Godzilla - Attack all monsters (1969)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1969
	Director: Ishirô Honda
	Actors: Tomonori Yazaki, Hideyo Amamoto
	Country: J
	Genre: Adventure, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 23.01.2018, VOD, German version
Synopsis: Ichirô (Yazaki) is a highly imaginative and lonely boy growing up in an industrial suburb of Tokyo. Every day he comes home to the empty apartment he shares with his railroad worker father and his restaurant hostess mother. His only friends are a toy maker name Shinpei Inami (Amamoto) and a little girl named Sachicko. The other kids bully him. To escape his loneliness, Ichiro imagines that he is on Monster Island where he befriends Minira, the son of Godzilla. It is through his daydreams that he watches Godzilla and Minira fight other monsters, including one named Gabara who is just a bully as the one that is tormenting Ichirô.
Review: After having discovered that it was possible to see some movies in youtube when it is sometimes impossible to find it anywhere as Bluray, DVD, I decided to look for some Godzilla movies I read about in my Godzilla bible The Kaiju film (A critical study of cinema's biggest monsters) by Jason Barr.  The story is not the classical Godzilla as symbol of destruction, nuclear weapon, military destruction or so. Godzilla is a mentor for both Minira and Ichirô, so that they learn to fight back and face their fears. These lessons also help Ichirô to get rid of two bank robbers and to stand up to Gabara and his gang. It is for this reason really a movie for children, but well done.  The special effects are the common Godzilla rubber monsters with monsters and objects really flying around. It depicts also a very patriarchal society where the boys should learn to fight to get self-confidence. By luck the uncle Shinpei is a weirdo fan of electronic and builds his own toys and electronic games. Amazing for the end of 60s! Don't even think about it in the Western countries! The character of Shinpei contrasts with the two bank robbers. He believes in the goodness of the people, gives his confidence to anyone, and goes lucky through life. He finds himself his stolen car. On the opposite the two robbers do not trust anyone, look for violence and have the fate against them. As if once Ichirô would learn to fight to gain self-confidence, he should stop fighting and trust people to have a happy life.  The acting is typical Japanese and is here at a especially secondary level because a good part is showing fights between monsters, being an allegory of the fights that Ichirô wants to do and finally manages.  It is not a movie for fans of violent Kaiju films but rather for fans of Kaiju films in general. If you want to introduce these cool monsters and Japanese culture to your children, watch it with kids! You can watch the movie here.
Rating: 5 /10

The room (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Tommy Wiseau
	Actors: Tommy Wiseau, Greg Sestero, Juliette Danielle
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.01.2018, youtube channel, English version with English subtitle
Synopsis: Johnny (Wiseau) is a successful banker who lives happily in a San Francisco townhouse with his fiancée, Lisa (Danielle). One day, inexplicably, she gets bored with him and decides to seduce his best friend, Mark (Sestero).
Review: After having seen The disaster artist, I had to watch its main subject: The room. From all the hilarious scenes from the disaster artist, we (I watched it with the group of Sneakers) all knew some scenes and by seeing these coming, we were already laughing in stitches! The story is very basic as and even if according to The disaster artist it was not supposed to be a porn movie, almost the half of the film is in bed with explicitely lascivious songs. The main originality is the atmosphere, extremely cheap but taken seriously. Cheap in the sense that the story is simple and quite boring, the acting is not good, the dialogues are hilarious cos ridiculous and that all this seems to have been done not on purpose. Indeed the light and the camera are fine. I am not sure to have liked the movie or even to have had the patience to go beyond the first bed scene, if I would not have expected some scenes of extreme (bad, funny, as you want) acting. On the other side it is quite fascinating to manage to make so many products with so few content. I must admit, I watched the first episodes of the series The neighbors, that is like a bad telenovela but that has something fascinating like a "I could make it as well"-effect.
Rating: 6 /10

Loving Vincent (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
	Actors: Douglas Booth
	Country: PL, GB
	Genre: Drama, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 20.11.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: A year after the death of the artist, Vincent van Gogh, Postman Roulin gets his slacker son, Armand, to hand deliver the artist's final letter to his now late brother, Theo, to some worthy recipient after multiple failed postal delivery attempts. Although disdainful of this seemingly pointless chore, Armand travels to Auvers-sure-Oise where a purported close companion to Vincent, Dr. Gachet, lives. Having to wait until the doctor returns from business, Armand meets many of the people of that village who not only knew Vincent, but were apparently also models and inspirations for his art. In doing so, Armond becomes increasingly fascinated in the psyche and fate of Van Gogh as numerous suspicious details fail to add up. However, as Armond digs further, he comes to realize that Vincent's troubled life is as much a matter of interpretation as his paintings.
Review: The plot is very moving when you like the work of Vincent van Gogh because you dig in his life and his relationship with all the people around him. And you notice that there can't be any idealisation of Vincent that was seen having many aspects such as crazy, influenceable, clear, hard worker, friendly, solitary person. This depending on the person giving its point of view. If nobody tells me whether these are real interviews, I will have to make some research to find out. Too curious!  The acting is difficult to assess as every single frame is painted. It is painted based on a picture with the actors. And on the paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. It is funny and touching as well to see these paintings or at least recognise them accurately when placed in the context of Van Gogh's story. This gives the impression to be closer to Vincent, especially if one knows a bit about his paintings and story. I guess my rating is biased because I am a big fan of Vincent... The realisation is very original. The visual aspect of van Gogh work is given by every single frame of the movie. Painted by over 100 Polish painters. Yes, it is cheaper to buy this service in Poland than to do it in the UK.
Rating: 7 /10

Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Martin McDonagh
	Actors: Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Drama, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 01.01.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: After months have passed without a culprit in her daughter's murder case, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) makes a bold move, painting three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby (Harrelson), the town's revered chief of police. When his second-in-command Officer Dixon (Rockwell), an immature mother's boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing's law enforcement is only exacerbated.
Review: This is the first movie of the year 2018 and it was a good first day! The story offers a nice conflict that sound quite common. And this starts in a rural barely corrupt atmosphere. The fantastic evolution of the roles is based on the human conflict between Mildred and Dixon. Between her sharp and acid dialogues and his disgusting and absurd behaviour. There is no minute without a great acting, a great dialogue. The humor of the harsch words spoken by Frances McDormand is great and rare. Hilarious!  With Sam Rockwell I expected great acting as in Moon. And I have not been disappointed at all. After just his first appearance, you will hate him and think "stupid bastard!". Frances McDormand has also a merciless role and more uniform in her stubbornness and latent violence. Woody Harrelson does not have a big role but a difficult one as he is presented as an asshole by these billboards and finally might be the only one behaving with moral and pragmatism and therefore is confronted to different situations. The cast is just excellent for the story.  The directing is really good. To get so much from the actors with a plot that looks quite simple and only with means of the situations and dialogues and setting different atmospheres.
Rating: 9 /10

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night, 1 episode of Black Mirror)
	Actors: Kristen Stewart (Snow White and the Huntsman), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Taylor Lautner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 23.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: As Bella (Stewart) is the target of an army of vampires created by Victoria who hates her, her lover Edward (Pattinson) and contender Jacob (Lautner) may have to unite to protect her.
Review: More young adolescent romance in this third movie from the saga initiated by Twilight, but it is fortunately not as bad as New Moon. At least I got the feeling that the story progresses, takes some scale (more enemies are involved) and takes more time to develop its characters which was about time. Thus we are treated with flashbacks about the oldest characters, which gives them a little bit more interest, although Alice is the only one that is slightly noticeable. The "arch-enemy" Victoria is so discreet that I hadn't even notice the change of actress from Rachelle Lefèvre to Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, the Black Mirror season 3 episode Nosedive). If the first movie was about Bella and Edward and the second about her and Jacob, in this one they live a kind of Ménage à trois so that at some point the two boys event have to talk about their feelings together. But for me the most annoying in Eclipse is the character of Bella. I think she is written so that every teenage girl can identify with her and her romantic troubles. She is a compendium of all that one can do bad as a teenager: she is just 17, virgin, believes in love at first sight with a very mysterious guy who is by the way 103 years old so what about a pervert, and thinks that she was different "all her life", justifying her decision to want to become a vampire, and get married at the same time. Meanwhile when she briefly asks her father, he is more like: "a second marriage, yeah why not without doing the mistakes of the first" and as to do the total opposite she takes a life-changing decision far more binding than marriage or children. That probably makes a lot of (non)sense in the head of a 17 years old teenager at the end of puberty, but not much to a 40-year old that has lived a little. But maybe that's the purpose of those movies, to take us to a voyage back to our young and crazy years, ignoring the facts of life. Let's see how this will end...
Rating: 4 /10

Bedazzled (2000)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2000
	Director: Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Multiplicity)
	Actors: Brendan Fraser (Encino Man, The Mummy), Elizabeth Hurley (Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), Frances O'Connor
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Elliot (Fraser) has a meaningless life, bullied or avoided by work colleagues, and unsuccessful with women. That is until the Devil grants him seven wishes against his soul.
Review: This light comedy is in fact a remake of a 1967 movie with the same title, with I guess humor adapted to the new century. It features a goofy Brendan Fraser that I discovered in the 1992 Encino Man with Sean Astin (The Goonies, The Lord of the Rings), and right between the two  box-office hits The Mummy and its sequel by Stephen Sommers. Two years after Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, one of my favorite movies at the time, the Sexy British Elizabeth Hurley plays nicely the temptress Devil. The movie starts and ends like a classic Romantic Comedy, with in the middle seven comedy episodes that everybody is waiting for. Because as in the 1997 Wishmaster, that devilish genie interprets for you the wishes that you have not specified well enough: you want to be rich and famous? you become a druglord! And the contract signatory is bad at doing that and it takes him six trials to get it right (sort of), which is what makes the anticipated comedy in that movie (while it was doing the anticipated Horror effect in Wishmaster). The situations in which Fraser acts are exaggerated but as we move on pretty quickly to interludes with Elizabeth Hurley in swimming suit, the movie is easy to watch. Note that it was directed by Harold Ramis who played Spengler in Ghostbusters and directed classic American comedies in the 90's like Multiplicity and Groundhog Day.
Rating: 5 /10

The disaster artist (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: James Franco
	Actors: James Franco, Dave Franco
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 21.01.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Aspiring actor Greg Sestero (Dave Franco) befriends the eccentric Tommy Wiseau (James Franco). The two travel to L.A, and when Hollywood rejects them, Tommy decides to write, direct, produce and star in their own movie. That movie is The Room, which has attained cult status of bad movies.
Review: At the beginning the plot sounds quite movie-maker-centric as if it would a declaration of love to film makers for being film maker, regardless on the content. A reason why Seth Rogen is also there. At the end, it can be seen as freedom of expression. If Tommy sees the necessity to climb up the wall during his impro theater course it is because he feels like it is his form of expression. Why not?! Sometimes he is impressive and other times gross. Tommy is depicted as weird and extravagant guy in a sympathetic way, not as Liberace. The guy was millionaire and this helps to make this kind of project. So please no talk about democratisation of art!  The movie itself is  similar to what Tommy Wiseau seems to have done. James Franco's acting is exaggerated but supposedly because Tommy is extravagant. Dave Franco is acting like his character acts. Therefore it looks like a bad movie inside a bad movie. And at the end the effect is quite good. In any case hilarious at first, second or further level.  Technically the movie is clean. Cinematography, light, sound, even if there is nothing original neither.  This is the kind of movie which motivates amateur movie makers to make something! My first step is to watch The room. I may avoid the series The neighbors that you can watch here.
Rating: 6 /10

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Simon West (Con Air, The General's Daughter, The Expendables 2)
	Actors: Angelina Jolie (Wanted, Beowulf), Jon Voight (Anaconda, National Treasure 1-2), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Wealthy British adventurer Lara Croft (Jolie) is sent on a quest for a mysterious triangle with incredible power by clues left by her father (Voight) long gone and that she misses deeply.
Review: This is the first cinema adaptation of the hit video game Tomb Raider that was released in 1996, followed by a sequel every year that hadn't yet ceased to be popular in 2001. So the timing of the movie release was quite perfect. No less perfect is the choice of Angelia Jolie to embody (and what a body) the main character, adventurer in tight shorts whose look is easily recognizable thanks to her two big... guns. The physique of the actress (with some parts enhanced if I remember well what I read in the press at that time) matches quite perfectly what the gamers of the time were fantasizing upon, and which caused the game to receive criticism for being sexist. Well, video games are still mostly played by males and if you look at games from 1996 as well as the most recent Japanese productions, you will see that studios know what those guys like: big guns! In a similar register the character was even ripped off in 2003 for a sleazy erotic production entitled Womb Raider that I have had the bad taste to watch. If this "sexist" approach displeases you, be reassured that the franchise is slowly following the evolution of its gamers as you can see from the look of the heroin in the 2013 reboot of the game franchise, which also inspired a more realistic look for the upcoming cinema adaptation (see posters below) in which the main character is played by the skinny Alicia Vikander (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Now that I have established that Lara is perfect, what remains? If it were not adapted from the video game (which Anniversary edition I have recently started to play on PSP), the story would really seem far-fetched, but put back into context it just matches well what the gamers know: some intrigue, a rival archaeologist and bad guys after the same thing (the influence of Indiana Jones is of course present), mysterious artifacts found in forgotten temples after solving some puzzles. Lara does solves a few and does some acrobatics but not as much as in the game, because this is not a game after all. It may look a bit aged now but I like this Tomb Raider that did a very good job at the time, enough to generate a sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Knowing the quality and consequent fate of the remakes and reboots produced in the recent years, I can easily predict that the 2018 version will be insipid and quickly forgotten after making a quick buck from a young audience with a short attention span.
Rating: 6 /10 The new look of Lara Croft from the 2013 video game. Poster of the 2018 movie.

I Origins (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Mark Cahill (Another Earth)
	Actors: Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 06.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Molecular biologist Ian (Pitt) has always been fascinated by the human eye. While his work is progressing in an unexpected way, he meets Sofi (Bergès-Frisbey) at a party and they fall madly in love.
Review: I mistook this movie for a biopic on the real discovery of the eye evolution process and expected something like The Theory of Everything, so I spent its first half focusing on the many events that seemed exaggerated compared to reality which gave me a bad impression of it. Only then did I realize that the story was a fiction so I could start to relax and enjoy it as such. Independently of my state of mind, I found the movie a bit "arty" and not really knowing where it was going, probably because the love story is at the foreground and the research in the back. I like that the scientist is not shown like in other movies as the cliche of the distracted genius, but he is more depicted like a normal person. I found nevertheless the common theme that Science is associated with the search to disprove God. Events keep unfolding including a dramatic one that made me question even more the sense of the movie, until it takes a striking turn towards another dimension in its third act. It is amazing how it then caught my attention back while I was oozing, and then I was back into it. That's remarkable. Maybe I would have liked the whole movie better if I had not been disturbed by the first part, because my current feeling is that it is only saved by the twist. Maybe I should watch it a second time. Looking up the director I see that his previous movie was Another Earth, which peaked my interest when it went out with its story of a planet parallel to ours with opposite people. Twilight Zone Science Fiction serving as background for dramatic romantic stories seems to be his trademark, and that makes him one to follow.
Rating: 7 /10

Timeline (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon 1-4, Superman, The Omen, The Goonies)
	Actors: Paul Walker (Fast & Furious 1-7, Pawn Shop Chronicles), Gerard Butler (300, Gamer), Billy Connolly, Neal McDonough (Ticking Clock, Minority Report)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: A group of today's archaeologists become trapped in the 14th century France when they go there to retrieve a friend.
Review: The Netflix movie poster advertises a lot on the name of the departed Paul Walker who played in it while in the fame of the first Fast & Furious movies, in fact quite smaller than the one around the latest of the franchise. He is accompanied by a pre-300 Gerald Butler. This is not a huge blockbuster movie, even by the standards of 2003, meaning that it is relatively modest in its ambitions but I found that to be a good thing. There is just enough Science Fiction, tensions in the present, medieval Anglo-French war, death and brutality, and time-traveling connections (The Final Countdown comes to mind) that nicely wrap-up the whole thing. I was a bit scared that the handling of languages wouldn't make sense but the British speak English and the French speak French except for the educated ones that manage some English, like our very own Lambert Wilson (who became known to the world after The Matrix Reloaded in which he displayed a nice accent). Only two of the characters have an obvious American accent when speaking French although they are supposed to be natives, but I guess one can accept that. A few digital effects look cheap, but otherwise all the medieval action takes place in solid sets which makes Timeline interesting as a History film even aside from the time-travel story. All in all an honest B-movie.
Rating: 6 /10

Suburbicon (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: George Clooney
	Actors: Matt Damon, Juliane Moore, Oscar Isaac
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Drama, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.11.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Suburbicon, a family-centred white suburb, is under tension when the first African-American family moves in this idyllic community, in summer 1959. Gardner Lodge (Damon) and his family start catching a few disturbing glimpses of the once welcoming neighbourhood. Acts of unprecedented violence paired with a gruesome death will inevitably blemish Suburbicon's picture-perfect facade.
Review: The intention may have been to show how a white facade can hide dark interiors. But the plot arrived to me as quite flat mafia story. The only role bringing some humour to the plot are the insurance representative played by Oscar Isaac with his ironic humour and look on the family.  The story is full of verbal violence played with a one-face Matt Damon, that is quite unusual. Juliane Moore manages to act her sacrastic role excellently. The part on the racist white North American people does not bring much new apart from the mix of violence and ridicule. In particular when all the whites are making noise during days in front of the house while the black family does not care.  For a black comedy, basically the trailer said too much and spoiled the one really black comedy scene with the car accident.  Again the plot is good and could have been developped in a very sarcastic comedy. Great casting. But George Clooney missed something.
Rating: 4 /10

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Gary Oldman (1984, The Fifth Element), Elodie Yung (Daredevil TV-series)
	Country: USA, CN, NL, BG
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Former triple-A bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is trying to recover his grade when his ex working at Interpol Amelia (Yung) asks for his help in protecting the hitman Marius Kincaid (Jackson) about to testify against the dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Oldman).
Review: This movie relies on the often-used comedy recipe of forcing together two characters that everything opposes. In that case the world's best bodyguard played by the serious and involuntarily funny Ryan Reynolds (reminding me of his role in Deadpool and Green Lantern, so I guess this is close to the actor's own character) and the world' best hitman played by the unavoidable Sam L. Jackson who also sticks to his image (since Pulp Fiction for instance) and says about a hundred time the word motherf***er. Those two are antagonists in their line of work as much as in their approach to life, which leads to a few interesting discussions in the middle of a movie otherwise very oriented towards Action and buddy-film comedy. They are complemented by the presence on screen of Salma Hayek (From Dusk till Dawn, Frida), Gary Oldman and the lovely Elodie Yung that I discovered in the TV-series Daredevil followed by The Defenders. Nothing really remarkable about this movie but I was looking for an easy Action Comedy and that's exactly what I got.
Rating: 5 /10

La Cuisine au Beurre (1963)

	Also Known As: Alles in Butter, My Wife's Husband
	Year of first release: 1963
	Director: Gilles Grangier
	Actors: Fernandel (La Vache et le Prisonier), Bourvil (La Grande Vadrouille), Claire Maurier
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Presumed killed during WWII, Fernand Jouvin (Fernandel) was in fact enjoying the hospitality of a farm in Tirol. When forced to go back to his old life, he finds out that his wife (Maurier) has remarried to a Normand Chef (Bourvil) now in charge of his former restaurant.
Review: The deception of the 2015 remake Pension Complète was good for one thing: make me want to re-discover this classic of the post-war French comedies which united two of the monsters of the time: Fernandel and Bourvil. The humor was undoubtedly different 50 years ago, spending more time focusing on the acting of the main characters rather then enumerating gags. And this movie really looks like it was designed around the one-off collaboration of the two actors, with roles customized to the character we associate them to: Bourvil from Normandie, rigorous, hard-working, insecure and stressed against Fernandel from Marseilles, carefree, cheat, a bit lazy and appreciating the good-life. The relationship within the trio of wife and two husbands evolves slowly, often driven by a manipulating Fernandel. And the whole story revolves around a couple of very French themes like the rivalry North/South in lifestyle, weather and of course cooking thus the title (butter is the main cooking ingredient in Normandy vs. olive oil in the south). Even if not as cult as La Grande Vadrouille (with Bourvil and Louis de Funès), La Cuisine au Beurre was for me very easy and pleasant to watch, even if just to re-discover that period of cinema and those two French monuments that were Bourvil and Fernandel, especially in the few scenes when they exchange anecdotes (cleverly not audible to the audience) that launch them into bursts of laughter (see picture below), very contagious.
Rating: 7 /10

Godzilla: Monster Planet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Hiroyuki Seshita, Kôbun Shizuno
	Actors (voices): Chris Niosi, Martin Billany, Robbie Daymond
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 18.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Earth is devastated by monsters including Godzilla, humanity is forced to escape from the planet and seek refuge in the stars. After more than 20 years of travel close to light-speed, one human in particular is strongly motivated to take back our mother planet which has meanwhile aged thousands of years.
Review: I have described my history with the famous Japanese atomic monster in my review of the 2014 American version Godzilla. Since then the emblematic Toho studio has produced a reboot in 2016 entitled Shin Godzilla, and Netflix has now entered the game by distributing this movie, first of a trilogy, also produced by the rights' owner Toho. Making it an animated film gives then the possibility to the movie-makers to extend the story beyond the classic attack against the Earth (well, usually mostly Japan). So you have to hold on for the first 20 minutes of the movie that explain the whole backstory filled with useless elements that are not of importance afterwards (what are two alien species doing in the mix?!?). This long introduction, like the rest of the movie, follows the Japanese cinematic tradition of over-explaining everything and doing so twice to make sure you got it. Paradoxically, the motivation of the characters and the military strategy stayed very confused to me, and the story stays full of loopholes. The designs are OK although not new, and there are plenty of displays everywhere but it is hard to enjoy them while watching the movie in original Japanese that forces you to read the constant flow of sub-titles, so much that I switch to English spoken language for the last half hour in the hope to try and enjoy the graphics if I couldn't the story. This didn't help much. Quite a disappointment. Japanese blockbusters are often like that, and one should rather travel to the Udine Far East Film Festival to enjoy the much better small popular productions the archipelago has to offer.
Rating: 3 /10

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Chris Weitz
	Actors: Kristen Stewart (Snow White and the Huntsman), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Taylor Lautner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 17.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Edward (Pattinson) and his family skips town, Bella (Stewart) will heal by getting closer to her childhood friend Jacob (Lautner) who also hides a paranormal secret.
Review: Sequel to the hit Twilight that I liked better than expected, New Moon can be summarized in two words: Love triangle, which not much to fill in 2h15 of film. Apart from a few action scenes (shot in the unexciting slow-motion style proper to the saga) and the new characters of werewolves (Oh what a surprise, one of the most predictable twists ever), the movie basically consists in Bella talking about her feelings for Edward by email, her feelings for Jacob to Jacob, her feeling for Edward to Jacob also, and so on and so forth. We learn only a little more about the Universe introduced in the first movie, via a ridiculous trip to Italy, but there is nothing in this movie to be remembered. Or maybe the playfulness of the werewolf teenagers that may have inspired Taika Waititi for his awesome What we do in the shadows. Will I find the courage to go through the three remaining movies?
Rating: 2 /10