Tagged: Movie

MOVIE REVIEW: Savages 0

MOVIE REVIEW: Savages

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Taylor Kitsch, Blake Lively  Director:  Oliver Stone Genre: Drama Runtime: 131 minutes In Holland, weed is legal (except, strangely, for growing). We can go to a ‘coffee’-shop and buy the stuff. Not so in the United States. Growing, selling and  smoking is illegal (save for Washington and Colorado, since November 6th). The drugs-market is controlled by criminals. Not just some criminals, but mostly Mexican gangbangers. The kind that will rip your throat out if you ever cross their paths on a bad day. And put a video...

MOVIE REVIEW: Everything Is Illuminated (2005) 0

MOVIE REVIEW: Everything Is Illuminated (2005)

Starring: Elijah Wood, Eugene Lutz Director: Leiv Schreiber Genre: Drama Runtime: 106 minutes You might’ve heard about Jonathan Safran Foer, author of  ‘Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close’. That was his second book, while ‘Everything Is Illuminated’ was his first. This semi-autobiographic book got a translation to the big screen in 2005, starring Elijah Wood as the author himself. Safran Foer, of Jewish heritage, travels back to Ukraine to find the origin of a picture taken of his Jewish grandfather with an unknown woman, right before he fled to the United...

MOVIE REVIEW: Lawless 0

MOVIE REVIEW: Lawless

Starring: Shia Lebeouf, Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce Director: John Hillcoat Genre: Drama Runtime: 116 minutes I like a drink or two. Or two dozen. And so do Americans. What do you do if booze becomes illegal? You make it yourself. And that’s exactly what the Americans did during the great depression, when alcohol was declared illegal, and that is, incidentally, also what this movie is about. The Bondurant Brothers, Jack (Shia Lebeouf), Forrest (Tom Hardy), and Howard (Jason Clarke) start out as small fry, but work their way up the...

MOVIE REVIEW: The Bourne Legacy 0

MOVIE REVIEW: The Bourne Legacy

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz Director: Tony Gilroy Genre: Action Runtime:  135 minutes What do you do when a computer program fails? You close it. When that doesn’t help? You open the task manager, and force close it. And if that doesn’t work, switch the power off. That is essentially what is happening at the start of ‘The Bourne Legacy’. While Jason Bourne is running rampage, CIA directors decide it is time to pull the plug on the program, and eliminate any trace of it. This is why...

MOVIE REVIEW: 13 Assassins 0

MOVIE REVIEW: 13 Assassins

Starring: A lot of Japanese actors I don’t know Director: Takashi Miike Genre: Action/ Historic Drama Runtime: 141 minutes I’ve seen, prior to this one, exactly 1 other film by Takashi Miike. I once  went through a bargain bin and found ‘Ichi The Killer’. Intrigued by the horrible clichéd title, I bought it and watched it. What I saw was one of the most insanely sadistic movies ever. And I loved it. Now this. 13 Assassins takes place in 1844 Japan. It tells a fictional story, with some historical elements...

MIDNIGHT MOVIE REVIEW: Stranger Than Fiction (2006) 0

MIDNIGHT MOVIE REVIEW: Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Starring: Will Ferrel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman Director: Marc Forster Genre: Drama Runtime: 113 minutes What do you do when your life is being narrated? Would you freak out, or would you try to find a connection? Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) does both, after the narrator drops the sentence “little did he know of his impending death”. Harold, an IRS auditor (‘tax-man’) isn’t very fond of his life. He is lonely, stuck in a daily routine that would drive most people to suicide. Not Harold. He is the kind of...

MOVIE REVIEW: Detachment 0

MOVIE REVIEW: Detachment

Starring: Adrien Brody, James Caan, Lucy Liu, Christina Hendricks Director: Tony Kaye Genre: Drama Runtime: 97 minutes What do you do if the school you teach has become an anarchy of violent students, harassing the teachers and other students alike? What do you do if the neighbourhood you live in goes to hell, with prostitutes and gang violence determining the face of the streets? What do you do when the last person you love is about to die? All these questions are fired upon Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody) at once....

MOVIE REVIEW: Chronicle 2

MOVIE REVIEW: Chronicle

Starring: Dane DeHaan, Alex Russel, Michael B. Jordan Director: Josh Trank Genre: Superhero Runtime: 84 minutes I wasn’t convinced about the quality of this film before seeing it. A director without any credentials, and the lead-actor having only a few minor titles behind his name.  Combine it with a genre that benefits from bigger budgets, which this movie obviously hasn’t got, and you have a recipe for disaster. Strangely, this film turned out okay. Pretty okay, if I might say so. It’s actually quite good. Why that’s so, I’ll explain...

MOVIE REVIEW: This Means War 1

MOVIE REVIEW: This Means War

Starring: Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon Director: McG Genre: Action/Comedy Runtime: 97 minutes I had seen some trailers for this film in advance, and I must say, it looked like a good action-packed comedy. Girl meets boy, girl meets another boy. Girl can’t decide on which boy to choose. Turns out, they’re both spies working for the US government, and on top of all that, they’re best friends.  Girl doesn’t know, but the guys soon realize they’re in love with the same girl, so they use their tricks and...