Coexister (2017)

	Also Known As: Ein Lied in Gottes Ohr
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Fabrice Éboué
	Actors: Fabrice Éboué, Jonathan Cohen, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Ramzy Bedia, Audrey Lamy, Mathilde Seigner
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.07.2018, Schauburg, French version with German subtitle
Synopsis: The music production company of Nicolas Lejeune (Éboué) belongs to the group Demanche ruled by Sophie Demanche (Seigner) and the shareholders. To keep his job he has make a success band within 6 months. His idea, to make rabbi Samuel (Cohen), priest Benoît (de Tonquédec) and an Imam (Bedia) sing together.
Review: Basically the challenge taken by Nicolas Lejeune with the band Coexister is like the challenge taken by Fabrice Éboué with the homonymous movie. Mix up three religions with their stereotypes, try to force them work together and film what is coming out of it. To make the religious people or pseudo-religious people more friendly for the mortals Éboué give them some sins or weaknesses that are coming every now and then via recurring jokes.  The Muslim drunkard and womanizer. The Jewish sleepless depressed drug-addict. The Catholic abstinent innocent. All notice that they need to make this band together and manage to find what each one does good and put it together. All the disputes are then taken and wiped out with humour. Time to time the disputes and egos prevail and bring mess. But they all see then that it was stupid and say it and apologize. This is the good message of both Coexister, the band and the movie.  The caricatural acting is sometimes heavy to digest especially when the character has only one face, like priest Benoît. Therefore I had the impression to see some scenes and dialogues repeatedly and this is quite annoying to me.
Rating: 5 /10

Class of 1984 (1982)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1982
	Director: Mark Lester
	Actors: Perry King, Roddy McDowall, Timothy van Patten, Lisa Langlois
	Country: CDN
	Genre: Action, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.07.2018, Streaming, English version
Synopsis: Andrew Norris (King) is a new teacher in an downtown high school that is like nothing he has ever seen before. This school is so dangerous that the students have to go through a metal detector at the front door and almost everything is run by a punk gang lead by a delinquent named Peter Stegman (van Patten). On the first day of music course, Norris and Stegman clash and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.
Review: I came to that movie after President El Trumpo came to the idea to train teachers at school on weapons (New-York Times article). I reminded some movie seen on TV as a kid and found it on youtube here.  The story is well built with an ever increasing violence and tension. All because none of the two sides accept to give up and to loose the face. And between these two self exited parties the few who just wanted peace and did not want to participate finish badly. This reflects the fear of the conservative American society toward its children and their music, the punk in the early 80s. Mark Lester even introduces an association to Neo-nazi mentality by letting the Stegman gang make the nazi sign, wearing tshirts with the Swastika. The main message that I understood is about the justice failing at arresting criminals if no evidence and no testimony is given. One dramatic sentence is given a the end of the movie SPOILER Andy Norris was not prosecuted because the police could not find anyone who actually saw this happen.  The acting of Perry King does not really make it. His role in Riptide matched better. By luck the bad guys and especially Timothy van Patten and Lisa Langlois are convincing and have charisma on the scene. And the teacher Terry (McDowall) is very convincing in avoiding conflicts and in the way he is affected by the murder of his cat. By the way Michael J. Fox has a good role in times before Back to the Future.
Rating: 6 /10

Swimming with men (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Oliver Parker
	Actors: Rob Brydon
	Country: GB
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 04.06.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Eric (Brydon) suffers a mid-life crisis. Boring work, boring family life. He needs some impulse. By casualty he answers to a loud question from a sync swimming men team with his mathematical skills. And he is invited to join.
Review: In each of the stories there are weird and thus funny characters. Each character's story remains also dramatic once we know about them. And this is spread all along the movie giving a well-balanced rythm alternating comedy and drama. All the dramatic and funny moments are linked to the self-esteem of these men. As in their favourite sport they all know that are not the best men, but they support each other, they accept each other whatever is their drama. The contrast of world championship for which we imagine athletic and standardised men and the real team is the source of the major comedy effect.  The actors play their weird roles quite well even if they mostly look caricatured.
Rating: 5 /10

Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Andrew Eastel
	Actors: David Gest, Katherine Jackson, Tito Jackson
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 23.07.2018, VOD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: As the title says.
Review: Nine years (already) after the disappearing of the King of Pop of whom I used to be fan, why not watching a 2.5-hour Documentary on his life and career, produced 2 years after he was gone? The Life of an Icon promised never-seen-before footage, photos and interviews and it delivers for a while. I even learned a few things, especially about the early years, even though I thought I knew it all. The memories of interviewed family members, neighbors and friends of the time add a nice touch. Then came my first problem with the Documentary: after having played heavily (and out of order) the Jackson 5 tubes during the first 45 minutes, it then stops playing Michael and his brother's music as soundtrack to rather use a boring monotonous score as any TV-Documentary would do. I guess it is a stupid question of rights that were not granted, but that does spoil the show. The rise of Michael as solo artist is shown under a slightly new light which is interesting, but I was so disappointed not to see an extract of his performance at the Motown 25 show where he introduced the world to the Moonwalk. Again probably a question of rights but that starts to be annoying. This omission made me remember the TV-series The Jacksons: An American Dream that depicts the life of the Family until the 80's, that is an Americans favorite and that I had watched many times. The Motown 25 re-enactment in this series used to give me shivers as well as the real one. Then the Documentary introduces very honestly the accident that pushed Michael Jackson into painkillers, as well as the plastic surgery issue that was briefly but finally clarified by people close to him. And then third strike against the Documentary: it spends the last hour focusing on the pedophilia trials, in particular the last one that took a heavy tool on the superstar. It also gossips on Family issues and the naive trust of Michael towards others, which made him the target for many abuses. And it does so with many shortcuts that assume the viewer already knows the context because he has followed this charade at the time. Even thought it taught me about those difficult times in the life of the artist, it is done in a way that goes against what he always fought against (in songs from Leave me Alone to Tabloid Junkie). Meanwhile not a word is said about his work since the album Bad in the 80's! Bad turn for a Documentary that had well started.
Rating: 4 /10

Geostorm (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Dean Devlin
	Actors: Gerard Butler (300, Olympus has Fallen), Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Andy Garcia (The Untouchables, Black Rain), Ed Harris (A History of Violence, The Truman Show)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 14.07.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: When the network of satellites designed to control the global climate starts to attack Earth, it's a race against the clock for its creator to uncover the real threat before a worldwide Geostorm wipes out everything and everyone.
Review: Just the title and the poster made me though this movie was a cheap rip-off of trendy disaster movies like Ice Twisters, Sharknado or Polar Storms. But Gerard Butler as lead actor made me doubt so I watched it. And then the name of the director ticked: Dean Devlin has been close producer on the Roland Emmerich movies Stargate, Godzilla, Independence Day, The Patriot... and is now directing his own movie, trying to imitate the same style as his buddy. Too bad that it arrived after The Day after Tomorrow and 2012. As a good SF movie shouldn't do, it mixes too many genres: weather disaster, high-tech space stations (totally unrealistic) and political thriller. Just missing aliens and dinosaurs and it would be an Asylum or Syfy production... or Iron Sky. The difference with the aforementioned productions was the larger budget available for decent actors (they do their part), crew (the movie looks good) and Special Effects: they often look artificial but given the generosity with which they are displayed I will accept that, if you don't watch the movie on too large a screen. Well, it was fun to watch and I will probably do it again in the future when looking for easy entertainment.
Rating: 4 /10

Game of Thrones - Season 7 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Creators: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R. R. Martin
	Actors: Peter Dinklage (X-men: Days of a Future Past), Lena Headey (300, Dredd), Emilia Clarke (Terminator: Genesis), Kit Harington (Pompeii)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: June 2018, inflight entertainment 12" screen
Synopsis: The several families fighting for years around the Iron Throne have to form alliances around the two main contestants, and decide whether the fight against the armies of the Winter King is not more important.
Review: I did not watch this season in the best conditions. First I should have re-watched the previous one just before, like I did for that one, as not only it helps remembering the vast cast but it also puts you right in the mood for more. And then that is the second seasons that I don't watch on a Home Cinema and although it doesn't matter much for most of the scenes, it does for the ones that show landscapes or massive battles, and in general a better image and sound quality would help appreciating better the work on costumes, sets and the work of the actors. I may have complained for many seasons that the pace was slow and the stories disconnected, this season follows the footsteps of the previous ones and shows the hint of the conclusion to come in the next and final season 8, which will be composed of seven episodes as this one because they are in fact a season split in two. As the poster says, Winter is here, and Westeros tired after already many battles is getting ready for the final one. This season renews with the forgotten tradition of killing members of its main cast like it used to do so well at the beginning, and I guess in season 8 there will be blood. I found this season to be well-written (the work of George R. R. Martin among the others): not only the dialogs but the relationship between characters, their reaction making us hate more the ones we hate and love more the ones we love, and some monumental Fantasy moments (waw the last two episodes) that ascend straight to the Pantheon of memorable Fantasy moments in Cinema next to scenes of Conan the Barbarian, even though we are talking about a TV-series. That would have been unimaginable before Game of Thrones. Feeling the series coming to an end (well, the last season is planned for the first half of 2019 so there is still time) slowly makes me want to re-watch the whole of it, and in good conditions. I will be waiting for the blu-ray box-set in 2020.
Rating: 7 /10

Zoolander 2 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Ben Stiller (The Cable Guy, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
	Actors: Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder, Mystery Men), Owen Wilson (Armageddon), Penélope Cruz (Blow)
	Country: USA, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.07.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: When fashion calls them, Derek (Stiller) and Hansel (Wilson) are re-united after 15 years following different paths.
Review: The original Zoolander is a monument of "n'importe quoi", a French term that comes to my mind to describe this absurd Ben Stiller humor that culminated with Dodgeball in 2004. Trying to repeat the same success 15 years later was risky, see Dumb and Dumber 2, and turned out not to work at all for me. The gags repeated from the first movie to create a link and please the fans (the orgy, the look...) don't work anymore, and the new gags are distilled at a slow pace and with the camera staring a bit too long, showing to me that the vivacity of ideas Stiller and his gang had 15 years ago is no more. Still, it is amusing to see them ridicule the world of fashion and what it has become, and the movie correctly dated to that. Also the crazy idea of this world of male models is pushed to the extreme by having them have a special branch at Interpol, led by the sexy Penélope Cruz. The movie plays a lot on the offbeat humor coming from the contradiction between those extreme characters and the real world, but that is not sufficient. But what really managed to get a few smiles out of me were the small roles and cameos: Kiefer Sutherland as orgy leader, Billy Zane (Titanic) as himself, Justin Bieber attempting self-mockery, Sting, a disturbing androgynous Benedict Crumberbatch as the culmination of male slash female modelling, Neil deGrasse Tyson (the astrophysicist from Cosmos) giving the last look of the movie, M.C. Hammer and some real fashion people like Tommy Hilfiger. I won't watch this one as many times as the first.
Rating: 3 /10

Tomb Raider (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Roar Uthaug (Cold Prey, The Wave)
	Actors: Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Dominic West (300), Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 14.07.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she discovers the island where her father disappeared.
Review: I said in my review of the 2001 Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie that this new adaptation of the famous video game could not be any good, but I watched it anyway... To me defense it was playing for free on a very long flight. In general it is not as bad as I could have feared, the movie does try to shine a new light on the female hero especially by having her penniless all along, and her look has been updated to a more realistic less male eye-candy version. Not that Alicia Vikander doesn't look good, but even after watching the movie I still find her physique doesn't match the character. The story is as expected: lost father, ancient artifacts, secret society, travels, exotism... And a lot borrowed from the Indiana Jones movies: the three challenges to pass to reach the goal, really?!?, and the tendency to help the enemy in the end. Even if the movie is watchable, it is just a compilation of pre-digested Hollywood Action (including in-your-face product placement), and I failed to see the touch of director Roar Uthaug whose original Norwegian movies are memorable: Cold Prey, The Wave.
Rating: 3 /10

Eye on Juliet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Kim Nguyen
	Actors: Joe Cole, Lina El Arabi
	Country: CND, F, MA
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Eye on Juliet tells the story of an unlikely encounter between Gordon (Joe Cole), a hexapod operator, and Ayusha (Lina El Arabi), a young woman from the Middle East. Gordon, guardian of a pipeline in this desert region, becomes fascinated by Ayusha, while piloting his robotic spider from the other side of the world, in America. Ayusha is promised to an older man she doesn't love. Despite the distance, their mutual fear and their imperfect interaction, he will do everything in his power to help her escape her fate.
Review: The story looks at the beginning quite interesting. A bored North American living in a kind of virtual world (driving robots in the desert, meeting people only via Tinder) set in opposition to a couple of Moroccan having no access to technology and having a unfolded love story hidden from their tradition parents. Real life vs virtual life. When the twist appears that he tries to help her, the story becomes a very pathetic romance lacking of authenticity. The acting of Lina El Arabi was very convincing until she meets the robot. The two robots walking around the pipeline and chatting with dialogues as Le big Mac from Pulp Fiction was really good. Nevertheless I am pretty sure there are some good stories to write with this kind of robots making the link between two worlds.
Rating: 4 /10

Hotel Artemis (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Drew Pearce
	Actors: Jodie Foster, Sterlin Brown, Brian Terry Henry, Sofia Boutella, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista, Jeff Goldblum
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 09.07.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version
Synopsis: The Nurse (Foster) takes medical care of special patients in a Los Angeles corrupted by riots. When two robbers arrive wounded they got the rooms Waikiki (Brown) and Honolulu (Henry). They meet other patients Nice (Boutella) and Acapulco (Day). There are strict rules to ensure anonymity and trust. Everest (Bautista) deal with the security and the multiple building repairs.
Review: The movie may become a good video game as it has a closed space, specific characters with very specific outfit and skills, and bad big bosses. There is no much more content in this action movie apart from some sharp dialogues such as "This is America. Eighty-five percent of what I fix is bullet holes".  The action scenes are well done, most of them rather suggest the violence than show it. One of them in a corridor could have become a female-driven Old Boy remake but was kept with much less lyrism. I liked seeing again Jeff Goldblum. He manages to make his secondary role very important to the movie.
Rating: 4 /10

Game over, man! (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Kyle Newacheck
	Actors: Adam Devine, Anders Holmes, Blake Anderson, Jamie Demetriou
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.04.2018, Chilean Netflix, English version
Synopsis: Alex (Devine), Darren (Holmes) and Joel (Anderson) are three friends who try to meet a rich guy entering in their hotel in order to make him finance their video game project. It sounds to work well until a group of terrorists led by Mr. Ahmad (Demetriou) make them all hostages.
Review: The plot sounds a bit geek but is not really. It is more a kind of bringing ideas that come up by playing a video in real life. And this can therefore become very creative, unexpected and funny. This is what I liked in that movie. It is then so full of unexpected scenes, unexpected actions and twists all along the movie. I like it. Few scenes remind me Die hard and that makes it also funny. The acting is rather convincing. Three ingenious video games players and developers living in their world and facing an unknown reality. It is exactly what they look like.  Actually the poster gives already too much hints and reduces the surprise effect on which the plot is working so good. With a kind of cause, the movie could have become much better. It is already a good and surprising entertainment.
Rating: 6 /10

Revolt (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Joe Miale
	Actors: Lee Pace, Bérénice Marlohe
	Country: GB
	Genre: War
	Conditions of visioning: 01.04.2018, Chilean Netflix, English version
Synopsis: The story of humankind's last stand against a cataclysmic alien invasion. In the war-ravaged African countryside, a U.S. soldier (Pace) and a French foreign aid worker (Marlohe) team up to survive the alien onslaught. Their bond will be tested as they search for refuge across a crumbling world.
Review: At the beginning I thought about a kind of extension of Starship troopers plot until it is clear that the insect-like war machines are machines. And then it deals only with that. No insight in the thoughts of the humans. The fights are all alike and are very fast very boring.
Rating: 2 /10

Halal daddy (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Conor McDermottroe
	Actors: Nikesh Patel, Colm Meaney, Sarah Bolger, Art Malik, Deirdre O'Kane
	Country: IRL, F, D
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 11.06.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Raghdan Aziz (Patel) flew from his rich father Amir Aziz (Malik) who already has plans for him, work and wife. After a family clash coupled with the reconversion of an Irish abatoir into a halal one, Raghdan tries to build up a project with all his personal community, with his girlfriend Maeve (Bolger), her enraged father Martin Logan (Meaney), stoned buddies and an ex-lover of his girlfriend.
Review: The story is rather a clash of classes (the rich traditionalist father Amir versus his son Raghdan) than the cliché clash of cultures (Moslim Pakis versus White Christian British). The interesting culture clash lays between the fathers. Amir is rather the despotic and merciless businessman making sure that his counterpart understand who has the money. Martin counts on trust and on people even if he lives on racist stereotypes.  The acting is quite burlesque in the sense of exaggerated and satyrical. The fathers and Raghdan. The only acting that looks authentic is Maeve. But I am not sure that an authentic acting would have made the movie better. The fathers were funny that way.
Rating: 5 /10

Fuerzas especiales (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: José Miguel Zúñiga
	Actors: Sergio Freire, Rodrigo Salinas, Loreto Aravena
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: The adventures and misadventures of Corporals Salinas (Salinas) and Freire (Freire), who will have to settle for their lives to be respected by their superiors.
Review: I watched this movie recommended by my cousin. And it was a good choice! The movie is hilarious. I needed an explanation for the recurring "Buenos días Buenas tardes" of the two heroes. It seems that it is the way city people laugh at country boys who cannot decide between the Good morning and the Good afternoon and say both to be sure to be right. The adventures are all based on the daily work of city policemen. Helping people, getting drunkards in jail, looking for the big number where they could surge and boost their career. The love stories and personal stories are full of humour as well. The actors remind me the French duo Eric et Ramzy and their movies (e.g. La tour Montparnasse infernale, Les Dalton) having a similar humour and where apparently stupid people manage to be real heroes. Freire y Salinas are close friend and collabrated in many stand-up comedies. The remaining actors fulfill the caricatural roles.
Rating: 6 /10

Love, Simon (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Greg Berlanti
	Actors: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Logan Miller
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 18.06.2018, Schauburg, OVE Sneak PReview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Simon Spier (Robinson) keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he's gay. When one gay declaration pops up in the highschool blog by a guy called Blue, he feels attracted and starts opening up. But this secret is threatened by a classmate (Miller) who is blackmailing him.
Review: How to make a highschool comedy deal with the difficult homosexual coming out drama. The introduction of the characters, most of the interactions between characters and of the side stories remind the few series I have seen. The main story on the black-mailing, the coming out is a bit classical but well done. The improbable happy end does not make the movie better but ok, the movie is North American.  The acting of Nick Robinson is excellent. He is able to make his role very realistic, when he looks at all the men searching for Blue, when he is chatting, when he hang around with his friends, when he is both disturbed of being in the spotlight. Looking at his filmography other of his films seem quite interesting and demanding (Everything everything, Kings of Summer) for the acting and may end up on JoRafCinema soon.
Rating: 5 /10

Sin filtro (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Nicolás López
	Actors: Paz Bascuñán, Ramón Llao
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: Pía (Bascuñán) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Her boss humiliates her, her husband ignores her, her stepson does not respect her, and her best friend does not listen to her. Pía has a strong chest pain and after trying everything to heal she decides to undergo an acupuncture treatment. The Chinese doctor Yi-Ho (Llao) discovers that Pía's pain is caused by repressed feelings and with an ancient technique he takes out the filter. From now on, Pía will not filter and realize that the only way to heal is to say everything she thinks.
Review: The story is full of stereotyped humour with many scenes and characters having low or no credibility. But the dialogues are funny and the vertiginous attack of truth from Pia to everyone around are also funny. The flow of scenes looks like a series of sketches. And the fun comes from the fact that Pia says what sometimes I had in mind in life scenes. The main actress seems most of the time overdoing either when she supposedly contains her anger or when she explodes. Some characters are good in the sketch format but no more in a movie as they evolve less than their roles. The lights and camera are like for the old Brazilian telenovelas (white light, very visible reflectors). The movie has some ideas, but not much more.
Rating: 4 /10