Sint (2010)

	Also Known As: Saint
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Dick Maas (The Lift, Amsterdamned, Down)
	Actors: Egbert Jan Weeber, Bert Luppes, Caro Lenssen
	Country: NL
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 13.09.2011, cinema St Ex, Strasbourg, SFFF2011
Synopsis: The story of a Santa Claus that comes back every 42 years to terrorize and murder the good people of Amsterdam.
Review: Dick Maas is known to do everything in his movies: directing, editing, music. The movie was sold as a slasher, and indeed contains some murder scenes, but doesn't follow all the rules of the genre, in particular there are no teenagers smoking pot (in Amsterdam!) and screwing around. I would qualify the movie as average, especially because the motivation of the characters is not very strong, not even at the end which is quite disappointing. I have later on watched Rare Exports, Finish movie released one year before with a similar topic (nasty Santa), and found it much better.
Rating: 4 /10

Häxan (1922)

	Also Known As: Witchcraft through the ages
	Year of first release: 1922
	Director: Benjamin Christensen
	Actors: Benjamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Maren Pedersen
	Country: S, DK
	Genre: Documentary, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 13.09.2011, cinema St Ex, Strasbourg, SFFF2011, with original live music by Matti Bye.
Synopsis: A cult documentary about witchcraft through the ages.
Review: I first heard about this movie only recently, when it was edited in a restored version on a french DVD. Mute Dano-Swedisch production from 1922, it has acquired the status of cult movie. Composed of 7 chapters, only the 1st one qualifies as “through the ages”. The other actually tell how witchcraft was perceived in the Middle-Age. My favorite was the second segment, describing one day in the life of a witch, and including some special effects I found great for the time ; the kind that would actually be used until the 60's or 70's! The text panels are usually very descriptive, and sometimes contain some humor. The movie is a bit long towards the end, but I liked the way the story was told and illustrated. An important part of the projection was the music: The FFFS had invited a Swedish composer specialized in writing music for mute movies. His music (piano, but also some electronic sounds and voices, all performed live) brought a lot to the different chapters in the story, and helped “stay awake”, which is not always easy when watching movies of this period.
Rating: 8/10, 6/10 in DVD = without live soundtrack

Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Alex Stapleton
	Actors: Roger Corman, Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 13.09.2011, cinema St Ex, Strasbourg, SFFF2011
Synopsis: The life and work of Roger Corman, godfather of independant cinema.
Review: I knew about the name of Roger Corman since years of reading teh magazine Mad Movies, and I knew he has been director or producer of B movies for decades. This documentary provided the information to fill in the gaps. In particular I didn't know that it is him who gave their first jobs to Martin Scorcese (Taxi Driver), Joe Dante (Gremlins, Piranha), Ron Howard (Appolo 13) and Jack Nicholson, who all appear throughout the documentary to deliver some amazing anecdotes about the man. Between the interviews are interlaced extracts from some of his 385 movies to date! An excellent documentary about the godfather of independent cinema: informative, funny and sometimes touching.
Rating: 8 /10

Red State (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Kevin Smith (Clercks 1&2, Dogma)
	Actors: Michael Parks (Kill Bill 1-2), John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Melissa Leo
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Black comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 12.09.2011, cinema St Ex, Strasbourg, SFFF2011
Synopsis: This is the story of a group of religious fanatics led by a charismatic man (Parks), and their interaction with their surroundings, until confrontation with the police and FBI led by the John Goodman character.
Review: Quite different from the previous of Kevin Smith's work. As in all of Smith's movies people talk a lot in this one and the dialogs, crude as usual, are delightful, but it doesn't contain the usual load of movie references, or any apparition from Jay and Silent Bob. The screenplay is rather good, and the events are quite unpredictable. He doesn't hesitate to criticize either the fanatics or the police force, until the very ending. One can see that Smith is new to this kind of movie, but he is quite successful at managing action or drama scenes, although there are some lengthy scenes. Kevin Smith didn't disappoint me with this one. Interesting fact: He gave the finger to the big distributing groups and choose to buy the film and distribute it with his own money!
Rating: 8 /10

Super (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: James Gunn (Tromeo and Juliet, Slither)
	Actors: Rainn Wilson (Transformers 2), Ellen Page (Inception, X-men 3), Liv Tyler (Armageddon), Kevin Bacon (Friday 13th, Hollow Man, Stir of Echoes), Michael Rooker (Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 11.09.2011, cinema St Ex, Strasbourg, SFFF2011
Synopsis: A regular man (Wilson) becomes a vigilante after his wife (Tyler) leaves him.
Review: The comparison with Kick-Ass cannot be avoided. The movies are different, but follow a similar storyline. In fact I think they could be 2 visions from 2 different directors around the free theme: “regular people becoming Super heroes in the real world”.The main difference is the motivation of the character: while Kick-Ass is a comics fan and finds it a good idea to become a super hero (partly to get chicks), the Crimson Bolt from Super has a more noble motivation: getting back his wife who left for another man (Kevin Bacon, good to see him back since Hollow Man and Death Sentence), and in the mean time fight crime as Jesus told him to (!) in some grotesque visions, with the help of a violent and energetic side-kick.The central character is touching in his weaknesses, and his Super alter ego reminds me of Batman in the way that he could be considered as lunatic and violent as the criminals he fights. The movie is cut in long shots that help you identify with the hero. In general it is a good movie that never diverges from its morale “crime is bad”, along with some crude and dark humor.
Rating: 7 /10

The Sound of Music (1965)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1965
	Director: Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, The Sand Pebbles)
	Actors: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins, Shrek 2), Christopher Plummer (Starcrash, 9, Up, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Eleanor Parker
	Country: USA
	Genre: Music, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 23.02.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: At the end of the 1930's in Austria, an atypical nun-to-be is sent to a family of seven children and their father, a former soldier.
Review: Yes this is a cheesy 50-years old Musical that lasts 3 hours. But I was captivated by it! Some songs might tingle your ears but I found the whole movie to be beautifully choregraphed, so that I didn't have the impression (usual with Musicals) that the actors just tell you the story in songs. The movie is outrageously full of good feelings, but at times you emerge from this dream together with the characters of the movie, and get reminded of the political context: Austria was about to be annexed by the Nazis and the familty father, as soldier as he is, doesn't approve of it. Add to this the magnificent Blu-ray copy of the movie (transfered from the unusal 65 mm film format). Alpin landscapes in the first ten minutes and thoughout the movie are breathtaking, and make me long for the spring days when I will be able to hike those landcapes myself!
Rating: 9 /10

La Jetée (1962)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1962
	Director: Chris Marker (Sans Soleil)
	Actors: Étienne Becker, Jean Négroni, Hélène Chatelain
	Country: F
	Genre: Drama, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 23.02.2013, DVD, Home cinema, English narration
Synopsis: After a nuclear World War 3, survivors in the Paris underground send human guinea pigs back and forth in time.
Review: What is this film?? It is the first question you can ask when seing it, and also the one asked in the short documentary on the DVD. The best fitting answer to me is: a piece of Art. Chris Marker was indeed a photographer and artist. The short film is composed for 99.5% of still black and white photographs plus the blink of an eye, accompanied by a narrator's voice and some sound effects. Within less than 30 minutes, this experimentation is unique and can make you think for a while. No wonder it inspired Terry Gilliam for his Twelve Monkeys. Other movies that may have been inspired by it: Deja Vu and Source Code. But it is diffcult to get involved in it like you are in a movie. I think it requires several viewings and my rating (difficult thing to do on this film) might evolve with time. The available DVD copy I have only had English narration, the images were shaking and the sound could have been better especially when there are some very faint voices speaking German... Let's hope for a future proper edition.  I will probably soon watch the second movie by Chris Marker on this DVD double pack: Sans Soleil.
Rating: 7 /10

Battleship (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Peter Berg (Hancock)
	Actors: Taylor Kitsch (Snakes on a Plane, John Carter), Rihanna, Liam Neeson (Batman Begins, Star Wars 1, Schindler's List), Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, War
	Conditions of visioning: 21.02.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: An alien species responds to our message to the stars by landing in the Pacific ocean. A few battleships are around to fight it.
Review: Not as bad as I thought it would be. Very nice special effects and massive destruction of cities and ships in this cross-over between Pearl Harbor and Transformers. It is funny that a 2-hour movie was inspired by the simple game of the same name (Bataille Navale in French). What they kept from it is the shape of the enemy bombs and a 10-minute scene of hit and miss in the dark, trying to guess where the enemies lie on a grid. One should watch the movie without taking it seriously, otherwise you would be chocked by the ridiculousness of some scenes and the caricatural characters.
Rating: 6 /10

Down for the Count: Death in Tarantino movies

Here is a funny infographic display of how Quentin Tarantino likes to kill the characters in his moves.

Source: Daily Infographic.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: Ron Howard (Apollo 13)
	Actors: Tom Hanks (Cast Away, Forrest Gump), Audrey Tautou (Amélie), Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings 1-3, X-men 1-3), Jean Reno (Godzilla, Nikita)
	Country: USA, M, F, GB
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 19.02.2013, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: The director of the Louvres museum in Paris is killed and left with symbols on his body. A hystorian (Hanks) and a cryptologist (Tautou) team up to solve this crime and a much greater mystery.
Review: The movie is better than I expected. It is well adapted from the same-name novel by Dan Brown, which was a best-seller because it was easy to read and presented history in a way that talked to everybody, even though the facts were altered to fit the story. None of Hanks, Tautou or Reno overplay like they can usually be said to do. The movie is a bit less attractive when you know the story already. Also on the negative side some ellipses are not justified, so that the story is hard to believe sometimes. It was probably necessary to remove details from the book to fit the length of 2h20, already quite long. VOD was the right format for this film I didn't want to buy, although a bit dark for a movie that takes place mostly at night. I will watch its sequel Angels&Demons in the same format
Rating: 6 /10

Fantasy Filmfest Nights 2013

So as not to wait a full year for another edition of the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany, the organizers have planned those so-called Fantasy Filmfest Nights which take place half a year after the main festival, actually last for two days and introduce 10 movies.
This year's edition in Munich will take place on March 9-10, and here are my recommendations on what to watch.

Mindhunters (2004)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea)
	Actors: Val Kilmer (The Saint, Heat, Twixt), LL Cool J (Deep Blue Sea, Charlie's Angels), Christian Slater (Broken Arrow)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 16.02.2013, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: A group of FBI profilers in training are sent to a deserted island for their final test.
Review: It was an interesting idea to isolate several profilers againt a sociopath, but unfortunately it was not fully exploited. The profilers don't use their brains until the end of the movie. Meanwhile we just watch a series of meticulously prepared murders like in Saw, while the profilers spend their time accusing each other of beeing the killer. The movie is still OK to watch for some surprises and original deaths.
Rating: 5 /10

Best of cinema by Mad Movies. Part 2: 2002-2005

Every year my favorite magazine for action/horror/thriller/SF (Mad Movies) publishes the list of the best movies of the previous year (and the worst ones), according to its editors and an average for the whole magazine team.
I have gathered them for your here with a few comments. Enjoy!
All parts of this article can be found under this link.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Bicentennial Man, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)
	Actors:  Logan Lerman (3:10 to Yuma), Kevin McKidd, Steve Coogan, Alexandra Daddario, Pierce Brosnan (Goldeneye), Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings 1-3), Uma Thurman (Kill Bill)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 14.02.2013, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Zeus (Bean) was stolen his lightning bolt. He believes the culprit is the son of Poseidon (Lerman), a kid that doesn't know his powers.
Review: I had hopes for originality when watching the first 20 minutes, but then they vanished. Why not creating this world in which Olympian Gods exit as well as Centaurs and other mythical creatures. But I kept wondering: why is there a camp for demi-gods so close to the hero's house, and why do all Gods and creatures reside in the USA, so that the heroes have to take on a road trip?? The worst: the hero's mother has been living for 16 years with a disgusting unrespectful fat bald guy becuse his smell hides the demi-god's scent!?! Maybe I should have taken the movie less seriously. It is funny to get a glimpse of many known faces (Bean, Thurman, Brosnan, Rosario Dawson) but they don't bring much to the story. A funny idea: the entrance to Hades' Kingdom (Hell) is located in Hollywood The actors are not convincing, the decisions they take come out of the blue, and the special effects are approximative. However you don't have time to get bored and easily go through the two hours of the movie, partly thanks to the various monsters encountered.
Rating: 4 /10

Ben-Hur (1959)

	Also Known As: Ben-Hur: A story of Christ
	Year of first release: 1959
	Director: William Wyler
	Actors: Charlton Heston (Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green), Jack Hawkins (Zulu, The Bridge on the River Kwai), Stephen Boyd
	Country: USA
	Genre: Epic, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 03.02.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: We follow the life of Judah Ben-Hur (Heston), a Jew born in the Roman-occupied Judea the same year as the Christ.
Review: I had seen the movie on TV several times in my youth and didn't remember it was lasting four hours. But it doesn't feel like them. The story is slow but so epic that you don't get bored. A classic american epic to put on your shelf next to The Ten Commandments, Cleopatra, Gone with the Wind, The Searchers or Dr Jhivago. Charlton Heston's acting is excellent and we fell very involved following him though all the drama he encounters. I found that the most interesting in this movie is the original point of view with which the story of Christ is told. His path crosses the one of Ben-Hur and his family at some critical points in his life, but the movie is not at all what it would be if it was depicting only the life of Christ. This Blu-ray edition is not as good as I read it was on the internet, but it is maybe because the lamp from my projector needs to be replaced. The chariot race at the end is anyway an incredible piece of filmmaking, even after 50 years.
Rating: 7 /10

Teppanyaki (1984)

	Also Known As: Tie ban shao (original), Une Belle Brochette (French)
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: Michael Hui (Chicken and Duck Talk)
	Actors: Michael Hui, Hoi-Pang Lo, Biu Law Che
	Country: HK
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 10.02.2013, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Johnny (Hui) is mistreated by his wife and her father, who is also the owner of the restaurant where he works. He dreams of another woman, another life and of sandy beaches.
Review: I discovered the cinema from Michael Hui in 2011 during a retrospective on asian comedies at the Far East Film Festival in Udine. There I saw the pretty funny Chicken and Duck Talk, and heard a lot of good of The Private Eye and Games Gamblers Play. I was especially surprised to discover that the comedies made in Hong-Kong in the 80's were of the same level as the ones from Europe. I mean don't look for anything profound, but more slapstick humour. This Teppanyaki is not so good, in particular less original than Chicken and Duck Talk for example. But it is still OK to watch and not too long, and contains some funny bits. As often in asian movies, the conclusion surprises. Note that Teppanyaki is the name of the hot metal plate on which the chef cooks in front of you in some asian restaurants.
Rating: 4 /10

Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (2012)

After completing his two mandates as governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger covers in this autobiograpy all his life with apparently a total honesty.

Love Exposure (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Sono Sion (Exte - Hair Extensions, Cold Fish, Guilty of Romance)
	Actors:  Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima (Death Note), Sakura Andô, Makiko Watanabe (Zebraman), Atsurô Watabe
	Country: J
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 05-06.02.2013, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Yu (Nishijima), 17-years old, is living alone with his father (Watabe), a Catholic priest. Both their lives will change with the arival of Kaori (Watanabe), in particular pushing the young boy to master the fine Japanese art of Tosatsu, or upskirt photography...
Review: Some friends including my co-blogger have seen this movie during a sunny afternoon at the Udine Far East Film Festival back in 2009. I didn't want to go see a 4-hour Japanese movie but rather enjoyed the Italian spring sun. Since then, they didn't stop telling me how good the film was and not feeling its four hours. I bought the DVD some time ago and finally watched it. Now I understand what they meant. The film is indeed a great experience to watch and is not plagued by slow rythm, repetitions and bad acting like are often the Japanese productions. Instead you can't stop watching the movie as you want to know what will happen next to this lost young boy as he goes through more and more bizarre situations without loosing his cool and forgetting his objective to find Love. To give you a feeling of the spirit of the movie, in the boy's head finding Love means finding his Maria (referring to a statue of the Virgin Mary his mother gave him) and is equivalent to photographing panties that will give him his first hard-on! Not feeling the length of the movie is helped by the use in the soundtrack of repetitive music like Ravel's Bolero, Beethoven's 7th Symphony or another original rythmic song. I found very funny that his hobby of upskirt photograpy is treated like if it was any other serious one (sports, litterature...). The boy puts all his heart to it and is helped by a master that applies Kung-Fu techniques to Tosatsu. The humour there is close to the one in the City Hunter manga (Nicky Larson in French) and I guess many others that I don't know. The particularly brillant filmmaking in the first two hours slows down afterweard as more dramatic themes are tackled, but the overall movie is well wrapped. Sono Sion is definitely a director I want to see more from, starting with the two other movies in his "Hate" trilogy: Cold Fish and Guilty of Romance.
Rating: 7 /10

"Contrechamp" on Lemonde.fr

I have recently discovered this bimonthly series of 2-minute videos published on the website of the french newspaper Le Monde (only available in French language, sorry).
The title of the series is Contrechamp (Reverse shot) and its description is as follows:
"Shooting techniques, hidden references, forgotten trends... every two weeks, "Contrechamp" focuses on those small tricks that make great cinema."
The first episode that you can find below is about the famous Wilhelm scream, and you can find all episodes on the website of Le Monde:
http://www.lemonde.fr/culture/video/2012/10/24/contrechamp-episode-1-le-cri-de-wilhelm_1779855_3246.html

Battle Los Angeles (2011)

	Also Known As: World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Jonathan Liebesman (Wrath of the Titans)
	Actors: Aaron Eckard (Thank you for Smoking, The Dark Knight, Paycheck), Michele Rodriguez (Avatar, Machete), Bridget Moynahan (I Robot, Lord of War)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, War
	Conditions of visioning: 01.02.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A military instructor (Eckard) is about to retire when a meteor shower off the coasts of Los Angeles turns out to be an Alien invasion.
Review: For some reason I love this movie and don't agree with the comments I heard that it is exaggeratedly pro-army. For me it is maybe the best Alien invasion movie, as good as District 9 in a different approach, and depicting the military in the same way that I liked in Black Hawk Down. Nothing to do with Independance Day or Transformers! And it cannot be compared with the excellent comedy Mars Attacks!. The aliens are slowly revealed but never steal the show, more focused on the bravery of a small unit of freedom fighters. The usual pro-american proaganada is avoided and I don't think I saw one obviously big flag in the movie. The storyline is quite unpredictable which is also appreciable. And what an ending! I had to watch Avatar just after to keep the same level or action, SFX and heroism. I would have put a higher ranking but there are cheesy parts when the guys try too hard to save civilians, represented by the soft Bridget Moynahan.
Rating: 8 /10

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath (both on Madagascar 1-2), Conrad Vernon
	Actors (voices):  Ben Stiller (Zoolander), Jada Pinkett Smith (Matrix 2-3), Chris Rock (Dogma), David Schwimmer (Friends TV-series), Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 31.01.2013, Air France in-flight Entertainment system
Synopsis: The pinguins left the rest of the band stranded in Africa. Those ones decide to find them in order to go back to their beloved New-York.
Review: Nothing revolutionary in this movie, basically the third episode of a franchise for kids, without the second degree of lecture (for adults) that I appreciate in the Pixal movies. Anyway, action and gags follow one another without much logic but who cares, and there is this great idea of involving the odd bunch of animals in a circus in the second half of the movie, which makes up for the defects. Quite OK to watch if you have two hours to spare and don't want to use your brain.
Rating: 6 /10

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Lorene Scafaria
	Actors:  Steve Carell (Evan Almighty, The 40-year-old Virgin), Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3), Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 17.01.2013, Air France in-flight Entertainment system
Synopsis: While a meteor is about the destroy all life on Earth, Dodge (Carell) whose wife recently left will team-up with the strange girl Penny (Knighley) to reach their destination.
Review: The background story is set in the first minute of the movie: everybody will die in 10 days. People started to expect it, and we see how they choose to live it, from the most organized to desperate to wild solutions. In the middle of it, Dodge and Penny try to reach family. The chaos and people's behavior is sometimes very funny to watch (the best part in this movie), and the character of Dodge is touching. The relationship between Dodge and Penny slowly grows, but I was dissapointed by how it ends. A better movie than what I expcted anyway.
Rating: 5 /10