Reviews

After the masterful End of Watch and the fine war film Fury, director David Ayer also has a number of misunderstandings to his name unfortunately. For example, Suicide Squad and especially Bright were not really good. Fortunately, Jason Statham's name is also on the poster and Statham usually really guarantees good action and a lot of entertainment. Opinions may differ about The Meg's films of course, but action films such as The Expendables (except for the latter), The Transporter and so on his first-class action films. In addition to Statham, names like Jeremy Irons and Minnie Driver also play in the film and when we watch the trailer, it promises to be an old-fashioned action movie, with lots of fights, shooting, running and tight one-liners.

And it has indeed become old-fashioned good. These are actually action movies that you don't see much today. It could have been such an action film from the 90s, in which a Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger or a Jean-Claude van Damme could just as well have played the lead role. Jason Statham is one of the last remaining action heroes for this particular genre in that regard. Of course you have a Keanu Reeves like John Wick, but that's different action than this. Of course the film is full of improbable things and everything is exaggerated over the top and that is exactly what makes the film so good. After a small introduction and run-up, we see that Statham is very angry and is going to get his gram from the company responsible for Eloise's death. He walks into the $30 million building with two jerry cans of gasoline, easily shuts down security and sets the building on fire. Yes, it's such a movie and it's just wonderful to enjoy, flying by for an hour and three minutes due to the high pace that the film is rich.

In the end, it brings Adam into higher circles, but he doesn't retreat. When the CIA deploys its deputy 'Beekeeper' to eliminate Adam, Adam notices which way to look and the scene at the gas station is very entertaining. The only thing you might be able to point out to the film is that Adam is actually never really in danger and he is out of the way for nothing or no one. Even if he just walks in through the front door at a heavily guarded building, with a whole SWAT team guarding things, that's a breeze for our ex-Beekeeper. Especially towards the end where even the security of the president of America is at stake and the government opens the whole box of tricks in terms of security, it is easy for Adam to penetrate and go towards his primary goal. Anyway, in these kinds of films this is allowed and actually has to be done and you shouldn't lift too much on that in this case.

The Beekeeper has become an old-fashioned cool action movie with Jason Statham on the go. The bullets fly around your ears, rock hard fights in which limbs are not spared and cool one-liners are the result. These are those action films that were made a lot in the 90s and are actually made far too little now, at least of this quality. As already indicated, you may only be able to say that Statham manages to bypass extreme protections in the most unlikely way and that nowhere do you get the feeling that Adam is getting into trouble by anyone or anything. Maybe that takes away part of the tension, but hey, you don't have to lift too much, especially in these kinds of movies. It's just a quick action movie that you just have to watch with your friends (or girlfriends) with a cup of popcorn and a beer in your hand.

The Great Escaper tells a wonderful story of a World War II veteran escaping from the nursing home to attend the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, but it's a bit confusing. The same year The Last Rifleman also came out with Pierce Brosnan who tells the same story, but in an adapted form. In this film we get to see the real story of Bernard Jordan, where the story in The Last Rifleman was adapted. It has been deliberately chosen not to give The Last Rifleman a cinema release and The Great Escaper does. In this film, the main role is for none other than Michael Caine, who has already reached the age of 91. The two-time Oscar winner has now retired in his own words and has delivered his last work with this film. His wife is played by Glenda Jackson, who unfortunately passed away on June 15, 2023 at the age of 87. The direction is in the hands of Oliver Parker, who in the past also directed Johnny English Reborn, among others.

The film comes up rather slowly and tries to bind the viewer by displaying the routine of the nursing home. Bernard and his wife Irene live in this home and every day is the same. Irene struggles quite a bit with her health, which causes some worries, but Bernard is still quiek at an advanced age and regularly takes good walks. When the celebration of D-Day arrives, Bernard wants to go there at all costs, but this is not allowed by the care staff and wife Irene. But Bernard does not let himself be known and escapes from the nursing home and we are taken on the special journey he makes to Normandy. Where this film is quite different from his conspecific The Last Rifleman is that Bernard just gets on the boat and makes a fairly normal boat trip to France and that in The Last Rifleman Artie Crawford (his name has changed into this film) France is smuggled inside. It makes The Great Escaper a little less spectacular than The Last Rifleman. Is the film therefore less good? No, certainly not. Because The Great Escaper has become a great movie with the heart in the right place.

Bernard is a special man who really inspires people and has a goal, where the celebration of D-Day was not his main task. In the war, Bernard sent a young soldier to the beaches by telling him that everything would be fine, but with the young soldier and his very best friend being killed on the beach. Something that Bernard has been blaming himself for 70 years. Caine really knows how to portray the role in an excellent way and even at the age of 91 shows that he is really one of the greatest and best actors we know. With a smile and a tear, Caine manages to hit the viewer to the bone. Perhaps on a personal level I found The Last Rifleman just a little better than this film, but that has more to do with the events and the speed that are in the film, but The Great Escaper has become a fantastically beautiful film that you must have seen, because the story is special enough for that.

The Great Escaper is a special story about a World War II veteran who escapes from his nursing home at an old age to celebrate the 70th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy. It is almost impossible to understand that we are dealing with a true story here. Either way, The Great Escaper is a movie you must have seen, if only to see the last film by retired Michael Caine, where he closes a wonderful career with a beautiful film.

In the 90s, Nicolas Cage was a name that guaranteed a top film at the time. That disappeared like snow in the sun when the actor came towards 2005 and since then they were more bad movies than good movies he made. In fact, it seemed like Cage wanted to make as many movies as possible and randomly took on every dredger role he could. That has changed again lately. With movies like Pig, Renfield and Symphaty for the Devil recently, Cage seems to have found his way back a bit. Dream Scenario is directed by Kristoffer Borgli, a director who tells me little to nothing, but the producer does. That's Ari Aster, who delivered brilliant films such as Hereditary, Midsommar and Beau is Afraid. Yes, they are movies that you have to love and actually when we look at Dream Scenario we see that the Aster style of storytelling and filming completely comes back. It has really become one of those movies where you eventually wonder what exactly you have been watching.

Teacher Paul Matthews is a sult who actually doesn't really come to the fore and doesn't manage to stand anywhere above ground level. But then something strange happens, Paul suddenly appears in dreams of people who don't know him at all. At first, Paul appears as a kind of voyeur in the dream. He walks past a situation that happens to someone and does nothing else. When Paul eventually starts to become a hype, he likes the attention and also tackles it with both hands. Anyway, why do people dream about Paul and an even better question where exactly do these dreams come from. The film already opens with a vague scene, where Paul's daughter sits by a swimming pool and Paul is watching his daughter fly away like a kind of balloon and panics completely. Why the film opens with that is a good question and what it really adds in the end, because in the beginning it is mainly strangers who dream about Paul what makes the story so strange.

But then the atmosphere actually completely changes when Paul becomes extremely violent in dreams and even starts killing people in the dreams, or rather until the dreamer wakes up. As more and more people start to report with these violent dreams, this begins to have an effect on paul's daily life. But he can't help but people dream that. Because people are afraid of him, his environment begins to banish Paul, at some point he can't even normally eat more in a restaurant without being approached aggressively or people fleeing from Paul. But not only that is a problem, even his own wife and family are starting to abhor Paul, with the moral question of what you would do yourself. Because the dreams are like and Paul does the most terrible things in the dreams that millions of people have, but the fact remains: they are just dreams and not something that Paul does in normal real life.

Dream Scenario is a very strange film, but a very good strange film. If you have a warm heart for Ari Aster's films, it is recommended to watch Dream Scenario anyway. For Nicolas Cage, this is perhaps one of his best films he has made in recent years. That is perhaps a trivial cliché to say that 90% of the actor of recent years was pure dredger, but he has really made some great films there lately. Anyway, Dream Scenario is a nightmare scenario, where you can interpret the ending in multiple ways, although it still doesn't really explain everything and where as a viewer you still wonder what happened, but especially how it happened.

In 1979, the Australian B film Mad Max became a huge global hit and that also meant the big breakthrough for Mel Gibson. The trick was briefly repeated by writer and director George Miller in 1981, resulting in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, which is still considered the best film in the series by hardened Mad Max fans. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome became the third and final part in 1985 and was tackled in a big way at the time, even with a role for Tina Turner in the film. That's where the Mad Max- trilogy seemed to come to an end and it would be. Until in 2015, thirty years after the third and final film we were surprised with Mad Max: Fury Road. This time Max was not played by Mel Gibson, but by Tom Hardy and the film was a huge success. In addition to Tom Hardy, we were seen Charlize Theron as Furiosa, a hard-hard woman trying to survive in the desert ravaged by bizarre figures. Now Furiosa gets its own film within the Mad Max saga, only Theron does not return as Furiosa, but the baton has been handed over to Anya Taylor-Joy, who broke through with the Netflix series The Queens Gambit. Next to Taylor-Joy, we see Chris Hemsworth as the in and in bad Dementus. What we expect is actually just like in Fury Road, an adrenaline roller coaster ride with lots of action and circus stunts.

In that regard, Furiosa does not surprise for a moment, because as a viewer you indeed get exactly what you expect from the film. The film is a prequel on Fury Road and literally fits seamlessly with that film. The first about 45 minutes of an hour is spent on Furiosa's childhood and how she is captured by Dementus at a young age. Dementus wants to know at all costs where Furiosa comes from to be able to plunder that place, but Furiosa keeps its lips together. Eventually they end up with Immortan Joe, where Dementus eventually has to give up Furiosa and more or less has to make a deal with Immortan Joe in order not to be completely erased off the card. The whole childhood of Furiosa might have been told in a shorter time frame, because the film lasts a good two and a half hours and although the film is not really bored or anything, it could have been maybe twenty minutes to half an hour shorter. The young Furiosa is also played by Alyla Browne, who actually plays the role fine. After seeing the childhood of Furiosa, you finally know why she is the way she is and what her motivations are. Well, the entire Mad Max saga, including the old movies with Mel Gibson, does not excel in the story, because that is simple, straightforward and you would almost say of secondary importance, because what you come for is the freak show and the circus stunts that you are eventually presented with.

Actually, it's mainly Chris Hemsworth who really manages to excel in the film. Where Anya Talor-Joy plays a great role as Furiosa, Hemsworth really knows how to own the role as the in and in bad Dementus. Incidentally, the film reminds here and there that it has become a kind of mild reboot of The Road Warrior from 1981. Dementus is reminiscent of Humungus, but without a Hockey mask, Gastown looks a bit like the ford being defended in The Road Warrior and especially the attack on the truck with fuel is very reminiscent of The Road Warrior. The best scene of the film is when Furiosa goes along with Praetorian Jack and fights with The War Rig. The scene takes quite a long time and at that moment we see the action again as we got to see it in Fury Road along with the most bizarre and dizzying stunts that come with it. Although this is really a very cool scene and offers top entertainment, the feeling of 'been there, done that' was very much, because it really looks like a repeat of moves we got to see in Fury Road. That's not a bad thing, but it does ensure that the real wow effect stayed away from me, something I certainly had at Fury Road.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga offers entertainment from start to finish and won't be bored anywhere. Still, it does not justify the enormous playing time of two and a half hours and should have been cut in the first three quarters of the film. Here and there the film makes it feel strongly like The Road Warrior from 1981. Certainly the scene where Furiosa has to defend the War Rig together with Praetorian Jack is really top entertainment, but strangely enough, the real wow effect is gone and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga mainly offers repetition of Fury Road. Anya Taylor-Joy does fine as Furiosa, but it's Chris Hemsworth as far as I'm concerned who really steals the show as the in and in bad Dementus. For the rest, Furiosa is a nice addition that is just beautifully made and above all knows how to entertain. Still, it is to be hoped that the already announced Mad Max: The Wasteland as the title still reads for the time being, is better and will bring back the wow effect. Either way, Furiosa is definitely worth a trip to the cinema because it is and remains popcorn entertainment from the top shelf.

In 1968 we got to see the first film by Planet of the Apes, after the 1963 book by Pierre Boulle. The film got 4 sequels and in 1974 even a television series, which was discontinued after 1 season. It would take until 2001 for another new film about the ape planet to be made. The film was made by Tim Burton, starring Mark Wahlberg, but flopped gigantic after which the plug was pulled out of the project. In 2011 finally came Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which followed Caesar's story, after which Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was made with great success in 2014 and War For the Planet of the Apes in 2017, after which the series was closed with the death of Caesar. Now, seven years later, we can get ready for the sequel, although it has not become a direct sequel, but a film set generations after Caesar. Although the creators claim that this is not a remake of the 1968 original, the trailer really suggests something completely different. Unfortunately, Fox has been in the hands of Disney since 2019 and we all know that Disney likes to destroy franchises. Hopefully they will stay a bit loyal to The Planet of the Apes, so I went into the film with great confidence.

It is certainly not a remake, this film follows a completely own story that is smart and well written. Of course, the film is full of references to its predecessors and even to the old 1968 film. The first half hour comes up quite slowly. The film begins immediately after the events from War For the Planet of the Apes. But after a few minutes we skip generations and end up in a world where monkeys dominate and humans live in the wild and are almost wiped out of the planet. What immediately stands out is the eye-catching CGI, from time to time your mouth will almost fall open, because this is really of an extremely high level. Especially when Noa wakes up again after making a taste on the ground and there is all white ash in his coat. This is done with a lot of detail. After about 40 minutes you will get through where the story wants to go and then the momentum will fortunately come in. Noa is chased by a human after a group of monkeys destroyed his village, killed his father and captured the rest of his tribe. Eventually Noa meets the Urang Utang named Raka, who strictly follows Caesar's word and together with Noa brings the man they first call Nova, but eventually turns out to be called Mae, to her own tribe.

The environments where the film takes place are really fantastic. Half-decayed cities where the buildings have been overgrown with plants, grass and moss over the years look post-apocalyptic and eye-catching. Of course we have seen that more in movies, but the creators of this film have paid a lot of attention to detail. When Noa eventually ends up on the beach, where he joins the self-croowned Proximus Caesar, the film is completely in a gear. Noa and Mae have to forcibly open a large steel door that sits in the rocks, or rather, they have to help Proximus Caesar do that. What is ultimately behind that door may be a bit predictable, but good. The film is most reminiscent of a mix between Planet of the Apes from 1968 and its sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes from 1970, at least a little bit in terms of structure. The end is left completely open and hints directly at a sequel and I do have a suspicion where they want to go, but not.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has become a fantastic spectacle piece, where the CGI is really bizarrely beautiful. The details splash off the screen and every hair, dust particle or whatever has been paid a lot of attention. But the post-apocalyptic setting of the half-decayed cities that are overgrown with greenery is also really beautifully done. The story is smart and well written, although the film takes half an hour to get going. It is smart and well done that the film takes place generations after Caesar and that we are thrown into a completely new adventure on the ape planet. Because the end is left completely open, there is almost no other way than that a sequel will come to this and it can't come fast enough for me. In any case, this fourth film from the new reboot series of films is fantastic.

In Land of Bad, the lead roles are played by Liam and Luke Hemsworth, yes Chris's brothers, and none other than Russell Crowe stars alongside the gentlemen as Captain Eddie Grimm 'Reaper'. The direction is in the hands of 43-year-old director William Eubank, who didn't really make a lot of soups for this film, but good. Land of Bad is only his sixth directing job and if you are allowed to work with such a cast, which is bursting with experience, it should basically be fine. Eubank also wrote the story for this film himself, so we have become quite curious. The story is not bursting with originality by the way, because it is purely such a behind enemy lines- film, which we have seen more often in the past, so it is a bit to be hoped that it does not get bogged down in a been there, done that concept. Fortunately, the film doesn't feel that way and it has become an exciting action movie with a lot of action and suspense. Especially if Kinney has to make his way through the jungle of the Philippines on his own with only Reaper as his navigation to get everything to a successful conclusion.

Crowe, incidentally, takes little part in the action and controls the drone and looks from the air to see if there are no enemies present. If in the beginning all the drone has to return due to a defect, the Delta-Force team is blind. If these achieve their goal and a horrific scene takes place, things go completely wrong. To make matters worse, if the enemy deploys RPG elites, Kinney is quickly left alone and is chased up by an army of bad guys. It goes with a lot of weapon rattle, explosions and especially many slow motion shots. This is pretty nicely done, but after doing it once or twice, the fun is a bit off. Fortunately, the director does limit himself to a number of action scenes and it has not become a Zack Snyder movie that has a slow motion scene in it every five minutes. Yet the film is bursting with clichés and the whole thing looks like a cross between Rambo and (for those who still know the film) Bat 21, because Kinney flees into hostile territory, eventually loses communication and runs out of weapons.

Then predictability strikes, especially how Kinney escapes from the predicament and eventually manages to get weapons back. Anyway, you just have to take these kinds of movies with a grain of salt and just watch it and not lift them too heavy at the implausibles or coincidences. The growling and humming Russell Crowe watches from the safe barracks with a look at Monster Energy in his hands. Still, Crowe does play one of his better roles since Unhinged from 2020. Is the movie really worth watching in a cinema? Well, that depends on which attitude you go with and especially with what kind of company you are going to visit the film. The best thing is to visit these kinds of movies with a bunch of friends with a nice drink and a huge container of popcorn.

Land of Bad has become a very entertaining action film, in which the film does little to depth or emotion. The story is quite simple and already done many times more. With a lot of shooting, raging, explosions and great camera work you will be entertained for a short two hours, although this will not be a film that will keep you with you for years. Crowe plays a fine role as a grumpy mob and Liam Hemsworth is shooting through the ferocious landscape of the Philippines. The gradient is standard and predictable, but despite that it manages to get quite exciting here and there. As mentioned, expect some kind of cross between Rambo and Bat 21, which will definitely get tough here and there. For an afternoon or evening of action entertainment, Land of Bad is absolutely suitable.

Frank Herberts' Dune dates back to 1965 and has already been filmed once. The film adaptation dates back to 1984, when director David Lynch made an attempt to make the epic film. The result was very mediocre, because although the film managed to excel in terms of landscapes and cinematography, it stopped there. In 2021, director Denis Villeneuve came up with his version of Dune and immediately managed to impress. Where the 1984 version tapped a total playing time of two hours and seventeen minutes, only the first part of Villeneuve's version had been tapping for two hours and thirty-five minutes and then you're only halfway. This second part even taps two hours and forty-six minutes, so it's a bit to be hoped that it's not going to be a repetition of moves, because although the first part was very strong, the film could have been a lot shorter. Anyone familiar with Dune's whole story knows what will ultimately await him and the film certainly does not disappoint in this. Whether the hype that currently reigns around Dune is right, you will have to see and judge for yourself. In any case, what is certain is that the film contains much more action than the first part.

The film runs seamlessly and we continue the story with Paul and the division among the Fremen where the northerners do not want to accept Paul as 'The One'. Meanwhile, Baron Harkonnen performs his atrocities on the planet and when his nephew Feyd-Rauta appears, Beast Rabban is soon expelled. Feyd-Rauta is portrayed in a very strong way by Austin Butler. So a lot is happening, so the pace is a lot higher than in the first part. What's more striking is the fact that this movie is even easy to follow if you wouldn't even have seen the first part. There is a great explanation about how and what and although the first film does show the beginning, it feels completely unnecessary after seeing this second part. Well, completely superfluous may be a bit exaggerated, but the fact remains that even without that film this second part is like a house and the story will be easy for everyone to follow. If in the end Paul indicates that he does not want to reach for power, Stilgar is convinced that Paul is 'The One', but there is still doubt within the Fremen group that Paul and Jessica are spies.

The film is grotesque, with a bombastic soundtrack and eye-catching locations and slick special effects. Although the soundtrack is really fine, it is not composer Hans Zimmer's most unforgettable work and this (for me then) is not a soundtrack that will stay with me for a very long time. Although the pace is really a lot higher than in the first part, certain pieces still feel too long and this is often a thing from director Villeneuve. As far as I'm concerned, he often knows how to put down films that are sublimely put together, such as Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, but often goes into the matter too deep, making the films really feel much too long. Perhaps this does not have much to do with going too deep into the matter, but more with the slowness with which this happens. Especially Arrival suffered from that in my eyes, a rock-solid film with a well-thought-out plot, but it's almost great to make a film that is under two hours feel like four hours. Fortunately, that's not too bad in Dune: Part Two and we get to see a movie full of action and adventure. The setup to the third part is made, although I wonder if three parts won't be a bit of a good thing, but we're going to experience it.

Dune: Part Two has become a strong sequel, where the film is still easy to follow even if you haven't seen the first part. The film is grotesque, contains great camera work that manages to create a lot of atmosphere with many yellowish filters. The soundtrack is good and bombastic, but it's not a soundtrack that will stay with you for a long time. It is mainly Austin Butler who, as far as I'm concerned, manages to steal the show as Baron Harkonnen's cruel nephew, Feyd-Rauta. Although the film manages to tick for a good two hours and 45 minutes, whereby that sometimes really felt like a long-paced struggle in the first Dune- film, the pace in this second part is pleasant. Here and there the pace might have been a little higher, but honestly that didn't bother me for a meter. The hype created around the film may be a bit exaggerated, but the movie is definitely worth seeing in the cinema, if you have the chance do it in IMAX.

Next Thursday, the second part of Dune will premiere in theaters, something many a fan has had to look forward to for almost 3 years. Although the film should actually have been released last year, it was significantly delayed by the writers' strike that was going on in Hollywood at the time. The film already got the green light 4 days after the premiere of this first part, but luckily the time has come and I thought it would be nice to look back at the first part before we get started with part 2. There is already a 1984 film directed by David Lynch. Although the film contained absolutely beautiful camera work, the overall picture was really far below par. Now Denis Villeneuve is at the helm and he has already proven with Blade Runner 2049 that he can definitely make a complex science fiction film. With a $165 million budget, Villeneuve doesn't let any grass grow over it and attracts a large arsenal of big stars and puts a lot of work into the eye-catching effects the film has.

The story is not the easiest story and it is also very careful to be able to follow the story. The film is also quite slow and that is now a feature of this director. For example, Blade Runner 2049 also had a long playing time and the whole thing went in a very slow way. This is no different in this first part of Dune, so you still don't get the whole thing after an hour, in my opinion you might as well stop it and just skip the second part. For those who can follow all this and do not suffer from the slow course, they will be immersed in a very cool world in which a war rages between three parties, in which it is up to the chosen Paul Atreides to save the native people the Fremen from the downfall and the dig to the coveted spice. What is well done is the nightmarish setting that Villeneuve manages to create in the film. Certainly the scene in which Paul and his associates fly to a miner with a plane that has wings like a Dragonfly. Once there, an sandworm arrives in the distance that wants to swallow the whole thing, after which a rescue operation follows and the miner's crew has to evacuate. With the yellow lens filter in the dune plain, it makes things look even more oppressive and especially heated.

The music is provided by none other than grandmaster Hans Zimmer and the whole thing swells well. Still, the soundtrack here and there is just a bit too melancholy and it doesn't always fit the film well, but that will also be a matter of personal taste. In any case, it doesn't make it contribute to getting a little bit of momentum in the film. This takes until deep in the second half that the momentum comes in when Paul and mother Jessica Atreides have to flee after the attack on Leto Atreides. At that moment the role of the Fremen also becomes a little clearer and we also see the malice of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen taking on more and more bizarre forms. It's all a set-up to Dune: Part 2 of course and especially for the people who have already seen the 1984 version, you know about what's coming and it's quite frustrating to have waited so long. What does outline the surprise is that a Dune: Part 3 is already in development, so with that in mind I am very curious what exactly will come and how Villeneuve will work out all this.

Dune: Part One is a great opener of the triptych about House Atreides, Harkonnen and the Fremen people fighting a mutual battle for the planet Caladan. This first part is very slow and your patience is tested for about 155 minutes. The camera work, decors and settings are really very well done, although I find the soundtrack of grandmaster Hans Zimmer sometimes too melancholy, but this can also have to do with taste of course. It also takes more than an hour and a half before the whole thing has got off to a good start, for which a lot of work is done on character development and deepening of the story. Where exactly Villeneuve ultimately wants to go regarding the developed third part is still a bit of the question. The third part is expected to tell The Children of Dune, but yes, at least I don't know for sure. For now, this first part of Dune has become a really cool movie, especially for the real science fiction lover, so let the second part come soon.

The game Fallout has been playing since 1997 and has an extremely large crowd of fans in the meantime. Since 2007, Fallout's rights have been sold to Bethesda, with 4 games added to the shelves and a number of additions to them. Anyone who knows the games will have labeled this a bit as fairly unfilmable. Still, Jonathan Nolan, yes Christopher Nolan's 6 years younger brother, wanted to burn his hands on the Fallout project. Jonathan is only more adept at the writers' part and whoever looks at his CV sees that he hardly has anything to his name as a director. The series takes place within the same continuity as the video game franchise, but has become an original story of its own. Executive producer Todd Howard said he wanted to prevent the video games from being tweaked.

Especially people who are not familiar with the Fallout franchise will really have to get used to the weird setting for the first two episodes. The atmosphere in the series is very strong and lives up to the game, but the luguber humor and the completely strange things that happen will make the eyebrows frown for a while. Precisely because the world of Fallout is so atmospheric and well portrayed, this series has perhaps become one of the best game adaptations ever, at least, that's what I think. From the third episode, the whole thing starts to get a bit more structure and you will also understand where the whole thing wants to go in the end. You actually skip between several lines in the story. For example, there is the story of Lucy, who goes through the desert together with Ghoul Cooper, Maximus who ends up in a bizarre situation as a turtle of Knight Titus and of course how Vault 33 wants to pick up the thread again, but does not know how to deal with their captured killers. But in order to fully understand the big picture, we have to go back to the beginning and that's exactly where Fallout works.

In episode 6, structure begins to come into the series and it becomes clear where the big picture wants to go. Every storyline remains equally interesting and the absurdism is only increasing. But exactly how everything is put together remains unclear until the last episode and we also have to go back to the whole beginning. Fortunately, for the rest, it doesn't matter whether you have played the games or not, the series may then connect with the world of Fallout and constantly hint to things from the games, yet the series follows its own path and prior knowledge is absolutely not required. Everything is just well worked out and it reminded me from time to time to time the books of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, which I would like to see filmed in this way and I'm not talking about that halfgare film from 2017. Fallout is just surprisingly good and brings this to the man with a lot of gore and weird humor. After the 8 episodes, you're still looking for a second season.

Fallout - Season 1 is perhaps the best movie of a game ever. Prior knowledge is absolutely not necessary, because although the story takes place in the world fan of the games, it completely follows its own path. As a neutral viewer, you will still have something about the first two episodes of what are you actually looking at, but after that the story starts to take shape. With 8 episodes ranging from playing time from 45 minutes to an hour, it looks away wonderfully and quickly. One must have a strong stomach, by the way, because some scenes are in no way inferior to a spicy horror film, so this is definitely not suitable for young viewers. Eventually when the end has come you will crave for more, but it will be a while for a second season and although nothing is known about that yet, it is quite a certainty that it will really come.

Most people knowMillie Bobby Brown from her role as Eleven from the Netflix series Stranger Things. Later she also played in the Netflix productions of Elona Holmes and played in the unspokably bad Godzilla II: King of Monsters. The titles mentioned don't immediately make me eager to watch Damsel, but the trailer decided to do it anyway. Next to Brown, we see Robin Wright as evil queen Isabelle and Angela Bassett as Lady Bayford, Elodie's stepmother. The direction is in the hands of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who also directed 28 Weeks Later and did so not undeservedly after Danny Boyles 28 Days Later. Throw a budget of a sloppy seventy million dollars and you should really have a good base to make a nice movie. Well, unfortunately that is not often the case with Netflix productions. In fact, I think there are only a handful of really good films made from the Netflix stable, which do a lot better in the field of series.

Fortunately, that is not the case with this film. Despite a lot of negative criticism of this film, I don't really understand that, because Damsel has become an old-fashioned fun adventure. Still, the film needed half an hour of start-up time, where I even considered turning off the film after 20 minutes. This was more because there is a large prince and princess content that you normally get to see in sweet royal comedies. Fortunately, that's just working towards something, because after this half hour the film comes off well. When Elodie is thrown into the dragon's den, it will take a while before we get to see the dragon. Perhaps the dragon could have been a bit more imposing, but the dragon's fire spitting has been well thought out. It's not a normal fire, but when the fire hits things it turns into a kind of lava-like substance, so that when the dragon spits fire you can't hide almost anywhere.

The film has a neat playing time of an hour and 45 minutes and that is a perfect film length for a film like this. It all shouldn't have lasted any longer, giving the film a good balance. Elodie is the great heroine of the story and when it finally becomes clear how the fork really seems to be in the stem, Elodie swears revenge and that leads to the final fight between Elodie and the dragon and that can be called quite exciting. Perhaps the film is just a little too exciting for too young viewers and there are a few pieces in it so that the film has rightly received age advice of 12 years and older. If you want to watch this with younger offspring, it is advisable to check the film yourself in advance whether it is possible.

Damsel has finally become a good Netflix production for young and old. Millie Bobby Brown plays the tough damsel Elodie who has to take on a dragon and escape from his cave. The effects are very beautiful, where it is mainly the fire spitting of the dragon that is very nicely animated. The dragon itself might have been a little more imposing, but good. If you make a movie this way, it's a little thing to take for granted. These kinds of films were actually made on a large scale in the eighties and nineties for the last time, then dragon films went a bit in a different direction, which is why Damsel is a welcome surprise where you will have a very entertaining evening when you go to watch it.

Craig Gillespie has already directed films such as Fright Night (meaning the remake), The Finest Hour, I, Tonya and Cruella in the past. So it concerns a wide range of genres and this time he takes care of Dumb Money. The film has a nice cast with names like Paul Dano, Vincent D'Onofrio, Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, Clancy Brown and Nick Offerman. The story is special and takes place entirely in the Covid-19 period, something that many people may prefer not to be reminded of. Everyone walks up with face masks and speaks to each other. But during this pandemic, something completely different happened on the Wall Street stock exchange. Keith Gill has his own vlog in which he shows people his bank balance by investing in stocks. He himself pumps a lot of money into a seemingly hopeless company called Gamestop. With this the film starts confused and above all chaotic, also using music that you might not really expect with such a film.

The chaos is accompanied by a certain kind of humor that perhaps not everyone will appreciate or understand. Maybe I belong to that second group, because it's not 'my cup of tea' let's just say. Is that bad then and will you find the film less about that? No, strangely not and I have to admit that I was not familiar with this story at all and although the beginning was chaotic and I actually had no idea what exactly was happening, the story did hold me. Once about fifteen minutes later, I began to understand well what was happening. Yet the story is brought in a light-hearted way and I didn't really get the feeling that you were really told what exactly happened.

I never really understood investing money anyway and to be honest I still don't understand that after seeing this movie. Maybe that was also the reason I couldn't quite understand the film with all its terms. Yes, he bought the shares and managed to get a lot of amateur investors into it and I also understand that it started to get so big that a number of large investors got into trouble as a result. But there was so much more involved and I really didn't understand that people who really didn't have a nail to scratch their ass took the risk of eventually losing everything. With finally 23 million in shares and still not selling? Yes I understand the principle and I understand what Gill wanted to achieve, but I don't understand that you don't give in and just sell your shares. This probably immediately indicates that I really didn't eat cheese from that world and that my interest is not there at all. Yet despite all that, Dumb Money has become a great movie that knows how to offer enough entertainment and entertainment.

Dumb Money has become a great movie, where the kind of humor has to be your thing. The first three minutes are mainly chaotic and messy, with the use of the kind of music being quite special. Fortunately, gradually everything becomes a bit clearer and eventually understandable for someone like me, who has not eaten any cheese at all from the theme of investing or someone (also like me) who did not get this whole thing at the time. It makes the film special, but whether this is a film that I would really give a review in the short term remains to be seen. Perhaps if you are familiar with this case yourself, you might like the film better. Anyway, the film is just fine and therefore it is worth a 7 out of 10.

The 4 Oscar-winning Poor Things was typically one of those movies where I had complete doubts about whether I should go and watch it. Don't ask me why, but it was such a premonition I had, but in this case my feeling was completely wrong. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter in this slumsical, surreal fairy tale. It is also not surprising that this has become a strange sensation when you consider what director Yorgos Lanthimos has already done in the past. For example, he already made the bizarre The Lobster in 2015, in which a story is marketed so vaguely and strangely that if you only miss two minutes of it, you might as well finish the film. In 2017 he did that again with The Killing of a Sacred Deer and in 2018 with The Favourite. Only Poor Things also got a budget of $35 million, so Lanthimos could do his business and definitely deliver his best work so far to the public, although Poor Things will certainly not be a movie for everyone.

It's especially Emma Stone who steals the show, with her monster of Frankenstein-like run and her brilliant performance as Bella, just brought back to life. Stone rightly received an Oscar for this and although there was still a nominee within that category, it was actually only possible to have the Oscar go to Stone. But Willem Dafoe also plays a brilliant role as the misdead and disturbed scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, a name that Bella abbreviates to God. God teaches Bella everything about life in a protected environment and Bella learns very quickly. One day God takes his student Max Candles with him, and Max soon falls under Bella's spell and eventually God and Max decide that Max must marry Bella. But then Duncan Wedderburn comes into the picture, a self-taken, selfish lawyer who incites Bella to leave God and enter the meadow world with him. The first act therefore takes place in the house of God and Bella and produces quite a few bizarre events, in which absurdism and gore predominate, but all this happens in such an artistic way that you keep looking into a kind of trance.

When Bella joins Duncan in exploring the world and on their way to Lisabon, that's a journey full of sexual excesses. But Bella is becoming increasingly difficult for Duncan to treat, especially when she encounters the rather strange couple Martha and Henry, who let her discover the world of philosophy. It is mainly the bizarre adventures and especially the colors that manage to bring the film to an absolute highlight. For example, the ship Bella sails on looks like it came out of a painting, but also with the strange touches, such as colored smoke coming out of the ship's pipes. Some scenes seem to come out of a nightmare or a restless vague dream. For example, like the scene in which Bella has just arrived in Alexandria and looks down from a mountain where she sees children dying is the hot sun. This is once again oppressively portrayed because the director uses a yellow filter, but really a very present yellow color. Towards the end, everything becomes clear, but at the same time even more absurd.

Poor Things has become a movie that you have to settle down for a few days before you start giving a judgment on this work. Of the no less than 11 Oscar nominations, Poor Things cashed 4 of them, with the Oscar for Emma Stone being completely justified. For the rest, Poor Things is really very special, the color use and camera work are of a very high level. The story is absurd and bizarre and it is recommended to watch the movie and actually let it work on you for a day or maybe two days, before you really start to give a judgment on it. The film has a number of slumsome scenes, which are not really suitable for dear souls. Towards the end everything becomes clear and this is not a film where you have to be Albert Einstein to understand it, but it will make you feel uncomfortable and the film will go through your head for a while.

Past Lives was nominated for an Oscar 2 times this Oscar round, namely that of Best Film and Best Screenplay, but failed to cash in either. Although the film is really special and beautiful, in my opinion the film made no chance with its competitors, but in this case the nominations also say enough about this film. The film is directed by Celine Song. This South Korean director makes her directorial debut with Past Lives and can be quite proud of that, because if you know how to make your directing debut in such a way, we look forward to the future films she will make. Anyway, she goes to war with a relatively unknown cast, where it may only be John Magaro who could perhaps ring a bell. It's not important, because Song portrays this romantic drama in a Woody Allen-like way with sometimes a comical edge.

What the film manages to excel in is the camera work and the non-standard way in which the film proceeds. Na-young lives in South Korea until the age of twelve with her childhood love Hae Sung, until her parent decides to emigrate to Canada. Na-young changes her name to Nora, causing her to disappear from the picture at Hae Sung. This beginning is quite slow and it takes a while before you can get into the story. The deepening of a girl who is torn from her familiar habitat to want to rebuild her life in a foreign country may be well portrayed, but maybe there could have been a little more speed, because after half an hour I started to get bored slightly. Still, it is advisable to bite through it, because although it may get boring, it is ultimately indispensable for the big picture and I wouldn't really know how this should have been made into a movie otherwise.

Another twelve years later, Nora lives in New York and is married to Arthur. She gets back in touch with Hae Song via social media and he eventually decides to travel to New York. Once there, an emotional reunion begins and Nora shows all the spots to Hae Song who is rich in New York. This is really very strongly portrayed and especially that part is very reminiscent of a Woody Allen film. When Nora eventually realizes that she still has feelings for Hae Song and that Arthur is starting to stand out, she tries to suppress those feelings. The special thing is that normally with those kinds of stories a standard course you know exactly how it will all end, and let it be the point where the film walks its own unpredictable path and knows how to excel.

Past Lives may not have been able to cash in on his two Oscar nominations, but it has become a strong debut by director Celine Song. Armed with a very strong script and an unknown cast, she manages to move and even emotionalize the viewer in just under two hours. The film is very reminiscent of Woody Allen films from his glory years, but maybe that's because New York is really portrayed that way. For the rest, the film has very nice camera work and although the part that takes place in South Korea is very slow, it is absolutely worth a bite. Past Lives is just a very beautiful and expertly made film, with a smile and a tear.

Show wrestler John Cena has been working hard as an actor in recent years and has had a lot of success with that. He previously starred in The Suicide Squad, Bumblebee, Fast & Furious 9 and a whole st of films. In this action film, the muscle bundle plays the leading role. The direction is in the hands of Pierre Morel, who already proved with the most entertaining Pepermint in 2018 that he has mastered the action genre well and was of course the director of Taken with Liam Neeson. Next to Cena we see Alison Brie, who has quite a bit on her CV, but is not really very familiar with the films she has played with. Well, the film is not too well received by critics and opened this film in the opening weekend even with a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now that the film is out on Blu-ray, we can judge for ourselves whether this is justified, whether Freelance has secretly become a nice movie.

And this has certainly become a nice movie. Don't expect an ultra-original story or that you're going to be badly surprised. Freelance gives the viewer exactly what you can expect in advance. A stupid, predictable action film with a lot of humor, actually an action film that we were thrown to death with in the 80s. The film begins with the point that Mason becomes a soldier and how he joined the special forces. Eventually the helicopter crashes, on a mission involving Mason dictator Venegas from the small South American country of Paldonia. Mason is seriously injured and eventually Mason goes into normal life and marries, has a daughter and becomes a lawyer. Until his military buddy Sebastian Earle is suddenly on the doorstep and wants to hire Mason as a freelancer to carry out another mission in Paldonia. He has to offer protection to journalist Claire Wellington who has an interview with Venegas, only they come at the wrong time when Venegas' nephew commits a seizure, so Mason is stuck with Venegas. It results in a lot of humor and action, where the film is and remains highly entertaining.

Freelance has become a very entertaining action comedy, in which the mutual chemistry is good and this has an effect on the entire film. It ensures that the fun splashes off the screen and that the film remains fun to watch for the entire duration. For the rest, the film is just a stupid action movie, which we have seen many times in the past. The setup is a bit like that of Romancing the Stone of The Rundown from 2003 with Dwayne Johnson, not that you should expect such a movie of course, but the setup is a bit the same. For those who want to watch a nice brainless movie with a lot of humor, Freelance mood is perfectly suited. For me, the film surprised me a lot and I really managed to entertain myself for the full hour of play.

The Marvel universe has not excelled in releasing good films in recent years, especially after Disney took over the entire Marvel stable, it turned out to be quantity over quality. Yes, of course there were some outliers among them who were really good, but the large part after Avengers: Endgame seemed to be far undersized. The low point was reached in my opinion with The Eternals and The Marvels. The advantage that Madame Web has is that it was once again made by Sony Pictures, so that already offers a little bit of hope. That hope turned out to be unjustified, because immediately after the film was released, Madame Web was razed to the ground by critics, so much so that I really started to have my doubts a bit about whether that was justified. With a dramatically low audience score on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, Madame Web has been put to dead and I definitely want to judge that myself. It wasn't as bad as these sites wanted to come across and The Eternals and The Marvels still remain the worst out of Marvel's stable, but Madame Web knows how to hold a solid third place very simply as far as I'm concerned.

With a budget of about $80 million in your pocket, names like Dakota Johnson and rising star Sydney Sweeney, you'll still expect to get something decent to see. But that lags far behind. The opening is not yet so terrible, but it lacks some form of logic in the film at every point. Constance, Cassandra Webb's mother, is looking for a special spider in the Jungle along with Ezekiel. With her pregnant belly she finds the spider that should be able to cure diseases, but Ezekiel has other plans with that, why? No idea. Eventually he steals the spider and leaves Contance for death, who is found again by a mysterious tribe that Constance is pricked by the spider and finally get baby Cassandra. You, after the incident she likes spontaneously, but okay. We see that more often in movies. Then the whole thing moves to Manhattan where Cassandra works on the ambulance. No form of explanation or anything is given and suddenly Cassandra has all the powers. It doesn't really hit side or shore, but good.

Then the three ladies Julia, Anya and Mattie come up completely without explanation and out of nowhere and suddenly Ezekiel is after them for no reason in a kind of Spider-Man suit, something Madame Web is a spin off of. All you know is that Ezekiel has visions of the ladies wanting to kill him, the why still remains and mystery. What Ezekiel's big plan actually is, that also remains a mystery and I can really make sure that Ezekiel is really one of the most lousy bad guys I saw in a superhero movie, it doesn't make sense at all and even worse, it really doesn't go anywhere. You are thrown into the action from time to time, the story literally goes in all directions and in the end you can do nothing with it and most people will be left in amazement at what they have actually been looking at. There could have been so much more in this, but in my opinion Madame Web was really rightly burned down and if this is the yardstick that the future Marvel- films are going to come with, then I really give up completely.

Madame Web may not be as bad as many want to make it happen, but the reactions are easy to understand. The story goes in all directions and sometimes really makes no sense at all. In terms of bad guys, with Ezekiel we really get to see the most lousy villain from all Marvel- movies combined. What his final goal was remains a very big mystery even after the film. With a budget of 80 million dollars and such a casting, you would expect to be able to make something much better than this bad product. He always remains even better than The Eternals and The Marvels, but a solid third place definitely takes this film.

In 1989 we were shown the film Road House, starring the then immensely popular actor Patrick Swayze. The film told the story of James Dalton working as a feared and very successful bouncer in the Double Deuce bar. The film acquired a cult status and in 2006 it got a straight to video sequel Road House 2: Last Call, by the way a really terrible bad film, by the way without Swayze. Sadly, Patrick Swayze lost us at the age of 57 in 2009 with the consequences of pancreatic cancer. Now there's the reboot of Road House and actually you have to wonder if you should want that, because didn't an 80's classic like Road House have its time a bit? This time Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead, only this time we follow ex-UFC fighter Elwood Dalton. Funnily enough, MMA fighter Conor McGregor makes his acting debut in this film. McGregor is a beast of a fighter of course, he can't really act alone and that's a smear on this movie.

Yet the film about the big picture is entertaining and it is not much less than its predecessor from 1989. The story is completely different and the only similarities you'll actually find in the film is the name Dalton, which is about bouncers in the film and the bands that have to play behind a piece of mesh in the Road House. For the rest, the comparisons will stop there and maybe that's the salvation, this is a real reboot of Road House and not a remake. Why I like the original from '89 better actually only has to do with the music in the film provided by the blind guitar virtuoso Jeff Healey and his Jeff Healy Band. For the rest, the cult classic from '89 was also nothing more than entertaining and this should not be made bigger than it is. This is just a piece that lacks in this reboot, it lacks the blues-like atmosphere, although of course the setting has moved from Missouri to the Florida Keys.

The action is abundant and we are not going to mee about mistakes or unbelievable things in the film, because this is not the film for that. What in my opinion could have been a lot better are the fights and especially the effects of them. Each fight in the film uses full body-doubles because of the production using a new multi-pass method to perform seamless punches and kicks instead of mimicking hits or bypassing the action to be credible. In each fight, the doubles are pasted a few frames into the mount before being reassembled into real footage. This sometimes gives an effect as if working with AI, where the action is fake. For the rest, the film just runs as a standard action movie by default, where you won't get bored for a second. The film lasts 2 hours and that's really a great playing time for this film.

Road House has become a great reboot of the 1989 cult classic. The only reason that movie was better was the music of The Jeff Healey Band, for the rest it's all of the same sheet a pack. The action is fine, although the fights sometimes look a bit fake. MMA fighter Conor McGregor makes his acting debut in this film and although the beastly fighter is ideally suited for the fight scenes, the man cannot act. Maybe if he's a few movies further that things will get better, but based on this movie I'd say McGregor better stick to the martial arts. Road House does not last too long with its two hours and walks its own way, there are a few similarities with Road House from 1989, but at the end of the film you will really have to draw the conclusion that these have really become two completely different films, where it may be difficult to see separately because of the subject and the name of the film, but it would not be fair to really compare them.

Movies about King Kong and Godzilla have been out for almost 100 years of course and have been entertaining the audience a lot all this time. With the arrival of Godzilla in 2014, a new Monsterverse was created in which there was slow work towards the meeting of the giant monkey King Kong and the nuclear lizard Godzilla. Now I have to be honest and the series didn't get any better, because after Godzilla from 2014 and Kong: Skull Island from 2017, in 2019 we got the terribly bad Godzilla: King of Monsters and its successor Godzilla vs. Kong from 2021 didn't get much better on that. At the outcome of the trailer, you already know in advance that this is going to be a CGI festival, just like its predecessors. It was recently a relief to be able to see the Japanese Godzilla Minus One, but you already know in advance that this should not even be in the shadow of that film. Then why still visit this movie? Well, I love monster movies anyway and I'm always curious what people have made of it again, so with fear and trake I look forward to this film again.

The story is really too stupid for words, although the story is a lot better than Godzilla: King of the Monsters from 2019, which really didn't have a story in it. It actually occurs from the beginning when Kong turns out to have a toothache. Once to the normal world, a plane thing is pulled, Kong's molar. Yes, that level indeed. The film continues and one is taken to the portals to Hollow Earth across the world, where Monarch keeps an eye on the titans. Meanwhile, Godzilla sleeps in the Italian Colosseum in Rome. Kong gets it up against a number of other monkeys from Hollow Earth and comes across a small monkey there, eventually covering the dreaded Scar King. You already hear it, for the story you don't have to go to the movie and a lot really makes no sense at all. Ilene Andrews is a researcher at Monarch and has taken Jia of Skull Island, one of the last survivors of her tribe, under her care. Why she comes to the blogger Bernie Hayes, who is extremely paranoid, is really still a big mystery. This character really adds absolutely nothing to the story and that is quite clever when you consider that this is one of the main characters from the story.

Whatever was feared for, Godzilla x Kong has become a CGI festival. Large parts of the movie you are wondering if you didn't end up in the wrong room, because it looks like a Disney Pixar movie. Of course, there is little to complain about the CGI effects, it's all quite beautifully made. The director on duty also focuses very much on the use of color in the film and works with quite a few lens flares, probably to amplify the 3D version of the film a bit. Towards the end, the film goes wild and the titans end up in Egypt and Brazil where everything has to be broken. It is the most entertaining part of the film, as the throwing and throwing work and the destruction of entire buildings are incessantly brought to the screen. Sometimes it seems as if the creators have played a lot of a loan at the Transformers- films and at the Planet of the Apes- films. Godzilla plays a relatively small role in the film and is eventually only covered for the last half hour. For the rest, the film might as well have been called Kong: Hollow Earth, because the story is actually largely about the big CGI monkey.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has become a mediocre job, where the story is really very bad. The action and effects are fine and in that regard time flies by. What is the addition of certain characters in the film remains a big mystery and large parts of the story really make no sense at all. The last half hour (maybe it's forty minutes) are the most entertaining, where everything has to be broken and the battle of the titans is unleashed. Where with most films the 3D effect does not really have added value, it is the case with this film. Especially the use of bright colors and the lens fares and of course the excessive use of CGI let you take you in 3D into a world ruled by monsters. For the rest, the film is really nothing special and when the credits start rolling you are actually wondering what you should think of this. One thing is for sure, it's 100% better than Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but a bit like Godzilla vs. Kong.

Martin van Waardenberg is a Dutch comedian, who has been working well in recent years as an actor and even as a director. For example, with his latest film Ome Cor, van Waardenberg played the leading role and directed the film himself. In De Terugreis we also see Leny Breederveld, who also played together with van Waardenberg in Ome Cor. Breederveld is perhaps best known as Judge Helma from the successful television series The Lice Mother. The direction is in the hands of Jelle de Jonge who has already worked with both. De Jonge wrote the story together with Marijn de Wit, where both actually make their writers' debut. Only de Wit wrote something with the short Wes from 2009 before, but we can't really count that when it comes to a full feature film. Anyway, that must be fine with someone like van Waardenberg in your film, of course.

The story is about a couple who have stuck in the past. Jaap in particular has trouble keeping up with his time. If one day he receives a letter from Luis from Spain that he is dying, his wife Maartje wants to travel to Spain immediately, but Jaap doesn't feel like it at all. Maartje is starting to have dementia, only Jaap doesn't want to see that. Where one might expect a thoroughbred comedy, De Terugreis is certainly not. Although there is humor in the film here and there, De Terugreis has become a drama film about aging and how to deal with dementia. At first, Jaap blames Maartje for doing certain things on purpose to snar him. You would think that Jaap is a short-sighted lamlul, but it soon becomes quite clear that Jaap is full of fear and does not know how to deal with the situation and the woman he has been with for 42 years.

Jaap has also been afraid of driving in the car for years and if Jaap decides to travel to Spain anyway in his more than 30-year-old car, he has to defy the speed of the highways. Of course this does not go as he had hoped, which brings with it a number of comical situations. When they eventually drive through France, they get to places where they used to be, but which have completely changed. This is assisted by beautiful images of the French landscape, but we have seen that more often in films of course, take the film Take Me with you from last year. The Return Journey is another film of course and also has a more serious undertone. It is mainly the chemistry between van Waardenberg and Breederveld that really show that they can act very well.

De Terugreis manages to move the viewer with a smile and a tear. What is clever is that the film does not choose the easy way. It's a drama about dealing with a woman with dementia, where the partner doesn't know how to deal with that. Jaap is stuck to routine and the past, and looking outside the news to want Jaap to have as little to do with the outside world as possible. Once on a trip, it takes the two life partners past the most beautiful places and they pass changed places that they have visited in the past on their trip to Spain. The chemistry between Martin van Waardenberg and Leny Breederveld is insanely good and will not leave you as a viewer untouched. One thing is certain and that is that De Terugreis will be difficult to beat for the Dutch films to come this year.

Under the banner of Blumhouse productions and the creators of M3gan and Five Nights at Freddy's, we are presented with the film Imaginary. At first glance when you watch the trailer it looks pretty good and it seems like we can prepare for a great horror movie. Especially when you consider that director Jeff Wadlow used the 1982 classic Poltergeist as inspiration for this film. Wadlow should be able to deliver a great horror movie, something he did with Truth or Dare in the past. Starring, we see DeWanda Wise, who may know most of Jurassic World Dominion as Kayla Watts. Tom Payne plays the role of Max and we know as Jesus from the series The Walking Dead. Not a mega well-known cast, but well, that never has to be a problem of course.

Let me immediately drop the door in the house, this is bad in every way. The opening still makes you think it could be something, but after a few minutes the creators try to deepen the story and let the viewer create a connection with the characters. When the teddy bear named Chauncey is found in a basement, a piece follows where really nothing happens. Just if you think something is going to happen, nothing happens and then even less happens. It really makes no sense at all, because the little girl Alice thinks the imaginary boyfriend and her parents don't think it's strange that she talks to a teddy bear, which turns out not to be there in the end. That's especially strange, since Jessica, Alice's stepmother, cut the same house in the same house in her past. Attempts are still being made to build up tension, but you will soon get bored as a viewer, especially if you are going to expect an exciting horror movie.

If the last twenty minutes the horror breaks out in the movie, you will really shake your head and wonder what you are actually watching. It's as predictable as I don't know what and nowhere will you be surprised, while really trying to unfold a plot to amaze the viewer. No, none of that. You can see everything coming miles away, the monsters are really laughable and the big picture makes no sense. I really started to lose my interest in the film and soon I was working on completely different things than the film and when I went to make a sanitary stop and came back, it turned out that the film was (unfortunately) not over yet. The best thing about the film was the credits and I'll keep it there for the rest.

Imaginary has become a really bad movie from the stable of Blumhouse. You have to have a long breath, because the first hour and fifteen minutes really nothing happens at all and the story really makes no sense at all. This is not because of acting or camera work or anything, but really because of a lousy script and ridiculous plot twists and ridiculous monsters in the movie. Save your effort and don't go watch this misproduction in the cinema. Even on a boring afternoon on your own TV, the movie is just not worth the view. I don't want to say more about it.

There is a big ad with the text that this film is from the producers of M3gan and The Nun, but we now know these kinds of tricks. In addition, M3gan was not such a good movie that you are going to propose that as a promotion for a new film of course. Anyway, Night Swim does have a trailer that manages to trigger many viewers to watch this new movie from the Blumhouse stable of course. Wyatt Russell, yes Kurt's son, we also recently saw in the series Monarch: Lagacy of Monsters. We already saw Kerry Condon in movies like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and in 2022 in the brilliant The Banshees of Inisherin. In terms of papers and trailer, you would say that this has a good chance of succeeding of course. But appearances are deceiving in this case, it may not be extremely bad, but we absolutely cannot speak of a good film and that actually starts with the problem that the film has a very slow build-up and if a horror film has it, you have to come from good houses to keep the viewer's attention.

The first hour of the film is more like a family drama than an exciting horror film. The opening of the film is still quite strong, but after that opening things drop a lot. Ray tries to overcome his illness, his daughter Izzy struggles with some adjustment, but eventually manages to adapt herself well and wife Eve likes everything. Son Elliot has a little more trouble with the change. If Ray deteriorates, the doctor recommends swimming therapy to him and quite coincidentally the family bought the house with an extremely large pool that needs to be refurbished. Once the bath is filled and put into use, the whole family makes good use of it and of course they are right. Then some vague things happen, but it still doesn't get exciting anywhere or anything. Elliot sees and hears some strange things, but the film still focuses more on Ray's disease and how the family deals with it.

Eventually, when the film comes loose a bit and strange things happen, the family makes the link to the previous residents. Eventually there is a plot twist that is basically too predictable for words. What is also very annoying is the lack of even a bit of an attempt to make things look believable. For example, it seems that the whole family is breaking world records under water. Especially Eve, who can really stay underwater for almost 10 minutes without oxygen in the end and when she comes up is barely out of breath or is really out of breath, is really completely hopeless. The outcome is also completely simple and predictable and knows not to surprise anywhere or anything. Where you may first manage to get out of a tight enough, the last 20 minutes of the film know how to pull it to a heavy insufficient and that's a shame, because the film had quite potential. Perhaps the best and most exciting scene is the one from the trailer, where Izzy plays the Marco polo game with her boyfriend in the pool.

Night Swim starts as a family drama and stays on the rather boring side for an hour. Yet the film is still reasonably manageable up to that point and you may still get on and very tight enough. The good scenes can be counted on one hand and are already given away in the trailer anyway. What we get to see in the last 20 minutes does no honor to the film and the film also bursts with the ridiculousness at that point. For example, family members can hold their breath for minutes, where woman Eve sitting can even hold on for almost 10 minutes, without taking a breath. As the end credits start rolling, the disappointment will be complete and it will feel like wasted time. The film is also too predictable for words and that is quite a shame, because in principle the film had plenty of potential. Of course, the end remains fairly open, but it is to be hoped that there will be no sequel to this film.

The first Ghostbusters- film from 1984 no longer needs an introduction, of course. The film received a not too well-received sequel in 1989 and a reboot in 2016, which was also received with mixed feelings. This reboot was not followed up, while the end was left open and the hint of that was the return of Zuul. Until we were allowed to see Ghostbusters Afterlife in theaters in 2021, the long-awaited sequel to the original Ghostbusters film that features Egon Spengler's daughter and granddaughter. The film was very successful and a sequel could not really be missed. Under the pseudonym Ghostbusters: Hells Kitchen, this project started and later it was renamed Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The entire cast returns only this time the direction is in the hands of Gil Kenan, who also helped write Ghostbusters Afterlife. The trailer makes you expect a lot, despite the film being received lukewarm from many sides.

I don't understand anything about all that nagging on the movie, because Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has become a really nice movie. However, the film is different from the predecessor Afterlife and that works fine. Perhaps the film leans just a little too much on the past, but on the other hand it does work. For example, the link is made to Ghostbusters 2 in the film, but even more to the first part from 1984. For example, the ghost from the library comes back, the lion image for the library comes to life and the little marshmallow man returns. This time we are not dealing with Zuul or Gozer, but Ray gets his hands on a spherical object, which soon turns out that he has an evil spirit on board that has the other spirits under control. When the ghost storage in the barracks begins to fill up, Winston Zeddemore's Spenglers are told that there is an improved and larger storage elsewhere. This to the great dismay of Mayor Walter Peck, who in Ghostbusters (1984) naturally let all ghosts escape from the storage due to his hatred for the Ghostbusters.

The effects in the film are also more than fine. I visited the 2D version of the film myself, but especially the last half hour of the film will look fantastic in 3D. This is the part where all of New York is frozen and the Ghostbusters have to save the world again from the clutches of an old evil spirit. Maybe the film is somewhat predictable here and there and the formula of the mix of young and old works a little stiff. Still, this is absolutely not in the way of the fun in the film, because the film is a small two hour popcorn entertainment from the top shelf, with the fun of the cast splashing off the screen. As mentioned before, the fans of the old movie(s) are served at their bells and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Can you say that that already happened in the previous film, but in this film it also works fine and that has everything to do with the setting in New York. The ancient icy enemy may be an enemy who is scarer than what we have seen so far in Ghostbusters- movies, so beware off with too young viewers, the film could be just a little too intense for that.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has become a good sequel to 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Fans of the original films are served at their service and perhaps the only small point of criticism is that the film may lean just a little too much on nostalgia. Yet it doesn't bother and maybe the interaction between the old and the new cast is just a bit on the stiff side, but it's fair to say that it doesn't bother a meter. Because the creators have kept the film under two hours, the pace is very high in the film and it is precisely because of this that the film has become a wonderful roller coaster ride and the film really should not have lasted any longer. As already mentioned, the end enemy is perhaps the scariest we've seen so far in a Ghostbusters movie, so be a bit careful with too young viewers. For the rest, I wave away the destructive criticisms of some sour plums, because Frozen Empire is a bin of fun that is absolutely worth checking out. And there is an aftercredit below the credits, but you don't have to stay there after that because after that the film is really over.

At first glance, the film seems very interesting and Breathe has a great cast on board to become a good film. Starring, we see Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, she received the prestigious figurine in 2007 for her adjoring role in the film Dreamgirls. Quvenzhané Wallis was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for the film Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2013, even becoming the youngest nominee ever in this category at the age of 9 years and 135 days. In addition, we see Milla Jovovich, who of course we all know from films like Resident Evil and The Fifth Element and for dessert we get Sam Worthington, who played Sully in James Cameron's Avatar- films and also has a laundry list of fine films to his name. There is also a (small) role for rapper Common in the film, which also played roles in John Wick: Chapter 2 and Wanted from 2008. The papers are basically good and the story also sounds very interesting. Still, if you see the trailer, this will probably make you doubt, because that looks rather cheap with the red/orange filter.

And unfortunately the trailer was right, because although the first reviews of this film were not too good and this is perhaps a bit very exaggerated, the film is just not good. Especially Sam Worthington, who plays the role of Lucas, really plays an extremely bad role in this film and he probably only played this role for the money and didn't really feel like it. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson plays mom Maya who is left alone with her daughter Zora (who invents these names by the way) when father Darius disappears without a trace when he wants to bury his father. Hudson does her thing dutifully and doesn't know how to impress or anything like that. Quvenzhané Wallis, who therefore plays the role of Zora, makes a bit of an attempt and perhaps she plays the best role in the film, although we should not exaggerate that either. That remains Milla Jovovich, who plays the role of Tess, who just does her thing and nothing more actually.

The story is put together too simple and you get to see a 'home invasion' movie, where you actually know from the first minute what is going to happen. Not much attempt is made to disguise the course a bit or make it exciting. Here and there the film eventually becomes a bit entertaining when Maya and Tess go out and Lucas and Zora are left alone. In the end, the film will go exactly as you think it will go. The end really makes no sense at all and above all that gives the feeling that the whole fight has been completely for nothing. When Tess and Lucas travel all the way to New York from Philadelphia to watch and get their hands on an oxygen machine, they really had discovered what happened in the end and that gives the film a full stab in the back. Fortunately, the film lasts an hour and a half, but even that still feels like a pure waste of time.

Breathe has unfortunately become what the trailer already suggests, a pure B- film that tries to tear on a few names. Although the story has a lot of potential and sounds very interesting, you eventually get to see a cheap 'home invasion' movie. Here and there the film is still a bit entertaining, but if actually rapper Common puts down one of the best roles with his very small role in the film, you already know enough. How these kinds of films eventually manage to make a cinema internationally is really a mystery, in the past this had ended up directly in the video libraries. Don't be fooled by names like Sam Worthington or Milla Jovovich and don't be tempted at all that the two protagonists have been an Oscar winner and an Oscar nominee, because this film is simply not worth going to a cinema. For the really curious among us, you can wait for the movie to come to a streaming service or so and even then the movie is just not good.

In 1976, the comic called 'Jon' by comic book artist Jim Davis was published locally in the Pendleton Times. The comic was so successful that it was published nationwide under the name Garfield in 1978 and since then the greedy orange cat with a heart of gold has become indispensable. The drawing style was changed in 1984 to a more cartoon--like style as we actually know it well now. In 2002 was one of the most printed comics in the newspaper in 2570 newspapers worldwide with 263 million readers. Now with different animation series and different films we now get to see the second cinema film about the orange hangover. This time voiced by Chris Pratt as Garfield, who of course had a lot of success in recording Mario's voice in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Samuel L. Jackson speaks the voice of Garfield's father Vic and so we can mention a whole bunch of celebrities. In the Dutch version, these are Jim Bakkum and Jörgen Raymann who record the voices of Garfield and his father Vic. Either way, the film promises a lot of fun, fun and action.

With many delays and postponements of the release date, of course due to the pandemic and problems with production, the time has finally come. In a kind of origin--like story telling, we see how a baby Garfield is just left behind by his father Vic. The story actually focuses a lot on that and because of this a main character like Jon is pushed back. When Garfield and his loyal buddy Odie are kidnapped, they end up with the crazy cat Jinx and her two mean service dogs Roland and Nolan. But why is Garfield actually kidnapped out of nowhere? That becomes clear when Vic appears on stage, but of course Garfield doesn't want to know anything about Vic at all. We all understand that leaving Garfield when he was still a kitten had a different reason than that you would think at first glance and that is quite a shame, because it makes the film very predictable for the older viewers. You notice from this that a film like this is really made for an audience under 10 years old, but don't be put off, because apart from that fact, the film is really entertaining for an older audience.

The animation itself is average and nothing more than that. Nowadays it is difficult for most animated films to say anything about it, given that it is most similar in style. Well, well it was not expected in advance that we would get to see an artistic masterpiece, so in that respect the film succeeds in that area with flying colours. The music was a positive point, this was in the hands of composer John Debney and at some points the music was completely reminiscent of the beautiful melancholic sounds that Thomas Newman often makes. In the end, the big picture is crazy fun and you won't be bored for seconds. The humor is good and fun and things like Catflix where Garfield watches cat movies are hilarious. In the end, you have to stay there during the credits for the funny cat movies that continue to play when the credits start rolling.

Garfield has become a successful and funny movie for the whole family. The jokes are fun, the animation is fine and Garfield and Odie get the laughs on their hands very often. Perhaps the predictability of the film could have been a little less, because this actually only makes the film suitable for children up to 10 years old, but well, this is not something you should also care about, because the film is just too fun for that. The animation itself is standard, doesn't excel in anything, but that's fine. The music pops out and from time to time it is reminiscent of a soundtrack that Thomas Newman could have made. Just stay seated at the end credits too because the crazy cat movies that Garfield watches on Catflix make for a last smile on the face.

Director Alex Garland already managed to impress with his films in the past. His debut was Ex Machina in 2014 and actually Netflix production Annihilation and Men were really great movies. Now he comes up with Civil War, an action film with a very interesting concept and a trailer that immediately suggests that this will be a 'must see' film for 2024. In the lead role we find Kirsten Dunst, whom we know of course from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films as M. J.. But Dunst of course made more good films such as Melencholia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in the past and as a child she broke through with Interview with a Vampire in a rather controversial role. Next to her, we see Nick offerman, who recently threw a high eye in the series The Last of Us, but recently also featured in Dumb Money. So it's okay with cast and crew and if you add all the points together, then things can't go wrong with this film.

To immediately fall into the house with the door, this makes you quiet for a while. The trailer is totally misleading and anyone who thinks they are going to a Michael Bay-like action movie will come home from a cold fair. Let it be clear that there is enough violence and action in the film, but this has been translated into the screen in a very disturbing and realistic way. The film is about a civil war that breaks out in the United States of America under the yoke of the president, who is going to hold his third term as a dictator. This is not good for a part of the population and the people are rebelling. The president brings the once-powerful nation to the edge of the abyss, but it's not so important what's happening politically and how the president blindly drives the country into the abyss, but the film actually shows what's happening on the battlefield itself. Garland shows that in a gruesome way, raw, ruthless and above all horrific. The film opens hard, but ripples quietly for the first half hour. Lee is a hardened war photographer, who wants to go to Washington DC with Joel and Sammy to ask the president questions. When they come across the young Jessie, who also wants to be a photographer, Lee doesn't like this at all, but it's Joel and Sammy who still manage to box each other that Jessie can travel to the capital.

From New York, the company leaves for the capital and ends up in the most bizarre situations you can expect in a war zone. At first they come to a pumping station, where armed men are standing. When Jessie goes on a reconnaissance, she comes to a horrific discovery that the men have captured and tortured other people in a car wash terminal. This is actually the first scene where you get a taste of how horrible the rest of the film is. But a message is also issued about how the press works. It is not to be imagined for a normal person that the photographers end up in the most horrific situations and have to be neutral from each side. Without judging, heartbreaking and horror moments are captured on the sensitive record, without the journalists giving a judgment about it. Almost numb and heartless. When Jessie has taken a number of photos in which a soldier is dying, she is told by Lee that it is a beautiful photo and a normal-thinking person will go beyond his mind for a while. Towards the end you end up in total chaos and the film goes completely loose. Tanks are already shooting through the streets of Washington DC, helicopters shoot everything at the debris and soldiers shoot at everything that moves in the streets.

Civil War is a disturbing look at what would happen if a civil war broke loose in a country like the United States of America. Don't be fooled by the trailer, because the film is a raw and serious grim look at the battlefield of a war that torn a country under the yoke of a dictator. In the end, you will be a little baffled and you will have to let the film work on you to judge what you were allowed to see. The circumstances are not important, but what happens among the population does and it also shows the cold side of the work that journalists have to deliver at that moment. It is especially Kirsten Dunst who really knows how to make a lot of impression in the film, but in principle the entire cast actually does. This is actually not really suitable for very sensitive viewers and I'm actually just saying this for those who think that Civil War has become a stupid action film with a lot of flag-waving and heroes, so Civil War is absolutely not.