The Big Bang Theory - Seasons 10-11 (2016-2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016, 2017
	Creators: Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady
	Actors: Johnny Galecki (The Master Cleanse, In Time), Jim Parsons (Hidden Figures), Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, Mayim Bialik
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: May-June 2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Have some laughs following the eccentricities of scientists/physicists/engineers Raj, Sheldon, Leonard and Howard, and the women those nerds managed to get in their lives Bernadette, Penny and Amy.
Review: As I recently mentioned in my review of the tenth season of Friends, I wouldn't usually comment on every season of such a series format (20-minute comedy) but being one of the very few I follow, I thought I would use the opportunity of recently watching the two latest seasons to comment on them and the whole series in fact. Nowadays I have the feeling that a huge variety of series are being kicked-off, leaving room for as many goofy concepts as imaginable, but that only few of them pass the test of the first season, as cancellations are very common. It was not yet the case eleven years ago when The Big Bang Theory started, and it has always been a surprise to me how such a series could come to light. It does follow the life of a bunch of nerds! And the logical explanation I found is that nerds are not anymore a small minority of our population (we have more and more engineers, people working in computer science...) so that they can provide a steady audience to a series that talks to them. Indeed, who would you think could laugh at physics jokes? In fact one of the strength of the series is that you can laugh with them if you get the physics jokes, or you can laugh at them if you don't. Either way the characters are colorful enough to please many people, and they can relate as well to the day-to-day situations the characters find themselves in (love, work, fun...). And if you don't get the jokes there are websites that can explain them for you, as does explainxkcd.com for the popular nerd cartoon XKCD. At the same time, the launching of this series can also be taken as a proof that nerds came to power in Hollywood at the turn of the Century, a sentence I have heard at the time of the release of The Matrix in 1999. And its continuing success follows the one of super-hero movies (Marvel and DC), Star Trek and Star Wars revivals etc... as well as the rise of renowned scientists as pop-culture figures such as the regretted Stephen Hawking (subject of The Theory of Everything) or Neil deGrasse Tyson (host of the excellent series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey) But enough with context, what do I think of the series? I didn't watch it when it started, I only caught up a few years later but loved it immediately, of course I am one of those nerds it is talking to. And I as wrote, I was surprised that people who were not nerd at all liked it, and not surprised that some others didn't find what was funny about it. After a couple of seasons, I found the series less interesting, i.e. it "dropped the shark" around season 4 or 5. I attributed that to the fact that the main characters, known to be pure nerds afraid of girls, now all had dates or girfriends, which changed the concept of the series a bit. I was glad to see that in those latest seasons, even thought their commitments to female partners are stronger than ever, I found it again funny as it was at the beginning, maybe because the series embraced the change and let its characters evolve, Sheldon in particular, all for the best. Leonard, now married, faces new challenges, like his collection of figurines slowly put aside, which reminded me of a very similar story told by the king of the nerds Kevin Smith about his first years of marriage. And I feel that to get some of the early spirit back, more emphasis was put on the eternal single comic book store owner Stewart, and a new space given to the geologist/bear Bert. A constant in the series: famous cameos like Will Wheaton of Star Trek The Next Generation, Leonard "Spock "Nimoy or Stephen Hawking are more and more present, including an ultimate one at the very end of the season. The series keeps on thriving, so much that the five original actors complete the top six of the most paid TV stars (the first one being Sofia Vergara from Modern Family). But there is rumor that the 12th season will be the last...
Rating: 7 /10

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Jake Kasdan (Sex Tape)
	Actors: Dwayne Johnson (San Andreas), Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Jack Black (King Kong)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 13.06.2018, inflight entertainment 14" screen
Synopsis: Four teenagers are sucked into a magical video game, and the only way they can escape is to work together to finish the game.
Review: Interestingly this is the second movie with Dwayne Johnson entitled Welcome to the Jungle after the 2003 one also known as The Rundown. Also not to be confused with the 2013 self'-mocking Welcome to the Jungle with Jean-Claude Van Damme. This definitely is a popular movie title! And of course the end credit roll with the song from Guns N' Roses... Welcome to the Jungle! In fact it is a sequel / remake / reboot of the 1995 Jumanji in which the main character played by Robin Williams escapes a magical board game after decades spent in it, and takes out parts of that Universe with him, at the great peril of the kids playing the game. Mention is made of his character, one can recognize the jungle and rhinos, the bad guy has the same name and the board game is present, only to be quickly transformed into a video game cartridge to better trap a new generation of players. This version reminded me of the recent Horror B-movie Beyond the Gates. I found the rules of the game to be cleverly adapted to the video game culture: 3 lives, characters with special skills and weaknesses, different levels to conquer, ... But the best idea in this movie for me is to transport the four teenagers into adult bodies with very different characteristics: the nerd into the muscular adventurer played by Johnson, the shy girl into a Lara Croft, the tall football player into a zoologist/valet, and the best of all a bimbo obsessed by her image and her phone into the body of Jack Black who delivers one of his best performance ever. I love his line: "Since I lost my phone my other senses have heightened". OK the movie contains a fair amount of jokes under the belt, but I found them acceptable and not too long as it can often be in modern dumb comedies. Unexpectedly, I had a good time, and I may watch again the original Jumanji soon.
Rating: 6 /10

Black Mirror - Season 3 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Creator: Charlie Brooker
	Actors: Alex Lawther, Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Cloverfield Paradox, Jupiter Ascending)
	Country: GB
	Genre: Thriller, SF
	Conditions of visioning: January-May 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: This SF anthology series explores a twisted, high-tech near-future where humanity's greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide.
Review: This third season of the British shocker series continues on the same path as the first two which were highly appreciated by JoRafCinema. I found the episode endings less abrupt in this season and they didn't need post-credits epilogues, maybe because they have been extended in length. But I still found some episodes quite depressing, in particular the 2, 3 and 4, so much that I paused watching the series for a few months, because watching an episode in the evening was not putting me in a quiet sleeping mood at all!  One could say it is a bad thing that I had to stop watching the series, while in fact I take it as a good thing that it triggered such a strong emotional reaction in me, different from one that makes you binge-watch a whole season, but maybe even stronger. As for the previous seasons it is possible to rate the episodes individually. S3E1: Nosedive. The results of the excessive and compulsive hunt for "Likes" and good ratings in an over-connected society. Starring Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World). An excellent opening to the season. 8/10 S3E2: Playtest. A man accepts to test a new immersive horror game. This reminded me of the immersion of playing Virtual Reality games. Another great story idea turning into horror. 7/10 S3E3: Shut Up and Dance. A story of Blackmailing / Ransomware that doesn't seem very futuristic in fact. Another episode that makes you feel bad at the end, and in fact the one that made me pause watching the series. 5/10 S3E4: San Junipero. Quite a poetic story of a young woman apparently discovering life. But the two sides of the story make its ending bittersweet. 7/10 S3E5: Men against Fire. Following soldiers on a mission to eradicate infected people. Nicely done and with the usual depressing ending, but unfortunately predictable if you have seen the 1998 Outer Limits Season 4 Episode 3 Hearts and Minds. 6/10 S3E6: Hated in the Nation. A 1.5 hour episode in the shape of a police investigation to conclude this season, this time targeting at our impulse to hide behind anonymity to be nasty on the internet. 7/10 This brilliant series keeps on impressing me and reminds me of the bittersweet feeling I had when watching The Outer Limits in the 90's, with the added value that the future depicted here seems quite plausible. And always a touch of Genre be it SF, Horror, Thriller, it always is Anticipation. After three seasons, still highly recommended.
Rating: 7 /10

Walesa - Czlowiek z nadziei (2013)

	Also Known As: Walesa: Man of hope
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Andrzej Wajda
	Actors: Robert Wieckiewicz, Agnieszka Grochowska
	Country: PL
	Genre: Drama, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 09.06.2018, DVD, Polish/Italian version with English subtitles
Synopsis: In the 70's in Poland strikes are hit hard by the Polish government. With worker victims. Lech Walesa (Wieckiewisz) gets father for the first time. In the 80's new demonstrations start to have a memorial for the victims of previous strikes. This is the start of a movement leading to Solidarnosc, the Polish free trade union. This movement is led by Lech Walesa. His wife Danuta (Grochowska) supports him all along.
Review: Receiving this movie as present from a Polish friend and anyway interested in History, I had to watch this movie with delight.  The story of Lech Walesa's life focuses on the time frame from one strike to the establishment of Solidarnosc as Free trade union in a sovietic country. No mention of the other counterparts (e.g. Gorbi) or partners (e.g. Adam Michnik) who had a major role in the establishment of Solidarnosc. The movie sounds a bit biased in the sense that it is glorifying only Walesa. But the story telling is often rather a family drama than a historic drama. And this reduces his glory. The daily life in a family in Poland becomes visible and the fact that it affected masses of people as well. The acting is really good by both main characters. Even the secondary roles are good although they are quite stereotyped. The sceneries are very well selected. The views on the huge soviet residence buildings or on the shipyards give the impression that industrial working conditions and poverty affected masses of people.  The movie is good to see from a historical point of view, if one gets informed of the surrounding actors of that period. It is a good movie for the emotional content, the status of Polish worker society at that time.
Rating: 6/10

The Toys that made Us - Season 2 (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Tom Stern
	Actors: Donald Ian Black, Mark Bellomo, David Vonner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: June 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: The history of the success of famous toy lines, and anecdotes behind those.
Review: After a good first season that I qualified of "interesting piece of American pop culture history", this second and last one follows in its footsteps with four more iconic toy lines. However, I found it a little less interesting, maybe because it lacks this placement in the "context of the period: political, social, economical, fashion". It does it a little, but maybe not enough for me to get hooked to the episodes, which I binged-watched anyway in two days. The Star Trek episode is interesting compared to the Star Wars one of the first season. The Transformers one is the best of the season, and even though I could never afford a real Transformers toy, it brought back found memories of other transforming robot toys I owned. The LEGO episode taught me about the ups and downs of the company which I thought has been successful since always. And Hello Kitty nicely presents how toy business is handled in Japan. In fact this second season is much more international than the first. This second season nicely complements the first of this "eight-part Documentary series about the toys that we all know" as the jingle says even though again, it may mean more to an American audience.
Rating: 5 /10

Friends - Season 10 (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Creators: David Crane, Marta Kauffman
	Actors: Jennifer Aniston (We're the Millers), Courteney Cox (Scream 1-4), Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc (Lost in Space), Matthew Perry (The Whole Nine Yards 1-2), David Schwimmer
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: May 2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Follow the adventures of six long-time friends living in New-York.
Review: I don't usually review Comedy TV-series in this 20-minute format but I will make an exception for this one that was revolutionary at the time. I remember that it was announced as such in France back in 1994, when an episode aired in Prime Time and a talk-show debated about it (for those who remember: Ça se discute with Jean-Luc Delarue). I followed the series with passion and laughter for 10 years, like many of us did, almost to the point of getting sick of all the replays. Thus I thought I knew it all too well, but I had forgotten that I saw that last season maybe only once or twice. Thus I enjoyed watching again this conclusion because it put me back in the mood I was when watching it 15 years ago, and in particular I appreciate that it could take the time to build a proper good-bye, and a very emotional one at that, a luxury that many series don't have the opportunity to have nowadays because of abrupt cancellations (the only other one for which I had the same feeling of closure was Sons of Anarchy). I also found the timing right: those 10 seasons were just right to give us enough of our Friends, show them evolve while retaining some aspects that we liked, and say good-bye before it becomes too repetitive. The eternal playboy Joey for example seems a bit out of place by the end of the series, and the attempt to keep him alive in his own series Joey failed miserably after just two seasons. I found that there was a lot of Drama and feelings in that season, well-balanced with the jokes we know the series for. And I even found those jokes more evolved than in the seasons I remember. I found it also funny to see how those urban people lived at a time when internet was young, when there were no smartphones and Facebook didn't exit! We only get hints of online social activities towards the end. In spite of their difficulties I have always found the lives of those young people to be idealized, but I could still relate to them, unlike with the rich kids of Beverly Hills for example. I don't think I will watch other seasons which have probably aged and which I know too well, but it was really nice re-living this season-long conclusion. My rating probably reflects the found memories of the wholes series that this season brought back, rather then its inner qualities or its immediate comedic impact.
Rating: 7 /10

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: J.A. Bayona (The Orphanage, A Monster Calls)
	Actors: Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy 1-2, Avengers: Infinity War), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Spider-Man 3), Ted Levine
	Country: USA, E
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 07.06.2018, CINEMA theater, 3D
Synopsis: After the failure of the theme park Jurassic World, the surviving dinosaurs on the island are threatened of extinction. Claire Dearing (Howard) is fighting for them to be saved.
Review: As a big fan of dinosaurs, I couldn't miss watching a movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, as the first one was for me a revelation. I rather liked the quasi-reboot Jurassic World that could talk both to a new audience and to long-time fans like me thanks to many references throughout the movie. Even though it doesn't make sense, I was baffled by the first 45 minutes of the movie with their volcanic explosions and dinosaurs running around (see the trailer). But then I was continuously disappointed by the story and the action. First, the two main characters start as the same point as they did in the first movie, not where they ended, so that they can go through exactly the same boring evolution. If Jurassic World was a kinda-reboot of Jurassic Park, this one is a kinda-reboot of Jurassic Park: the Lost World with the animals left in the wild, mercenaries, a group of dinosaur-lover to counter their plans, an annoying little girl (well this one is more OK), the second act on US soil, Fallen Kingdom even sounds like Lost World, and Jeff Goldblum makes an appearance (but don't be fooled by the trailer, only during the preamble and epilogue). Other nice actors present in small roles are Toby Jones (Berberian Sound Studio, Captain America: The First Avenger), James Cromwell (Babe, I Robot) and BD Wong from the original Jurassic Park. As usual in all those movies things turn bad but fortunately they resisted the urge to go for bigger and louder and rather came up with a clever dinosaur, anyway terrifying. The second act taking place indoors make it look like too much budget was burnt for the opening scenes, and contrasts with Jurassic World that was really mostly outdoors. All in all, for me it competes with Jurassic Park III for the title of the worst film in the saga to date (out of five).
Rating: 4 /10

Superhero Movie (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Craig Mazin (screenplay writer of Scary Movie 3-4 and The Hangover 2-3)
	Actors: Drake Bell, Leslie Nielsen (Forbidden Planet, The Naked Gun), Sara Paxton (The Innkeepers, Shark Night 3D)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.06.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Rick Riker (Bell), ordinary high school student, can't talk to the love oh his life Jill (Paxton). Until he gets bitten by a super-bug that gives him super-powers.
Review: I used to know by heart all the ZAZ parodies produced in the 80's - 90's by the trio Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker (or part of it) like Airplane!, The Naked Gun, Hot Shots... David Zucker went on until recently with five Scary Movie which I haven't seen, and he is producer on this Superhero Movie. The recipe is always the same: take scenes from a movie sub-genre that is popular at the moment and twist them for comedy. The humor is usually pretty dumb but can work if you are in the right mood, and if you accept the very bad jokes against Stephen Hawking. The difference I found in this movie is that instead of a succession of funny scenes, it is rather a copy of a movie (Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man) from which it repeats the whole structure and many scenes, sometimes not even in a funny way, more like making its own version of it. And on a few occasions are inserted scenes from X-men or Fantastic Four. The movie poster is in that sense totally misleading: it doesn't show neither the bad guy nor the lead female actress Sara Paxton, maybe because she can't compete with the cleavage of Pamela Anderson shown here although she only has a short cameo. The poster also focuses on other characters we barely see, but leaves a good spot to the unmissable Leslie Nielsen, king of the genre, and who does have an extended role to play (as Uncle Ben who survives while Aunt May doesn't!). Nice cameo also from Robert Airplane! Hayes. Remember that it was released on 2008, the year of the first movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Iron Man), so that's all the movies there were to copy at that time, when we though the super-hero trend would soon come to an end... So it's nice to be reminded with this movie what was the cinematographic landscape ten years ago, but I didn't find it very funny. I am probably too old for this kind of humor. In fact I was more interested by the semi-serious scenes that try to be more original and tell their story, and by some subtle details like the name of the characters that start with the same double initials for example.
Rating: 3 /10

Mammuth (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Benoît Delépine, Gustave de Kervern
	Actors: Gérard Depardieu, Yolande Moreau, Isabelle Adjani
	Country: F
	Genre: Drama, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 03.06.2018, arte.tv, French version
Synopsis: Serge Pilardosse (Depardieu) has just turned 60 and retires from his job in a slaughterhouse. He has always worked from the age of sixteen, never been on sick leave. So, how will this man fill his days? His wife Catherine (Moreau), who still works in a supermarket, notices that her husband will not get full retirement benefits since some of his former employers failed to do the requisite paperwork. Serge leaves the house riding his old Munch "Mammut" bike, in search of the missing documents.
Review: The movie is typical from the team based on Canal+ (Groland and Deschiens). Very focused on the main character. Slow and a bit depressing but with always the depiction of a freedom at individual level. At least from what I remember from Aaltra.  The acting is in general slightly depressive as well. Either the actors had a lot of fun acting like this or were also depressed from the script. In this depression the naivety of Serge's niece is funny and the small piece of freedom that Serge finds on his bike becomes emotional. Without this contrast with the latent depression, these two wouldn't have been that good.
Rating: 4 /10

Isle of dogs (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Wes Anderson
	Actors: -
	Country: USA, D
	Genre: Adventure, Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 02.06.2018, Schauburg, Japanese/English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: An outbreak of dog flu has spread through the city of Megasaki, Japan, and Mayor Kobayashi has demanded all dogs to be sent to Trash Island. On the island, a young boy named Atari sets out to find his lost dog, Spots, with the help of five other dogs.
Review: Still in my Japanese month, I needed to see this American story in Japan by Wes Anderson.  The story is very Japanese with the importance of cats and dogs. Remind that one of the most visited monument in Japan is the statue of the Hashiko dog in Tokyo-Shibuya. Here instead of having the dog waiting for the disappeared master, the human looks for his disappeared dog. The human story is a quest in an island plagued by chemical, mechanical and biological pollution. The human story involves a family drama of the orphan Atari. The dog story includes a canine romance, a family story and a friendship adventure. Therefore many sources of tension, of conflict and of climax. The quest introduces some Japanese cultural features such as the fascination for robotics, the controverse on weapon production, .  Visually it reminds sometimes a kind of Super Mario (Nintendo) or Alex Kidd (Sega) from the 80's. When Atari lands his plane on Trash Island, it looks like the introduction of the level 1 of a video game. Each each flash back in the history of Megasaki is introduced by one ukiyo-e (painting Edo era) (again!). This is quite nice as well, especially because these are really beautifully painted. The human voices being in Japanese and the dog voices in English makes it even closer to a Japanese movie. The non-translation of the Japanese voices might be to let us focus on the dog stories. The movie sounds almost like a partial hommage to Japanese culture excluding the Kaiju, the animes and the mangas. The story is interesting because imbricating several stories and several usual common themes in Japanese movies. Good movie for Japan fans and for the visual design.
Rating: 6 /10

Tetsudon: The Kaiju Dream Match (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Hideki Oka
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Adventure, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 26.05.2018, Metropolis, Japan Filmfest Hamburg, Japanese with Enslish subtitle
Synopsis: Kaiju are the huge Japanese monsters such as Godzilla or Mothra. Here 28 directors show their within few minutes their idea of Kaiju movie under the coordination of Hideki Oka. There is therefore a mix of genres drama, adventure, comedy, parody, and technics, photo collage, classical rubber monsters, illustration. The directors going from Sion Sono to Yoshihiro Nishimura!
Review: Because this year I missed both the Nippon Connection in Frankfurt and the Far East Film Festival in Udine, I needed to watch new movies from Japan anyhow. On that Saturday in Hamburg, there was the horror day and therefore I focused on the Kaiju.  This was a collection of low to very low budget shorts involving one or several Kaiju. It was not possible to miss the famous rubber designs like Ultraman. Many new (to me) type of design are presented as well. For instance painted paper with the esthetics of the ukiyo-e (print and painting of Edo era), puppets for children. Many new type of stories with Kaiju, going from scatological to pervert via childish.  It would not be easy to find a common link if the group of Kids seen in one episode would not appear twice again and especially in the last scene as conclusion of their quest and of the viewer's quest for the future of Kaiju.  For a Kaiju fan this movie is good to see because it makes a brainstorming of what the Japanese directors are looking for.
Rating: 4 /10

Viraali (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Thomas Laine
	Actors: Mika Melender, Vili Korteniemi, Visa Sarparanta, Frans Isolato, Saga Sarkola
	Country: FIN
	Genre: Drama, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 21.05.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Finnish with German subtitles
Synopsis: The Bitcoin hype leads different people in the modern Helsinki to cross their way one another. A policeman Kari (Isolato) tighting up a relation with the cellist Saana (Sarkola), a clever hacker Mika (Sarparanta), a young rapper Janne (Korteniemi) and a banker Harry (Melender) with a sick ex-wife think about their partners, about their own dreams and gols in life and about the social media and connected society.
Review: The movie starts with the definition of the word viral in Finnish. And even if it is actually a bit exaggerated, it gives a kind of common theme to the different stories. Most of them are related to the virality of online news, a video about the policeman, a rap video clip, bitcoin data. This questions the connectivity without being only criticism or admiration. This was a good idea. The rest is a tense polar. The different stories are all quite interesting and suspensful. And the sequence where all almost meet is tense and emotionally loaded as each of them built an emotional link.  The actors are fine. Melender and Korteniemi are good in their roles. Saga Sarkola has a wonderful charism even if she did not have a big role. This is promising for future Finnish movies.
Rating: 6 /10