The Firm (1993)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1993
	Director: Sydney Pollack (Tootsie)
	Actors: Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible 1-5, Collateral Dammage), Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman (Enemy of the State), Ed Harris (The Truman Show)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 08.08.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: A young lawyer (Cruise) joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side.
Review: After recently watching The Pelican Brief, I wanted to complete watching the best four 90's cinema adaptations of John Grisham novels. No national conspiracy in this one, but another lawyer story originally taking place outside of the court. In 1993 Tom Cruise was at the top of his career, if you consider it ever went down. He just starred in Top Gun, Cocktail, Rain Man, Days of Thunder and A Few Good Men, and was about to be in Mission: Impossible, a choice which will dominate his career to this day. Just to say that the movie features a young Tom Cruise playing a young ambitious character, different from the more mature Action Hero roles we now see him in. Oh there is some action in this movie and you get to see the actor run like he does so well, but it is definitely more focused on story and characters. This plays very well with a cast that includes Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Jake Busey, Hal Holbrook and many others. The 90's natural acting is for me the strongest point of the movie. You really root for those characters and suffer to see what they go through. The plot is somehow predictable but the intrigue keeps you glued to the movie nonetheless, thanks to many twists and turns rendering the story less linear than you would expect. A movie which confirms that 90's Cinema was good at something.
Rating: 7 /10

Precarious (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Wes Terray
	Actors: Juliana Frick, Dashiell Hillman, Andrey Pfening
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 29.07.2020, FANTASPOA2020, 14"computer screen.
Synopsis: After being shot with arrows by a mysterious woman, Henry (Pfening) is held by the Police at the Doctor's office from where he then escapes.
Review: I had a good feeling when deciding to watch this movie and was not disappointed. The opening credits put you right in the mood for it: slowly moving camera over pieces of props with the crew's names on it, and the title made out of folded pages of a book, as shown on the photo below this post. Who nowadays makes the effort to design such a sequence? In Precarious, it was the director Wes Terry and his Art director Louise Franco who both did a fantastic job at giving the movie this special 60's atmosphere, sometimes reminding of an episode of The Twilight Zone. I found an interview on Filmink where the director tells you what you need to know about the genesis of the project, and how he could make it happen with just a fixed idea and a reduced crew, albeit it took him seven years to do so. Other members of the crew making the movie what it is are the motivated actors and the composer Ben Eshbach who wrote the melodies which carry the audience along the adventure. You have to love the attention to details in the movie and the perfect framing. Hard to believe the sets were all built in the director's apartment! There are a few moments throughout the movie that give it away however, and hint that it was produced with limited means: the acting at some moments, the cheapness of some set pieces, the lighting and the sound recording. But this is easily forgiven for a first full-length feature, and in comparison with the richness of other aspects. I love that the movie takes its time to reveal the characters and what this is all about, this practice has become far too rare in modern cinema where you are usually thrown into the action by fear that you wold zap to another channel, because who watches full movies in a (home-)cinema nowadays? The way the mystery slowly unravels reminded me of movies by David Lynch, also maybe partly because of the resemblance between the main actor Andrey Pfening and Lynch's favorite Kyle MacLachlan (in Blue Velvet for example). A nice discovery which makes me ever more happy to follow movie Festivals.
Rating: 7 /10

Joker (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Todd Philips (The Hangover 1-3, Due Date)
	Actors: Joaquin Phoenix (Signs), Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver), Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen
	Country: USA, CDN
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 07.10.2019, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version
Synopsis: In Gotham City, mentally troubled comedian Arthur Fleck (Phoenix) is disregarded and mistreated by society. He then embarks on a downward spiral of revolution and bloody crime. This path brings him face-to-face with his alter-ego: the Joker.
Review: The storyline is a mirror of the Bruce Wayne story. "You made me!" We see here how Thomas Wayne (Cullen), Bruce's father, made Joker. And actually not only Thomas Wayne but what he represents. The rich people don't looking at the poor people in the streets, especially when these are getting problems or getting hurt or getting beaten. This is what happens to Arthur Fleck (Phoenix). Being beaten by bad kids first then by Wall Street white collars. Setting Joker as symbol for the class conflict, in parallel to a very personal drift of a mental illness, gives to the character a dimension that I did not remember from the Batman movies nor the Batman comic strips. The scenes of chaos on the streets generated by the Clowns look very similar to what the main TV channels present from the contesting movements such as Occupy, Gilets jaunes, anti-G8 demonstrations. Chaos, destruction. Like these TV channels, this movement and its claims are not really presented. To set a parallel with the mental illness of Joker rises questions on the message of the movie. The acting of Joaquin Phoenix is great! The story helps a lot in giving depth to the character. And he is blowing the screen. The physical transformation that he has followed to embody the mental illness of Joker is impressive. Robert De Niro may have been quite an inspiration for that. The other characters are secondary or very secondary. Even the huge Robert De Niro! The camera follows only Joaquin Phoenix and his transformation from the good boy taking care of his mother and bullied as an adult into the Joker conscientious of his mental illness and accepting it as a fact not to be treated by any drug. The mindset for the camera is to portrait Arthur and his transformation. This enhances the great acting of Phoenix. The movie lets some points open that will be used for sure for upcoming sequels of the Joker.
Rating: 7 /10

Au service de la France - Season 1 (2015)

	Also Known As: A Very Secret Service (English)
	Year of first release: 2015
	Creators: Jean-François Halin, Claire Lemaréchal, Jean-André Yerlès
	Actors: Hugo Becker, Wilfred Benaïche, Christophe Kourotchkine
	Country: F
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: March-June 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: 1960: the French intelligence service hires the 23-year-old André Merlaux (Becker). Handsome, well raised, intelligent but impressionable, Merlaux has much to learn to serve and defend the interests of France.
Review: Since its release I was intrigued by this series and I finally took the time to watch its first season. The last good French series I saw was Marseille and I still have to watch its second season. The topic, time-period and style of humor remind of the OSS 117 movies with Jean Dujardin, but as much as I didn't find the movies funny at all, I quite like the series. Should I try the movies again? Probably not because I remember what I hated was the on-purpose exaggerated acting and the not-funny jokes lasting far too long. What they have in common is a humorist look at the French Secret Services at a time when the country still had colonies in Africa, when it was ruled by the General de Gaulle still in everybody's favors after his participation to the WWII victory 15 years prior, when France thought it was a super-power matching USA and USSR, a very chauvinist France. And the success of this humor is in those secret agents (Jacquard, Moulinier and Calot) pretty incompetent but believing they are the best. For example when they mock a CIA agent for a grammatical mistake in French while they don't speak anything else. The series is peppered with such hilarious moments, like when often the agents are organizing their missions to suit their monetary needs, when the excessive administration burden is highlighted, or when the agents strike and expect the world to burn without them but nothing happens. In parallel we witness the growth of the naive main character Merlaux, his love affair with a girl discovering the sexual revolution, some intrigue around the hierarchy of the services, and a light take on the dramatic events which occurred during the de-colonization, especially in Algeria ("L'Algerie c'est la France!" they say). For a more serious take on those events, you should watch Florent-Emilio Siri's 2007 L'ennemi intime. The season doesn't really wrap up its story but rather invites watching the second, which I will do in the near future. 20-minute episodes are easy to fit.
Rating: 7 /10

VHYes (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Jack Henry Robbins
	Actors: Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, Mark Proksch
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 05.07.2020, NIFFF2020, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: 12-year-old Ralph accidentally records home videos and his favorite late night shows over his parents' wedding tape.
Review: It was hard to tell from the trailer what that movie would be but I had a good feeling. It is a kind of anthology, but with the different sketches mixed all together like when zapping on TV, and with not much story to any of them. Really more like a mix of 70's-looking TV shows recreated nowadays for fun. And if you read what the director has to say on the official website of the movie vhyes.fun, it is exactly what it is. I can easily imagine that such TV-extracts come directly from his experience of watching them secretly in the 80's, especially the Bob Ross-style painting video (going quickly far more bizarre than the original). It is the debut movie by Jack Henry Robbins, and the fact that he is the son of Susan Sarandon  and Tim Robbins explain the surprise of watching those celebrities as cameos in this otherwise low-budget film. Note that it was entirely shot on VHS and Betamax. Also note that the movie is an extension to the two encouraging segments he originally started with. I often laughed at the ultra-kitch 80's style of some segments, making you wonder: people had no shame at the time? And many details throughout are also excellent. A funny concept-movie.
Rating: 7 /10

Victim(s) (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Layla Zhuqing Ji
	Actors: Lu Huang, Remon Lim, Xianjun Fu, Wilson Hsu, Kahoe Hon
	Country: MAL
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.06.2020, FEFF2020, 14" screen.
Synopsis: When high-school student Gangzi (Hon) is killed and his two friends wounded, all suspicions turn to rich kid Chen (Fu) who can't be found.
Review: What starts as a murder mystery turns very quickly to a traumatizing bullying story. I have the feeling this topic is not much tackled in Western cinema, except to show a high-school student as the ultimate asshole. In Asia it is taken very seriously for the life-wrecking drama it can be, as I remember from the Animated Korean The King of Pigs, and shown by the presence of a second bullying movie, Better Days, closing this Far East Film Festival. On a side note, the director of this movie is Chinese (and the original language Mandarin) but she made it in Malaysia to escape censorship in her country. The movie is very good at turning progressively what looks obvious at the beginning (the murderer even confessed) into a much more ambiguous situation, once we see flashbacks of what happened at school. And I can warn you this is not your simple "give me your money" bullying, it goes well beyond to a point where it made me feel ill-at-ease watching the movie. But it cleverly stayed within the boundaries of what I could tolerate. So the whole backstory tells a lot about teenagers, how they treat each other and lie to look better, or not to become the bullied themselves. Bullying and prejudice is everywhere and against everything: money, race, sexual preferences... I sincerly hope this situation is an exaggeration of reality in most schools.  But the aftermath of the murder deals more with how people (adults and teens alike) stupidly react in the face of such situation, in particular by deciding who's fault it is before even a hint of due process. Journalists and random people quickly made up their mind without having knowledge of most of the facts. A behavior I would expect from the teens is in fact shown to be the same in adults. A movie hard to watch, but well-done and successful at delivering its message.
Rating: 7 /10

F is for Future (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Teppei ISOBE
	Actors: Yasuyuki SAKURAI, Hiroki SANO, Chido MATSUMOTO, Kei NAKADO
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.06.2020, NCF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: Instead of worrying about his future, Takuya aimlessly spends his time with his high school classmates.
Review: I had planned to use this movie as a filler in the Nippon Connection 2020 online Festival, as it lasts only 60 minutes and promised a nice humorous teenagers story. I managed to squeeze it in my programme and am the more glad about it. I was expecting more comedy, and awaiting the funny moments annoyingly described in the movie synopsis (spoiler, highlight to read: one of the friends die and the others honor a pact they made of hiding his collection of porn material). Reading that synopsis gives a totally wrong expectation of the movie. Instead, it is a little Drama representing with apparently great realism the life of high-schoolers that age. I loved to watch them hang around, tease each other and behave like teens, with no exaggerations. We see how they react to the facts of adult life that hit them: what to do of their Future, how to leave their family, relationships, death, what others think of you. I guess this is called a coming-of-age movie, and that's a darn good one in spite of its short length. For me it was just perfectly cut, especially if you don't read the annoying synopsis before (but I have to admit it is what attracted me to the movie...).
Rating: 7 /10

Extro (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Naoki MURAHASHI
	Actors: Kozo HAGINOYA, Koji YAMAMOTO, Yuki SAITO
	Country: J
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.06.2020, NCF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: The Japanese film studio “Warp Station Edo” serves as an impressive backdrop for numerous historical dramas. 64-year-old dental technician Haginoya is hired as an extra. Not only his own vanity but also demanding directors and the everyday madness on set stand in his way.
Review: In my video review of that movie seen at the Nippon Connection 2020 Online Festival, I was not able to explain the difference between a mockumentary and a docufiction. The Wikipedia page is very helpful with that: "A mockumentary or docucomedy is a type of movie or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. While mockumentaries are usually comedic, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. However, pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Also, docudrama is different from docufiction; a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements". At JoRafCinema we love this sub-genre, represented for example by the American This is Spinal Tap which coined the name, or the British more recent Shooting Bigfoot. New Zealand produced Forgotten Silver (by Peter Jackson) and the fantastic What we do in the Shadows. Belgium the dark C'est Arrivé Pres de Chez Vous (Man Bites Dog) and Vampires. But Japan has a special talent for this genre, as we can quote Big Man Japan, and more importantly the memorable Sky Jumping Pairs - The Road to Torino 2006 seen at the Far East Film Festival in 2006. So I couldn't miss this new Japanese mockumentary, and I wasn't disappointed. It contains the typical element that the pseudo-directors of the Documentary get more involved in the events, and end up getting lost in their message. Indeed in Extro we jump from the Haginoya story (paying homage to real-World Extra Kozo HAGINOYA by giving him a role in the mockumentary) to one of cops looking for a drug dealer to a mythical bird, and back to Haginoya. In the process we meet characters which are too natural (and stupid) to be true, but the movie never turns to obvious slapstick comedy. There are so many unexpected turns in the movie that it feels like the directors had several topics they wanted to show and couldn't settle on one, but it just adds humor to the helplessness of the fake directors in controlling their subject. Highly recommended.
Rating: 7 /10

Me & My Brother’s Mistress (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Takashi HAGA, Sho SUZUKI
	Actors: Nanami KASAMATSU, Yui MURATA, Satoshi IWAGO
	Country: J
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 11.06.2020, NCF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: Yoko, a high school student, lives with her brother, Kenji.  Since they lost their parents early, they have been supported each other.  One night, Yoko witnesses Kenji, who is planning to get married, having an affair with Misa.
Review: A Romance/Drama is usually not the kind of movie I watch, in this one I was expecting some Comedy but didn't get much. Nonetheless, I re-adjusted my compass and enjoyed the movie anyway. It could have been a menage-a-trois Romantic Comedy but that is over-done. Our link to the characters is not in the trio but outside with the character of the sister. The mistress barely interacts at first with the main couple. And we get to wonder why does the man stick to the tradition of staying with a woman which agrees to give him a family, rather than with a woman he loves, or at least feels good with. As the movie goes, we also wonder about the motivation of the other characters: why is the mistress content with her position, and what does the bride has to say, her who seems very shy. The sister acts as a catalyst in a situation where the status-quo would have normally remained. I like the approach of showing us real-life couples under the pressure of society, instead of over-the-top romances or melodramas. Nicely done. We have done a video review of this movie seen at the Nippon Connection 2020 Festival, which can be found under this link.
Rating: 7 /10

Rick and Morty - Season 4 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Creators: Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland
	Actors (voices): Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, SF, Black Comedy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: December 2019 - May 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Teenager Morty and his genius alcoholic grand-pa Rick continue with their intergalactic multi-dimensional adventures.
Review: I am less crazy about this season than I was about the first three. Maybe partly because this time I watched the episodes as they went out, and I had time to watch each of them several times before the next was released. This is even more true between the two halves of the seasons which were released months apart. But it may also be that the series has lost its edge. It doesn't appear so because the stories and animations and frantic pace are still all present, and the Universe keeps on expanding, but on a sub-consistent level I may feel the series repetitive, in need for fresh air. Again this is not by lack of trying, and the episodes are more crazy one than the other, between the heist movie parody in S4E3 One Crew Over the Crewcoo's Morty, the Dungeon&Dragons adventure in S4E4 Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty, the unexpected side story in S4E8 The Vat of Acid Episode, or finally a time travel story (with snakes) in S4E5 Rattlestar Ricklactica, the show is bursting with ideas more than ever. A second viewing is in fact mandatory to catch more references and visual details in episodes which are denser than in the first seasons, and I even recommend aid form the YouTube channel NewRockstars which dissects the episodes for you. This may be part of the problem I have in fact, that I have to pause and rewind the episodes several time to understand what's going on, instead of watching more relaxed jokes that have time to sink in. And if the show apparently doesn't follow up on stories the fans would like to see (like Evil Morty), it does on the last episode S4E10 Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri which is one of the best of the season. Not so thrilled by this series like I used to, but still very satisfied by the best adult series available for me today. More seasons are confirmed to be coming, and with less wait between each.
Rating: 7 /10

Death Wish (1974)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1974
	Director: Michael Winner (Scorpio, Death Wish 2-3)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7), Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 17.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: New York City architect Paul Kersey (Bronson) sees his life changing when his home is attacked in his absence. Facing the inefficiency of the Justice system, he will start to take it in his own hands.
Review: I had to watch this classic movie right after discovering the 2018 remake with Bruce Willis. It shocks me that movies from the 70's, probably my favorite decade for Cinema, are now between 40 and 50 years old... like me. When I first saw them they were half that age, and me too. I thought I knew this movie but I learned that there are five in the series and I probably only know the third (from 1986), when he cleans up a whole city from gangs Robocop-style. This Death Wish, adapted from a best-seller novel by Brian Garfield, is much less extravagant but already sets the bases of the series of vigilante movies, in its story and themes but also style: many urban night scenes, rampant unpunished crime, background newscasts, almost post-apocalyptic settings... But it also has many deviations from what one would expect, like for example the trip to Tucson, the relationship with his son-in-law (who calls him Dad, that sounded strange to me), and the choices of his victims. Indeed in this movie he teases random people with his wallet or groceries, to simply execute them when they ask for it. Those are not even gang members or the worst criminals, but some guys who got tempted by easy money. This leaves a strange taste at the end of the movie, and put a different weight in the debate for or against his Vigilante Justice. Also the original crime happens so fast and is so gratuitous, and (spoiler, highlight to read) we never see the offenders again (including a young Jeff Goldblum) that it leaves you insecure at the end of the movie. I do not know if people felt that bad about safety in their cities in the 70's, but such movie doesn't paint a pretty picture of it. I found the acting to be not so good, Bronson plays a bit flat as the others, and the character's reactions are sometimes strange. But it may be normal for a movie from that period. The images however are stunning, from the first shot to the last. Be it beach, urban, interior or countryside, the sets are all beautifully detailed and the framing delicious. I really love that in the 70's and was delighted to see the movie in Full HD and uncompressed, not the soup that Netflix passed for HD. Definitely not a masterpiece, but Death Wish takes a stand that movies don't anymore nowadays, especially not his remake, and that leaves the audience with a strange feeling at the end, something that lingers for some hours. I like when movies do that and they are now all too rare. I am also looking forward to seeing more movies by Michael Winner like Scorpio.
Rating: 7 /10

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
	Actors: Will Smith (Independance Day, I am Robot), Martin Lawrence (Bad Boys 1-2, Blue Streak), Vanessa Hudgens
	Country: USA, MEX
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.03.20, Cinepolis La Reina, Santiago
Synopsis: Miami cops Marcus (Lawrence) and Mike (Smith) have been partners for a lifetime. As they reflect on their future, an expected new challenge will pull them back into doing what they do best.
Review: It is not the first time that a movie series (like a trilogy) starts with a modest first movie, a much better second one, and is completed some 5 to 30 years later with the obvious goal for the studio and actors to cash in some more money in a time of need. And the result is almost always bad. From the top of my head some French comedies to illustrate that: Les bronzés 3: amis pour la vie, Les Visiteurs: La Révolution and to a lesser extend Camping 3 and Le Coeur des Hommes 3. It is also true for American movies like Incredibles 2, Scream 4 and Riddick. Giving the control of the new movie to the same director often results in a failure, but a new guy may fail as well. A good counter-example is for me Mad Max: Fury Road, which original director George Miller made the best sequel one could have done so long after. Given those statistics, I was expecting to be bored by a third Bad Boys movie but went to see it anyway for some explosions and harmless fun. Boy was I surprised. The original director of Bad Boys and Bad Boys 2 Michael Bay is not at the reigns of this one (although you can see him in a funny cameo), but instead they were given to Adil and Bilall whom I never heard of before. I haven't search for information, but I have a feeling that those guys grew up watching Michael Bay movies until they became directors themselves, and put everything they loved back into this movie. I noticed because I recently watched and loved the first two. It can't be as good as the second, but it was so unexpected that it deserves almost the same rating. What did I like in the movie? The dynamics between the two main characters which is still working after that time, they still manage the same mix of cracking jokes soon after serious situations. They also say the proper amount of "shhhhhit!" like I was hoping for.  The music and the Miami setting still give a special vibe to a movie taking place far from the west coast, cameos of characters from the first movies like Joe Pantoliano as the captain which I was expecting, but also John Salley as the former prisoner now police tech guy Fletcher (at least I think I saw him but the whole Internet refutes) and Dennis Greene as Reggie. The camera moves try to be as original as in Bad Boys 2 without ever being annoying. The movie even includes a twist and takes an unexpected turn 30 minutes before the end, a much-appreciated peculiarity of Bad Boys 2 revered in Hot Fuzz. But in addition to giving the audience what they liked, they also managed to make the movie more than a sequel by changing the rules of the game, killing some beloved characters or putting others in real danger. One ridiculous thing though is when drones fly inside buildings and nobody can hear them. Have you already been near one of those things? The only way it could have been better would have been during the plane scene when they start to shock passengers, to have an apparition of Air Marshall Dinkley played by Kevin Hart seen in Hobbs & Shaw, tying this trilogy to the Fast and Furious franchise. That would have been awesome. The ending calls for the sequel which I don't find necessary. I also read that a spin-off series exists entitled L.A.'s Finest, but I don't know what it's worth. But with Bad Boys for Life: I had a great time!
Rating: 7 /10

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Tim Miller (Deadpool)
	Actors: Linda Hamilton (The Terminator 1-2), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Predator, Maggie, Total Recall), Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV-series), Natalia Reyes
	Country: USA, E, CN, H
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 24.01.2020, VOD, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: A Terminator and a soldier from the future arrive in Mexico. After locating their target, they are soon met by Sarah Connor (Hamilton) who is on a mission.
Review: Arguably the best Terminator movie since T2: Judgment Day. T3: Rise of the Machines was a semi-parodic sequel and the last movie with Arnold before he turned Governator, T4: Salvation tried a new approach and failed, and the reboot T5: Genisys was fun to watch but didn't make much sense especially without sequel to answer the questions it left open. In fact the best Terminator recent material may be excellent novels T2: Infiltrator, T2: Rising Storm and T2: The Future War, followed by The Sarah Connor Chronicle TV-series. And in fact Dark Fate reminds me of those good references with its augmented human, the meeting with an old Arnold and other details. I love how the movie opened, thanks to digital de-aging tech, putting you in the mood you were right after watching T2 and making clear that it is a direct sequel to that one. The concept is always the same: a future AI sends a killer back in time to terminate the savior of humanity, followed by a protector sent by the future resistance. But the movie clarifies early on that Skynet was never born, replaced instead by another AI hinting that this kind of future is, under a form or another, humanity's Dark Fate. I like both characters from the future, I like the one they are trying to protect, I like how Sarah is back and how it is explained and the same goes for the original Terminator although I would have preferred it to be a twist. It was almost for me as I was not sure whether Arnold was in this movie, that's the upside of not watching trailers and not even seeing movie posters. Just the basic poster ruins everything, telling you who is back, who is the robot and who the protector, unlike so well-done in T2 when the awesome revelation comes as a surprise. There are many fights in the movie against an apparently invincible machine but they are well choreographed and play the proper role of propelling our characters forward to escape from the enemy. I feared bad special effects from the first shots in the movie but they turned out to be generous and pretty good. Fan service is present but rather discreet and well-placed (except for the not welcome "I'll be back"). Most important, I found that Schwarzenegger was well in the role, better-looking than in any of the movies he shot post-Governator, and with a few hilarious lines. I don't understand why the movie was not more successful, maybe because of how it was marketed or because of its release date. Although it seems unlikely, I would love to see a sequel explore the many possibilities left open by the ending...
Rating: 7 /10

The Movies that made Us - Season 1 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: -
	Director: Brian Volk-Weiss
	Actors: Donald Ian Black, William Atherton, Richard Edlund
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: January 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: The story behind the creation of some iconic movies.
Review: This series is brought to you by the same team that did The Toys that made us, but while I watch that other for its pop culture stories, this one really talks about some of the Movies that made me. As I mentioned in my other reviews, I was not much playing as a kid with brand toys and their story as depicted in the series didn't happen in Europe: most of the associated TV-shows were non-existent and those toys were really expensive. Movies on the other hand, I could enjoy for free and from an early age (dubbed in French of course), like three of the four presented in that first Season: Home Alone, Ghostbusters and Die Hard. Believe it or not, I had never seen Dirty Dancing before. It is not so surprising that this girly movie about dance didn't "make" me like the others, but I had plenty of opportunities to watch it since but I never did. This is now fixed, as I watched it in order to be able to complete my review of this TV-series! The presentation of the series is similar to The Toys that made us: humoristic and dynamic narration, interviews with the main contributors, no fear to mention the failures and conflicts, tons of archive footage, and apparently a lot of research. The series is different from the kind of making-of we usually see as bonus on DVD/Blu-ray editions for several reasons. First they managed to get a lot of footage and interviews around those relatively old movies. Then the narration and interviews make the story less neutral. In particular it is often annoying that in a making-of everything seems to have gone well, people are all in good terms with each other... which is not real life, and the series is more fair in that respect. The movies selected for this first season have in common that they were small productions from the 80's that had a huge success, although very few believed in them at the start. It means that kids who saw them in theaters or soon after on TV are now in their 40's, like me, and able to talk about how those movies influenced them, and eventually make a TV-series about them. I definitely recognize myself as one of those. Being transported while watching those movies at home with my parents, by the fireplace, after a family dinner, with my brothers, built found memories that I will never forget. It is thanks to such movies that I grew a love for Cinema and Genre in particular, and that I started this blog years later. OK the series is well-done but is not a masterpiece, but I give it an extra rating point for the meaning behind the title. What other movies from that time period made me and could be in the second season (also inspired by what his creator is planning)? Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones 1, 2, 3, Jurassic Park, Alien 1&2, Terminator 1&2, Predator, Robocop, Total Recall, Lethal Weapon, many Westerns.. If you add the constraint that the movie has to be an underdog the list shrinks.
Rating: 7 /10