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Star Trek: Discovery: Die Trying (2020)
Just pray that Q comes and fixes this nonsense
I've just seen this episode (3.5), and things I've seen in it just don't make sense. Others before me have mentioned it too.
There are three possibilities when you travel 900 years into the future: Either you are the smartest person alive, a Neanderthal or the only one alive. In this episode, you see HQ 900 years from now, advancements have been made but nothing mind-blowing. It's like you left with Androïd v1.11 and discover that 900 years later everyone uses Androïd v1.31. You also discover that there's hardly any fuel left for traveling and in 900 years everyone is still hunting for tiny reserve left-overs (while still building those engines apparently) instead of finding a new type of fuel or a different way for traveling.
So, you come home to HQ and you report that you can travel anywhere instantaneously. You could use that to build new communication relays or scanning grid and rebuilding alliances maybe? Maybe test if you can build another one, or find another way to use the network? Nah, don't bother us with the Holy Grail, just do your own thing and do dangerous but futile missions with that irreplaceable engine. You convinced us that using it to save a few alien lives greatly exceeds the need for this wonderous engine. You can catch up on 900 years of history lessons and scientific advancements during lunch.
Not even the latest firmware update that was made for the tricorder that you still use, but hasn't been produced in several hundreds of years, is offered to you (well, that's probably because none of the computer-systems is compatible with yours). Weapons or shields upgrades in a time where a kid's toy equivalent to a BB-gun might destroy your ship? No need.
Spock would have said: I don't want to be rude, bu it's weird that you found a cure for everything except becoming overweight or for skin imperfections. He also would have recommended to never take Burnham to any diplomatic meetings and certainly not leading any missions.
Just remember: This is not the old series, nor does it hold any resemblance to it. It's a different timeline, different past, different people, different advances and apparently different point of views on what is considered logical or appropriate behaviour.
Hillbilly Elegy (2020)
Praise yourself lucky if you haven't had that hardship in your past
If you are someone who hasn't had a childhood like that, with low income, alcohol or drug abuse or parents that fought all the time and being bullied by everyone, you must consider yourself very lucky. If you are someone who has been through a similar time, worked your way out of that environment and into a better life, you should cherish that achievement and never let anyone take that away from you.
The story tells that of a fairly average (depending on your point of view) low income Kentucky family, told by one of the grandchildren. It shows the familiar circle: Grandpa was an mean alcoholic, grandma fought him off regularly. Her daughter wasn't strong enough to break the cycle, even though she was the second smartest student of her school, and got a medical license. She became used to numbing pills, lost her job and spiraled downwards, taking the storyteller (her son) and his sister along in the fall. Grandma took over, he was going to live with her and she would set him straight: Man up, get rid of the loser friends, study hard and work your way up. When he does and goes off to Yale, he makes the hard choice of leaving his addicted mom, achieve his goals so he could return later and be in a better position to help her.
A lot of the things that happen in this movie is the story of many out there. Unable to actually achieve and live that American dream that everyone talks about since childhood and is advertised on TV and billboards, becoming sad and eventually getting depressed and seek solace in alcohol or drugs instead of accepting simple fate.
Actors and acting is of exceptional quality, where you can just feel the tension and stress at times. All scenes have been very carefully scripted and directed.
I'm somewhat biased about this movie though, grandma (you see her at the end credits) looked quite similar to my mom's aunt Dina, we stayed with her for a week when we visited the U.S. 20 years ago, she lived in a similar house, similar conditions, similar family, just a few steps higher up the economic ladder and with far less hardship. She considered her healthy life a good one though, what she came from was worse.
Torpedo (2019)
Surprisingly good Flemish WOII non-factual U-boat action movie
The story itself is fairly simple: A small group of Belgian rogue militia is sent to man a captured German U-boat to deliver uranium to the U.S. to build a nuclear bomb and end the war.
First of all: I watched the movie in the original languages. A Dutch IMDB-member seemed to have (accidentally?) seen an English dubbed version and wasn't to happy with that. There is a German dub ('U-235' BluRay dual audio) and apparently an English one (US International version BluRay, no dual audio sadly). Some of the Flemish is hard to understand though, especially in the first scene. It's mostly Flemish and English, some German and a tiny bit of French (elles vivre!). When the Dutch Kapitein Maes speaks English, he does so with that typical native accent, making the scene quite genuine.
The writers have adapted the Hollywood style of using factual historic moments in a fantasy action movie (like in 'The Expendables'). I'm not particularly a fan of rewriting the past in that way. That does not mean this movie is bad, I just think that the viewer needs to be aware of that in advance to avoid misunderstanding and bad movie reviews.
Some will compare this to 'Das Boot' or 'U-571', but it's not in the same league, it clearly has less budget and those movies were more true to factual history. Still, the submarine is old and genuine, the scenes shot with great care, good music score, very good performance of all actors, costume design is great and SFX are pretty good, giving it all the ambiance of WOII era. It also tells the story from the viewpoint of Belgian militia in WOII, and they are the heroes here, even though they are called 'bad eggs' and are actually hunted by the Allied Forces for war crimes (some thing they do are quite brutal, but so are the Nazi's).
No dull moments, good pace and a bit of predictable humour (you'll know it when you see it). The German BluRay-version is censored btw, it lacks two scenes (the killing of a German soldier and the last part of the medical procedure in the submarine).
Recommended for people who like foreign movies and don't care about factual WOII history.
The Assistant (2019)
An office story about dubious behavior
The story is about Jane, a young woman, a junior assistant of someone in the movie-business, one of the first steps up the ladder. What her boss's actual status within the office is is unknown but he's high up. He has a reputation, screwing around with women of all sorts. His assistants know, colleagues know, his wife knows, everybody seems to know. Little hints are given through her work: boxes of Viagra being delivered, checks without name being issued, finding an earring on the ground near the couch in his office, arranging a hotel-room for a new assistant that flew across the continent to work at his office but doing absolutely nothing, has no experience in the business and looks barely 20. Everything is hush hush, but things just don't feel right. People talk, but no one complains, and they have good reason to.
But Jane decides to file a complaint about his dubious actions. At that moment I thought: What can she actually complain about? It's not her he's after, she's not being harassed, it's not hindering her work and the persons involved aren't complaining either. You could argue that he's using company money to pay for his affairs, but that would be an internal (tax?) problem. So why would it be her place to file that complaint if it isn't happening to her, and how is she going to prove this if the victims (if you can call them that, they seem to have 'paid arrangements') don't come forward? It is exactly what the person says that she files the complaint with: 'What exactly is your complaint?' He summarizes it and indeed, it 's pretty weak. It's suspicion and hearsay if those directly involved don't come forward. He does then add that if he wants to keep working there, she should just ignore it... Someone later says to Jane: 'Don't worry. She'll get more out of it than he will' hinting that he's more talk then action (or she's talking about his wife, not sure)
It's an old story: The boss screwing the secretary, the office workers flirting with them or actually harassing them, most of the female workers either ignoring them or complain about them, and some that just use it to quickly get what they want to rise the ranks. Yes, you have those persons too: In Belgium they even have a specific word for it, that roughly translates as 'upscrewing' (yeah, I read too many weird articles).
It's good to see a good scripted movie about this, that quite specifically shows how difficult it is to handle these issues.
She Never Died (2019)
What went wrong with this parallel story sequel? A comparisson.
'He never died' was a instant cult hit from 2015, so when 'She never died' came up, I had high expectations. That movie mentioned 'we don't like to be called that', so left the door open for a new story. The IMDB cover suggested ancient times rather than modern times (looks like ancient time war-stripes to me). Reading about it however, made it clear that it indeed was a current day parallel story. The reviews weren't too good so I skipped it at first.
It has been written before that it's unworthy (between 3 and 4 stars), so instead, I'll compare 'He' to 'She Never Died' without giving away the story to try and explain why this movie failed.
'He', Caïn (the one from the Bible) looked human (he was never called an angel, just has marks on his back where wings were and his creator isn't God), ordinary looking, middle aged, fairly emotionless and uninterested in anything. He did not have special powers, although strong, no super-strength nor could defy the laws of physics. He immediately felt genuine, someone who lived for 6 millennia would act like that: Careful, aware of his ability to regenerate (it's unclear if he can actually die, he just never did) and feeding off humans like a vampire makes him a high profile target for anyone, and in modern age also interesting for science. So he stays off the grid, literally says 'prefer to stay under the radar' (has a phone though), does not stand out of the crowd, has had a couple dozen simple jobs, saved his money, lives in a 13-a-dozen paid with cash apartment, bothers no one so no one bothers him, tries/tried relations: had a gf and a kid. Found a simple way to pass time (bingo) and a reliable food-source that kept him from killing people that otherwise would draw attention. The only time he can't keep his cool is when he's hungry, or gets irritated by humans. Irritate him enough and he'll become violent, then kills, eats them and drinks their blood, then quietly gets rid of the remains. He is basically a recovering addict and blood is his drug. After he consumes, the always present demons in his head slowly fade. The only reason why he stepped out of his micro-bubble of mindlessly playing bingo and sleeping is because of his food-supplier's problems. That became his problem eventually causing relapse and fueled his rage. It needed to be dealt with to restore order in his life. Everything that happened happened for a logical reason and even though he regenerates, he still tries to avoid damage because it hurts and he needs to recover for some time.
'She', Lillith: Same kind of creature, same eating habits, lived thousands of years. But: She doesn't work, is homeless, has no apparent skills whatsoever, basically can't take care of herself and makes no effort to stay hidden. She wakes up in a cardboard box every day and looks either disgruntled, angry or furious (continuously hunting for irritating people to become her food), and has a haircut that makes her look like a mad woman, so pretty noticeable in a crowd (people instinctively notice out-of-place things in their surroundings that may become a threat). She hunts humans almost daily, kills them sadistically rather than quick and sufficiently (you should at least have that skill when it comes to hunting your food for so long) and mutilates them always in the same manner (Caïn did this too, but only once. It's a traceable M.O.) claiming convenience as reason and doesn't even get rid of the body. She eats humans like they're French fries, and that's one of the few times she actually seems relaxed, even though she isn't plagued by demons from her obviously violent past like Caïn does, as if she has no conscience. Strangely enough, when she crosses 'excellent food' (she says so herself), she kills it but doesn't eat it. She lets herself be beaten senseless (literally) just to get to where she wants to go (it was probably meant to be humorous like in 'He', but that fails miserably). She's just the opposite, or rather a dumb version of Caïn and it's a god-given (pun intended) miracle she's still roaming free. She's in no way likeable nor relatable. Her story isn't interesting and relies heavily on the success of the 'He'-movie. Characters in the movie do things that are completely illogical (offer to infiltrate into the gang that kidnapped you after you escaped them?) and most acting is average at best, the detective is the weakest character.
There's a hint at another sequel, it's not something to look forward to. The cast of 'He' was perfect, if you'd take a photo of all the characters in a gathering, Caïn would not stand out. Do the same for 'She' and one person immediately draws attention. That's the main flaw, if Caïn had been someone that looked like Einstein, it would have been far less convincing or may even have failed too. Could the movie have been saved with another actress then? Nope, it was an uninteresting script/story that even lacked the side-kick and the dark humor, just tried to piggy-bag on the success of its predecessor. It's hard to believe this came from the same writer, who probably got part of the 2015 movie idea from 'The man from Earth'.
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! (2017)
Same junkfood made healthier, not by change but by clever marketing
Spurlock does what he did well: Go back and see what changed. Chicken this time, and he had a great plan on how to do it.
It's something everybody eats, but just don't think about: That piece of fried chicken on yer plate, what exactly is it, where does it come from, how is it grown, what did it eat, how did it live, how old was it before it was butchered, what did it cost, how was it transported, who gains the most and how did it get on my plate? The most important question isn't even the first: How healthy is it for me to eat?
Fast-food, what started as a very decent hamburger from a locally grown cow on a freshly baked bun became a factory-product by a smart entrepreneur. Now countless such products like fried chicken sandwiches or nuggets have become such products too. It needs to be only one thing: A seemingly fresh, healthy looking product with high profit-margin. But: the cheaper the product, the less the farmer gets paid, but no one wants to 'overpay' for his bun anyway. We've even become so accustomed to the taste that we don't even know what 'real', or even 'good' for that matter, tastes like.
'Holy Chicken' explores that whole process, from start to end, not sparing anyone in the chain, just creating awareness about devious marketing. It's extremely sad that the farmer in this excellent documentary was boycotted, even though he was probably aware that his cooperation would lead him to the guillotine. My heart goes out to him and his family.
Will it help change the industry? Nah, people can't or won't pay more for a chicken sandwich unless they can afford it and such restaurants are near. The large masses will simply ignore it, even though good, or at least decent food is the most important thing in life.
My viewpoint? that was the exact same thing that old guy on the street said: Once in a while you buy it, eat it and think 'why the heck did I put his in my mouth?...' Spurlock also says this well: Has anything changed since 'Supersize Me'? Nope, not the product, just the keen marketing of how to sell the same old unhealthy stuff. It's like a 'healthy' alcoholic cocktail: There's an olive in it, right?
We have a similar program on TV roughly translated as 'The inspection service of (product) value' that investigates the little things you see in the supermarket that you take for granted like 60ct tomato cans (how can you earn money from that?). Also things like 'what does 'free range chickens' actually mean, why is 'Cheddar' cheese not made in Cheddar, or why does Swiss 'Alp milk' not come from the actual Alps' have been investigated by them. They have quite the reputation, so they get stonewalled often.
Spell (2020)
Not new nor original, but still one not to miss for horror fans
Spell is a quite good voodoo-mystery-horror (haven't seen that in quite some years) that revolves around a small community of black folks in a remote part of the Appalachian Mountains. A typical city-slicker receives a message about the death of a family-member from that area. He, his wife and two teenage kids travel there by small plane to pay respects. During the last part of their trip they are warned not to go there, but do so anyway. They fly into a storm just before arrival, and...
The story is drenched with ancient voodoo rituals that look quite eerie, the small community members are avid followers of this pre-religion custom that goes back thousands of years. It traveled along with African slaves to America and hasn't changed much since, among the few that still practice it. His aunt and uncle are voodoo-priests that seem to have plans for him when he wakes up in their house, separated from his family.
The movie has just about everything a die-hard horror fan wants: fairly good script, great set, location and props are excellent, just as camerawork and soundtrack.
Fun fact: Voodoo rituals look extremely outdated for modern society, but one of those similar ancient (Indo-European) rituals actually survived in modern America. The festivity (calling upon and appeasing the spirits for good fortune and virility) is now called 'Halloween' but lost its original meaning completely.
The quarrel between the mother and son at the gasoline station was a somewhat weak and annoying attempt at humor in my opinion, but keep watching and don't let that ruin the rest of the movie.
Fishbowl (2018)
Highly underrated, but his story is the story of many
A seemingly very religious man with three daughters, living in a small christian village struggles with life after his wife's death and the repossession of his house by the bank. The community hates him for his past, his church wants him gone. His youngest daughter struggles with mean remarks at school. His daughters are obviously less religious than he is, and cope with their mom's death in other ways. After vivid ominous dreams, he turns to scripture in desperation, seeking redemption and forgiveness in every way possible, eventually falling into the hands of a TV-preacher that foretells the end of the world but actually scams him out of his last money with a box of flyers, buttons and a VHS-tape full of empty words. His daughters have no other option then to follow in his last desperate attempt to reunite them with his wife, their mother.
As the movie progresses, it becomes clear why nobody likes him anymore. Little hints are given and the dreadful event that took the life of his wife, who seemed to be loved and liked by everyone. Even though the movie is fictional, the problems that the man has are the problems of many. Too many... and in this case, the worst possible happens and there is no turning back nor apologizing. In the end, you also realize that he will not nor ever can change.
Top notch drama, very well told, very well filmed and very recognizable theme.
Raised by Wolves (2020)
Fly across the galaxy, raise a new colony and start killing each other again new style
The series looks very promising, it reminded me of the Moebius comics stories from way back. The first episode takes you to a distant planet capable of sustaining human life. Two human-like androids start breeding 12 embryo's to start a new human colony free of the burden of religion. They were sent by a non-religious hacker during the religion wars, 125 years into the future on a dying Earth, low on oxygen.
The two androids -one is a highly superior, unstoppable warrior- turn out to be stolen, hacked and reprogrammed theist property, revealed in later episodes. That also explains somewhat why the female android doesn't look like a traditional female by the way. It isn't revealed how big the opposing groups actually were.
Theists have built huge spaceships to travel to the same planet, they are followers of Mithras (the god of the ancient Roman soldiers that was integrated into Christianity 2000 years ago.) Their 'god of light' is named 'Sol' (sun), just like 'Ra' in ancient Egypt.
The cleverly used and mixed typical stereotypes (like patriarchy, reversed-patriarchy, reversing viewpoints on abortion rights based on necessity and people not wanting to kill animals but still eat them) that shouldn't bother any viewers today and has high entertainment value overall in both sci-fi SFX, story and present day drama.
Thoughts:
-Both androids refer to themselves as 'atheists', but they teach that a god simply doesn't exist, so not 'anti-god' but rather 'non-believers'.
-It's not possible to create a new society with only 12 people, that would not create a healthy gene-pool and quickly result in in-breds (explained in a later episode).
-'Mithraic' is an interesting choice to avoid religious criticism, simultaneously opening up the possibility to criticize and ridicule it.
-I doubt that humans can survive on a diet of only one vegetable-like plant (animals weren't present the first few years) and I haven't seen any water-source in or near their settlement.
-I did find the raping of children by a high-ranking church member over-the-edge, even though it was used to discuss abortion and suicide, and raping an android isn't cool either...
El guardián invisible (2017)
Part one of the Spanish Baztan Trilogy, a serial killer detective story
I accidentally started with part 3. It turned out to be a trilogy of which this is part one. I also thought this was a Spanish movie, but the language sounded like some weird dialect I never heard before, after about 30 minutes it was revealed to be Basque (part of Spain) and that it apparently is a separate, somewhat similar language.
The movie is a classic detective: girls get murdered in a serial killer way, inspector Salazar is the lead agent in charge starts solving the crime clue by clue. The way it plays out was somewhat weird though. It is current time but they talk about a mythical creature (like Bigfoot). At first I thought it was meant to be funny but it was quite serious. Then there's a next clue that comes from reading tarot cards... Some things don't seem to have logic or just come out of the blue, or ominous music starts that warns the viewer something is about to happen but what happens has nothing to do with the story and is basically unneeded. I stopped rewinding after a few such instances and just went with it. The ending makes sense though, nothing mythical about it, just plain old detective work to find the twisted culprit.
You need to see the trilogy for everything to become clear. The ending of 'El guardian invisible' is the announcement of part two.
Baby (2018)
Rich kids high school in Italy, but nothing like 90210
After seeing series one, I had to read the reviews to get things clarified. Since the kids don't drive cars but mopeds, they aren't over 18. Then in a later episode, the two main characters become 'sugar daddy' girls and I started doubting their presented age. It turns out this story is actually based on true events (Baby Squillo scandal) as mentioned by WhateverIwant29 and thus indeed underage.
Also mentioned: These kids are pretty stereotype, but I still recognize those types of kids from my own high-school days. It was actually funny to see that this hasn't changed and isn't bound by country/culture. I wasn't aware Italy had school-uniforms like in the UK, but this might be because it's a private school. You will also see that these kids don't live on campus but still at home, this is pretty common for European countries.
If you are wondering what 'cars' they drive, I can clarify: They are actually 2-seat 4-wheel mopeds with a 400-600cc diesel engine, 700 pounds weight, speed usually capped at 30mph (uncapped about 60), not allowed on motorways/highways and usually exempt from road taxes (free parking!). In Italy you can drive a 50cc moped at 14, these 'cars' probably at 16. The types in the series cost between 14.000 and 18.000 euro.
A Hidden Life (2019)
History repeats itself, a lesson from the past
Hitler rose to power in the 1930s of Germany, Austria is annexed in 1938. This happened fairly smoothly and is now known as the 'Anschluss' (joining of Austria and Germany).
This slow paced story is based on true events, meaning that this story is a depiction of how people lived and thought in 1940s Austria, how the life in a small, secluded mountain village was, how radical ideas from abroad changed the minds of this once united farmers community, and how they got sucked into a huge War that actually wasn't theirs.
In such a small village, a simple farmer is forced to make a choice between following these radical and extreme ideas of the new order, stay neutral or simply choose the opposite. He will soon find out that he doesn't actually have a choice: Either go with the flow, or be exiled, boycotted, what we now call 'cancelled'. Both sides pray to the same god in the same church, but his family isn't welcome anymore. Even the church has no choice: Submit or get a one-way ticket to the concentration camps. The farmer is imprisoned for refusing to enlist. After some years however, when the farmer is sentenced to death, villagers slowly turn around and start reconciling with the family.
This World War II story is the typical 'history repeats itself' example, and it can't be more present-day in 2020: We forgot, learned nothing and created the same situation that gave Hitler momentum.
The Special (2020)
Either love it or hate it, but twisted horror for sure and not to be missed
In a nutshell: A man is introduced to a whorehouse where he meets a gypsy woman who introduces him to a sexual object that she calls 'The Special'.
This is a low budget movie and it shows. It's like a long episode of one of those classic horror tv-shows. Because of the sexual nature and twisted dual sided ending, it probably wasn't made an episode for one of those series. That leaves movies, so it had to be stretched. It has been written before: The movie could/should have been shorter. Acting really isn't that bad, neither is the script nor screenplay or pace. The overall picture is average but professional, at 3/4 of the movie you start to guess where it is going.
This movie is however a must see because of the twisted plot and how that turns out, and not just for die hard horror fans.
Rebecca (2020)
30's costume drama at its best, stunning scenery
It became clear very soon that this movie was a mix of 50's cinema style storytelling and typical top notch English costume drama. As a fan of the latter, I tend not only to watch the story unfold, but also the details and scenery. Both are exquisite, both cars, houses, roads, persons and their costumes and customs, outside and inside of stunning buildings, completely genuine to that era in Europe and England. It is somewhat of a classic fairy-tale Cinderella story with the evil stepmother (Mrs. Danvers) included, carefully woven into a typical love-crime-drama that we used to see in American cinema. All of the players are at their best and in this slow paced, predictable, somewhat stereotype movie.
A definite must-see for fans of the genre and people interested in that era, but probably a lot less interesting for the average Hollywood-type movie viewer.
Seules les bêtes (2019)
Recognizable tale of people seeking a way out of their dull lives
Seules les bêtes starts off with the disappearance of a non-local woman that owns a house in a remote rural area somewhere in France. Multiple people's lives in that area are shown in this story, they are all connected in one way or another through work or simply because they use the same supply store. All of them, except the missing person, have lead fairly dull lives: They are regular people living fairly far apart, don't exactly like the life they are living and seek a way out of the day-to-day by the only limited means they have.
One seeks it online, another through adultery or through (creepy) fetish imagination but they all want the same. All of these lives are somehow stitched together, carefully explored and eventually coming together in a not every day, yet mostly recognizable story of loneliness, unemployment, deceit, feeling unloved, wishing for, and seeking a better life, real or not, even risking the little they have got and cross the invisible line.
Seules les bêtes is an enjoyable drama/crime/thriller movie for all sorts of people, it explores both sides of the coin.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Decently dramatized, based on historic events courtroom movie
Always fond of historic movies, this is one of the better ones of late. This movie uses some real footage of those days to get that 'true story' feeling right from the start, and it's used a couple of times throughout. The era is that of the Vietnam protests, the American youth tired of a foreign war that was far away, and a government that couldn't afford to lose/end it. Since I've been watching US-movies for over 4 decades, I found a lot of scenes and decors recognizable and fairly genuine. What I did however learn over the years is that a viewer has to realize that, even though based on true events, it is still a scripted drama to keep things interesting and viewers happy. It might be interesting to read the actual courtroom papers.
What Hoffman for instance says in the trial was very noteworthy, but was it actually said?
Richard Schultz: 'So how do you overthrow or dismember, as you say, your government peacefully?'
Hoffman: 'In this country, we do it every four years.
He, and many others protested for change and peace, but Nixon was elected and the war went on for another 6 years.
Marionette (2020)
Keeps you wondering and in the dark until the end
Wonderful thriller that starts with a great loss. Psychiatrist Marianne moves to Scotland to start a new job and life in an old psychiatric hospital where she is introduced to a young patient that hardly talks, just draws. Weird things start happening after her first session with him that sneaks up on you throughout the movie. It's all subtle, not too shocking to be weird until Marianne starts adding things up. What is he, God? the Devil? omnipotent? an alien? She's a psychiatrist, not a (religious) believer.
The movie keeps you guessing until the end. When you finally find out who is fighting who/what, and who/what is winning/has won, you think back at all the significant scenes in the movie and can only conclude that children can get screwed up in the head by religious doctrine and Schrödinger's cat theory.
Snowpiercer (2020)
Round and round we go, a journey to nowhere without progress
The series originated from a movie (based on a graphic novel): Snowpiercer. Snowpiercer is a train, about 5 times the size of a normal train, both in length, width and height, with an engine that never runs out of fuel. Some carts have three floors, to give you an idea, and the 1001 cart train is about 1 mile long. You really wonder where the recycling center for the sewage pipe is located, since it is a closed system, and how it's attached between carts. The story starts at revolution 12, the 7th year after departure, so a revolution is about 200 days. If the speed is about 80mph, the completely free of maintenance, snowed under icy track would be 192.000 miles.
You'd expect a coherent group of like-minded people, working together in harmony to keep that miniature society running, tossing aside personal gain to keep that fragile environment running until that train breaks down, but the train is filled with a huge amount of leeches that don't contribute much and mainly consume.
After seeing 9 episodes, I thought of something that bothered me for all that time (besides annoying stuff like deliberately breaking an irreplacable wineglass, wasting huge amounts of water for showering, a glass tunnel aquarium that is impossible to repair if cracked, people in key positions that don't know how to keep a confined, limited resources environment viable for the long term or simply a dripping water tap). What character in this series do I, or any viewer for that matter, actually relate to? what side am/was I on?
There is no love for any of the flawed, erratic characters that weren't supposed to be on that train anyway.
Broil (2020)
Way better than expected, too bad about the unbalanced sound.
This movie starts a bit slow and you have no clue what direction it takes. Once you get into it, it will keep you watching. The writer clearly has been influenced by some other movies within the mystery and horror genre, The Man from Earth has been mentioned, I'd like to add 'He Never Died' as well.
The well thought through story is what makes this movie stand out above the, mostly cliché vampire horror flicks of the last decade or so. You do need to stay focused to make sense of the whole story: the origins, history and grand picture. Together with the actors giving it the right feel, it gets a 6,5 rating, despite the sound track being somewhat poor and badly channeled (I had to use the 'normalize' feature of my sound system). Blood and gore/hack and slash isn't overdone, and that works quite well here (just wait for the surprise).
Cast is certainly interesting, and well fitted for this movie. Grandpa August was excellent. There was some very decent SFX. The flashback editing part could have been a tad smoother. For a low-budget production, this is was well balanced.
I can certainly recommend this, but watch it with subtitles if you can.
The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)
From annoyingly bad, to teethgrinding worse.
This remembered me of the 80's STV-movies, bulk, pulp, paperthin story, cheap monster suits and bad acting, but at least those actors tried and I have fond memories of them, this however needs to be forgotten quick.
After 10 minutes of watching this, I had a pretty good feeling of what the rest of the movie was going to be like. I was wrong, it went much more downhill fast: After those 10 minutes, the music score kicked in and I couldn't place the dialogues anymore. It was like the wrong score was used. It went from bad to worse but still couldn't figure out if it was intentional or not. After seeing this movie listed as comedy, I realized it was just the worst movie score I had ever heard, it may have been somewhat more watchable with better music.
Jim Cummings was supposed to be someone with anger issues, performs like a bipolar person but does that in such an amateurish way you can't even distinguish when he switches/switched to play the other guy.
Robert Forster is a steady actor when it comes to performance, the only other good performance worth mentioning is the second victim, which says enough.
Either I'm too old to get this type of movie/acting, or I need to booze up first.
Mignonnes (2020)
Well worth watching, well worth discussing.
"Nineteen hundred seventy-four is the year that they are now planning for sex on the streets in every major city from coast to coast. And - get ready for a shock - the music that they're planning to use to crumble the morals of America is this rotten, filthy, dirty, lewd, lascivious junk called rock and roll."
This is a quote we all laugh at now, but it was "An Important Message" by Dr. Jack Van Impe (1974), a TV/Radio preacher. Music has certainly improved since, depending on who you ask and it plays a significant role in the world of today's youth.
'Mignonnes' (Cuties) is the name of a dance group consisting of four 11-year old girls. Every school has them: a few boys and girls that are the baddest/daring ones. This is such a story, but nothing like what we were used to in the 80s/90s like Mallrats (1995) or sugarcoated cheerleader movies. No, step into today's world of an 11-year old girl, finding her way in a world between devote religion, MTV-content and 'Social' Media (likes), copying their role models and trying to find something to excel in.
There is certainly a funny condom scene in the woods, some sad scenes and of course the awkward scene (where even the audience in the movie is somewhat uncomfortable) but overall well worth watching and an eye opener for people who really are oblivious to what goes on in the minds of 11-year olds (thanks to the wonderful 'educational' world of the internet!').
The only thing to keep in mind is not to blame kids for wanting to be, and trying to become adults.
Immortel (ad vitam) (2004)
Uniquely shaped movie with "noirisch' look, great cult movie!
This movie is a mix of other sf movies like Stargate, Final Fantasy:the spirit within, Blade runner, fifth Element and and Avalon (movie shots). You can clearly see the Moebius comics influence which is great.
The movie has its flaws but I enjoyed it immensely. Very hard to find title (certainly not in The Netherlands).
The setting is pretty much like Blade Runner, the story could have been outlined some more. I am sure there's a director's cut somewhere! I am also sure this is a Moebius comic or short story, it has all the elements present Surely cult status!