The White Storm 2: Drug Lords (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Herman Yau (Ip Man: The Final Fight)
	Actors: Andy Lau (Yesterday Once More, Infernal Affairs 1-3), Louis Koo, Kiu Wai Miu
	Country: HK, CN
	Genre: Polar, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 25.07.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: A wealthy businessman (Lau) tries to take down a drug kingpin that he used to work with (Koo), while a policeman (Wai Miu) tries to find justice without breaking the law.
Review: This movie was presented at the Far East Film Festival 2020, but I watched it afterwards. Hong-Kong can produce excellent Polars like I have discovered by following the Festival over the years, but this movie is not one of them. It is a title-only thematic sequel to the 2013 apparently more successful The White Storm. It stars one of the most famous Hong-Kong actors Andy Lau which I personally discovered in Infernal Affairs trilogy since 2005. It is funny how he still plays a charmer with a young wife about to start a family, although the actor is close to 60! (OK he doesn't look them). A bit like John Wayne or Charles Bronson in their times. The trailer promised a lot of Action, and that we get, but there is no way to read it. It is notoriously hard to clearly film a three-way shoot-out and there are many in this movie but it seems Herman Yau didn't even bother trying. I was confused many times about who did what and who came out victorious. Even the non-Action scenes are edited quickly and the logic in the transitions is hard to find, for example two events taking place at different places and time are edited without change of music or any information to indicate you that something has changed. Even the story doesn't make much sense: a drunk hitman becoming a finance billionaire? I had to pause the movie and search Wikipedia for confirmation that I got that right. The movie seemed to have enough budget to film big shoot-outs and car chases but it often resorts to cheap special effects reminding of the worst in the Fast and Furious franchise, in particular the scene where cars enter the subway reminds in its good and bad the tunnel scenes in Fast and Furious (the fourth movie). Enough said, this is an example of bad Hong-Kong Action polars. Harman Yau is certainly talented but he should maybe direct a good movie every couple of years rather than 2-4 bad ones per year like he does now.
Rating: 2 /10

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

	Also Known As: Tôkyô nagaremono (original)
	Year of first release: 1966
	Director: Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon)
	Actors: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani
	Country: J
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 04.06.2020, Arte, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: The former head of a Yakuza gang dismantles his clan and is left with his closest henchman. When a formal rival gang tries to scam him of his property, they are both struggling to not reply with violence.
Review: In preparation to a month with not one but two Online Asian film festivals (the Nippon Connection and the FEFF), we found proposed on the Arte channel a series of Asian movies in different genres: A Touch of Zen, Blind Woman's Curse, Mr. Long, Ichi (the samurai woman) and this Tokyo Drifter (no relationship with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, although...). As I am those days in the mood to watch movies from the 70's I chose this one from 1966. I knew a little about the Japanese Cinema of that period (I have been to many FEFFs!), but I was still surprised by the quality of some parts of the movie, the ideas in composition and music, and the modernity of the cities at that time, in par with their American counterpart. Japan was in fact on its way to becoming the synonym of High-Tech it will be in the 80's. It is a bit hard to follow at start, having read the synopsis before helped, and then it became obvious it was not only because of me that the film was hard to follow, this is how it is done. A quick research after watching the movie (see its Wikipedia page) clarifies things: the director Seijun Suzuki, in fact already known on this blog for Branded to Kill, was known by its studio (the famous Nikkatsu) for his style getting crazier with time, so they kept on reducing his budgets, which in turn forced him to go for more and more abstraction. It is funny to think that I have always the feeling that Japanese studios have no control or overview over their directors as often shown by the too long final product. Note that this director is responsible for five more movies in 1966 alone! Those were crazy times. This conflict with his studio explains what I saw in the movie: confusing ellipses, brutal editing (it feels like the movie was edited to half its lengths to please Western audiences), confrontations coming out of nowhere... It also helped reading that the movie is intended as a parody of other genres and of the Japanese Cinema system. I am not trained enough to catch that. On the other hand, the movie includes some great ideas: first the story of a Yakuza gang being dismantled, then the jazzy soundtrack and the Surf Rock playing in the discotheque scenes, the colorful palette throughout the movie, the setting in different towns (even though we see only little of them) reminding me of my own Japan train-trip, some artistic fight scenes, and the final theatrical confrontation. All in all it has some feeling of French New Wave. Not an easy watch, but pleasant and interesting nonetheless.
Rating: 4 /10

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1987
	Director: J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes)
	Actors: Charles Bronson (The Magnificent 7, Death Wish 1-5), Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Action, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 02.06.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Paul Kersey (Bronson), ex-Vigilante, now has his own Architect studio in Los Angeles and a new love interest. When her daughter overdoses, Kersey's instincts come back to the surface.
Review: After the best movie of the series Death Wish and the most memorable Death Wish 3, the prospect of watching this one made me feel like they were stretching the concept a bit too long. but when you watch it to the end, it is in fact a valid addition to the franchise, if there is such thing. Exit the punks stealing and murdering for kicks, Kersey now goes against organized crime. The story justifies quite well his return to the streets, and the coincidence that plagues the beginning of the movie like the previous two is cleverly put back into context at the end. The way he returns to the streets is however different, as he has at his disposal a full arsenal of gadgets that he uses to decimate the two rival gangs. This often feels too much, culminating with the explosive bottle of wine, one reducing in particular to ashes the future star debuting in that movie: Danny "Machete" Trejo. As usual we follow in parallel the Police investigation, one of the better shown and including a nice twist. The whole story is in fact well written with the right balance of Action and twists and suspense... and it is well shot by a renowned director. Among the more annoying things are the big ellipse in the side story with Kersey's girl, and the Acting in general but what did you expect? I totally forgot it but I think I have seen this movie once because I was half-expecting the third act. Or I have seen the same story structure in another movie: (spoiler, highlight to read) the hero is tricked into eliminating two rival gangs by a third. Anyway, much better than I was expecting.
Rating: 6 /10

Scorpio (1973)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1973
	Director: Michael Winner (Death Wish 1-3)
	Actors: Burt Lancaster (Airport, The Island of Dr. Moreau), Alain Delon (3 hommes à abattre, Pour la peau d'un flic), Paul Scofield
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 24.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Back from a mission in Paris, CIA operative Cross (Lancaster) and his partner Scorpio (Delon) are trailed, but don't want to report to the Agency.
Review: I am currently in the mood for 70's movies after watching Death Wish with Charles Bronson. The same director led me to this Scorpio which I thought I had heard about. Its peculiarity is that it stars two monsters of Cinema at the time, like there were in that period: Burt Lancaster in the USA and Alain Delon in France and a bit abroad. It is interesting that like their characters, one is at the end of his career while the other is about to reach the top. This cast doesn't lead to a fight of egos like I was expecting, although they do get all the screen time. The story is one like we don't see nowadays, one taking place during the Cold War and when the memory of WWII was still warm. And the depiction of spies from that time was not the same as we see now in any Mission: Impossible. In this movie the CIA seems all-powerful, while leaving a lot of freedom to mini-leaders in the Organization to fight their own wars, like is the case with this McLeod who wants the main characters dead. The motivation of everybody is a bit obscure, making the movie hard to follow (also because of many names not well introduced). The movie is ambitious, taking place in as many locations as Paris, Washington and Vienna. And it tries to make the characters relatable. It is good-looking in general, but in the end I found it too confused to me. Scorpio leaves many things unexplained to strengthen the Mystery, but this left me uninterested.
Rating: 4 /10

Stuber (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Michael Dowse
	Actors: Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy 1-2, Blade Runner 2049), Kumail Nanjiani (Sex Tape, Men in Black: International), Mira Sorvino (Mimic)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 07.12.2019, in-flight entertainment system, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: After losing his partner, Vic (Bautista) cannot forgive himself. While he is trying to reconcile with his daughter, he is tipped on where to find the responsible gangster. He hires an Uber driver (Nanjiani) to get there.
Review: This is a kind of easy-going comedy with huge plot holes and non-believabe characters' reactions, also pretty dumb sometimes, but you have to take it for what it is: brainless distraction. You may even get a few laughs on the way. Dave Bautista and Karen Gillan from Guardians of the Galaxy get re-united for a very short time, but then's it is all about the difference in character between Vic (caricatural police brute) and the driver (modern metropolitan boy). You follow them from place to place while the cop is obsessed by his enemy and the driver by going home. The good thing is that they both evolve on the way, and that makes the movie watchable.
Rating: 5 /10

Fargo - Season 3 (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Writer: Noah Hawley + others
	Actors: Ewan McGregor (The Island, Transpotting), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Deathproof, The Thing), David Thewlis (Wonder Woman)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Black Comedy, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: May-November 2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: A twisted sibling rivalry leads to murder, mobsters and cutthroat competitive bridge in a small Midwestern town.
Review: The movie Fargo is fantastic, and the concept of the series (Season 1, Season 2) is pretty good. This one follows the same spirit, and has even less connections to the rest but as I read online, they "really don't need a bunch of criss-crossing characters and storylines in order to feel like they take place in the same universe". Indeed the usual ingredients are sufficient: snow and cold weather, Minnesota, simple people, a female police officer in conflict with her male hierarchy, normal people ending up doing bad deeds in spite of their good heart, and true bad people. It's a special recipe that always brings back memories from the other stories. Of course the movie and series relies on very good actors and this season is no exception: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great and dynamic, David Thewlis is devilish, and it took me half of the first episode to recognize Ewan McGregor playing two roles with a make-up that really hides his face and who uses an accent and acting far from his usual self. Brilliant. The rest of the less-known cast is no less wonderful. The season slows down in the middle, which caused me to take a break of several months, but I then quickly completed it. the story is convoluted as expected and you feel bad for the characters stuck in the situation they are.  Still working after three seasons, let's see what the fourth brings with a synopsis like "The head of an African American crime syndicate goes to war with the Italian mafia in Kansas City, Missouri during the 1950s".
Rating: 5 /10

Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Rob Letterman (Monsters vs. Aliens)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 1-2), Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Kathryn Newton, Bill Nighy (Shaun of the Dead), Ken Watanabe (Godzilla)
	Country: USA, J, GB, CDN
	Genre: Animation, Polar, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 16.09.2019, in-flight entertainment, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After his dad, a detective he barely knew, dies in a car accident, Tim (Smith) travels to the big city to wrap some things up. There, Humans and Pokemons live in harmony. He will soon meet his dad's Pokemon which he can speak to, and discover an evil plot.
Review: I missed the Pokemon video-game craze by a few years, I was just a little too old to ride it (and a Sega guy rather than Nintendo). But I remember it very well, my brother played it and I know the basics: the tournaments, trainers, underdog Pikachu, even the big bad Mewtwo. I think the movie talks to this audience, the one that played the game when it went out and is now in its thirties, but also to different generations that may have played different versions of it during the years, including the addictive Augmented-reality Pokemon Go. In fact the movie is also an adaptation of a 2016 video game. The movie nicely treats the whole tournament story into the past, giving just enough backstory for the newbies, and then moves on to a different thing, a sort of Adventure-Polar-Comedy-Superhero movie. The talking pet plot reminded me of Ted, probably thanks to the voice of Ryan Reynolds and the few dirty, definitely not children-suited jokes he managed to place. The World-building is fine, probably better if you are nostalgic of when you played the game in your youth and recognize the variety of Pokemons shown on screen. The story is not too bad, except for a few major loopholes that pulled me out of the movie, most importantly (spoiler, highlight to read): how did the kid not recognize the voice of Pikachu?!? In the end not as bad as one could have feared for another adaptation of video game that seems to come too late and drowned in many other (The Angry Birds Movie to quote just one).
Rating: 5 /10

Cobra (1986)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1986
	Director: George P. Cosmatos (Rambo II, Tombstone)
	Actors: Sylvester Stallone (Demolition Man, The Expendables 1-3, Rocky, Rambo), Brigitte Nielsen (Red Sonja), Reni Santoni
	Country: USA, IL
	Genre: Action, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 30.08.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Marion Cobretti a.k.a. Cobra (Stallone) is the cop called for dirty jobs that nobody wants. When Ingrid (Nielsen) is witness to the crime of a band of serial killers, Cobra gets to protect her.
Review: Cobra looks like a comic book version of Dirty Harry with this cartoonesque hero using extreme force to neutralize hordes of criminals, never removing his sunglasses, driving an original car and using customized weapons. I also got some vibes of Death Wish with Charles Bronson, of The Warriors and of John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, because of the hordes of faceless attackers. I liked the 80's way of shooting the movie, the music, clothes and all this nostalgia. Beyond that, the movie and in particular its story are a lot of nonsense. I recommend to watch it only if you like Action movies from that period and/or Stallone.
Rating: 4 /10

Blue Thunder (1983)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1983
	Director: John Badham (WarGames, Short Circuit)
	Actors: Roy Scheider (Jaws), Warren Oates, Candy Clark, Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange, Caligula)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Polar, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 07.07.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Vietnam War veteran now working for the Los Angeles airborne patrol, Frank Murphy (Scheider) is asked to test an experimental helicopter and while doing so, learns the sinister implications of the new vehicle.
Review: I love those 80's movies which don't try to get you to think too much, as I did when I watched them as a kid even though I was probably too young for it. Give me a custom helicopter, a pilot good guy, some action and bad guys that will get in the end what they deserve, add the 80's touch and I am happy. The 80's touch may be the most difficult ingredient to define and achieve properly. In this movie it includes an excellent Roy Scheider with a simple but efficient backstory for his character. His lifestyle is realistic (reminds me of Steve McQueen in Bullit), including his on and off female relationship. The helicopter is definitely futuristic (even though the movie introduction states the technology was in use at the time of making) and aged at the same time, but the special effects are decent and even the numerous night shots look good. Murphy is of course in conflict with his hierarchy. I like how his partnership with the newbie Lymangood works. And Malcolm McDowell plays very well the despicable adversary/villain. The soundtrack is uneven. Note that this movie led to a TV-series with the same title, but has nothing to do (except inspiring the idea) with the more successful Airwolf series (Supercopter in the French version) starring the recently departed Jan-Michael Vincent. I don't think I have yet managed to described why I like it, but that may just be the personal experience of watching it when I did. Anyway, a good movie from the 80's, as are the two other by the same director: WarGames and Short Circuit.
Rating: 7 /10

U.S. Marshals (1998)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1998
	Director: Stuart Baird (Star Trek: Nemesis)
	Actors: Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black 1-3, The Fugitive), Wesley Snipes (Demolition Man, Blade 1-3), Robert Downey Jr. (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Iron Man 1-3)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 14.04.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Jones) and his team of Marshals are assigned to track down Sheridan (Snipes), who has been accused of a double-murder.
Review: After enjoying The Fugitive, I waited just a few weeks before watching this sequel which I guessed was not as good. In order to give the audience more of what it liked in the first movie, in this one another innocent prisoner escapes in incredible circumstances and is tracked by U. S. Marshall Samuel Gerard and his team. Exit Harrison Ford replaced by Wesley Snipes who was quite popular at that time, just before leading in the Blade Trilogy which were his last big roles. In fact, although I find him usually overplaying, in U. S. Marshals I find him rather reserved which is a good thing and may be because he is not the lead in this movie (Jones is). In the end it is a well-thought sequel: we get more of what we liked in The Fugitive but of course scaled up: plane crash instead of train, Gerard shows off more than ever, a race across the country with many unpredictable encounters with the fugitive to keep the tension high, an extra-complexity in the story (via the character play by Robert Downey Jr.), a less omnipotent Marshal, and that fugitive being more than meets the eyes. However, I didn't like that last addition which detached the fugitive from the audience, where in the first movie we were really feeling for this innocent victim (the surgeon) that could have been any of us. I find that this build-up of more action was not always justified nor necessary. I think they nailed it in The Fugitive and it was hard to do anything different enough and better at the same time. A pleasant attempt anyway.
Rating: 6 /10

Maximum Risk (1996)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1996
	Director: Ringo Lam (Full Contact, Replicant)
	Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, Cyborg, Kickboxer), Natasha Henstridge (Spieces, Ghosts of Mars), Jean-Hugues Anglade
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 31.03.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: French policeman Alain Moreau (Van Damme) discovers he had a twin brother when this one is found dead in the streets of his city of Nice. He will use his likeliness to travel to the New York and find out more about his lost brother.
Review: It's been a while since I watched a 90's classic featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, since Kickboxer in fact, and Timecop before that. In the past years I watched more of his recent work which are more cameos and/or self-reflection on hit cult personality: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Welcome to the Jungle, The Expendables 2, JVCD. In Maximum Risk, the Belgian actor uses his Martial Arts skills a little (ah, the famous rotating kick is shown a few times) but this is not at all central to a story in which he is more a policeman and a brother looking for explanations and then revenge after his blood brother. Accompanying him is the very cute Natasha Henstridge in her only second role after her revelation in Species. In this movie we do get to appreciate her charms as well, but she gets much more speaking time that in that other, and I found her to act pretty well. What disturbed me a bit in this international movie is how languages are handles: on one hand Moreau tries not to speak when taking the place of his brother so as not to be betrayed by his accent (well thought), but on the other hand all characters speak English all the time, which is weird when it is between Moreau and his partner, among Russian mobsters and worst of all between Moreau and his own mother! I guess in the 90's the audience was not accepting to have to read sub-titles in an Action movie... But in general I liked the movie: the action scenes are welcome, the change of location (Nice - New York - Nice) is refreshing, the story is not predictable and cinematography and soundtrack are appropriate. It is not a masterpiece of Art, far from it, but a worth-watching 90's Action flick if you feel nostalgic about that period.
Rating: 6 /10

The Fugitive (1993)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1993
	Director: Andrew Davis (Chain Reaction, Collateral Damage)
	Actors: Harrison Ford (Star Wars 4-7, Indiana Jones 1-4), Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black 1-3), Sela Ward
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Surgeon Richard Kimble (Ford) is wrongly accused of his wife's murder and condemned to Death. Fortunate events will give him a chance to prove his innocence, if he is strong enough to outwit U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Jones) constantly on his tail.
Review: This movie is the best of the fast-paced Thrillers that the 90's could offer, thanks to the relentless chase by a stubborn U.S. Marshall of an innocent prisoner very motivated to prove his innocence more to find the killer of his wife than to avoid years of prison leading to the death penalty. The movie is an adaptation of a successful 60's TV-series, and condenses some 120 episodes into a 120-minute story, which I guess helps in keeping the pace elevated. Indeed there are many times in this movie when the Marshall nearly catches Kimble, but they are not neatly spread like it would be in a TV-series or a more modern audience-pleasing, less risk-taking movie. Those rather unpredictable moments keep you on edge and strongly feeling for the fugitive. In fact it reminds me of a similar suspenseful escape in Alfred Hitchcock's 1966 Torn Curtain. For some reason it also reminds be of the futuristic (well, set in 2017) The Running Man (1987) with Arnold Schwarzenegger also playing a wrongly convicted hero being chased while trying to innocent himself. Well it may partly be the story or just the main character name (Ben Richards in that one), I don't know if it was influenced at all by the 60's TV-series. The movie is framed by two events that are a bit hard to swallow: the car crash followed by a train wreck, and the length at which Kimble goes to unveil all the involved parties while he could have left Justice do its job (well, maybe he doesn't trust the system that much anymore). But past that, The Fugitive is very exciting to watch mostly for the tension between the two main characters and the great actors that play them. I can't remember if the 1998 sequel U.S. Marshals with Tommy Lee Jones reprising his role and Wesley Snipes as a new escapee is any good, I may watch it soon.
Rating: 7 /10

Ammore e malavita (2017)

	Also Known As: Love and bullets
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Antonio e Marco Manetti
	Actors: Giampaolo Morelli, Serena Rossi, Claudia Gerini, Carlo Buccirosso, Raiz, Franco Ricciardi
	Country: I
	Genre: Music, Polar, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Italian/Neapolitan with German subtitle
Synopsis: In order to avoid the death of the husband (the criminal boss Don Vincenzo, "King of the Fish") (Buccirosso), Donna Maria (Gerini) sends her henchmen to kill a lookalike (a shoe-seller) and then she sets up a fake funeral, while the husband is hiding in a secret place. But a nurse saw Don Vincenzo alive in the hospital while he was supposed to be dead, as the TV says. To hush the witness up, Don Vincenzo orders to his best trained bodyguards, Ciro (Morelli) and Rosario (Raiz), to find the nurse and kill her. Ciro finds the nurse: surprisingly she is Fatima (Rossi), the only girl he ever loved, which he had abandoned when he began his criminal career. To save her, Ciro hides Fatima by his uncle Mimmo (Buonomo), and starts a bloody fight with all his clan, including his best friend Rosario and the right hand of the big boss Gennaro (Ricciardi).
Review: The plot is quite simple and reminds the video games classical like Moktar (aka Titus the Fox). And this plays in Napoli and not between France and Marocco. The big originality of the movie is to mix some cruel crime scenes with songs. This effect makes these scenes hilarious. Apart from some explanatory scenes with Don Vincenzo or Donna Maria and before Ciro meets Fatima, the story itself is rather a kind of video game where Ciro meets one or several bad guys or a big boss and has a fight scene.  The acting is in accordance with the style of the movie, both authentic and farcical. The soundtrack does not show the unity provided by Les parapluies de Cherbourg by Jacques Demy or La La Land by Damien Chazelle.
Rating: 6 /10

Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1955
	Director: Henri Decoin
	Actors: Jean Gabin (Le Pacha, Flic ou Voyou), Marcel Dalio, Lino Ventura (La Gifle)
	Country: F
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 14.12.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: Henri (Gabin) is back to France after 10 years in the USA to organize the drug dealing trade for the boss Liski.
Review: While flying to France for the Christmas holidays, I had to watch at least one French film and I chose than one. I was mistaken by the title and thought I would be watching a comedy like Les Tontons Flingueurs or Les Barbouzes, while in fact it is a very serious movie about drug trafficking in France in the 50's. If you want, the equivalent of Blow with Johnny Depp but two decades earlier and in France! Just for that it deserves to be seen. It is very weird to see this black and white action in a typical French setting of Paris: Cafés, people eating all the time (did you ever notice how you recognize French or Asian movies with that in contrast to American movies in which eating is never a pleasure) and drinking strong liquors, ample frock coats (redingotes) like were trendy at the time for both men and women, known French actors and settings. But all the rules of the drug-dealers movie were already there, albeit on very small scales. The boss, importers, manufacturers, distributors and dealers circuit is described for various drugs that were starting to make their way in Paris at that time: cocaine, opium and marijuana. And armed bullies (one played by Lino Ventura) are here to make sure no one double-crosses the boss. There is even a romance between the busy Henri and an innocent waitress, shown in a quite open way I find for the 50's. The same goes for the depraved female character of Léa. So in the end it is a bit weird to watch but well done for the time, and extremely interesting.
Rating: 7 /10

Good time (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Benny and Josh Safdie
	Actors: Benny Safdie, Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 25.09.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Obsessively caring for his intellectually disabled brother, Nick (Safdie), the volatile criminal, Connie (Pattinson), involves his sibling in a bank robbery that promising being quick and easy ends up being a nightmare. Nick will wind up in Rikers Island after one unanticipated complication, forcing the desperate but determined Connie to embark on a non-stop runaway quest to bail Nick out. Over the course of a long and violent night, Connie will do more harm than good.
Review: The plot is clever. How to bring two marginalised individuals into so-called normal society. By making them feel and show brother affection as anybody would do, because they are in fact as anybody else. The constant instability of Nick is first disturbing and then rather annoying. He cares more about what the viewer would think about him being a good guy than about the good of his brother. This is the latent flaw in the story that is otherwise quite good. With not much to say, there is a kind of suspense and I was not bored for a long time.  This flaw reflects of course on the acting of Robert Pattinson that seems quite monotonous and exaggerated. Benny Safdie acts also very monotonous but it does not look exaggerated and I could buy it.  I liked the photography. Dark and realistic with all the takes in the night. The subjects always in good focus with regard to the darkness of the environment. The camera handling is often close to the documentary.
Rating: 5 /10