Disclaimer: there are people who don’t like Ben Stiller. I was one of there for a while. Then I finally had the recklessness to watch Zoolander, and laughing out loud was an activity again connected to Ben Stiller. Motivated by the Zoolander experience, Kerstin and I watched this years Starsky&Hutch remake in which the good looking, funky nosed Owen Wilson is the second main actor. If you like this team, and perhaps even have a weak spot for The Snoop Dogg, you will enjoy this movie. However, if you like retro 70ies style you are in for a special treat. Both the photography and the outfittings of this movie produced some subtle and not-so-subtle flashbacks for Kerstin and me. If you are going to watch this movie keep an eye on the way people run – there is a specific 70ies thing about the way people were running in movies made back then: jackets are flapping and flying around them, arms are flailing wildy and the bespectacled faces are anything but cool. Plain fun.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Archive for the ‘review’ Category
Running the 70ies.
Tuesday, April 27th, 2004Independent US-style.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2004A while ago I saw Pieces of April in the Blow Up here in Berlin. (I haven’t been in this movie theater since ages – the last time I’ve been there must have been in the late nineties – the backyard is totally renovated, there is a whole big apartment building that I did not know, and the popcorn contained to many unpopped corns.) This movie seems to try to be a mix of dogma style cinema and sit-coms. It works pretty well though. Casting and characters are convincing (perhaps with the exception of Beth the perfect daughter and Wayne the neighbor with the perfect stove) and I liked the way their small stories were told. Perhaps there was a bit of Wayne Wang in this movie too, although this does not really compare to Smoke or Blue in the Face. You might want to watch this movie – it was better than expected.
IMDb entry | trailer
Another nominee.
Monday, March 22nd, 2004We were not really thorough in our preparation for this year’s Academy Awards – partly by choice, partly because not all nominated movies had been shown in Germany yet, and partly caused by lack of financial and temporal resources. For Seabiscuit both reasons number one and three are applicable. Nonetheless, we got it on DVD a few days ago, and proceeded to watch it without much hesitation. It was a nice enough experience. Some US American Pathos (including a interesting bow to Keynesian political economy), some typical sports movie features, but mostly a good story with really excellent actors. Tobey Maguire probably is my favorite youngish actor, while Chris Cooper has the incredible talent to play even very diverse and totally different characters in the most convincing manner. The screenplay is good and it seemed to refrain from overdramatizing the ‘true story’ of the horse Seabiscuit. It was a relief that they did not introduce some unhappy love affair or chilling crime story elements to pep up the story.
IMDb entry | Trailer
Flatterhemden und Absinth.
Tuesday, March 16th, 2004Und junge Menschen, wie sie sich zwanzig- bis Mitte dreißig Jährige mit einem Faible für die ja so aufregenden späten zwanziger Jahre wünschen. Gute Darsteller, ein ordentliches Drehbuch und auch einige schöne Bilder halten das, was Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken verspricht. Mich haut die Geschichte, die in diesem Film erzählt wird, ja nicht so vom Hocker, aber was soll’s…
Nur eine Sache hab ich wirklich zu bemäkeln: Immer sind die Hanse in der Welt der zwanziger Jahre holzschnittartig charakterisierte, flache Charaktere, deren Aufgabe es ist ungebrochen, roh aber doch schön und kraftvoll zu sein. Ansonsten aber sind sie zum Einschlafen. Das finde ich blöd und langweilig. Einen Link zum Trailer gibt’s trotzdem.
New entries in the pipeline.
Saturday, March 13th, 2004During the next days you’ll read about at least two movies which I have seen recently: Kitchen Stories (a.k.a. Salmer fra kjøkkenet) and Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken.
I’ve been to Darmstadt for a few days this week and I borrowed one of the college’s microphones – they are of a pretty high quality and I already re-recorded the German summary of my diploma thesis about the Potsdamer Platz. The mp3 file is embedded in the starting page of my thesis. I plan to record more stuff during the next week and put it online as additional content.
We were not the only ones.
Wednesday, February 25th, 2004This sunday Florian, Kerstin, and yours truly watched Cold Mountain. Why? Because it is nominated for several Oscars. Does that guarantee a good movie. No. I might not have gone to see it were it not for the cool evil albino bounty hunter type you can see in the trailer. Not going would have been the better decision. Bad script. Very bad script. With the exception of the battle in the first quarter of the movie, everything else was not at all intriguing. Formally nothing interesting and content-wise sometimes horrifying. People started to laugh during the closing scenes and when the main protagonists had their first (and only) erotic scene.
It’s shocking. So what?
Sunday, February 22nd, 2004I wrote that I would write a review of Baise Moi which I saw a while ago. Well, my judgement hasn’t changed much since I saw the movie; I still don’t see much worthwile in this movie. The big thing about this movie supposedly lies in the fact that the sex/rape scenes are ‘real,’ i.e. the sex scenes are performed by actors and you can see them fuck and rape as you would in a porn movie. So what differentiates this movie from a violence oriented porn movie? My experiences with that genre are somewhat slim (which I don’t mind), but I wonder if the differences are that big. Otherwise, several scenes in this movie are ugly and cause physical discomfort for me (and the uglyness and causing of physical discomfort does not depend on the fact that the violent sex has really been performed. I also feel discomfort when watching the ‘fake’ shooting and non-sexual violence in this movie.) At the same time, I don’t feel very enlightended or shocked in a productive way – I just feel bad after watching this movie. The only positive effect that I can discern is that watching these kinds of movies makes me want things like this not to happen. Perhaps this is good enough. And perhaps you want to see the trailer.
Avoiding the easy.
Saturday, February 21st, 2004Mystic River is another movie directed by Clint Eastwood which features un-heroic heroes (Unforgiven, my favorite movie directed by Eastwood is another fine example). These movie are good because they work in a way that is – sometimes disconcertingly so – different from other movies. They are more ambiguous in their morals. Usually I can understand why the characters act the way they do, but it is hard to judge for me if what they did is actually right or not. That is why I left the movie theater after watching Mystic River, and now find myself returning to the movie more often than I do with other movies, even other movies that I found otherwise better – this is a big compliment, I think, and it is true for all the movies directed by Clint Eastwood that I have seen so far.
A new generation?
Friday, February 20th, 2004Two weeks ago Kerstin and I went to the movies to watch Lost in Translation. Of course, we have seen the Golden Globe Awards before, and we met a ton of people who recommended the film. The honors are justified. I will only focus on two things: face the one real challenge I have encountered regarding the quality of this movie and tell you why I think and hope that Lost in Translation might mark the beginning of a new generation in Hollywood film making.
The challenge: this movie is presenting an overly stereotypical and one-dimensional perspective on contemporary Japan. There are quite a lot of scenes in this movie on which this critique can be built, for example the karaoke scene, the cartoonish talk show episode, and perhaps even the meeting in the decadent table dance location. However, I would argue that this movie focuses on the particular experience of two US-Americans in Japan; what is displayed is their view on this culture. It is their perspective which is, of course, not free from stereotypes. Furthermore, the heroine (most beautifully imperfect: Scarlett Johansson) gets into two quiet encounters with Japanese culture. One is the visit two the Shinto temple during the beginning of the movie, the other is her trip (by train – yeah!) to Kyoto where she wanders through a park.
The hope: Sofia Coppola evades two traps into which many Hollywood movies have fallen. She neither goes for the boring (though still sometimes nice and somewhat charming) romantic comedy scheme with which the average movie theater customer is bombarded during the period from September until March – happy ends might make you smile, but they also tend to leave a somewhat bland taste: you don’t really believe (in) them… Nor does she dance the postmodern cinema dance, only offering episodes and clips of people’s paths crossing each for some unknown reason and fading away, probably with some sex and bloodshed happening at the crossroads to prep up the story and generate spectacular movie trailers. Instead, Sofia Coppola offers a toned down, plausible and still extraordinarily attractive, humorous and intriguing story about two people who meet each other under circumstances not under their control. Both trying to make something of the time they have, not really succeeding, but trying very hard; falling in love, being torn, but still not doing things I would not believe someone in their position would at least try to do. I do really hope that the better US cinema of the coming years takes this as an example, trying to create beautiful, intimate, and believable stories which still seem to have something to do with everyday experiences of (ok, in this case it is certainly not lower class) people in the western or northern hemisphere.
Check out the trailer.
Laughing ladies.
Saturday, January 24th, 2004This wednesday Calendar Girls was the evening’s entertainment. The movie was presented in one of the larger show rooms in Darmstadt’s Helia movie theater (no. 2). The room was not exactly crowded, but there was a decent number of people present. As we figured out quite soon, the largest part of these people were women of the age 35+. Tending to be a bit more of the ripe side of life so to speak. They obviously really liked to movie – several times they burst out into what might be called an impressively decibel rich kind of laughter. Lars and I (and no, I am not schizophrenic) also liked the movie. However, there were a few formal and content-related weaknesses. The speech of the two main protagonists in front of the WI‘s main assembly was not at all convincing and a few other scenes were not plausible and/or aesthetically rich enough to make this movie a completely smooth experience. It does not come very close to movies such as Brassed Off (IMDb) or Billy Elliot (IMDb).
Take a look at the trailer, if you want to get an impression yourself.
Frankfurt/Oder und siebzehn Hippies.
Sunday, January 18th, 2004Endlich, lange Zeit nachdem der Film in den Kinos lief, habe ich Halbe Treppe gesehen. Der Film ist zu einem großen Teil aus improvisierten Szenen zusammengeschnitten, die Akteure haben sich lange Zeit mit dem Milieu vertraut gemacht und der Imbiß auf der halben Treppe existiert tatsächlich – all diese Aspekte, zusammen mit einer guten Kamera und hervorragenden Darstellen (wie dem großartigen Axel Prahl) verleihen dem Film eine besondere Kraft und Authentizität. Der Film ist zwar nicht sooo unglaublich super, wie ich nach all den Empfehlungen erwartet hätte, aber er ist immer noch unbedingt sehenswert. Die 17 Hippies tragen natürlich das Ihrige zu der außergewöhnlichen Atmosphäre des Films bei. Die DVD ist sehr gut produziert und beinhaltet viele interessante und gut gemachte Extras.
Big cast. Good cast.
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003It took a while but yesterday Kerstin and I saw Love Actually. After being bombarded with trailers for the last couple of weeks or even months it seemed inevitable not to go and watch this movie. Also, I really like many of the actors: Heike Makatsch was fun even in the olden days, Keira Knightley is quite thin but also quite charming, Colin Firth fit his character very well, and Alan Rickman is one of my all time favorite actors; even when he is not playing a bad guy such as the sheriff of Notthingham in Robin Hood – The Prince of Thieves. Ah, the sheriff’s death scene. One of the best deaths in film history… *ehem* back to topic
Not every one of the storylines ends happily, which I liked, and there are still enough happy endings and funny moments to make this movie be a worthwile pre-winter entertainment. And I love to listen to Portuguese.
People say they don’t like animated movies.
Thursday, November 27th, 2003But when you take them along to watch Antz or, as I did last weekend, Finding Nemo, they like it nonetheless. Is this because they were erring on their preferences? I don’t think so. I think it is because these movies are really nice, even though they are co-produced by Disney. Finding Nemo has a rating of 8.3/10 at IMDb. This is a very high rating, and many better movies have a lower rating there, but it still speaks for the movie, which is really funny and quite wonderfully animated. The trailers do not show the best animations, they seem to focus on the funny shots. The story is perhaps not as good as the Woody Allenesque story in Antz, but it still works if you’re not too opposed to somewhat cheesy father-son relationship stories. The German dubbing was nice, though I would still like to see it with the original voices to be able to compare it (being a nosy ‘I don’t like dubbed movies’ kind of person wanting to distinguish himself from mere mortals).
Scandinavian camera and British story telling in L.A.
Friday, November 21st, 2003I am getting accustomed to small movie theater screens again. Every time I go to see a movie in the Helia here in Darmstadt, I sit in the same theater, number six. It is small and uncomfortable, and, what is much worse, Marc and I accidentally toppled our popcorn bag very early in the beginning. Talk about leaving the seat blushing because of the sea of popcorn that surrounds you…
However, there are more exciting things to report: Thirteen is a very good movie. Story, camera, setting and acting are all very good. It might be described as a teenager/high school movie photographed in a Dogma-ish way, portraying a lower class social milieu in a new British movie style and set in Los Angeles. It has some very funny moments (especially the chicken scene), several sad/moving moments, and a lot of fast paced story telling to offer. The ending was better than I thought, too. Check out the trailer.
Mehrwert zum Buch.
Monday, November 10th, 2003Gestern Herr Lehmann im Kino geschaut. Der Film hält sich sehr nah an die Romanvorlage. Die Umsetzung ist gelungen. Wenn ich mir Herrn Lehmann auch nicht wie Christian Ulmen vorgestellt hätte, finde ich doch, dass er die Rolle gut spielt. Zu Beginn des Filmes hab ich mich mehrfach daran gestört, dass die Dialoge und das Spielen der DarstellerInnen manchmal sehr theaterhaft waren – nach einer Weile ist mir das jedoch nicht mehr negativ aufgefallen. Der schöne Leander ist halt ein Theatermann und das hat auch seine guten Seiten. (Wenn mir im Augenblick auch nicht einfällt, welche eigentlich. Aber man sdarf ja nicht schlecht über’s Theater schreiben.)
Sigourney and the slime.
Sunday, November 9th, 2003I have not noticed anything new in the Director’s Cut of Alien, but it still has been worthwile to watch it. It has been the first time that I have seen this classic movie in a theater and I have to emphasize that this is the proper way to watch it. Check out these featured clips at apple.com.
Marc says: the music is good.
Sunday, November 2nd, 2003There won’t be much debate about the soundtrack of Kill Bill. Even though it is unlikely that it will have as big an impact on party dance music as Pulp Fiction had, the soundtrack is very nice too (and in style similar to Pulp Fiction). Then, there is Uma Thurman, who is a good actor and, of course, extremely good-looking. The rest is more controversial: the amount of spilling of blood and cutting off of limbs in this movie is huge, and I am not sure that this actually pleases me. Some of the fighting scenes are somewhat close to Hero in the way they use color – but in my opinion Hero‘s aesthetics beat those of Tarantino’s movies by several leagues. What remains is a typical Tarantino product with some extra blood and a stylish Lucy Liu. Ah, almost forgot: you will find yourself reminded of Hable con ella in the beginning of the movie. Never knew that Tarantino is an Almodovar fan…
Entertainment and french cooking.
Thursday, October 23rd, 2003Yesterday Kerstin and I went to see Jet Lag (original title: Décalage horaire) starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. One thing is remarkable about this movie: Jean Reno probably has the tiredest look I have ever seen in cinema yet. And it is nice to see how he and Juliette Binoche’s character’s looks change over the course of the movie. Both actors are, of course, grand. The story is nice enough and explicitly Hollywood-style, so one knows what to expect. These hopes won’t be disappointed – if you are looking for a nice french/american movie with good actors and some well-done (heh) cooking and eating scenes, this is to be recommended. (Check out the Trailer.)
Fussball und Familie.
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2003Am vergangenen Donnerstag waren wir im Wunder von Bern – der Film schien dem ungewöhnlich gemischten Publikum in der Kulturbrauerei gut gefallen zu haben (mehr Familien und ältere/echt erwachsene Menschen als sonst in der 20:15 Uhr Vorstellung). Die Schauspieler machen ihre Sache gut bis sehr gut, die Mischung aus Sport- und Kriegsheimkehrergeschichte funktioniert auch, Kulisse und Ausstattung sind nett, es wird in angemessenem Maße auf die Tränendrüse gedrückt und sportliche Spannung gibt es auch. Insgesamt ein Film, den man nicht gesehen haben muss, der aber auch ohne weitere Bedenken von nicht-Fussballfans und nicht-Männern angeschaut werden kann.
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