Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

I don't remember much about "Jumanji" (1995). Just that I liked it back then. I also don't remember much about "Zathura" (2005). Just that I liked it more than "Jumanji". I'm pretty sure I won't remember much neither about the new "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" (2017). Unless that maybe it's weaker than the first, and clearly below "Zathura".

The new version doesn't seem to be a sequel for the old one, but more towards a remake. The "cursed" board game is replaced by an old arcade that absorbs the players into a jungle where they have to save Jumanji (= the jungle). It's obvious that in such a movie you need to accept a certain level of "SciFi", but somehow the entire bit of grabbing/passing the players into the game seems a bit too childish... I don't know, the initial version, as also the closet in Narnia, or to be more close to the current setting the arcade in "TRON" seemed much more... believable. Anyway... On the good side, leaving the intro apart, the idea of a cursed arcade in which you're trapped has quite a potential to explore. Each player has an avatar in the game that is pretty far from the real form. We have a number of lives and the respawn concept. We have strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, even though the movie covers quite a bit of all these, it loses on the script. The jokes sometimes work, sometimes they don't. The dialogue has a clear age target in the range of 10-16. The story does not offer much surprise - the always present action is running from the bad guys towards the final objective to get the job done.

It's curious how the new "Jumanji" still managed to please enough the critics and didn't land exactly close to the trash bin. I assume it's more about politically correctness than how good is the movie. For instance "Journey to the Center of The Earth" in the same niche is somewhere at 61 on RT in comparison 77 here, and I think it's a bit better than this one. But well... as a family/kids movie I guess it works.

I would've liked to end 2017 with something better, but unfortunately I doubt I'll have time to watch any other movie and also write an entry until the 0:00 between years... so that's it for now. I have to notice that it's the first year, after 10 of blogging, when I didn't have a movie with the maximum rating among my entries. Maybe I got too picky... Maybe I got old and my chemistry with the new releases is fading... Maybe I don't have enough time to watch enough or to choose what to watch... Anyway, Happy New Year! & hopefully next year will be better ;)

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Wind River (2017)

From the first scene "Wind River" reminded me of "Winter's Bone". We have the same harsh reality, isolated location, a community at the edge of poverty, lack of police, uncontrolled crime. The similarities stop here. The story is different. In "Wind River" everything starts with the corpse of an 18 years old girl, with rape marks, found frozen at several miles distance from any residence, in the middle of an Indian reservation from Wyoming. The body is discovered by a local hunter, who alerts the local chief of police, who asks the presence of FBI for investigating the case. Tha follows is a drama with crime thriller accents (not the opposite, as it might look like). We have a much stronger accent set on the geographical-social context, starting with a snow storm up to the specific community customs. The crime/thriller part is relatively linear, unlike for instance "Winter's Bone". To make another comparison, Taylor Sheridan who directed and wrote "Hell or High Water" does the same here, and you can feel the same touch, every detail in the whole story/setting being carefully taken care of. To conclude: if you want a mystery story it's probably not the best option, but as a composition movie it's highly recommended.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Foreigner (2017)

"The Foreigner" is one of the few movies seen since quite a while that hides more than what's shown in the trailer. And that's good... Another good thing is Jackie Chan's presence in a western production that's not a comedy. Otherwise said, you have the opportunity to also see the other face of the actor, who besides the remake of "Karate Kid", didn't really have any drama parts in movies made outside Hong Kong.

The movie is an adaptation of a thriller novel. We have an Asian immigrant, owner of a small London restaurant, whose daughter is killed in a bomb attack set up by a new faction of IRA that breaches the non-aggression agreement with the British government. Our man is not pleased with the answer of authorities who need more time to find the perpetrators, and decides to take the matter in his own hands. That implies traveling to Belfast and contacting the local deputy PM (Pierce Brosnan) an ex-IRA member, who doesn't seem to know much. But "the Chinaman" wants names. From here onward there are two action lines splitting and intersecting again repeatedly until the end. On one side we have a revenge story, where a Chinese in his '60s goes against the whole IRA (let's say that the exotic side of the situation and the way the action's built compensates the Special Forces background cliche). On the other side we have a political thriller with enough threads bound together (that's the surprise part, so let's not detail it).

The production quality is good. Besides the two parts excellently played by Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan one thing to notice is the editing, especially the audio one, which is well backed up also by surprisingly appropriate score given how minimalist is the composition. As a final note, the revenge story, which is as always catchy given the niche, it's much more diffuse and non-violent I'd say compared to what you might think, surprisingly even more than the other story line. Which again, it's something good :)...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Paths of Glory (1957) / Cross of Iron (1977)

There's already some time since I want to put "Paths of Glory" and "Cross of Iron" in a side-by-side entry, enough time to forget pretty much all I wanted to write. By chance, I've watched this year both movies, both of them being part of a similar anti-war niche. "Paths of Glory" is among the first movies of Kubrick, while "Cross of Iron" is an indie movie by Sam Peckinpah (probably the most underrated director of the 70s). Both movies are book adaptations and both have the same antagonist typology - a superior ranked officer, whose primary objective in a critical war situation is a "quest for glory" and (up to some point) also the same typology of the main character - the inferior ranked officer, sick of war, for who the glory equals zero.

In "Paths of Glory" we have on one side a French general during WW1 who, following a discreet suggestion coming from the army commandment, decides to sacrifice based on preliminary estimation more than half of the people under his command for conquering a hill, a strategic objective that will bring praise and a potential promotion. On the other side, we have a colonel who should carry the order till the end, but fails, the soldiers being unable to advance through enemy fire; consequence - he must choose 3 soldiers, one in each company, for bringing them in front of the martial court for cowardice. In "Cross of Iron" we have a captain of the German army, descending from an Prussian aristocratic family, who in the final days of WW2 asks for a transfer near the enemy lines because he cannot accept getting out of the war without obtaining an Iron Cross for bravery. On the opposite side we have a sergeant, commanding a group of soldiers, saviors of the company in difficult no-exit situations, who refuses to lie on witnessing his superior leading a heroic assault.

The closeness of the two movies is interesting, not necessarily from the war context perspective, but more for the general approach of life: the boss-employee relationship, the world in which each of them lives seen from above by one and closely within by the other, approaching impossible tasks, etc. The similarity has, however, a limit, the movies being split apart by their general feeling, and the character who struggling within the harsh reality takes different directions from some point onward. (Spoilers) One of the characters manifests a loyal insanity up to the point when the accumulated sickness reaches a limit, the other is also a sickened person but one who plans, trying all he can to solve the situation within its constraining bounds. In "Cross of Iron" the sergeant is offered with the opportunity to accuse his superior and he's not doing it. In "Paths of Glory" the colonel is refused on any attempt of defense. Which approach is the right one?... :) I'll just say that it's probably better to watch the movies in reverse chronological order ;) also because I find "Cross of Iron" much more harsh than "Paths of Glory".

Rating:
Paths of Glory - 3.5 out of 5
Cross of Iron - 3 out of 5

Possession (2002)

Old movie, short entry: Somewhere between a cold that I can't get rid of, end-of-year reports, unsolved family issues and other house issues, which again confirmed that December 25th is a backup day for unfinished business and to not expect more because it's not helpful for my morale, I said it might still be a good idea to search for a movie that's more in tone with the period. That didn't come so well either... "Possession" is an old romance, quite corny, that fooled me by being additionally classified as "mystery" by IMDb. We have a couple formed by an American assistant in a literature department somewhere in UK (Aaron Eckhart) and a doctor in another literature department also in UK (Gwyneth Palthrow) who team up for investigating a romantic affair kept secret by a (fictitious) British 19th century poet, whose work apparently dedicated to his wife had actually another target... (or that's left for you to understand by the ending of the movie). All this story has an academic touch of Indiana Jones in a literary version = all sorts of cryptic verse taking us through various deserted mansions, isolated cascades, up to digging up a grave. Besides that we also have a rival group hunting for the same "academic treasure", obviously for mean personal benefits = fame & glory for the century's literary discovery (it's not totally clear what's the difference in case of the first group for this part..., but well, we needed something to make the action slightly more dynamic). Besides the present side, for who's into pure romance we have the 18th century story narrated through flashbacks. With all the risk of seeming insensitive, this whole story is so dull that the main quality it has is to act as a sleeping pill... reason why it actually took 3 attempts to finish the movie. To conclude, maybe the summary and the idea itself might look ok, but the script is much much worse... Enough said.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Let's make this quick: SW VIII is better than SW VII - SW VIII is not better than SW II, III, IV, V, VI. Yes, better than I - but worse than II, well... that's my ranking, now some reasons for this...

First of all on the plus side, we have clearly a better shaped story compared to the previous episode, despite all the critics claiming that there are too many confusing twists. I honestly start having doubts either about the average IQ of the critic community in the States or the amount of movies they've watched. Probably in your first seen movie you'll have plenty of twists... don't know, that was loooong ago - here I've seen one and that was it (no spoilers), the rest was predictable. To be fair, there's actually one supposed twist (well... light spoiler) about some change in the main villain that I was hoping not too happen, but it was there... Which brings me to the first minus left from the previous movie - I stick to my opinion that Adam Driver is a bad choice for the main villain, and moreover the character is poorly built. We can evaluate all the major villains of Star Wars: Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Snoke and even the lower ranked ones: Count Dooku, Jabba, even Boba Fett. There's a certain credibility in all these that a spoiled brat with a sword who smashes his fists into the walls when he gets angry doesn't have. The way Anakin Skywalker = Darth Vader was built in episodes I-III up to giving in to the Dark Side is way beyond what we have here. And the so much criticized wooden acting of Hayden Christensen was actually much more credible in respect to the "interior struggle" than the forced grimaces served now. Well.. Let's stop this here. What else...

We have lots of cliche, but you can expect that so let's give it a pass. The screenwriting is ok overall. What's bad is the editing, actually terrible for a movie at this budget. Example I: I understand that you don't need all the details, but we have at least one scene where you feel the need for something intermediate to figure out how the present characters got there. Example II: Carrie Fisher moved into a different dimension this year, and I suppose that some of the scenes were edited afterwards with/without a digitized Leia - that wouldn't be a problem, if you couldn't see at least once an overlapping of two characters in different shots (but well... maybe it's harder in 3D to take into account the look angle of an actor). Anyway... I could nag also about the title of the movie :) but I'd rather end this on the positive side. There is something that I think it's above what I've seen in the other Star Wars, and that's the role of Mark Hamill who never impressed me much as an actor (not that he's bad or something, but let's be fair... his career is mostly formed of voice-overs and less live). I was surprised once before in "Sushi Girl", but I thought that's an exception. The second one was here. Probably the script contributed to it, getting us to a main swordfight to remember (especially the scene just before). But enough spoilers ;) ...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 ( just to be a bit above Episode VII :P )

Winter-Spring 2017-2018 Movie Preview - Part 2

Let's quickly move also through what's announced for Spring 2018, since we anyway don't have too many trailers released yet. At least for me, if there is any animation announced for next year that could compete with "Early Man", that's "Isle of Dogs" - out in March 2018, written and directed by Wes Anderson. Instead of more details I guess it's enough to enumerate: "Fantastic Mr. Fox", "Moonrise Kingdom", "Grand Budapest Hotel". Well, to be fair.. it's probably obvious that the movie we have here doesn't have the same target age as a typical Pixar/Dreamworks animation, and not even as Aardman stuff, speaking about "Early Man". But let's cut the chit-chat... here's the trailer:

"Pacific Rim: Uprising" doesn't seem to have much left (except the main topic) from the first "Pacific Rim". The director, writers, cast, all are changed. My expectations are even lower than what I had for the first movie, but there I was so surprised about the outcome that looking back I can't really explain how that happened. I could hope the same for here, but still... back then we had a Guillermo del Toro behind the whole thing, here...

The first thing that pops into my mind about "Ready Player One" is that's the first SciFi made by Spielberg since "War of the Worlds". The second thing is that I really, really, really hope it won't be like "War of the Worlds" :| ...

"Rampage" looks like a sort of King Kong meets Sharknado meets Insert-your-favorite-giant-creature-here. Or the type of summer movie that doesn't seem to be so bankable and it gets a release date at some point where there's not much competition announced (April in this case).

We end in May with the next "Avengers: Infinity Wars". I'm not gonna spend more time to repeat again my opinion on super-hero movies, especially the ones Marvel releases (unfortunately there was nothing else announced for this month).

Winter-Spring 2017-2018 Movie Preview - Part 1

Without delaying also with an intro a post that I should've written 3 weeks ago, let's just start this preview round with "The Shape of Water". Already having an early December limited release, the movie is the most recent by Guillermo del Toro. Based on the first reviews it seems to get a bit more close to "Pan's Labyrinth"/"Pacific Rim"/"Hellboy", otherwise said the better times, at least compared to the last movie he wrote and directed - "Crimson Peak", which I'd rather avoid remembering.

Obviously, the title poster for this month is "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi". But more about this one in a future entry.

"Downsizing" is the most recent movie written and directed by Alexander Payne ("Sideways", "Descendants", "Nebraska"). At a first sight it seems to be a turn of the director towards something else more close to a light SciFi, compared with the previous line-up. Although if we think a bit, and we consider that in all the previous the location had a major role...

We begin January 2018 with "Proud Mary". What seems to be the female alternative to "John Wick". Hopefully it won't be as messy as the last attempt = "Atomic Blonde"...

Even though Aardman had some other cinema releases, the last animation directed by Nick Park - "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" - was in 2005 (5 years after "Chicken Run"). He's finally back: "Early Man". The only thing I'm afraid of is that I might expect too much after all these years, although the trailer doesn't look bad.

"Day of the Dead: Bloodline" is the second remake we see for one of the George Romero's classic zombie-horrors. The first was "Dawn of the Dead" in Zack Snyder's version from 2004, and that wasn't bad at all. Here, however, I have some doubts, the guy in charge - Hector Vicens - not having much experience with directing (not that Snyder had any CV in 2004...).

I noticed lately a drastically decrease in my appetite for horrors. However, I'll close the winter preview with something that caught my eye and is still in this area. In February we'll have the release for "Winchester". There's a house somewhere in the U.S. that was continuously constructed for several tens of years and finally left unfinished, currently reaching the status of a tourist attraction as one of the weirdest buildings in the world. The owner was the widow of the well-known rifle manufacturer with the same name. So, the background story of the movie is real, but probably heavily romanticized. In any case, seems to have something different in it...

Population 436 (2006)

"Welcome to Rockwell Falls. Population 436" is the tagline that seems announcing a scary movie. What we have here is another indie, relatively old, that shows its age maybe even a bit more than what it is. Technically is a horror, practically that scary movie announcement is not much more than an announcement. Not that I would have a problem with that, but the movie is pretty ... dry, I can't find another better word for it. The story goes like this - we have a guy working for the Census Bureau, who has an assignment to Rockwell Falls = middle of nowhere, where he's initially welcomed with sheer hostility that turns around in just a few hours. Around meaning up to the point of being greeted by everybody on the street. Of course that it doesn't need much more to the guy to figure out that something's fishy, especially given that nobody wants to explain him why the records show 436 as a constant population number for the last 100 years or so. You'll get the answer in the movie. What I can say more is that the plot is pretty original for a horror. Unfortunately it's messed by some scenes that lose lots of credibility (including a romance that brings you to the eye-rolling state again & again & again...).

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Session 9 (2001)

Old movie - short entry: "Session 9" is an example of a horror movie in the real sense of a horror, not the typical action disguised as a horror = lots of blood, screams and a stupid subject. It's not exactly "It Follows", but I think that in the last two and a half years I didn't see anything else that transpired such a tense feeling as I've got here. The movie was shot in a place that seems to actually be a former closed asylum left to decay, Danvers State Asylum, a building that I guess beats any other in a top of creepy/haunted places I've seen in a movie. And yes, that counts also the Overlook Hotel in Shining... The story starts relatively simple - a crew of 5 men working as a team of cleaning/decontamination for asbestos constructions is contracted to take care of the mentioned building. As a detail, the team leader offers an apparently impossible time of a week for getting the job done to secure the contract. Things go obviously bad ... and again obviously we have something bad in the building. The action follows a sort of classic development, day by day, which is one of the aspects that seem to lose its sense since we only get to Friday (well, seems I gave a spoiler...). What's nice is that each character is really carefully constructed, the script exploiting very well the more or less obvious personal fears. That's actually so well done that (again...) I reached the conclusion that I probably got too old for psychological horrors, the everyday life stress is enough. What's not that nice is that the movie, an indie, feels a bit unpolished leaving a lot to the viewer to figure out. Including that "something bad" from above, at least partially - although the fact that we don't have a solid clarification contributes on making the movie more real, and implicitly more scary. But, enough spoilers :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

10 years of blog & Stargate: Atlantis

I have already a few good minutes of staring at a blank page with no idea of what to write at 10 years of blog (well, 7 for the English version). I'm a bit puzzled how I didn't close it yet. I recently found out that Romania seems to be the EU country with the least cinemas per capita. But since I never really cared of earning something from my blog probably doesn't matter that much. I'd really not turn this anniversary entry into a political one and also I already see rising the depressing potential of it, so let's just move swiftly to the movie subject...

Why "Stargate: Atlantis"? First of all, there are several moments during a year's time when I typically try my best to find a movie that really deserves recommending = close to the holidays and the current day. So I tried to "save" "Toni Erdmann" for the current occasion based on ratings, awards, etc., but after watching it I decided that it doesn't deserve the effort of writing an entry (especially the one of today). So, I was left without a subject... I got to "Atlantis" because it was the most convenient. Despite the fact that it ended quite a while ago, for me is just running now = I re-started watching season 2 this summer from where I left it in... 2007, I guess? (we're anyway at the "10 years" step).

In any case I don't have much to say, because there is too much to say. For who didn't have any contact with the "Stargate" universe, here's the basic premise: a bunch of star gates spread throughout the universe and connected by holes + the travel between them. For more context watch the movie - "Stargate" (1994) - probably one of the few good films of Roland Emmerich (I counted two) & you can follow up with "Stargate SG1". "Atlantis" is a spin-off where Earth settles an operations base in the city that gives the name of the series - a remnant of a long gone civilization (the Ancients) highly advanced, but extinct from the galaxy after a conflict with "the wraith", some sort of alien vampires (no blood and teeth, but having more scary looks). Well, through the seasons you get also to meet other enemies but as I said.. it would be too much to tell.

I don't know if it's because I re-started watching "Atlantis" somewhere at the beginning of the summer and it helped moving my mind from some problems that were beyond the standard stress level, but the best description I can give is that "it grows on you". Initially I found the writing in some episodes from season 2 to be a bit silly. Besides that you also have a visible difference of how the TV production level changed in the last 10 years. But slowly the quality of the scripts grew and it became that type of series that works perfectly from time to time to disconnect your brain: relatively short episodes (~40 minutes) + a set of characters that become familiar + typically without extreme emotional impact (although there are a couple episodes that are a strong exception) + quite enough humor for an action SciFi. As a conclusion, I would risk comparing "Atlantis" with "MASH" from a very personal point of view, obviously keeping the proportions (or more precisely the subliminal in "Atlantis" vs the direct approach in "Mash") = in both of them an episode is pretty much the right dose to make you take things more lightly in life ;)

Revolver (2005)

Old movie, short entry: "Revolver" is a movie by Guy Ritchie that I missed when was originally released, and which I reminded of after watching "King Arthur". The action is set in Ritchie's favorite context = a local mob story (wherever that might be), although here we're dealing with something quite different from the more known "Snatch", "Lock, Stock...." and even quite apart from "Sherlock Holmes". Jake Green (Jason Statham) gets out of jail after 7 years of solitary confinement due to a gang boss, Dorothy Macha (Ray Liotta). With no delay he tries to even up with him assembling a scheme of squeezing money out of some of the gang members. The story is highly-elaborated and you'll get pieces of it as the movie progresses. Although things are moving relatively smoothly up to half of it, the part that drags it down is what's happening after when the action takes a bizarre turn, which probably rivals with "Night Watch" from the previous entry. We're moving from a thriller to a sort of psychoanalysis set between a "Fight Club" and "The Usual Suspects". It's probably a movie that requires more than one watch to get everything from the scenes that are out of normal. All this won't be a problem if 1) the subject wouldn't get so tangled that an explanation you get for something contradicts something else 2) you wouldn't see an ending twist coming from a mile away and 3) (subjectively) the movie wouldn't appear to be more pretentious than it is. Anyway, it's not a film to completely ignore, at least for side stuff as probably the only movie where I've seen Jason Statham acting a scene that could earn a nomination for a "best actor award".

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Night Watch (2004)

Without any connection to the seasonal holidays, I somehow finally managed to see "Night Watch", the first part of a Russian "trilogy" (that's what the poster says) that as far as I know stopped eventually after two movies. The film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov, more known after some visits to Hollywood for "Wanted", "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" and the latest "Ben Hur". Actually it seems these came after the success he had with this production, which for me is part of very narrow niche of movies that don't make much sense, but somehow managed to keep me watching till the end.

There's a story that puts the light and darkness forces in conflict since ages, having momentarily a sort of truce with some not very clear rules (there's nothing very clear in this movie). We have some human agents on the light side who can see other invisible agents who, again it's not very clear if they're human or not, but in brief they are responsible with enforcing this order. Anton, a guy recruited by the good side, gets involved in a rescue operation for a plane heading towards a potential crash over Moscow, unless a curse on a blonde woman living in a tower doesn't get removed. Meanwhile, Anton should also take care that his son who is not his son doesn't become food for vampires. If all this summary seems already between too entangled and semi-absurd, trust me is way clearer than the way the action unfolds in the movie. We have a sort of surrealism a la "Fisher King" by Gilliam combined with a tint of "apocalypse is coming" that looks like a mix between "End of Days", "Omen" and "Warlock II: The Armageddon" (maybe the latter is too obscure, but has its place on this list).

The movie is very good on visuals and audio. Considering how well the end of the world touch is blended into what's a normal evening in Moscow, I think you can forgive the way too obvious Nescafe advertising. No pun intended, probably that's what kept me awake to see it until the end. Even so, I have some doubts I'll have the patience also for "Day Watch" (the second part) that should bring closure.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Blade Runner 2049 vs PKD's Electric Dreams

"Electric Dreams" is a series recently released by Channel 4 in UK, where each episode is based on a short story of Philip K. Dick. "Blade Runner 2049" follows the '82 adaptation of "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by the same P.K. Dick and probably doesn't need more introduction. What's need maybe is a bit of context...

1) Contrary to the general opinion I've never considered "Blade Runner" (the old one) to be a masterpiece. It's just good and that's it. Actually, story concerned, given how much it loses from the original written material, I could even say it's average.
2) What I always appreciated on "Blade Runner" are the visuals and the audio. As much as it loses on the subject from the book, as closer it gets with the rest to a P.K. Dick "feeling".
3) The biggest plus of "Blade Runner", and the one that actually saves the story, is the mystery you're left with.

Now, moving to "Blade Runner 2049": 1) still holds - the movie is ok, but sorry - still no masterpiece here; obviously we have nothing to do with PKD's writing, but that's not such a big problem (was expectable)... 2) is fortunately still sort of valid, although I have complaints... and 3) all is lost, or well... 99%.

I'm gonna use 3) as an excuse not to tell anything about the story. It's already much too... "clarified" let's say. The major issue is the directing here. The movie has way too many lengthened scenes that really don't fit there. I understand the idea of "building momentum" for a scene and the need to relax the pace after others, but here this technique is extremely overused. My eyes shut twice in the first 40 minutes (it's true that I was tired). After, I managed to stay awake, but it still couldn't prevent me to check my watch a couple times. Moreover, the visuals and the audio are indirectly affected by these "zero-action" long scenes. There's one thing to watch for several seconds a transition frame = the dystopic environment, with all the visual filters and the audio synth on background (which is more like Brad Fiedel than Vangelis, but anyway, it works). There's a whole different thing to have that lengthened for minutes or worse, having scenes like that repeated with a noticeable frequency. It's exactly the same thing as in a Michael Bay's "Transformers" - if you would have one single explosion in the whole movie maybe you could get the details up to the piece of shrapnel flowing out Optimus Prime's wheels, and you'll think on how good the VFX team was to manage that. But when you have one hundred explosions is more probable to get tempted on computing if you have enough time to fetch another popcorn until the next story intermission.

I'm too hard on comparing these two indeed, here we don't have explosions, it's not happening for 100 times, and the movie is above all impeccable on the technical side, so at least for a first view the visuals won't bore you. However, fragmenting the action with these lengths is something that doesn't get away. And here I can draw a comparison with "Electric Dreams", or how "Blade Runner 2049" could've been better. An episode in "Electric Dreams" has less than one hour, in which we have story that at least in the 1st, 3rd and 5th part is comparable as amplitude with what we get in BR2049. "Electric Dreams" also doesn't care much about the written original, and obviously we can't compare the budget on an English TV show with a Hollywood production. And still, the idea of alternate reality, thing not being what they seem, and escaping from the current existence, which is the ground of pretty much everything by PKD, seems much better expressed by "Electric Dreams". Maybe it's also the way to leave open to the viewer to figure out what's there, stuff that's pretty much lost at the end of BR2049 and in ED is present in almost every episode. But I think is more continuity you have, or better said the lack of "dead" scenes. So, still the "lengths" are the issue :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5 (for "Blade Runner 2049", "Electric Dreams" is still open ;) ...)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)

Still recycling summer movies... or more precisely "Snatch" meets "GoT" = "King Arthur"... or even more precisely that was the wishful thinking, but unfortunately was neither of the two...

When I heard that there's a new release of Camelot related stuff directed by Guy Ritchie my hopes went high. After watching the movie (or actually while watching it) I realized that the fantasy ground is not that easily mergeable with his style of directing and even worse for the screenwriting, at least compared to the ground line of a classic crime story as was "Sherlock Holmes". It just doesn't work. The context doesn't get well along with the specific short witty lines, the London ghetto feeling, the alert editing filled with short cuts and frequent flashbacks and there are also others. The story itself is ok. Arthur loses his parents at a very young age following the eternal battle for the crown and gets to be raised in a London brothel. In peace and harmony. Until he reaches the age where he can be a problem for his evil uncle (a Jude Law who doesn't seem to age ... probably the dark magic effect). The rest is more or less like a soap opera, but I don't want to give extra spoilers.

It's obviously far from the original writings, but in the end is ok as an adaptation, a quite dark one and which wants to be more settled in the real world. At least it is comparing with John Boorman's "Excalibur", which probably remains the main reference in the "knights of the round table" niche. The problem is with the mise en scene as I was saying, which is bit too chaotic and looses a lot on impact due to this. You don't get to sympathize or to hate any character. There's not enough for this. I won't get to the absurd scenes or to the fighting that bypasses the limits of a swordfighting marathon. I'll stick to my own reference.. which is not "Excalibur" (too metaphorical, completely opposed to this actually), but the TV mini-series "Merlin" starring Sam Neill. The last 10 minutes in that worth watching more than all we have here...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Trapped (2017)

To let it go or not to let it go?... that is the question. That's not about "Trapped", which is just another movie recycled from what I managed to see earlier this year, but about the blog... But since I'm struggling with one more entry it's probably "not to let it go" yet...

So "Trapped"... I think it's the only Indian movie that I had the patience to watch in the last 10 years. Without having any surprise of (spoiler alert!) somebody starting to dance between two scenes. So for who's allergic to musicals, and even more to the Bollywood version, don't worry, you're safe. The story: we have love at first sight between a guy and a girl working in the same company, with the problem that him seems struggling with the money and her having an already arranged marriage (well... we have some sort of typical Indian setup). In any case, he manages somehow to convince her having second thoughts about the marriage by trying to find a new home for them. Which home, given the budget, is a rent on the black market on the top of a barely finished tower of flats, completely empty, that was not given into use. Just that he doesn't get to tell here anymore... Because after the first visit for arranging the new place he somehow manages to get stuck in the apartment. No neighbors. No phone battery. No electricity. No water. No food. Up in the sky. With just a sort of building guard, half deaf and completely absent sleeping all day at the ground floor. There you have it... The perfect setup for a catchy movie. Unfortunately the result, although not bad, was a bit below what I expected. Well, that's all about it, until next time...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Chasing Rabbits ... 2017 ... or whatever year edition

I don't remember if I wrote or not a "Chasing Rabbits" entry last year. What I recall is that I wrote one in 2015, in the same hotel near Otopeni airport where I'm now, also having a flight scheduled next early morning and few hours to sleep, but not having much sleep... I don't know what I wrote back then, but I know that this time I'll try something maybe a bit more concise than in the previous.

Fact: some (apparently random) stuff happening in life can be really stupid and maybe unfair.
Idea: fix that.
Tool: time machine.

We can go on forever talking about "playing God" or "messing with the karma". I said concise - and to be concise... karma has its way to get stuff balanced. So, if "the fact" + "the idea" are not fair enough when they're put to work... karma will hit back... at least that's what I think will happen. Now, let's chase the main rabbit = "the tool" ...

I could start rambling about the few tiny bits of physics that I know, but I would probably stop not too far, and no matter how quick that might be I would probably put out still enough bollocks to make this entry really stupid. So, instead of "how to build it", let's try approaching it from the other side. For the sake of argument: let's suppose that tha "the time machine" already exists (that's why is a time machine, right? should abstract away the time around it). Just that I didn't hear anybody reporting any "Terminator" coming from the future through a magic electricity bubble. So, if it exists, its mechanism is probably a bit more... discreet.

There are some options here - depends on how rich is your imagination :) ... But let's just take one: let's put an equal sign between "time travel" and "send a message". In this context "time travel to the future" is something trivial, and enough well developed: from a letter, to an e-mail, and so on. There's still the question about the past. How could you do it at least at a minimal level. 1 bit. An electrical impulse generated at time t that can be interpreted at t-1. If you solve this, as limited as it might be as expressiveness/efficiency, there would be enough to have the "time travel to the past" part = there's "the time machine".

How can you do it?... Don't know :) If I would, life might have been more fair - at least in my eyes. What I know is that I wasn't really in the mood for movies this week, but yesterday at some hour and x minutes, browsing the TV channels I stumbled on "Deja Vu" and a line said by Denzel referring some hour and the ... same x minutes. Now, browsing again some TV channels I stumble upon "Timecop", probably Van Damme's movie that left me the strongest impression when I was a kid. Coincidences can be funny :)... Anyway, what I also know, is that's enough food for thought until the next rabbit chase, whatever year edition might that be...

American Made (2017)

"The man who always delivers" (or something like that) keeps repeating in various lines of "American Made". And I guess it's somehow also a reason why the story seemed depressing in the end, but I wouldn't elaborate on that here... Barry Seal was a real character, an airline pilot who in the beginning of the '80s ended up working for both CIA and Medellin cartel trafficking weapons and drugs respectively. What we have in the movie is a slightly romanticized version of the real deal, but catchy enough to make lose an extra 5-10 minutes to quickly parse the Wikipedia article and a couple of external links for finding more (= where the conclusion of "romanticized" came from actually). Spoiler alert: don't do this before watching the movie! In brief, what we see here is how our main character advances from a TWA pilot position to owning a local airport and a little airplanes fleet for keeping his business running. Which business makes enough money to draw the attention simultaneously of FBI, DEA, ATF and the state police. But you'll get more details in the movie... where I must say that details count a lot. From the tiny different threads of an almost incredible story, the style of delivering it which emphasizes clearly the idea of keeping your sense of humor in the worst situations, up to technical details as the pale-yellow filters that sort of bring a documentary tint to the camera work. All these keep somehow a generally relaxed feeling - I can't think on anything else than "Wolf on the Wall Street" now as comparison, which might not be the best. All in all the way the story unrolls is quite enjoyable to watch. And still, the ending comes a bit like a cold shower that makes you think... does it really worth to always deliver?...

Rating: 4 out of 5

Dave Made a Maze (2017)

Dave is jobless. Dave was bored. Dave made a maze. In a weekend. From cardboards. In the living room. And he's stuck in the labyrinth. Which is larger on the inside... Dave's girlfriend + some of his buddies try to get him out. Complicated ordeal, because the labyrinth has traps. Some die. Some escape. That's pretty much what we have in this movie: 90% of it is completely absurd. Unfortunately it's a repetitive type of absurd, which gets boring. Besides, it also tries to throw from time to time towards the viewer also some metaphors on which provides also most often the direct interpretation (now, what's the best way to ruin a metaphor?...). To wrap this up - if the trailer gives you a vague impression that you'll get something close to "Cube", well... that's a wrong impression. More likely, the feeling you get after the end credits is closer to the most sloppy movie made by Terry Gilliam (let's pick "Tideland") to which we can add some puerile comic note. And even so, I think the result on that combination might end up better than what we have here...

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Dunkirk (2017)

I've seen "Dunkirk" around a month ago, but I really wasn't in any mood for blogging (personal reasons). Now = late night, no sleep => I decided trying a short entry with what I can still remember... When I heard about this movie I asked myself how can you fill up two hours with a subject that's in the end a bit limited as... narrative amplitude, I can't find a better term now. The evacuation from Dunkirk might have been a miracle during WW2, but let's be fair... as story for a movie it doesn't have much potential. As historic fact, what we have is a mass evacuation lasting about a week - how can you get a movie out of that? I thought I'll see again the recipe applied in "Pearl Harbor", or "Titanic", or even "Hacksaw Ridge" (keeping the distance to the other two) including a romantic story + more stuff in background. Well... I got an example that you can do without that.

First of all, a movie doesn't need to last two hours - something that most directors seem to forget these days. "Dunkirk" has a bit more than 90 minutes, in which we effectively have the evacuation of the Allied troops from the French coast. There's not even much of the historical context - how did it get to this, and why the German army let enough time for it to happen (sorry, but I'm not in mood for details - check Wikipedia). Second, you can see one more time that Nolan knows how to do a movie - what keeps you there is not necessarily the story, where we just have a couple narrative threads following a few simple people involved in the event. It's a movie with few dialogues, which already says something. What got me from the first scenes were the visuals, the audio, and the editing, which are at a really high standard. Everything is put together so well that this time I can even get over "the shepard tone", which I think nobody abuses so much as Nolan does in his movies. The only part I can nag about is maybe the time interleaving of the flashbacks that might lose you a bit. Besides that... is a lesson of movie making. Enough said.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Atomic Blonde (2017)

Short entry: "Atomic Blonde" is an atomic mess... What looks to be an action movie in the trailer, and if you check the production team looks like the female version of John Wick, starts like an adaptation of a John le Carre novel. And when I say John le Carre I'm referring to "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" material with all the intricate heavy-entangled intrigue. The atomic blonde is a undercover MI6 agent sent to retrieve a list of spies from the Berlin of late '89 just when the wall is about to fall. Russians want the list too. And starting here we have a story told in an interrogation room in flashbacks, which in its first part has so many lengths that you lose track on who's planning what exactly. Ironically or not, we even have at some point an exchange of lines where our agent is blamed of losing time in Berlin with no results (or something like that). Anyway, probably the best part is the twist coming after the ending "twist"... the first being predictable from miles away. Although after you get the real twist, you have to explain yourself why the other one needed so much preparation... Better don't lose time with that. Just enjoy the '80s music - the second best part in the movie. Nena - 99 Luftballons still sounds good...

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Probably the biggest mistake you can do it about "Valerian and ...", induced maybe also by trailer, but probably more by your own subconscious, is to expect another "The 5th Element". Which I did...

There are several elements that might activate some nostalgic neurons - like the colorful future in a city filled with many and diverse races, but this is something common to a bunch of SciFi productions (from "Star Wars" to video games). Besides that, and some directorial patterns of Luc Besson, there's not much in common with the epic story of the taxi driver involved in saving the universe from the absolute Evil that hit the screens 20 years ago (omg... I'm old...). The story in brief for what we have here is the survival of a race from some planet, incidental victim during an interstellar war. There is some potential in the subject, but the way is handled is far from the amplitude/impact/whatever else we had in "The Fifth Element". Probably these two movies shouldn't be even compared. But the marketing challenged me (and of course my subconscious :)...).

To try to have a somehow more objective look on the movie, I can say it's relatively enjoyable. The subject has an apparently strong base in two characters, Valerian & Laureline, from a French comics series, agents of the human intergalactic government who must get to the core of the story above. And the core is well hidden, having some side elements that should make the main story more catchy. Should... because unfortunately you get the feeling that all the secondary threads are just for filling up the time because most of them are just superficially handled. I would say that even the main characters are bit shallow, but maybe it's just an impression propagated by the bunch of other insufficiently developed characters. For instance, we don't have a negative character... Or well, we d, but he's so absent (effectively speaking) that's almost not there at all. Yes, "the Evil" in "The 5th Element" was not really tangible, but you could feel that... with Mr. Zorg & whatever other minions it had. Somehow I doubt that in 2037 I'll remember about commander Filitt from the city of 1000 planets (oops, spoiler :P)... but let's get there first :)

Rating: 3 out of 5

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

... or when, paraphrasing a Romanian saying, starts to feel normal to take the side of the bear :) (well, in this case the ape). In the third part of the re-reboot of the story based on Pierre Boule's writings, the humans seem to have gained again the dominance on Earth. The apes are seen as a danger and the simple goal of Caesar, still leading them, is just keeping his folk alive. The best option seems to be crossing a desert that'll put enough distance between what's left of the apes and what's left of US Army. Unfortunately, just before leaving, Caesar's eldest son is killed by a fanatic colonel (excellent acting by Woody Harrelson), which makes Caesar experience a human feeling = the need for revenge. So, he sends his group to the chosen destination, while he picks the opposite direction in a guerilla operation with a sole precise purpose: kill the evil colonel. And that's how we slowly get to the part where Caesar can compete with John McClane, being clearly the most "Die Hard" ape ever to star in a movie.

Leaving the joke aside, despite some exaggerations, the movie is ok overall. We have some context elements that unfold along the main story, gaining enough importance to the end, and which I believe might be inspired from the original writings = on one side we have apes decided to work as "donkeys" = servants for humans, and on the other side humans are getting affected by a virus seemingly cutting off cognitive capacities, starting with the ability to form words in speech. I won't spoil more... Already said enough.

At a quick round-up, I think the second part - the former one still remains better as story, development and even technical level. Besides that, if you ignore the feeling of the moment and take a couple days from the date you've watched the movie, the current story really seems giving the sensation of taking the bear side :) Maybe this is valid also for the previous movies, but there is kept at a normal level, here I think it's pushed a bit too far = all humans are evil, all apes are good (light spoiler: even evil ones turn good). Might be true or not, feels strange :) ...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Detour (2016)

The first scene in "Detour" sort of reminded me of "Drive" + I discovered Alison Goldfrapp as background voice (or at least the intro song got me...). The rest was so & so. We have an indie movie, where the action revolves around 3 characters - Harper is a law student coming from an upper-class family who hates his stepfather accusing him of putting his mother in a coma following an accident, Johnny is the typical no-good punk in the local neighborhood with debts to more important punks, and Cherry is a dancer in a bar - Johnny's girl and one of the ways he's rounding his income. Well, after the first two intersect at a whisky bottle and decide what should happen to the evil stepfather - opportunity for Johnny to make some cash, all this trio gets in a road trip to Vegas where the presumable victim should be located. Now, one of the issues of the movie is that's way too predictable, and since (obviously...) I don't have time to write much I'll stop here with the story. What's left to be said - the production varies from surprisingly well done scenes (yet again, it reminded me of the editing in "Drive" + we get some neo-noir references to an old noir from 1945 having the same name I guess) to parts where it shows that's an indie = the acting and directing have some flaws here and there. The major issue is, however, a subjective one - I don't like the ending. And more, you can foresee what's revealed in the final "twist" way, way ahead, so when it's delivered, but doesn't move further the feeling is of a loose ending. I can appreciate though the scene inserted after a couple credits roll :) brings a comic relief that feels needed and fits especially since it's missing completely through the rest of the movie... no spoilers...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Infinitely Polar Bear (2014)

Note - this is a post from April that somehow got "lost in translation" = forgot to press the publish button after writing the English version of my original Romanian entry ...

Families are complicated. That's almost an axiom. What we have in "Infinitely Polar Bear" is an example. Not too light, not too dramatic...

Sometime in the '70s... Cam Stuart, an ex-hippie from Boston, coming from a wealthy family is diagnosed with bipolar disorder = manic-depressive behavior. The problem is that he also has two daughters, and his wife, Maggie, decides it would be healthier to take them and separate. When her financial situation gets critical, and after he gets out of hospital, somewhat rehabilitated, Maggie decides there's no other way than an MBA in New York for getting a better job. And the only option for the kids seems to be leaving them with her husband. From here onwards...

We have a life drama with some comic accents here and there, some romance, and overall very settled I would say compared to what you would expect after the intro. Even too settled compared with what you might think after seeing the intensity of the bipolar disorder we see in the beginning. Based on this I would say it's an average family movie. On the other hand, I can appreciate the accuracy in several points that might not be that obvious... from tiny aspects like the periodic switch between a disorganized life and the need for some "order anchors", up to the pretty usual capacity of manic-depressive person of getting aware of having the problem. It's I guess one of the few cases that somehow moves over the paradox: "If I know I'm insane then it means I'm not insane". Conclusion: a bit too simple, but probably enjoyable :) ... Oh, and happy holidays ;) for what's still left of them ;)!

Rating: 3 out of 5

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

... or the reason why I'm sorry that I've been too picky with "Baby Driver" one week ago - how can you qualify the 2nd reboot in a 15 year interval when we had 5 movies from the first one in 2002? Well, I decided to ignore my mean answer of something like "the sheep is milked so often at Marvel that the shepherd doesn't know what type of cheese to do from the milk", and following the ratings above 7.5 out of 10 on 3 sites I decided to give it a chance... I kept however my expectations low for this latest Spiderman, hoping for the John Wick effect = that I'll be so pleasantly surprised that my feedback will be 180 degrees different from what I'm thinking. Reverse psychology self-applied = fail ...

I'm not in the mood of writing about Spiderman. It felt so bland that I decided to watch quickly another movie for having a blog entry this week. Since in less than 10 hours I must leave to somewhere on the northern coast of Germany (yep, I'm writing on the run again) I decided to try rewatching "Das Leben der Anderen" = 2 in 1 = a couple extra words besides "Guten Tag/Auf Wiedersehen" will come back to me and I'll also have a subject. Fail again... I don't know how much Deutsch I remembered but not that much. What's certain is that the movie, as good as it might be, felt even more depressing than 10-11 years ago, so I'm not in the mood of writing about this either... Ergo, back to Spiderman...

What's to be said? The only, unique, and way too single scene worth mentioning in this movie comes about two hours after start, and surprises us about a family relative of "the main villain", Which I have to admit I didn't expect. Everything's in the Marvel typical line of super-hero stories, but more mild than usual, with more educational purpose than usual, small jokes and violence within the PG-13 limit, very politically correct. A clear target on the 13-16 years old public. I have problems here and there with getting over the line in some movies, but the sensation it went through a censorship office is much worse (I think I prefer the other extreme of excess sex & violence). Even the negative character here has a social motivation, gets locked up and has issues with the impact on his own family. Besides that, Spiderman, at least in the first part, is quite close to become a sort of Robin for Iron Man = there's lots in the suit - web throwing modes, combat modes, etc. So the spider power is actually in the updated version a sort of electronically assisted super-power. I had some other view on this, but well.. gadgets are trendy...

To conclude, I don't know if the professional critics have any contracts with Marvel, but I didn't see anything here. Maybe I'm a bit subjective based on the image formed through the years on Marvel, but there are exceptions: GotG and Dr. Strange + I have some hopes after seeing the trailer for the latest Thor. For Spiderman, I don't know... another reboot? ;)...

Rating: 2 out of 5

Bady Driver (2017)

Remember "Matrix" and the trend it started for sunglasses? Well, I can't say for sure that "Baby Driver" will succeed in doing the same, but in 20 years, I think it's the closest I've seen having a chance in that.

Baby is a young guy in his early 20's who has a debt to pay to a local mobster, and he's doing that working as a driver for organized heists. And he's almost close in getting even with it. But, that's not a job to get out whenever you might want to... Let's give the movie a chance to tell you more on that.

If you've seen the series starring Simon Pegg - "Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz" and "World's End", then you pretty much know what to expect, because all the three had Edgar Wright as both screenwriter and most important as director. More, if you've seen "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" it should be 100% clear. The style is here. You can't miss it. As a small warning though, the comedy is there, but is not exactly the main genre here. Or more precisely, you might experience some confusing moment in which you might not be so sure what you're watching, because the comedy alternates with drama at the most serious level. You could consider that as a minus, subjectively speaking - because as in "Scott Pilgrim" and "World's End", the was maybe a bit too chaotic for me, switching the genre a bit too often for my tired brain.

Quite a while ago I've seen somewhere an analysis of the comic style in movies and I remember a part where an average Hollywood comedy = strictly based on lines was discussed for possible ways of context enhancement. The examples were almost all taken from Edgar Wright's filmography, not that rich at the time. What I want to say is that, I rarely have the opportunity to watch a movie so well put together in respect to directing. Maybe Guy Ritchie or Tarantino reach the level I've seen here - keeping the discussion around this genre. If I refer only to the soundtrack and the way this is mixed with the action it's already enough, but there's also the movement in the scenes and other stuff. Too much to write :)...

Rating: 4 out of 5 ( just being subjectively picky = was a bit too violent and chaotic for my taste ;) )

Summer-Fall 2017 Movie Preview - Part 2

If the summer was so & so (and more so...) for what's released, this fall is one of the strongest in the latest years. So let's see what's bringing...

September comes with "American Assassin". All I hope for is that the trailer doesn't give the whole story - maybe is a bit more than a radicalized revenge, and well... the usual: hoping also for less cliche... If it manages these, looks like a good thriller.

Let's keep the prefix, let's keep the genre, but let's change a bit the feeling towards something more lighthearted in "American Made". Where I think I trust a bit more the outcome.

And to give this month completely to this niche, we end it with "The Foreigner", a book adaptation with a subject sort of similar with the first above, but a bit different as context - a Chinese vs. IRA. I think I prefer this version... less sensitive, and more... :) exotic. Besides that, if you didn't see Jackie Chan outside comedy roles, you should - it's worth it ;)...

In October we have the title of the Fall - "Blade Runner 2049". I don't think there's need for much more intro, besides maybe that we have Denis Villeneuve on directing ("Incendies", "Prisoners", "Enemy", "Sicario"), who I guess was a better choice Ridley Scott based on what I've seen in the latest years...

Missing disaster movies? "Geostorm" is the first cinema entry where Dean Devlin tries directing. Who is Dean Devlin? - Roland Emmerich's half on the production of almost all stuff that guy released in his beginnings, until he got infected with the Michael Bay syndrome (= more explosions => more cash flow): Stargate" (the movie), "Independence Day", "Godzilla", "The Patriot". Well, now Emmerich is not involved, but still I'm not sure I trust this even so...

"Happy Death Day" is the horror version of "Groundhog Day". I have to admit that the idea is not totally unoriginal. Beside, Christopher Landon (director/writer) also wrote "Disturbia". Well... he also wrote a bunch of sequels for "Paranormal Activity", but "Disturbia" was nice ;) - and here as well as there (check "Rear Window") we have some sort of adapted source, so...

"Wonder Woman" was a bit disappointing despite the favorable critics, and also I think one of the most "Marvel movies" in the DC Comics portfolio. Even so, I still have some hope that "Justice League" will stick to the less dumb action/more solid story ratio, which was a bit better for DC. Anyway, I think Zack Snyder directing, with all the flaws he previously had, is at a different level than Patty Jenkins.

That's it... for now ;)

Summer-Fall 2017 Movie Preview

We've past the half of the month, which is probably a record for delaying this... So let's get it started until June's not totally over...

Recently released, "It Comes at Night" seems to be one of the best ranked horrors lately. The trailer doesn't say much, but from what it says it seems at least we don't have an overused subject... (=taking a break from ghost & evil spirits for once).

Changing with 180 degrees, we reach to "Despicable Me" episode 3. No other introduction needed...

"Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz" and "The World's End" have more in common than Simon Pegg. To be precise, also Edgar Wright, as director and co-writer. Going solo at the end of June with "Baby Driver". Let's see how much of the above is kept...

"Spiderman" comes home in July in the ... third version/actor in the last 15 years. Cash flow, nothing more to say...

"Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" is 2nd to my top of the list for this summer. Luc Besson didn't release a pure SciFi since "The Fifth Element". I don't expect to reach that level, but if we're at least up to where "Lucy" was I'm fine.

Talking about the fifth element, I didn't see Bruce Willis since quite a while in a decent movie. I'm not really expecting that from "First Kill" either, but let's wait and see...

My top of the list comes this August - "The Dark Tower". If it doesn't sound familiar already, in brief it's the magnum opus of Stephen King. What's left to be said is that what's released this year is most probably just the first part...

"Kidnap" is a thriller that looks relatively average. I don't know why though, but the trailer reminded me of "Taken" (well, in a lighter version :)...)

Finally, "Wind River" seems to be close to the top of the genre. It seems to me that Taylor Sheridan, who also wrote "Sicario" and "Hell or High Water", slowly becomes a sort of Alexander Payne, but for the thriller niche.

Next week, movie in the fall...

Wonder Woman (2017)

Good story, the script so & so, bad directing... that's what gets "Wonder Woman" from what could've been excellent to average consumerism...

I'm not sure I should say much more. I could get a tast of the best part in the movie because the trailer didn't give away the story. Well, as a short summary, Diana, the Amazon princess, moves from a very very remote island directly in the middle of the first World War. Decided to put an end to the global conflict by killing Ares the God of War himself, Diana teams up with a pilot/spy from the allied army. And like that we're getting in the front lines of the battle, and more of what's going on we can see in the movie...

The story is good (not very good) if we ignore a whole bunch of made up stuff, way out of the real version. From portraying the Amazons as a pro-peace nation, up to killing the evil general Ludendorff on the battlefield - that was a real character by the way, died of liver cancer quite some time after the war. The script is full of cliche usage (sort of expectable). The big issue though come form the directing, where leaving aside the ton of exaggerated slow motion (just to put a blame also on the editing), we actually have a major problem with the acting. And yes, the blame is on the director, because from what I've watched I can't believe the issue's with the actors but more with stupid instructions that led way too often into scenes where we have almost more over-acting than in a silent movie. Besides Chris Pine the lack of keeping it in the realms of natural is visible on everybody. I don't comment this too often, but here was way too obvious...

Rating: 3 out of 5 (really on the edge, and most probably subjective...)