The Italian Job (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: F. Gary Gray (The Negociator)
	Actors: Donald Sutherland (Space Cowboys), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights, Transformers 4), Edward Norton (Fight Club), Seth Green (Idle Hands), Charlize Theron (Prometheus), Jason Statham (The Transporter)
	Country: USA, F, GB
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 05.02.2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: One year after a job in Venice, a bunch of thieves re-unites to right a wrong.
Review: Watching The Italian Job makes me want to see the original 1969 movie with the same title and starring Michael Caine. The story is quite realistic and there is no exaggerated display of action and unjustified (CGI) stunts like we would see if the movie had been produced ten year later. The spirit of the original material may have helped in keeping this one down-to-Earth, and this is a good thing. The idea of using the Minis is good, and the story contains enough suprises to keep one interested. Not a masterpiece of cinema but a honest movie. Unfortunately spoiled by some characters poorly described and some scenes less well-written. It is funny to compare the tagline "Get in, get out, get even" with the one of Drive: "Get in, get out, get away"
Rating: 6 /10

Best of cinema by Mad Movies. Part 5: 2011-2012

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

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1974
	Director: Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Diamonds are Forever)
	Actors: Roger Moore (Moonraker), Christopher Lee (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Britt Ekland (The Wicker Man)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 03.02.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: The MI6 secret service agent James Bond (Moore) is targeted by the mysterious Saramanga (Lee) who believes that Bond is in the world the only match for him in a duel.
Review: There used to be a time in the mid-nineties, while Pierce Brosnan became Bond, when I could list from memory the title of all the Bond movies to date because I had seen them all on TV a few times... except for one that always seem to miss. I think I have now found it, because I have no recollection of ever watching The Man with the Golden Gun. I came to acquire the Blu-ray and watch it this time because I may visit the so-called Bond Island (Khao Phing Kan) where the movie was shot, during my holidays in Thailand next month. The location, where the villain built his base, is indeed heavenly when shown on film. I fear that with hordes of tourists in the picture it will be less so. The movie also features a car race in Bangkok which I thought could show me how the city looked like in the 70's. The Blu-ray image quality is quite impressive for a movie older than me, Roger Moore seems at ease for his second movie in the Bond outfit, and Christopher Lee is perfect as this world-class hitman that bills 1 million dollars the hit (with golden bullets). The movie starts well with a classic Bond look and story, making me realize that in no other movie than a Bond would the viewer accept the behavior of the hero, the easiness with which all women are attracted to him, or the ever-changing locations, seemingly selected just for their good looks: Macau, Hong-Kong, Bangkok. But after half an hour the rhythm slows down, there seems to be a lack of ideas and the situation will unfortunately not improve until the end. The lovely Britt Ekland (funny to see her re-united with Lee one year after The Wicker Man) doesn't bring anything except spending half the time in swimming suit. The action is slow, polluted by recurrent not-funny cameos by an american police officer which mean even less if you have not seen Live and Let Die before. And beyond the personal threat to Bond, the evil plans of Saramanga are treated as a useless side-story. Searching the web I have indeed found that the movie more than often appears towards the bottom of the Bond movies ranking lists. The one good idea of the movie is to place the MI6 offices in Hong-Kong inside the half-sunk wreck of the Queen Elizabeth, tilted at 60 degrees so that level platforms are built everywhere to accommodate the personnel. A very unusual and very well done set.
Rating: 4 /10

Clear and Present Danger (1994)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1994
	Director: Phillip Noyce (The Saint)
	Actors: Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones 1-4), Willem Dafoe (Spider-man, Platoon), Anne Archer, James Earl Jones (Conan the Barbarian)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 02.02.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: When his boss (Jones) gets sick, Jack Ryan (Ford) is appointed CIA deputy director of Intelligence and entrusted with the task of discovering the connection between the murder of a friend of the President and Colombian drug cartels.
Review: I have now fresh in memory the five cinema adaptations of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels, so that I can sort them as follows: 1) The Hunt for Red October (1990): not yet reviewed on this blog but deserves 9/10 2) The Sum of All Fears (2002): 8/10 3) Clear and Present Danger (1994): 7/10 4) Patriot Games (1992): 6/10 5) Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014): 4/10 Although I haven't seen The Hunt for Red October in three years at least, I know that it is the best of all five. Clear and Present Danger is not bad at all, shot back-to-back with Patriot Games by the same director, with the same cast and also crew I guess. I liked the story better than the one of Patriot Games, and enjoyed a lot the pristine image quality brought by the Blu-ray HD transfer. Jack Ryan is not anymore an anonymous CIA analyst involved in world-class (nuclear) threats, but a high-ranking bureaucrat involved in more local American matters, although they do involve the President of the USA. I liked the low-key tone of the movie, uncharacteristic of the 90's, which takes time to introduce its characters and never shows action when not necessary. Actually action scenes are very few and culminate with the motorcade attack at mid-length of the movie. The actors are convincing (Jones is great, Dafoe not less, but Anne Archer looks bored reprising her role of Jack's wife), the images look good and the suspense palpable. A nice spy-thriller.
Rating: 7 /10

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2005
	Director: George Lucas (Star Wars I, II, IV)
	Actors: Hayden Christensen (Pusher), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 30.01.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: War continues to rage between the Republic and the separatists
Review: After recently enjoying The Lord of the Rings trilogy in Blu-ray, I was tempted to watch on the same support that other great story for geeks in six episodes: Star Wars, but I didn't know where to start. I think I already wanted to do that two years ago when I reviewed Episode IV: A New Hope, but never went on with the rest. This time I wanted more action and special effects so I watched the latest release: Episode III, because I know too well Episode I and I don't like too much the pod race, especially not the extended version, and I still remember vividly the ridiculous romance moments from Episode II. Some of those still transpire in Episode III (the embarrassing: "because I love you", "no, because I am so in love with you!"), but the fact that it does the link to the classic trilogy makes it more attractive. As usual with Star Wars, some great things are the colorful landscapes and the variety of no-less-colorful characters. And Space battles are too rare in cinema to complain about the ones generously displayed here, from the opening sequence already. And there are two sequences to save: when Padme confesses to Anakin her thoughts that they might be fighting on the wrong side (a prelude to the Rebellion), and when the same both characters separately look through windows in silence (only very light soundtrack music) and Anakin then takes the decision that will change the fate of the Galaxy. But beyond this fantastic universe created in 1977, I realized that the movie contains a lot of empty dialogs, delivered by unconvincing actors. If the role of the director is to guide the actors, then you understand why Lucas has not done it in a while: it is not his strength. Christensen plays like a bad Ryan Gosling, McGregor is bored and the worst is McDarmid that overplays the Emperor to the extreme. At the end of the projection, I clearly didn't feel like I do when I watch the episodes of the classic trilogy. Maybe I should rather resume with those in the near future. After that, J. J. Abrams can only save the saga with his Episode VII to be released at the end of this year.
Rating: 5 /10

Megamind (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Tom McGrath (Madagascar 1-3)
	Actors (voices): Will Ferrell (Zoolander, Elf), Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street), Brad Pitt (World War Z, Fight Club)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 31.01.2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Megamind (Ferrell) and Metroman (Pitt) have always been enemies and fighting for the control of Metro-City.
Review: Between Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks and some other studios, there are so many animated films that are released every year (5-10) that I can't keep up. There used to be a time when I knew them all. I was not very attracted by Megamind, as I am usually not a big fan of Dreamworks' productions: Madagascar, the whole Shrek series, The Road to El Dorado, Over the Edge... But this trend might be changing with some movies I enjoyed like Kung Fu Panda, and I heard some good about How to train your Dragon. The tide is definitely turning, as I like Megamind better that Pixar's latest Brave. What I like here is the character of Megamind who choose to be evil but has a big heart as we will discover throughout the movie, especially when he unexpectedly gets control of the city he has always wanted. There are the usual elements one would expect in an animated feature aimed at kids: slapstick humour, light romance, funny animals (this time a fish), but for some reason I found the mix well done. The secret to a good animated movie (one could say to any movie) might be good characters, even more importantly than a good story.
Rating: 7 /10

Match Point (2005)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2005
	Director: Woody Allen (Vicky Christina Barcelona)
	Actors: Scarlett Johansson (Captain America 1-2, The Man who wasn't There), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (From Paris with Love), Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode (Watchmen)
	Country: GB, RUS, IRL, L, USA
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 31.01.15, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Chris Wilton (Meyers), tennis teacher, falls in love at the same time with the sister (Mortiner) of his student/friend (Goode) and with his girlfriend (Johansson).
Review: Believe it or not, it is the first Woody Allen movie I have ever seen and from what I was told, it is not characteristic of his style. But as I liked it I will probably be watching some other, starting with Vicky Christina Barcelona or Small Time Crooks. Drama and especially Romance are not genres I watch too often, but I thought I could give it a try with this Woody Allen and I was not disappointed. The characters are very well written and very "real-life" although I cannot identify with the members of the rich family. There is a lot of talking in the movie of course, but so well written that the two hours of the movie go by easily. I was even actually increasingly stressed by the impossible situation in which the main character puts himself. The actors are pretty good, in particular Scarlett Johansson that I have only seen in action movies in the past years (except for the recent Under the Skin). Match Point reminds me that she can be a good actress, and I should probably watch again some of her earlier work like The Man who wasn't There. And I love the conclusion of the movie, totally not what you would expect from any Hollywood movie. This even showed me how much the ending can change how I perceive a movie. Had it ended in a more classical and predictable way, Match Point would have only rated 6/10 or 5/10 for me.
Rating: 8 /10

From Paris with Love (2010)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2010
	Director: Pierre Morel (Banlieue 13, Taken)
	Actors: John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Broken Arrow), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Match Point), Kasia Smutniak
	Country: F, USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 01.02.2015, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: James Reese (Meyers), wanna-be spy working at the American embassy in Paris, teams up with super-spy Charlie Wax (Travolta) whose methods are rather extreme.
Review: Yet another Luc Besson production for Europacorp. And yet another spy thriller taking place in Paris, like Taken, as if any movie with such story would be a success like Roman Polanski's Frantic with Harrison Ford. Unfortunately, where Taken had its share of emotion, action and was carried by a Liam Neeson showing a new side (but that he has been using in many movies since), none of that shows in From Paris with Love although from the same director. Even if the story could look original and interesting at the beginning, it then get completely confused and is just an excuse to show Travolta shoot anything that moves and pretending very mysteriously to know exactly what he is doing (as in Shoot'em up with Clive Owen but in that case it was done on purpose). Pathetic. The only good thing is Travolta's haircut or absence thereof.
Rating: 0 /10

Foxcatcher (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Bennett Miller
	Actors: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.01.2015, Schauburg, OV sneak preview
Synopsis: The Olympic Wrestling Champion Mark Schultz (Tatum) is called to join Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John du Pont (Carell) as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul. His brother Dave (Ruffalo) joins later.
Review: The story could be summarized to Mr Burns from the Simpsons buying a team to satisf his ego. And when he cannot play as he likes to, he gets bad. There is the role of the father for Mark that plays a role in the movie. This could have been an excellent subject, but it is almost not shown neither by the acting nor by the directing nor by the story. From a historical point of view and a cinematographic one, I find this movie useless. Even if a slight suspense is built up, I had no emotion no feeling watching this. The acting of Tatum and Ruffalo is purely inspired by chimpanzee. The face of Steve Carell being glued all the time, his acting is limited to a light body language. It is a pity because I usually like Ruffalo (Begin again) and also the comedies with Carell (Crazy Stupid Love). Actually, I start to believe that these are doubles of Ruffalo and Carell.
Rating: 0 /10

Birdman (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, Babel, Biutiful)
	Actors: Michael Keaton (Batman, Multiplicity), Emma Stone (The Amazing Spiderman 1-2), Edward Norton (Fight Club), Naomi Watts (King Kong)
	Country: USA, CDN
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 19.01.2015, Schauburg, OV sneak preview
Synopsis: A washed up actor, who once played an iconic superhero, battles his ego and attempts to recover his family, his career and himself in the days leading up to the opening of a Broadway play.
Review: It is not easy to have a consensual idea of the whole story. After having seen the movie, on 5 persons, we had 5 understandings of the story, of the goal. The movie does not stop with the closed curtain.What I like and reminds me some David Lynch movies such as Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive. The acting is excellent, because it really feels like a concentrate of emotions, of strong emotions, on many characters and especially the four main ones. Every time that there is a change in the situation (new room, people coming out or coming in the frame) there is also and immediately an emotional topic (as different as e.g. father/daughter relationship, missing father, ego, career, goal of acting, professional competition, love rivalry, frivolity) discussed and brought to the point. This means the dialogues have been subtly written.  The long take is impressive and there must be some tricks as the camera passes time to time through guardrails or so. This shows not only a great mastering of the direction to organise all the sequence and the actors, the locations, the objects (Iñárritu), but also of cinematography and photography (Emmanuel Lubetzki, who did also Interstellar with the amazing first scene).
Rating: 8 /10