3DD!3

An intimate, also very abstract movie told in hints. Villeneuve is doing what he does well and leads the viewer through an industrial city to a room where somebody is taking a bath in the dark. The door opens, he takes you inside and then disappears, leaving you there with all your questions and fears... time to die? Gyllenhaal 1 awesome, Gyllenhaal 2 a real swine. Chaos is order yet undeciphered.

I wasn’t so keen on this and it didn’t have anything to do with Japan apart from the visual side. Often I could see no sense in the behavior of the characters and scene continuity was quite rusty. Rinsch is good at generating nice pictures, the design was superb and Reeves does his best even though his character didn’t match with what I expect in the main protagonist. All in all, a disappointment.

A romantic story against a background of revolution in Indonesia with all the regular pluses and minuses of the genre. Occasionally exaggeratedly languishing sequences contrast with great acting performances. Young Gibson is flawless and mainly Sigourney appears in an untraditional guise. But they are dominated by Linda Hunt in the role of Billy. Not a bad movie at all, maybe a bit slow. In any case, Weir can do better.

The Captain’s second stop will wipe the grin off the faces of most doubters. A pithy techno-thriller atmosphere starts the opening unbelievably. Well, opening... The first half hour is perfect, crowned by the fight on the freeway which takes your breath away in Heatstyle. The ending then heads into familiar Marvel waters and in a raunchy finale it easily abandons the endeavor to do it slightly differently. Nothing exceptional, but never mind. Evans was born for the role of Steve Rogers, but I hope the Winter Soldier gets his own movie some day, or else they’ll deal with it comic book style (if you read it, you know what I mean ;-) because it... I mean he has the mojo for it. Redford disappointed me a little for not being the man I thought he was, and with the final confrontation. The Russo brothers are on an outrageous roll and maybe it’s thanks to Opaloch’s dynamic camerawork, but the action is a feast for the eyes. The moments where the story diverges from the comic book are interesting, offering many interpretations of things to come. The glance into the Age of Ultron also lured into and hinted at the dark atmosphere I mentioned above. Sock to me, I want more.

An excellently filmed history lesson. A story with a classic structure and Webber manages to sell it mainly thanks to his respect for Japan. Fox doesn’t perform badly at all and Tommy Lee Jones is a sure bet, although his appearances are rather sporadic. But if you aren’t interested in the culture or in what happened there back then, this will be a waste of time. When you understand devotion, you’ll understand Japan.

History is a biological organism trapped in a cyclic time axis. Doomed to eternal repeating, differing in lesser or greater details. Until the end of days. Stoney highlights the human factor, that changeable, often contradictory driving force of change on our planet. He points at minor matters, close victories and contradictions that didn’t prove to be crucial until later. By looking into the past, a person can learn something, but only a person with a untainted mind who doesn’t criticize until he sees the whole picture. How can you be impartial? How can you differentiate good from evil? The powerful will always fight for control. Using colonial or indirect influence. Without a common enemy, the top two will always be fighting each other. The round USA vs. China is just beginning. George Orwell’s prophecy about “doublespeak" from his novel “1984" has come true - first they steal the words, then they steal their meaning... Expressions like “the axis of evil" the “war on terror" “regime change", “waterboarding", “preventive war". Dead civilians were now “collateral damage". CIA kidnapping is now “extraordinary rendition". And the most patriotic “national security" has grown into a giant new federal agency.

Rocky vs. LaMotta punching each other in the face in a fairly decent comedy about family and the sporting life. The whole movie languishes in a pleasant old-school odor and Sly and De Niro poke fun at themselves and their famous roles. The supporting roles are very well cast, the most pleasant of whom were the son Jon Bernthal and the grampa, Alan Arkin. If only it wasn’t for that loudmouthed, dumb-ass Kevin Hart... I don’t have a TV. It makes you stupid.

The crossover to feature film was a success. Aronofsky relishes in mirroring today’s humanity with the descendants of Cain. Dream sequences and trippy tales from the first chapters of the Bible, maintains the same fascinating effectivity that glues the viewer’s your dry eyes to the screen. Russell is excellent, his acting hasn’t been that good for a long time and he handled the work that his Noah has to perform with flying colors. The purpose of building the Ark is a little bit different here, almost turning the picture into a thriller toward the end and giving it a depressing aura only dispersed by Watson at the end. Lots of people fault Darren for selling out to Hollywood, but I can’t sincerely imagine that anyone else would have filmed a better Noah. Or that it wouldn’t have been so distinctive. I have nothing to fault (maybe Noah’s shaved nut, that was a bit extreme). Too little controversy? Not shocking enough? Too biblical? For God’s sake... You’re saying I don’t I have to do it?!

A light-hearted and optimistic movie about the “quintessence of life" which entertains in an non-intrusive manner so rare today, even managing to intimate some wisdom about life. Stiller has grown a little still as a director and the polished visuals are amazingly pleasant to the eye. Like a nature documentary without annoying explanatory digressions. Eyjafjallajokull.

Disney breaks the classic story archetypes and serves them in an untraditional kid’s story full of ice, snow and a snowmen who is nice as hell. This is the zenith of this year’s range of animated movies. But don’t try telling me that this wasn’t written by some kind of fanatic feminist. ;-)