly, I'm to lazy to start enumerating others ...

Well .. but in a movie - especially a SciFi - you can overlook some things that you can't explain. The problem is when pretty much everything else sucks. The direction is like a "Fast & Furious ... in space" (no joke, there is the same director as latest F&F actually). The editing and the camera work is horrible, as pretty much everything on the technical part for a ST in the year 2016. Tricky question: what's worse than a poorly used kinetic camera ... Answer: a poorly used kinetic camera in 3D.

Without other comments ...
Rating: 2 out of 5 (objectively ... subjectively: 1.5)

Now, beyond ST Beyond ... If you really like "Star Trek" my recommendation is to stay far from this one. Skip it. Go see Tarzan instead. Or something else. I don't know ...
If you've never watched a "Star Trek" until now, don't ruin your impression with Beyond. Incidentally, in a different context, I've recently written a summary of what's worth seeing out of the "cinema episodes". Any of the following is way beyond Beyond (in the positive direction)...

The old generation - Kirk & co.

• ST II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) - I think this is old, but probably has the largest hardcore fan base. That's why it happens often to have any sort of references more or less obvious to this movie and key scenes in it. 
• ST IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - Again, it's old, but it probably has the most funny subject: time travel to take a whale into the future when the species got extinct (no other spoilers); 
• ST VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) - I've watched this very long ago and I don't remember much besides I liked it the most from what's in the "old generation" series + it's the one which "aged" the best being the most recent. 

The next generation - Picard & co.

• ST VII: Generations (1994) - Nice for nostalgic people. Makes the transition between the old generations with a meeting between Picard and the old Kirk. Lots of people say this "episode" is not so good, but I think it's acceptable. The villain has a solid build, the movie has a bit of life philosophy, indeed it has some lengths, so not the best but overall works. 
• ST VIII: First Contact (1996) - Must see. My #1. Borg + time travel + first alien contact for humanity = probably the best story of all.
• ST X: Nemesis (2002) - Must see. I think it's the most underrated Star Trek. The critics unfairly bashed it. It has one of the best villains, the story's sufficiently original (including a side story) and is also probably the most alert in this series (= doesn't bore).

The new generation - Kirk & co.

• ST XI: Star Trek (2009) - Must see. A return to the original crew with a very nice time travel story. Maybe a bit cheesy, but within decent limits. My #3.;
• ST XII: Into Darkness (2013) - Must see. Probably the most "romantic" ST (referring to the current, not about romances) = strong revenge story, a different Khan is back = lots of references to ST II very cleverly inserted and probably the best soundtrack. My #2.

Time Lapse (2014)

Since a while ago, I'm trying to stay away from time travel movies considering that I want when I'll have time to write a short story on this subject, and I'd like to keep myself out of much external influence. So, I had some doubts about "Time Lapse", but eventually I gave up. Unfortunate decision, I have to partially rethink again my own subject. What I want to say is that I've watched one of the few cases of approaching the theme that's developing a less used idea (maybe the least used idea): time travel without ... actual time travel. Why would you need time travel when you could send a message in time? You just have to take care that the recipient (maybe you) to get it ...

Another title that comes to my mind now is "Deja Vu" that partially uses the same concept. Unlike "Deja Vu", "Time Lapse" is a small budget indie, where 3 actors carry pretty much all of the movie that's shot mostly in an apartment. Also unlike "Deja Vu", "Time Lapse" holds on the idea - we don't have a Denzel Washington who must personally get into the time machine eventually to "save the day". Because we don't have a time machine. What we have in "Time Lapse" is a gigantic camera, found by three people in a complex apartment just across their own, which camera takes a shot each evening at 20:00 of their living room. But not the current one, the one 24 hours after - a sort of light "Early Edition" to give another reference :) . However, here the 3 guys get somehow to the conclusion that they don't have to change the future, but on the contrary, they must act so that it happens. I think this is one of the drawbacks that generates probably the biggest plot holes. Somehow though, the movie develops like a sort of puzzle, where probably in the end if you take all the pieces and look over them you'll get some explanation ( and also other plot holes :) ). I didn't have time for this + as usual, no spoilers ;)

The idea is nice, but moving a bit onto the cinema part, you can find many issues due to the low budget the production has. Probably the worse are related to the script, where you can notice easily that another pass for cleaning stupid lines would've helped .. but there are others too - production level related and even actors. Overall, not bad but could've been much better ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

"The Windup Girl"

Since a while I'm having trouble writing at the "standard" frequency of one entry/week, fixed as target when I started this blog. But I'm counting ... I have a delay of 6 entries up to now for 2016, which I'm fooling myself that I'll catch back this summer. The problem is that I don't really get to see anymore at least one movie every week, including the one that just ended. However, I've just managed somehow to finish my "travel book" = a novel that I'm reading between long breaks while I'm waiting in airports or when I'm flying, I'm in a train, etc. Let's just say that I noticed at some point that I don't work well while I'm in transit and since the rest of the time I don't have time to read anything else than scientific stuff, I decided that fiction gets total priority for travel time. So, moving back, lucky me ... I don't have a movie for this week, but I have a book: "The Windup Girl" by Paolo Bacigalupi - Hugo & Nebula winner in 2010.

If I remember well, the prizes were a part of the reason why I bought the book. Quite disappointing I would say compared to other Hugo winners, but let's delve a bit into the subject first. The action is set in a future where few countries still have their own natural production of food, the market being dominated by various companies activating in creating artificial species and in gene hacking (including also live beings). The situation is a follow-up of several epidemics propagated through food infestation, which apparently killed lots of the world's population. Not so many in Thailand though, the place where the novel is set, where the Ministry of Environment is a sort of armed force managing the country stability on this matters, and relying on a secret seed bank - point of interest for many foreign enterprises. From here an entire political intrigue gets built up, having on the opposite side the Ministry of Trade, an entry point in the country for various shady deals. Somewhere lost in the middle of all this we have "the windup girl" - Emiko, an artificial being, created to serve as a secretary (made in Japan), a forbidden product on the import market, which somehow ended up from her initial role to being the property of a brothel owner. Initially she's a minor character, but as I think it's written also somewhere on the book cover, she will have a decisive impact in the destiny of the kingdom ...

This happens, however, after many many many chapters, out of the total of 50. Without spoilers, I think it's the novel with the longest intrigue I've ever read. I could say it's spanning up to after half of its length. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but the development of the action up to a key point when "the windup girl" finally advances to being more of a main character, just seemed to serve as construction for what follows. The novel is highly descriptive and very visual, which adds some lengths that sometimes I found a bit exaggerated. Actually, the author's writing style relies on this - you have for quite some time a slow advancing pace after which you get hit with a shock scene, most often an unannounced death a la Game-of-Thrones, to keep you following. Besides the twists that evaporate shortly, the only part that's more consistent is a constant dialogue with a ghost, or you could say it's with the inner self, of a member in the armed forces of the Ministry of Environment, one of the characters that's getting "upgraded" from secondary to main character status until the ending. Which ending leaves open some questions ... but I said I'll withhold from spoilers ...

The verdict: I think it's one of the few cases where a screen version has serious chances of being better than the written material. I don't know if there's anything planned, but the novel is relatively recent. That's pretty much all for now, back next time with hopefully a good movie ...

Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot (2015)

"Jeeg Robot" is part of a "super-hero" niche of movies that gains ground slow but steady lately, and I can say I like it more than the mainstream = Marvel + DC. To clarify, more stuff we have in this set: "Defendor", "Kick-Ass" (the first) and most probably others that I can't think of right now. Essential traits = the "super-hero" doesn't necessarily have super powers - or these are quite simple (no Ant-Man here), and is often more of an anti-hero until finds "the true call of doing good, saving the world, etc, and the rest" ... if he finds it. That's pretty much what we have here. Enzo Ceccotti doesn't like his life a lot, doesn't have friends, and he gains his daily dose of yogurt as a small crook. One day, being chased by some guys apparently worse than him, after taking a bath with some unknown potentially radioactive waste in the Tiber, he gets to be ... unbreakable and gains some extra strength in arms. Following that, we have some conflicts with the local gangs, a super-villain enters the scene, bombs, romance, drama, and others. The movie's funny, consistent, I'd say even touching here and there. The actors play their parts perfectly. Even the production design is surprisingly good for an indie. Something seems still missing, though ... But that's definitely not the Marvel logo in the intro :) ...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Swiss Army Man (2016)

Given that I don't have much time left to write I'm gonna try (at least for a while) a short and focused, and hopefully more often entries approach. "Swiss Army Man" is the kind of movie that you'd want to like, but somehow it makes its best not to. It's clearly an experiment of the two guys directing and writing, and it should be considered as such. The context is extremely simple: the classic case of the stranded island survivor who sooner or later goes nuts, passing through the "standard" phases: suicidal thoughts, life introspection, finding a "live" partner of survival whichever who might be ... This movie develops the last of these, but unlike "Cast Away" here we don't have a Wilson ball, but an actually human "friend", in the form of a zombified corpse. Actually that's the whole story - the interaction between the two actors: the cast away (Paul Dano) and his partner in "solitude" (Daniel Radcliffe), varying constantly from drama to comic. Where drama with minor exception is quite decent, and the comic with minor exceptions is indecent. I don't really have a problem with the latter, but associating it with the first part turns into a pretty weird result. Towards the end I thought at some point that I'm watching indeed a small jewel of a movie where all the crazy stuff gets some sense based on what the viewer can actually "see" there ... but no, the experiment decides to turn the ending back into a cheap "funny" conclusion where (spoiler) you should lose any doubt about the actual existence of "live" zombies.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

Yup, I know this is expired. But for late late late night = early morning works, especially since I didn't manage to see "Kung Fu Panda 3" until last week. Bad decision, so I thought it might be a good one to prevent others if there's anybody who has it on his list. After "How to Train Your Dragon 2" this was the second biggest dissappointment coming from DreamWorks. In this episode 3, the panda = Po gets an upgrade from Dragon Warrior to Chi GrandMaster for defeating Kai. I've already said everything, but let's detail a bit ...

Kai is a fearsome ox exiled on the other realm and forgotten ... until somehow finds a way to return among the living. After that Kai starts collecting live spirits into a bunch of green amulets. I didn't get the exact purpose for that, probably a sort of "there can be only one" without swords, just based on some inner energy powered kung fu that absorbs the enemy. Which again it's a bit hard to get how's working, being triggered more or less random during the animated battles (with a timing seemingly more hard to get than a "fatality" in a Mortal Kombat match). What's important is that the process of absorption looks rather non-violent and is also reversible (so .. really, swords and cutting heads wouldn't have worked here). Well, after Kai eviscerates the chi from almost every living creature, he finally finds Po gone for "chi mastering" training to a secret Panda village ("secret" = tourism branding). The final battle follows, and that's it ... you don't want me to "spoil the ending" don't you? (oh yes, we have also a soap-opera involving the two fathers of Po, but let's leave it for now .. maybe there's still somebody who's not yet convinced to give up on this).

Not in a good mood. Guess it shows ...
Rating: 2 out of 5

Summer-Fall 2016 Movie Preview Part 2

Let's skip the intro, and quickly start September with "Morgan". IMDb says it's a SciFi thriller although the trailer has a strong horror smell. We'll see if the result is more "Ex Machina" or more "Carrie".
What's definitely a horror is "Before I Wake". As I was saying last time, I think the the "ghost story" subgenre got a bit overused in the latest years. However, here's a case that seems slightly more original than the rest trying the "dreams come true ... including nightmares" theme instead the evil spirit. Well ... original if we totally disregard Elm Street :) ...
This year we get a remake for "The Magnificent Seven". I have doubts that Denzel & company have any chance to live up to the Yul Brynner & company standards, not to mention the seven samurai of Kurosawa. But after more than 50 years from the last version we can indulge a try, can't we :) ?
In October we have three interesting thrillers. The first is "The Girl on the Train". The problem with this one is that the trailer says a bit too much ...
Second comes "The Accountant". Here we're better on the trailer spoilers side. But also rather common on the story side ...
And the third is of course "Inferno". Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is back in the latest movie based on Dan Brown's novel. It doesn't seem worse than "Angels & Demons". We'll see if it's better than "The Da Vinci Code".
Let's wrap up with a Marvel movie in November. Apparently I can't ignore completely the superhero niche even if I'd like to ... This time however, there's something here that somehow got my attention. "Dr. Strange".

Summer-Fall 2016 Movie Preview Part 1

It's been two weeks since I want to write this entry, and I'm just postponing more urgent stuff to finally do this before we're passing half of the month. Because, well ... a preview including June releases doesn't mean much after June ends, right? So, let's make this fast and efficient ...

In June we have "The Wailing" aka "Goksung". It's rare (unfortunately) when an Asian movie catches some buzz also in Europe and finds a mainstream distributor in the US. Which typically presents some guarantees. Otherwise, I don't know much about this South-Korean flick, besides a hunch - checking the trailer - that's probably rough enough to be on par with the typical productions in the area (e.g., "Oldboy") but even this included, I still think it's worth checking out.
We stay in the hard thriller zone with "The Neon Demon", another niche title, the latest by Nicolas Winding Refn. I'll stick to the opinion that this guy is a mediocre director, who got one unique and single genius sparkle with "Drive" (I didn't see "Bronson"). Based on the current ratings, it will probably still be single and unique, but at least the score sounds nice ;) ...
I didn't see "The Conjuring" but I heard it's one of the best horrors in the latest years. Part 2 seems reasonably rated, despite the fact that James Wan clearly gets repetitive in this sub-genre of scary ghosts & evil spirits.
Let's try to move a bit out of the tensed area. Gradually :P. In July we have "Our Kind of Traitor", a new adaptation based on John le Carre. If "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy" seemed overrated to me, "A Most Wanted Man" was excellent, moving a bit back in the more sentimental-drama area, characteristic for the author actually. We'll see what we'll get here ...
I was saying something about moving out of the tensed area. Neah. Where's the fun? :P "Cell", where we have Stephen King contributing to the actual script, besides writing the book, presents us a new version of a "zombie movie". And I like zombie movies, with or without genuine zombies :)
I don't have high expectations from "Star Trek: Beyond". 1. J.J.Abrams doesn't direct anymore - and although some would say that's good, when the replacement's name is Justin Lin ("Fast & Furious") I think we can't expense. 2. Simon Pegg might be quite good as screenwriter - but that's for comedies as "Hot Fuzz" & "The World's End". From there to "Star Trek" ... 3. The best movies in the series had a very well-shaped villain, even if we refer to it collectively = The Borg - the movie's catch factor being very often the tensed conflict. From what I see in the trailer, I don't give much chance that this one beats on "catchy factor" the reboot of ... 7 years ago (omg ... time flies) with the time-traveling Romulan, and for Khan in "Into Darkness" doesn't even make sense to start comparing ...
I doubt that "Guardians of Galaxy" can be surpassed by something else, but the DC super-hero universe doesn't even seem to offer something like the Marvel's anti-hero group. So, we're getting directly a super-villains group. "Suicide Squad" seems fun - at least more promising than the typical DC/Marvel recipe. Out in August.
The only animation that did catch my interest for this summer is "Kubo and the Two Strings". Looks different. Different than the cheap funny lines I've seen in trailers for sequels made to squeeze more money into the Pixar and Fox bank accounts. I'm not gonna even mention which animations, just to avoid disrespecting the originals. In "Kubo" I finally sensed a bit of something from "How to Train Your Dragon" (the first, not the second).
And since we started with something intense, let's wrap up the summer in the same range ;) more or less. "Don't Breathe" is a thriller with a pretty original intrigue, which at least I don't remember encountering before. What's the story? Check the trailer, it says enough :)