Agent Carter - Season 1 (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Creators: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
	Actors: Hayley Atwell (Captain America: The First Avenger), James D'Arcy, Enver Gjokaj
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 20-22.07.2017, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: After WWII and having lost the love of her life Steve Rogers (a.k.a. Captain America), Peggy Carter (Atwell) is working in the newly founded SSR secret organization, but is only given tasks seeming fit to a woman at that time. That is until Howard Stark asks for her help.
Review: I was not too keen on watching yet another series taking place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after already seeing the three seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the two of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. But after re-watching the first Captain America, it seemed logic to watch this one, and it turned out that the first season only contains eight episodes so that was also quickly done. If you remember Peggy Carter from the movie, you will recall she was a strong character, and in fact most of that first season revolves around her leading her own investigation to clear the name of Howard Stark (famous father of Tony "Iron Man" Stark), hidden from her male colleagues who consider her just worthy enough to take lunch orders and bring coffee. But besides that lies a story that is loosely connected to the rest of the Marvel Universe, mostly because it takes place 60 years before the rest. Howard Stark is at the heart of the story and that's our main connection because we always tend to identify him with his son (they have in fact very similar characters). Another potential interest of the movie is that it takes place in the 40-50's, which gives it a specific look, but makes it also probably more costly and this translates into a lot of dialogs shot indoors. So this interest is also a limitation for the show: there is not too much extra-ordinary action to be shown. I was indeed not particularly impressed by the Action in this series, but what I liked most were the subtle connections to the future Universe, placed there for the fan to see: a quick encounter with a man named Vanko, collaborator of Stark (watch again Iron Man 2), Stark's butler named Jarvis like Tony's A.I. (which influence did he have on him growing up?), the growing secrecy in the SSR organization that will evolve into S.H.I.E.L.D. (thanks to Peggy), trying to find out who is gonna be Peggy's husband (we know that from the second Captain America: the Winter Soldier), and a cameo at the very end by Professor Zola (from the first Captain America). This first season was short enough to be easy to watch. I will likely continue with the second of ten episodes. The show was cancelled after that. I hope it will bring some kind of conclusion at least.
Rating: 5 /10

Iron Man (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Jon Favreau (Elf, The Jungle Book)
	Actors:  Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), Gwyneth Paltrow (Sliding Doors, Shallow Hal), Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, Tron 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 21.07.2017, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Billionaire weapon manufacturer Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) is kidnapped and nearly killed while on a trip to Afghanistan. He uses his genius to escape, and this gives him the idea for a new direction in his life.
Review: It is interesting to watch after nine years the first movie made in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and to notice that the codes were already established then and haven't changed much. Downey Jr. looks younger, and the high-tech then looks more realistic than what they show nowadays in Age of Ultron for example: screens are still in 2D (no floating 3D displays everywhere), nobody has super-powers an in fact the most advanced item is Iron Man's suit, which was also built after a first realistic prototype. It is interesting to see how it slowly progressed and opened the doors to the avalance of incredible characters and Action we see today. This may also explain the success of Marvel's Universe against the one of its rival DC comics (I recently tried to watch the TV-series DC's Legends of Tomorrow and it is simply too much to take). The movie Iron Man stays relatively simple: story, characters, stakes. And it has aged well. It was great to see a shy Agent Coulson (now main character in the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and of course the post-credit scene introducing in 2008 the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) for the first time.
Rating: 6 /10

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Michael Bay (Armageddon, The Island)
	Actors: Mark Wahlberg (Pain & Gain), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Josh Duhamel (Transformers 1-3)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 21.07.2017, Cineplanet Costanera Center, Santiago
Synopsis: Optimus Prime will find the maker he was looking for, bringing war to Earth on which many robots and humans are fighting in the search of an ancient relic.
Review: I had the choice between different movie at the cinema and I wanted to see the one that would rest my brain the most. Bingo! If I keep on decreasing the rating of each new movie of the franchise, I will soon be out of numbers. I don't know how the franchise can keep on making profits. Apparently it is not thanks to the American market but the international one. Also maybe too many people like me just want some brainless Action, even to regret it just after. The Last Knight (the title doesn't tell you but it's the fifth in the series) has the same weaknesses as the previous movie: Age of Extinction. The story is very weak and feels even more so that it tries to fill two and a half hours of movie. I found Age of Extinction was veguely saved by the prehistoric climax while The Last Knight doesn't even have that. Wahlberg is lost, the character of Duhamel (back from the first three movies) useless, Jon Turturro not funny (what?!?), the teenage girl Izabella petting baby dinobots also useless, Optimus' Prime's deception pointless, and the stakes are a poor mix of the ones in the third movie (Dark of the Moon) and in Independance Day: Resurgence (that one having more impressive special effects). Forget it.
Rating: 2 /10

Inside Man (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: Spike Lee (Summer of Sam)
	Actors: Denzel Washington (The Book of Eli), Clive Owen (Children of Men, Sin City), Jodie Foster (Elysium, Contact), Willem Dafoe (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Spider-Man)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 08.07.2017, in-flight entertainment 10" screen
Synopsis: A police detective (Washington), a bank robber (Owen), and a high-power broker (Plummer) enter high-stakes negotiations after the criminal's brilliant heist spirals into a hostage situation.
Review: I know the trendy director from He Got Game, Summer of Sam or The 25th Hour, which all have in common that they take place in the neigborhoods of New York city, so much that the town is a character in itself. Not a big surprise when you know how much the director loves his city and its inhabitants, and is an advocate for it. I think I even read that one day while traveling in Europe he bought a TV-channel so that they would show a match of his baseketball team and he could watch it. The city is also very present in Inside Man, but no so well integrated to the story I found, like in those aerial shots of Wall Street that at the same time have a studio look and are too cliché. Puting New York aside, the idea behind the robbery is original and is well told: there is not the usual weak point in the gang that will make the opereation fail. All proceeds as expected and one could wonder how the movie can go on while its characters seem to have no influence on the evens occuring inside the bank. An element of answer may be that the many known actors are very pleasant to watch (although I found the character of Jodie Foster quite useless). Already ten years old, but quite a reference in the bank robbing movie sub-genre.
Rating: 6 /10

Toy Story 2 (1999)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1999
	Director: John Lasseter (Toy Story, Cars 1-2, A Bug's Life), Ash Brannon
	Actors (voices): Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.07.2017, in-flight entertainment 10" screen
Synopsis: The cowboy toy Woody (Hanks) is abducted by a despicable toy collector. His friends led by Buzz (Allen) fly to his rescue, but what he sees when he gets to the collector's place will make him question his will to go back.
Review: After the Pixar digital revolution of Toy Story, its sequel is famous for having been originally planned to be directly released in video. But when the studio saw where the development was going, they quickly upgraded it to a theater release for their benefit and the great pleasure of everybody. Because Toy Story 2, even if not revolutionary as the first movie, has a lot to say and does it with much improved digital effects only four years after. Giving it the means to its end was definitely a smart move. Our beloved characters are back, and now that they are all friends the challenge and adversity comes from a toy collector and some new characters that put Woody back in context. The mytology created in the first movie is also re-used and expanded, for example around Buzz (his double waking up as annoying as he originally was, the encounter with is father, the video game...). Multiple questions are asked, like what do toys become when they owner grows up, and are toys made for being displayed? One of the biggest successes of Pixar. Watch the Documentary The Pixar Story to know more about the studio.
Rating: 8 /10

My uncle (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Yamashita Nobuhiro
	Actors: Ryuhei Matsuda, Riku Ohnishi, Yoko Maki, Midoriko Kimura
	Country: J
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.04.2017, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2017, Japanese with English subtitle
Synopsis: For an essay on a family member, Yukio (Ohnishi) choose the least suitable possible: his uncle (Matsuda), a lazy part-time philosophy professor living in his brother's appartment and good for nothing. His sister (Kimura) let him meet her friend Eri (Maki), a Japanese girl from Hawaii, who unexpectedly falls in love with him. While the uncle collects bottles to play to a tombola which first prize is a travel to Hawaii, Yukio gets an award for his essay.
Review: The story of this looser who believes he is not a looser is great! The uncle barely works and is unable to help the family in anything but talking with his nephew Yukio. Well he is unable to make many things, work, make anything with the hands, deal with money, find his way. He does not know much from the society he is living in. When walking through streets in Hawaii he follows drug dealers as if they were going to be friendly to him is sooo naive and sooo funny. In some sense it reminds me Tanguy, even if their only common point is to hang around at the home of their family, not in their own one. It questions also the coming-of-age as an independent individual, as a social being respectful of the others. From all the scenes in Hawaii, it gives the impression that Hawaii is a Japanese colony. The awards of games or competitions are travels to Hawaii, there are many Japanese in Hawaii. That is a quite funny idea.  The acting of the buddies, the young Riku Ohnishi and the already well-known Ryuhei Matsuda, is excellent. Matsuda shows again his excellent acting, after The Mohican comes home. I like the reference to Jacques Tati' Mon oncle. The main roles and events occurring all along the movie are full of naivety and absurdity. The movie has a very original story and story-telling. And I have been laughing almost all the time! Love it!
Rating: 8 /10

The last princess (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Hur Jin-ho
	Actors: Son Ye-jin, Park Hae-il,
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 25.04.2017, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2017, Korean/Japanese with English subtitle
Synopsis: Under Japanese colonial rule, Deok-hye (Son) was taken captive as a hostage to Japan to improve her education. She struggles to keep the hopes of her people living in Japan alive. Independence movements try to bring her back to Korea where she could bring hope. One Korean officer of the Japanese army, Jang-han (Park), got this mission.
Review: This is the first time I heard about this kind of cathartic movie from South Korea about the resistance against the Japanese occupation. It starts in the traditional atmosphere of the old Imperial Palace that gives an touch of Epic before diving in the modern times in the industrial Japan. This kind of idealizes Korea's old times, while the modern Korea is extremely industrial. The movie looks like an idealized biopic in which the life of common Korean under occupation is not shown. There is even a Platonic love story bringing the Princess closer to the common humanity. This is why I am surprised not to have heard about this story before. It is a perfect pitch for a movie, and I would have expected this story to be screened already in the 50s after the Second world war and the Korean war.  The different sceneries do not show much landscapes or city so that I guess most of the movie has been shot in studio. Nevertheless the atmosphere of the 30s is still well done.
Rating: 6 /10

I am not Madame Bovary (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Feng Xiaogang
	Actors: Fan Bingbing
	Country: CN
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 25.04.2017, Teatro Nuovo, FEFF2017, Mandarin with English subtitle
Synopsis: Li Xuelian (Bingbing) and her husband fake a divorce to get an apartment in the city. But once achieved, he abandons her. She starts struggling with the Chinese administration to bring her husband back. On her way in the different instances she meets all the levels of administrative personal and many people to talk about her melodrama.
Review: The story depicts actually quite common daily-life. The originality is that the hero is a woman and that she has to go over Herculean tasks versus different levels of the Chinese local and regional administrations. Thanks to the adventures of Li I got a cultural insight in the mysterious Chinese society. And as in many other countries, the local and regional administrations are a bit corrupt, are a bit conservative, are a bit clientelist, a bit slow.  Apart from this sharp critic, we see also a situation due to national laws. In order to get an apartment, the couple fake a divorce! This is a misunderstanding not only within the couple but also between the couple and the administration. Beyond the drama of her situations, it remains also funny.  The style of story-telling is very slow and without rhythm and many plots are brought into image in a documentary imagery and a cold light. This makes the suspense and esthetic not so interesting. On the other side, I loved the sceneries. The streets in the big city, the kind of hotel in the country side, the administrative buildings. All seemed very artificial because of the very cold light, and also very authentic because of their complexity and their composition. Feng Xiaogang made the poster in many styles. I put here a few of them I like. And you can see this authenticity in the posters.
Rating: 5 /10

Man Up (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Ben Palmer
	Actors: Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Keir Charles, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Lake Bell
	Country: GB
	Genre: Romance, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2017, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Desperate single woman Nancy (Bell) finds herself stealing the blind date (Pegg) of a woman she met on a train. They turn out to be a good match.
Review: I chose to watch this Romantic Comedy expecting some laughs from Simon Pegg and I was not disappointed as he is perfect for the role. But he is not the only reason to watch the movie. The life of single 30 year-olds is often depicted in Romantic Comedies targeted to an older audience than the more numerous teenage/young adults movie-goes, and this is an interesting age for such a movie because the characters have then enough luggage (relationships, divorce, job...) to make the story interesting and speaking to me. I am not watching many movies of the genre but when compared to American Romantic Comedies it seems to me that the British ones are more realistic and don't rely on a a Fantastic setting or exaggerated situations and humor (I did like Love Actually). Man up does a little of that (the stalker lover Sean) but otherwise shows realistic character reactions, which I appreciate. There is a lot of talking in the movie but I found them interesting and appropriate, be it for comedy or drama. I was only a bit disappointed by the ending, totally predictable and that follows the codes of the genre to the letter, while the rest of the movie was exploring new paths. But that's the ending that probably works best.
Rating: 7 /10

The Mars Generation (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Michael Barnett
	Actors: Bob Behnken, Alayna Bidlack, Niko Blanks
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2017, VOD, 10" tablet
Synopsis: A group of hardcore Space teenage nerds follow Space camp where they experience many aspects of Space Exploration. Meanwhile those aspects are detailed to us as well.
Review: Well I am currently on a streak of watching Space exploration movies and series like you could have guessed with my review on the TV-series/Documentary MARS. Unlike that one which was very original, The Mars Generation is more of a regular Documentary on the Future of Space Exploration, but with the interesting viewpoint of 13-17 year-olds that are believed to be part of a generation that will see man set foot on the red planet, and they all intend to help in achieving that goal. During the Documentary we learn about the technical aspects of such challenge (as the youngs do), but also about the political aspects in particular via two radically different speeches from US presidents Obama and Trump (also watch that funny video of Buzz Aldrin listening to the current president). So the Documentary is nice to watch, I learned a few things and it puts some questions into perspective, but it is not groundbreaking.
Rating: 4 /10

The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Chris McKay
	Actors (voices): Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 24.06.2017, in-flight entertainment 10" screen.
Synopsis: The vigilante Batman (Arnett) saves Gotham City once more from his nemesis the Joker, although he refuses to admit their connection. Once back home he feels the pressure of loneliness.
Review: After the huge success of The Lego movie (which left me rather unimpressed), we had it coming. In that movie, the selfish and dark character of Batman got a lot of fans in spite of a short screen time, and this spin-off tries to expand the character. As much as in The Lego Movie everything was awesome, for Batman everything can't be dark enough. He is better than anyone else and likes to show it... at least until he is back to his Bat-cave of solitude. The traits of the classic Batman character are exaggerated for Comedy, and some references will speak to the fans, not only the ones to the caped crusader as there are interventions from most bad guys in recent movie history (Sauron, Voldemort, ...). I also liked the homage to Michael Jackson's song Man in the Mirror. The action scenes are ultra-fast and their editing epileptic, maybe to content the kids who will watch the movie countless time by providing them with infinite details to discover, but for someone who watches the movie only once this is rather frustrating. The animation is good and some money shots made me smile. There are a few scenes thought for adults like the weird fetishism of Robin or some comments by Alfred, but in general it was hard for me to feel connected to the movie. For an homage to the characters of my youth I would rather watch again Wreck-it Ralph.
Rating: 4 /10

The Day after Tomorrow (2004)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: -
	Director: Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day 1-2, White House Down)
	Actors: Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point), Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko, Enemy, Prisoners), Emmy Rossum
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 10.05.2017, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: When Jack Hall's theories (Quaid) about a catastrophic climate change come true, he has to work restlessly to warn the public, but at some point will risk his life to reach his son Sam (Gyllenhaal).
Review: Whenever you are craving over-the-top disaster movies, Roland Emmerich is always here for you. After he directed Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla (I have never seen Patriot), The Day after Tomorrow belongs to a decade of brainless disaster movie to which he contributed 10,000 BC, 2012 and White House Down. Oh don't get me wrong I like this genre of movies, as long as you take them for what they are. This one is obviously inspired by global warming that started to be widely noticed in the 2000's especially thanks to ex-US Vice-president Al Gore's famous presentation, also shown in cinemas via the 2006 Academy Award winning Documentary An Inconvenient Truth. For the sake of Drama, Emmerich just sped up the decades-long process to a couple of months (or is it weeks?), and of course added to the mix a father searching for his son that he didn't care enough of. The Action is there, Drama occurs at the right times and Special effects are good (except for the digital wolves I found). Add to that nice actors like Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal and Ian Holm (Alien, Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings), and you get yourself a nice pizza-evening-with-friends movie.
Rating: 6 /10