The Double (2011)

Summary
Story kicks off with the mysterious murder of a senator bearing the marks of a Soviet assassin, who was long thought to be dead. To hunt down the killer, a retired CIA operative, who spent his career going toe-to-toe with his Soviet nemesis, is teamed with a young FBI agent.

Genre : Action/Crime
Country : USA

Cast :
Richard Gere : Paul Shepherdson
Topher Grace : Ben Geary
Stephen Moyer : Brutus

Director :
Michael Brandt

My opinion

Ouch, what a setback.

I thought a film with Richard Gere as a retired secret agent might well be interesting. The first half hour it was. When I saw Topher Grace, I didn't recognize him immediately. And then it hit me. He used to play in "That '70s Show". At that time he already looked sluggish and dull. In this movie it also seemed as if he would fall asleep any time. This part totally didn't suit him. 

The plot being revealed so early is something new. But then it all crumbles down and at the end you get a totally unexpected twist. The only thing is, it's totally unbelievable. The heroic fight at the end between Richard Gere and Tamer Hassan was kind of entertaining, but when suddenly Gere crawls along Grace and almost immediately passes away, I was like, "Yep, come on". What a silly theater.
 

A spy / thriller with a great start, a surprisingly early disclosure and then a downward flight to an anticlimax. One positive thing : it was fun to see Martin Sheen playing again.

My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

The Collapsed (2011)

Summary
In the wake of the end of the world, a family of four desperately tries to survive against insurmountable odds. Their goal: escaping the city and traveling to the rural community they once called home, Dover's Bend. The constant threat of a violent death forcing them to stay as far away from civilization as possible, they take to the forest, soon to discover the danger posed by other survivors may be the least of their worries. 

Genre : Horror/SF
Country : Canada

Cast :
John Fantasia : Scott Weaver
Steve Vieira : Aaron Weaver
Anna Ross : Rebecca Weaver

Director :
Justin McConell

My opinion
 
I had a sleepless night, so I thought, lets watch a movie my wife certainly doesn't want to see ... It would have been better if I stayed in bed. There's a beginning and an end, and that's it. Just one absurd moment in the movie I want to share : four members of a family are on the run for "I don't know what" because "I don't know what" has happened to the world. Anxiously they are running and stumbling through the woods. And then the daughter needs ... 10 minutes privacy TO SHAVE HER LEGS ... Go figure !

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. A worthless shitty movie of the year!
 

My rating 0/10
Links : IMDB

Beneath the Darkness (2011)

Genre : Horror/Thriller
Country : USA

Cast :
Dennis Quaid : Ely
Tony Oller : Travis
Aimee Teegarden : Abby

Director :
Martin Guigui

Summary
In Smithville, Texas, the teenagers Brian, Abby, Travis and Danny are classmates of the Smithville High School and best friends. One day, they are reading Macbeth for a class and they decide to investigate the rumors that the house of the mortician Ely Vaughn is haunted by ghosts. They see shadows in the upper window and they break in the house to see what is happening and they see a corpse lying on the bed; however, they are surprised by Ely that kills Danny, pushing him to fall off the staircase. Nobody believes in the teenagers since Ely is a respectable citizen, but Travis and Abby decide to prove that the undertaker is a psychopath.

My opinion

Aweful  B-movie. Even Quaid couldn't bring this crap movie to a higher level. Forget this silly affair!

My rating 1/10
Links : IMDB

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Genre : Drama
Country : UK/Germany/Switzerland

Cast :
Michael Fassbender : Carl Jung
Viggo Mortensen : Sigmund Freud
Keira Knightley : Sabina Spielrein

Director :
David Cronenberg

Summary
Suffering from hysteria, Sabina Spielrein is hospitalized under the care of Dr. Carl Jung who has begun using Dr. Sigmund Freud's talking cure with some of his patients. Spielrain's psychological problems are deeply rooted in her childhood and violent father. She is highly intelligent however and hopes to be a doctor, eventually becoming a psychiatrist in her own right. The married Jung and Spielrein eventually become lovers. Jung and Freud develop an almost father-son relationship with Freud seeing the young Jung as his likely successor as the standard-bearer of his beliefs. A deep rift develops between them when Jung diverges from Freud's belief that while psychoanalysis can reveal the cause of psychological problems it cannot cure the patient.

My opinion

Having an opinion about a psychological film is difficult. The movie concentrates on the origins of psychoanalysis, the techniques and the ideas about that. The result is indeed a boring movie, filled with lots of dialogue. The emotional relationship between Knightley and Fassbender though is interesting. 

Personally, I like that kind of a "psychiatrist-helps-patien-with-a-problem' film, but rather a chemical co-equal like Damon and Williams in" Good Will Hunting". "A dangerous mind" isn't a movie you can watch after a tiring day at work that ended with headache. It's not mitigating material such as an aspirin.

 My rating 4/10
Links : IMDB

Prometheus (2012)

Genre : SF
Country : USA

Cast :
Michael Fassbender : David
Noomi Rapace : Elizabeth Shaw
Charlize Theron : Meredith Vickers

Director :
Ridley Scott

Summary
This film is set in 2093 and takes place in the same universe as the 'Alien' movies. A group of explorers, including some archaeologists, are on an "undisclosed" mission. They arrive at a planet millions of miles away from Earth. The team spot what they believe to be signs of civilization. They go to investigate and find more than just signs, they find conclusive evidence. But some of them have an ulterior motive for being there, including the Weyland Corporation. They believe that this is where the human race actually came from. Things soon turn from excitement to survival once inside their discovery.

My opinion 

"Whatever that probe is picking up, it's a life form."

I am a huge fan of the Alien saga myself. "Alien", the legendary cult film, I've seen originally in the cinema. Personally, I always thought "Aliens" was the best, most exciting and most pronounced Alien-part. But like I said, it's personal. I don't know how many times I've watched it on VHS, but I know it almost by heart. The next two parts actually passed me as a volatile item. Judging by the score on IMDB it's not that absurd. Part 1 and 2 get a 8.5 score, while the next two parts have to be satisfied with only a 6.4 and a 6.2 score.
 

First lets talk about the prequel blabbering. I'm not a supporter of the prequel stuff. It has been repeatedly shown that mostly it doesn't reach the level of the original part, and in my eyes it's just meditating on the commercial success of the original film. In other words it's just a way to exploit the followers and fans a little bit. But lets not generalize this. There are nuances. Personally, I think the "Star Wars" prequels are pure crap, "The Hobbit" isn't such a bad attempt and Prometheus is, in my eyes, not even really a prequel. Well it interfaces with "Alien" but it's SF so it may as well be other creatures. Not? "Mother" from "Alien" supposed to be a kind of supercomputer but actually it looked more like an old-fashioned ASCII mainframe, and the IT in Prometheus looks like state of the art. Kind of strange for a prequel.

And then I read the whole discussion with all these questions about how to explain everything, why it happened and how did they end up there. What's with the jockey, and who was now first and is this the origin of mankind. .. and blablabla ... It's SF and remains fiction. Fiction causes everyone having other type of questions where a zillion others have an own interpretation about, what results in again a bunch of other hypotheses. How the hell could they find exactly this place ? A chance of 1 in a million opportunities like I read in someones opinion. Who knows, they might have built a nano-bio ultramodern complex supercomputer on Earth, which could calculate this with superhuman precision. SF right ?  But when a movie comes out which is a bit too linear and too obvious where no questions are asked about, general opinion will say this isn't great either. 

Well, I have finally seen it ! With a bit of delay but that's because my digital list of movies I still need to see, is that long. I don't have the inclination to watch it in 3D, even if it adds value and looks more fantastic. I wear glasses and then I find it damn hard to start messing around with some plastic trinket to get it pinned on the rest of my too short nose. Ultimately, I am more busy dealing with the damn glasses than with the film.

And then finally about the movie: beautiful, majestic and like a great SF should be, with breathtaking moments in terms of the scenery, atmosphere and effects. Who knows, it really looks like this in the universe on an unknown planet. I'm glad Sigourney Weaver wasn't starring in this film, because I think she wouldn't fit in here and then the entire prequel discussion would collapse as a house of cards. For me this was just a good SF with some exciting moments. There aren't so many SF movies like this anymore. The fact that some characters look rather stupid and sometimes react in a very strange way, didn't bother me that much for once.

I'm going to make a harsh statement, but for once a sequel is more then welcome, so I can move around again in the universe in a virtual way.

My rating 7/10
Links : IMDB , Moviemeter 

16 Blocks (2006)

Nederlands hier ...

Genre : Crime/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Bruce Willis : Jack Mosley
Mos Def : Eddie Bunker
David Morse : Frank Nugent

Regisseur :
Richard Donner

Summary
Jack Mosley, a burnt-out detective, is assigned the unenviable task of transporting a fast-talking convict from jail to a courthouse 16 blocks away. However, along the way he learns that the man is supposed to testify against Mosley's colleagues, and the entire NYPD wants him dead. Mosley must choose between loyalty to his colleagues and protecting the witness, and never has such a short distance seemed so long...

My Opinion


Hey, Bruce Willis plays in this movie ! As a Willis fan I had to see this film and assumed this would be a top movie again. Surprise numero uno: Bruce is actually a discarded detective with a serious alcohol problem. Finally a rendition that's slightly a bit different than that of McClane. In the end I thought it was a top performance of Bruce.

Mos Def plays the really dorky criminal Eddie who isn't exactly able to commit a crime and who needs to be escorted by Bruce Willis to a courthouse 16 blocks further. Eddie is going to give a statement there, which could be disadvantageous for some corrupt agents (yep, they're back). That strange nasal accent he's using sounded funny in the beginning and made me laugh once and a while. Eventually I actually thought it fitted him perfectly. Although the story itself takes place over a distance of 16 blocks, this film had several twists making it still exciting.

And of course there's the famous Bruce Willis humor : dry as ever. Although I must say that Moss contributed as well.
Jack Mosley: You're not gonna die on me are you?
Eddie Bunker: I dunno, I ain't never died before. 


In my opinion an excellent movie

My rating 8/10
Links : IMDB

Boy Wonder (2010)

Nederlands hier ...


Genre : Crime/Action
Country : USA

Cast :
Caleb Steinmeyer : Sean Donovan
Zulay Henao : Teresa Ames
Bill Sage : Terry Donovan

Director :
Michael Morrissey

Summary
A young Brooklyn boy witnesses the brutal murder of his mother and grows up obsessed with finding her killer. Thus begins his life as a quiet, straight-A student by day and a self-appointed hero at night. But what is a real hero? And who decides what is right or wrong? As the boundaries blur, Sean's dual life wears on his psyche and his two worlds careen dangerously close to colliding. Like a graphic novel you can't put down, Boy Wonder challenges morality, distorting perceptions of what is right and what is justified, as it races to its shocking conclusion.

My Opinion
 
I was pleasantly surprised by this film. A typical revenge-movie. But it was put together pretty well  with a surprising end. Steinmeyer plays the teen who's hungry for revenge in a very realistic way. He looked tormented the whole movie.

The few fight scenes are short but energetic and pure violent. Boy Wonder is actually not so bad when you think of all the other crap thriller that have flooded the market recent years. Keep an eye on that guy Caleb. I think we'll hear from him much more in the future !

My rating 8/10
Links : IMDB , Moviemeter