Reviews

Luther is a series that I strangely didn't watch yet. Strangely because I watch a lot of stuff, especially that genre, and of course the high ratings it gets, and Idris Elba that I enjoy watching. So I watched Luther: The Fallen Sun instead to have an idea what to expect if I ever decided to watch the series. The movie didn't convince me though, too much over-the-top and far fetched storyline, but then again it rates much lower than the series so I might still watch it. The acting was what I expected from Idris Elba, good. John luther is a good role for him. The movie is entertaining enough to watch once. Hopefully the series much better.

Unfinished Business might not be for everyone, comedy will never please everybody the same as we all have a different sense of humour. So when I see a low rating, like this one, I still give it a shot as I might like it. Sure, it's mostly because of Vince Vaughn people would watch it but the better funny parts were with Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson. The nerdy character and the exploring elderly man gave the story the necessary funny situations to make this movie worth watching. It's easy entertainment so give it a go. Sure there are better comedies but Unfinished Business deserves a higher rating on here.

Writer/director Ruth Platt didn't convince me with this movie. I found it a bit boring to be honest. Too much repetitive scenes without anything really scary happening. I mean it's categorized as a horror/drama. Give us some horror then. A bit of scary scenes could have made it more interesting. The positive was the acting. The main characters were kids but they gave a convincing performance. Kiera Thompson and Sienna Sayer did what they were supposed to do, the plot just didn't help them. Maybe I was just too much in the mood for a good horror movie. Unfortunately this movie wasn't one of them.

Every other night it's my wife's turn to choose a movie, and a comedy is most of the time her first choice. As we have the same sense of humour we like the same comedies and since Lady Bird was nominated for five Oscars our expectations were quite high. Well, I didn't laugh once, maybe a shy grin but that was mostly forced. I will never get why a movie like this one would get nominated, let alone win an award. It's a dramady and not even a good one. Needless to say I found it really boring. Maybe because as an European we don't get the whole school choice situation, or the huge amount it just cost to enlist or even to apply. It's something typically American, raising perfect little workaholics, having huge debts before they even start their lives, learning them that the goal in life is to make as much money possible, to consume as much as possible. So no I don't get the humour about it. I don't say Saoirse Ronan is a bad actress, on the contrary, but watching another movie from writer/director Greta Gerwig is going to big a big no thank you for me.

Considering the rather low ratings this French sci-fi comedy got I wasn't expecting too much of it but it turned out to be a quite entertaining movie. The cinematography was top, great close-up camerawork that gave the story a weird feeling. Jean-Pierre Jeunet did a great job directing this futuristic movie. The villain robot Yonyx played by Stéphane Levantal was just creepy in close-up. The weird sexual tension between Elsa Zylberstein and Stéphane de Groot was very amusing to follow. The story itself makes you think about artificial intelligence, an accident or malfunction could be a possibility. Well worth watching.

Louis de Funès is by far the best French comedian, one every French or Belgian would be able to name a handful of his movies, so rewatching one of his movies brings back memories from my youth, when back in the days you didn't have much choice. You would watch what was on the telly on the few channels you had, a de Funès movie was always popular. Sur Un Arbre Perché isn't one of the better ones, mostly because of the rather annoying Géraldine Chaplin, daughter of the famous Charlie, and Olivier de Funès, son of Louis, who mostly plays in his father's movies and who never had the same charisma or acting talent as his father. This movie is worth a watch if you're a fan of Louis, otherwise there are much better ones like La Grande Vadrouille for instance.

Cold Copy is categorised as a crime/thriller/mystery but in my opinion it's just a drama, not even a good one. Watching this was like when you start reading a book and after hundred pages you start to realize that this is going nowhere, but you started the book, so you want to finish it, in case it got better but you have no high hopes. This movie is the same, the story is weak but you hope it will get better. I found everything very predictable so no mystery for me, nor any thrilling. Maybe a crime if you could call that a crime, it's more infantile behaviour. Writer/director Roxine Helberg didn't convince me. I watched Cold Copy because of Jacob Tremblay, that shined in Doctor Sleep and Room. He also played the young Tandy in the excellent comedy series The Last Man On Earth. He wasn't bad in Cold Copy, the story was just boring to watch. The other characters were annoying to watch. Time waster in my humble opinion.

Sorry To Bother You is a bit special, probably not to everyone's taste, but if you're not afraid of a bit weird you might enjoy this movie from writer/director Boots Riley. I did enjoy watching this movie and so did my wife, but then again we have the exact same taste of movies. You could qualify this one as a satirical sci-fi, just don't expect major sci-fi elements. It's a different view of the world, of the continuous rat race, the never ending search for happiness and fulfilment. I refuse to live like the vast majority on this planet, work from nine-to-five, eat, drink and sleep, and the occasional weekend rest. I just don't fit in this sheep mentality so I found this movie quite interesting to follow. LaKeith Stanfield plays the main character, a man battling between justice and fitting in, between making it financially and loyalty towards his friends and family. Good acting from the entire cast.

Almost everybody of my age used to watch Star Trek, a sci-fi show that we still talk about when the sci-fi subject is brought up. Mister Spock being the most unusual character. In The Orville you get a mixed crew of different life forms, going from blubber to a robot. There is a slight touch of satire but it's much more than that. To me it could have gone on for much more seasons although a couple episodes from the last season were a bit too romantic, like the relationship between the doctor and the robot which was a bit annoying. Add to that the couple singing scenes, another not great idea. But Seth MacFarlane did a good job creating this show. It changes from American Dad and Family guy, the shows that made him. He has a good sense of humour which could be seen in some episodes. Of course you get so much better sci-fi scenes than in Star Trek. Visually it looks all better, certainly towards the end. Too bad there are no more seasons.

Mother, May I is categorized as a horror/thriller. Just the mindset I was in tonight, a good, hopefully scary movie. Well it turned out to be a huge disappointment. It's not a horror movie at all, or I must have missed something, and even as a thriller it didn't do the job. Instead what you get is a boring story, very repetitive and at a slow pace. The acting fron the small cast was just okay, nothing mesmerizing at all. Writer/director Laurence Vannicelli didn't convince me at all. It for sure doesn't want me to watch other movies from Laurence Vannicelli. I really wonder why they would categorize this one as horror.

A lot of reviewers compared Wes Craven's early work to My Soul To Take and came to the conclusion the early work was better. I can't disagree with that. The Hills Have Eyes or the Scream series were better but it's clear Wes Craven has a similar type of stories. The whole series of Nightmare On Elm Street that I rewatched a while ago didn't age that well but when those came out I did enjoy them. My Soul To Take doesn't have that effect on me. I watched it but found it a bit boring, just not that exciting or scary. It will for sure not become one of the "classics" like the early ones did. I already forgot everything about it and I just watched it yesterday.

As a comedy American Dreamer isn't that great, or I must have a totally different sense of humour. Nevertheless it's not a bad movie. It is pleasant to follow, no real dull moments, a bit more dramatic than humorous, and enjoyable actors. Peter Dinklage is well casted for this role, an always dissatisfied grumpy character, a role that fits him well. I couldn't believe how well Shirley Maclaine still looks at her age. She was pushing ninety in this movie, and honestly I couldn't tell. We can only wish to look that fit when we will hit ninety. I would give American Dreamer a 6.5 if it was possible on here.

Jam (or Sleep for the English title) is another good movie from South-Korea. Definitely one of my favourite countries when it's about movies. Writer/director Jason Yu made an easy to follow and entertaining movie. Categorized on here as a comedy horror mystery thriller. You can remove comedy and horror as it was neither of those two. Mysterious it was for sure, thrilling as well. Good suspense keeps you focussed all the time. The small cast, only four different actors, were very believable in their roles. The proof you don't need a big cast or a big budget to make a decent movie. Worth a watch.

Vikingane (or Norsemen for the English title) turned out to be much better than I thought it would be. A satirical view of the Vikings and their way of living and thinking. Every actor played their own character beautifully, from the feared pillager and rapist, to the feminised sneaky coward. Kåre Conradi was in my opinion the most funny one, playing Orm, the coward viking that likes to crochet and that manages to talk himself out of precarious situations. Every episode from the too short series brought a smile to my face. What else could you ask for when watching a satirical comedy about bloodthirsty Norsemen?

As a Belgian I'm always curious about the movies from my country, knowing we never have a Hollywood budget so the story has to be really good to stand out. Every now and then there's such a movie, unfortunately Ida isn't one of them. The pace of the movie is too slow and that has a negative effect on the quality. There's some tension building at one point, that worked mostly because of the good soundtrack, but the actual thriller or horror part was just too weak because of the wrong decision-making by the character. There is no reason why a young and healthy woman couldn't push that old lady to the floor and then just outrun her. There are plenty of scenes like that that make the movie just mediocre. Writer/director Brandon Gotto should have done better, even with a low budget.

Ari Aster still didn't manage to convince me completely. With Midsommar (that I rated a seven) and Hereditary (that I rated a six) he had already some weird ideas for stories so I was curious with what he would come up this time. It started already weird after a couple minutes, enough to set the tone, and it got weirder towards the end. Every time I thought it couldn't get weirder he managed to do so. I have nothing against weird as long as it is entertaining, and it was, mostly due to the good acting from Joaquin Phoenix, but three hours just seemed a bit too long for this story. For that alone the movie loses a point in my ratings.

State Of Consciousness is an okay thriller to watch once but to rate it with a ten like some other reviewers did that's a bit exaggerated. That's like saying it was the best movie you ever watched and then I can only to conclude you didn't watch much movies. The fans of Emile Hirsch will be happy as he was convincing playing his character. I like him as well. The story has a constant mysterious vibe so you keep wondering what is going on, what is the real truth, so yes it was entertaining. But in the end it's just okay, not a movie I will remember by next week. That's the reason I rate everything I watch, to make sure I don't rewatch a movie that I scored lower than a seven.

Killing Daniel or Daniel's Gotta Die, or whatever title they want to give it didn't really work as a comedy for me. I didn't laugh once, which isn't great when watching a comedy. A lot of annoying characters, that also didn't help making it pleasant to watch. A bunch of supposedly stuck up people that weren't remotely funny. Mary Lynn Rajskub played the most annoying character and she wasn't even good at it. The story itself is a bit dumb, unless you don't mind the fact that nobody would get away with any of their idiotic murder plans. Maybe other people will enjoy it as we all have a different sense of humour, I just didn't.

Your Lucky Day isn't a high budget movie. It shows in the image quality so I would say the cinematography could be better. But other than that it's an entertaining thriller with constant action so you have not time to get bored. Angus Cloud just died of a drug overdose at the young age of 25 so this was one of his last jobs. Too bad he couldn't handle life as he had talent. The rest of the cast were also convincing. Maybe the story was a bit far fetched to some but then again when we're talking about a jackpot of 156 millions people might get the wrong ideas so not that far fetched in the end. Watchable low budget thriller/crime.

After reading some reviews stating it was going to be a scary slasher movie I had high expectations as slashers are very rarely scary. It's normally just about bloodshed, preferably the most possible blood, lethal injuries inflicted in the most creative way possible. Midnight Movie wasn't scary. On the contrary it was the usual slasher story, where the group of characters get murdered one by one. Stupid decision-making like we're used to in these stories. If the acting is good it passes but unfortunately some of the actors were just not that great. Well with a low budget you get the actors you get, in this case mediocre at best. It's just an average slasher, not really worth your time.

I'm surprised by the rather low ratings for this biographical movie about the life of Bob Marley, one of the most legendary music artists of our era. Almost everybody knows Bob Marley, or at least knows some of his songs, unless you've been isolated from the outside world for decades. The movie "got" me, in the sense it reminded me of my youth, of the magical moments I had with friends whom, like Bob Marley are not of this world anymore, that died too early but that will never be forgotten. His songs reminded me of the good moments I had with them, because let's be honest, when Bob Marley sang it made everybody happy. I knew every single song in this well made biography, songs we all sang aloud in our youth or still even now. Good casting for this movie, the actor playing him obviously studied every move of the legend. I love biographies of music legends that I used or still listen to. Bohemian Rapsody (Queen - Freddy Mercury) was to me the best biography, followed by Straight Out Of Compton (NWA). Bob Marley: One Love will take the bronze medal in that category.

Kim's Convenience is a bit of fun. Easy entertainment for people that like to end the evening with a funny show. Short episodes so my wife and I watch a couple before heading to bed. All the characters are likeable but Mister Kim played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is in my eyes the funniest of them all. Good acting from the entire cast. South-Koreans in Canada, learning about the culture there or bringing their own culture, plenty of material to make good funny scenes. In twenty years it will probably be deleted by the "Woke" police as too offending and stereotyping so let's just enjoy this show now we're still able to.

In this genre of horror movies, the invasion of an futuristic unknown beast, Isolation should score rather well in my opinion. It made me think of old time classics like Alien or John Carpenter's The Thing. This time it's a cow-pig-scampi-worm-thingy, that's the things it made me think of at one point. With a lower budget this Irish production managed keeping the audience entertained. Ruth Negga and Sean Harris have since been in many good movies and/or series which is normal considering their convincing acting skills they already showed in this movie. Isolation is a good choice of movie for the fans of this genre.

When I see that the estimated budget for this movie is 30.000.000$ then writer/director Shana Feste should do better. Well the writing wasn't great, a plot with a lot of very unlikely scenes, and even if it's just a movie like someone else stated you have to make it a bit believable. As for the directing it was okay but with such a budget you could at least show us the beast/devil or whatever it was. The acting was decent. Ella Balinska and Pilou Asbæk just couldn't make Run Sweetheart Run better. For that the script was just too weak. It's watchable but it won't be memorable. One more day and I will have forgotten everything about it.