The Oxford Murders (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Álex de la Iglesia (Acción mutante, The Day of the Beast, 800 Bullets, El Crimen Ferpecto, The Last Circus)
	Actors: Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings, Sin City), John Hurt (Alien, V for Vandetta, 1984), Leonor Watling, Dominique Pinon (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)
	Country: E, GB, F
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 29.10.2012, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: A PhD student (Wood) comes to Oxford with the idea of meeting a master mind of philosophy and mathematics (Hurt). This confrontation will be helped by a series of murders revolving around mathematics.
Review: I love the work from Álex de la Iglesia and he didn't dissapoint me this time either. All his previous movies, although small budgets, have something special. 8oo balas might be my favorite. I am looking forward to watch The Last Circus in Blu-ray, and am trying to find the DVD of his TV series Plutón B.R.B. Nero. The Oxford Murders is his first movie made outside of Spain and in English language. It is based on a book that might be the source of the intense mathematical and philosophical discussions, which are interesting if you are at ease with some mathematical notions. Unlike in The Big Bang Theory TV-series, those notions are not used for humour but to explain humain behavior. The best part in the movie is not the police investigation, but the couple of lead actors which is pleasant to follow (Wood makes it easy for us to forget his character of Frodo in The Lord of the Rings trilogy). It was the first time that I  watched a movie through a VOD provider, Maxdome.de as it happens, supposedly the number one in Germany. The Pros are that you can watch the movie immediately (or within 48 hours), in HD and original version. I had a cheap offer to start with but normally I should have paid 6 euros for it, which is not cheap. The Cons are that it is only TV-HD (720i and not 1080i), the colors are not as vibrant as on a Blu-ray, the sound is only 2.0, the images gets jerky when the camera pans (maybe due to my laptop video card), and there were no subtitles available. Overall a good first contact with VOD.
Rating: 7 /10

The Hangover (2009)

	Also Known As: Very Bad Trip (France)
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Todd Phillips (Starsky & Hutch)
	Actors: Zach Galifianakis (Due Date), Bradley Cooper (The A-team) and Justin Bartha (National Treasure)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 30.10.2012, Blu-ray, 36" TV
Synopsis: Four friends to go Las Vegas to celebrate the bachelor's party of one of them, getting married two days later. They wake up in the morning with no memory of the previous night and the groom is nowhere to be found.
Review: The 2009 hit that has altready generated two sequels. The basic concept (memory loss after a wild night) is prone to comedy, and has already been used at least in Dude, where is my car? The movie is pretty funny to watch with friends. Of course like I previously wrote about Dodgeball with Ben Stiller, you have to like this kind of dumb humour, which is here gross in addition. There is not much to say about the technical qualities of the movie: it is just a succession of crazy scenes as we follow this wolf pack tryig to recover their memory and find their friend.
Rating: 7 /10

Citizen Kane (1941)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1941
	Director: Orson Welles (The Stranger, Touch of Evil)
	Actors: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten and Dorothy Comingore
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.10.2012, Blu-ray (70th anniversary edition), Home cinema
Synopsis: Charles Foster Kane (Welles) has just died. While journalists investigate on the meaning of his last word "Rosebud", we learn all about the life of this multi-millionnaire newspaper editor.
Review: Considered by many as the best movie of all times, it has been recently supplanted by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. It is the first time I was watching it, and it was worth waiting for this impeccable edition. I can see what people find in it, like they do in Casablanca, and I understand why they ar both classics. But my attraction to this movie stops there. I can agree that the movie is technically perfect and extremely interesting. The director plays with shadows and often places the speaking character partially (the face) of fully in the dark. Most impressive is the way the story continuously goes back and forth in time without the viewer ever being lost, and this without the use of tricks like writing the date. Interesting also is the main character that we learn to know as the movie goes. The quest for a meaning to his last word is edited in parallel to his quest for a meaning to his life and for love, until the last image of the film which is thought-provoking and I am sure contributes a lot to the reputation of the film. Unfortunately I already knew the twist, as I had seen it revealed in ... an episode of the Columbo TV-series entitled How to dial a murder (1978)! My theory is that the movie conveys a lot of values that are dear to the Americans, so that a European audience is less touched. By the way the movie was supposed to be entitled "The American", and the main character keeps on saying that he is American before anything else, and that he loves his country. I could make the same critic to the epic western The Searchers, which is also considered as one of the best movies ever... by an american audience with no doubt.
Rating: 7 /10

The Terminator (1984)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar)
	Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Total Recall, Predator), Linda Hamilton (Terminator 2, Dante's Peak), Michael Biehn (Aliens, Planet Terror)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 27.10.2012, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In 1984 Sarah Connor, simple waitress in a diner, becomes suddenly the target of a killing machine, while another man wants to protect her and pretends to come from the future.
Review: This is the kind of movie everybody thinks to have seen, but actually mix it up with the better known, better done and more expensive sequel. In the same category you can find Mad Max, Rambo and maybe Friday 13th. I hadn't seen The Terminator since the times of VHS, but I remembered it pretty well. If it were not a pillar of modern Science-Fiction like Alien or Star Wars, it could look like a simple cheap B-movie of the 80's. Indeed the screenplay is utterly simple, the acting average, the special effects very dated and the music could have been composed nowadays on a mobile phone. But don't get fooled, the movie is dead serious and doesn't contain any of the lightness and jokes of the sequel Terminator 2. It is very intense and scary at time, no wonder that the legend says that James Cameron wrote the script after waking up from a nightmare in which a killer robot from the future was hunting him! In the interviews on the Blu-ray you learn that he actually started to write the script while he was alone in his hotel room in Italy, a foreign country, which makes him closer to Kyle Reese (sent from the future to a foreign time period) than to Sarah Connor. The action is perfectly filmed by the young Cameron for his first movie, and you can already see the hints of how he became one of the most renowned directors in the past three decades, even if he made only a few movies. The dialogs are sparse but go to the point. I was making fun of the music but it has been composed and recorded in a garage for almost no money, which is quite an achievement. The quality of the HD transfer for this edition is very good, and you can appreciate the image details and the slow-motions, for example during the mythic scene in the disco called TechNoir. I found that the music and sound effects didn't sound very good nor loud, which annoyed me a little.
Rating: 8/10

Shark Night 3D (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: David R. Ellis (Final Destination 2&4, Snakes on a plane)
	Actors: Sara Paxton (The Innkeepers), Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 27.10.2012, Blu-ray (2D), Home cinema
Synopsis: A group of college students go for a week-end on an island, but their fun will quickly be perturbed by a killer shark.
Review: The movie is completely void of ideas since the opening scene that is a bad copy of the one of Jaws. Actually it looks more like an excuse to see Sara Paxton in bikini the whole time. It's a pity she is under-used as she was quite good in The Innkeepers. The actors are bad and the apparitions of the CGI sharks are not scary. Only a small twist helps the second half of the movie and prevents it to be a total waste. If you want the thrill you should better watch Jaws again (now out in a beautiful Blu-ray edition), if you want the cheapness see an Italian copy of the 80's like L'ultimo squalo, if you want the fun watch Piranha (2010) and if you want to see the rednecks that turn out to be good guys and help the heroin/ex-girlfriend, watch Rogue with Sam Worthington (Avatar).
Rating: 2 /10

Total Recall (1990)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1990
	Director: Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers)
	Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator, Predator), Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), Michael Ironside (Starship Troopers, The Machinist), Rachel Ticotin (Man on Fire, Con Air)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 21.10.2012, Blu-ray (edition supervised by the director), Home cinema
Synopsis: Douglas Quaid (Schwarzenegger) has a peaceful life and a nice wife (Stone) but he dreams of going to Mars, so he uses the services of the Rekall company to get memories implanted, but are those really memories or is he really a spy with the goal to save the red planet?
Review: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven at their best! The score by Jerry Goldsmith is not bad either. I have seen this movie many times in my youth, I already possess it on DVD (filled with bonuses) in a round metal case with the shape of Mars, and in a previous Blu-ray edition. But this time I could fully appreciate a HD transfer supervised by the director. Interested about the story of the movie, I have recently read the novel that inspired it: We can remember for you wholesale by Philip. K. Dick to whom we also owe A scanner darkly, Do Androids dream of electric sheep? (that inspired Blade Runner), and many others. Only then I realized the work of adaptation that had to be done on this 20-page novel that contains no mention of Mars and none of the uncertainty of knowing if the hero is dreaming or not. On the same topic, I learned by watching an interview with Paul Vorhoeven on the Blu-ray that the third act of the movie (i.e. saving the red planet but also the hesitation between dream and reality) was not written until the movie making was well advanced. Verhoeven also mentions that his favorite scene is the one in which a so-called doctor tries to convince Quaid that he is indeed dreaming and has to take a pill to avoid being lobotomized. By comparison the same scene copied in the remake Total Recall (2012) looks out of place. All this to say that I appreciate the story in Total Recall and the work of adaptation, unlike in movies like 300 or Watchmen which are copies of the original material. The acting is OK, nothing more than can be expected from such a movie. A special mention to one of my favorite actors Michael Ironside, excellent as usual in the supporting role of the bad guy's henchman. The special effects are pretty good for this period that didn't know CGIs yet. It was all prosthetics for the faces, matte paintings and optical tricks for the set. The martian landcapes (shot in Mexico) look good, except that they are far too red. The reflection of the Martian surface deep red on the faces of the actors indoors is also exagerated, and uneven between the different shots within the same scene, which is the biggest visual default I find to this movie. It seems not to be due to the HD transfer but to have been intended so at the time of theatrical release. Except from that, the quality of the images is very good as you can can notice by looking at the grain on the skin of the actors' faces. An impressive scene is also the one when Quaid rides a train from the spaceport to the main city, the camera zooming out from his face to a full panorama of the landscape in a nicely well done combination of optical shots. Also the spaceship landing reveals nicely the architecture of the constructions on the red planet. You can see a snapshot of this scene in HD by clicking on the thumbnail below or go to this page, in this interesting website that compares DVD and Blu-ray images. To conclude, I will mention a connection that I noticed between this movie and Avatar by James Cameron. The comparison hit me especially when watching the landing scene I have just mentionned. In it, you see the hero arriving to this foreign planet on which the leaders are given a huge power and use the military to keep the local population under control, while those only want freedom (the mutants in one movie, the Na'vis in the other). When watching the arrival scene in Blu-ray, I noticed for the first time that the trains goes through a mining region, in the middle of which you can see a giant digging machine, just like in Avatar. I realized that all this power is given to the local leaders because they mine a precious mineral (Turbinium in one movie, Unobtanium in the other) from which Earth has become dependant. Finally, in both movies the main character has to choose between his former real life and another, fantastic one, in which he saves a planet. In my interpretation they both chose to follow the dream.
Rating: 8 /10

Premium rush (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: David Koepp
	Actors: Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, Michael Shannon, Dania Ramirez
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 08.10.2012, Schauburg, OV
Synopsis: Manhattan. A bike messenger picks up an envelope from a Chinese woman that attracts the interest of a dirty cop, who pursues the cyclist throughout the city.
Review: This movie reminds me Speed. New concept of action movie without car races nor big gun firing. Premium rush shows for the first time I know bikers as main protagonists. It is modern because of the green mind. Bikes and flash mobs are good. Cars, dirty cops and corruption are dumb. The story rythm and the suspense are kept all long by keeping the bikes in movement. Chased by the dirty cop, by the police, etc. The camerman follows the bikes so that we have a feeling of high speed and tension.
Rating: 7 /10

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Jurassik Park)
	Actors: Harrison Ford (Star Wars 4-6, Blade Runner), Shia LaBoeuf (Transformers 1-3), Cate Blanchett (The Lord of the Rings), Karen Allen (Starman, Raiders of the Lost Ark), John Hurt (Alien, 1984)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 20.10.2012, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In the 1950's, the aging Indiana Jones (Ford) is still part time teacher and part time archaeologist. In this new adventure he will race against Russians across the USA and South America looking for a mysterious and powerful Crystal Skull, with the help of a new sidekick (LaBoeuf).
Review: The movie received many bad critics when it went out, but I don't find it so bad. It is as full of action and adventure as the first three of the franchise, and the story is not less believable than the one of Raiders of the Lost Ark. However I wouldn't say that Steven Spielberg is still at his best: the movie tries hard to be as fresh and full of ideas as its predecessors, but it sometimes falls flat, maybe due to the influence of Georges Lucas at the screenplay.  I liked the ending also, but the scenes leading to it can be too long (like the car chase in the forest and the fist fight against the Russian surrounded by ants), and some other scenes are not believable at all (the three drops from the waterfalls, or escaping a nuclear blast in a fridge!! even Steven Spielberg apologised for that one). Anyway I enjoy watching it once in a while when I am too tired to watch something new, and I will definitely buy the Blu-ray box-set of the quadrilogy, already out in the shops.
Rating: 6 /10

Corpse Bride (2005)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2005
	Director: Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, Mars Attacks!, Adward Scissorhands)
	Actors (voices): Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribean), Helena Bonham-Carter (Fight Club), Christopher Lee (The Wicker Man, The Lord of the Rings), Emily Watson
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Black comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 22.10.2012, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Although they have never met, this young couple is forced to marriage by their parents. It turns out that they could love each other, but the boy accidentaly marries... a corpse bride, and he will have to decide between the Living and the Dead.
Review: A typical Tim Burton movie of that period, but on the same topic (the Dead meet the Living), I largely prefer Beetlejuice from the same director. The animation is very well done, and the contrast between the two worlds is striking: the world of the Dead is actually more colorful and funny as the one of the Living! Some dialog lines are quite funny, like when this dead old man tells to the boy: "Why do you wish so much to get back up there while they are all dying to get down here?". I am not found of the songs and find them a bit boring but fortunately there are only five. The humor is dark and in the end the movie is quite depressing, but I guess that is the point.
Rating: 5 /10

Dodgeball (2004)

	Also Known As: Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
	Actors: Ben Stiller (Meet the parents, Zoolander), Christine Taylor (Zoolander), Vince Vaughn (The Lost World: Jurassik Park), Rip Torn (Men in Black), Justin Long (Jeepers Creepers, Drag me to Hell, Live Free or Die Hard)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 16.10.2012, DVD, 36" TV
Synopsis: To save his gym "Average Joe's" from being bought by the antipathic owner (Stiller) of the neighbourg and concurrent "Globo Gym", Peter La Fleur (Vaughn) will have to gather a team of improbable Dodgeball players and win the Las Vegas Open and its price of 50 000 dollars.
Review: I am not always found of Ben Stiller movies (like the Meet the Parents series, There's Something About Mary), but I find a few of them funny (Mystery Men), if not hilarious (Zoolander and this Dodgeball). Of course you have to like this kind of humour and I recommend watching it with friends. It is not the first time I see it but this time it was with many people, and at some point we were laughing so much that we had to pause the movie not to miss the following jokes. I found Ben Stiller as ridiculously funny as in Zoolander, even if I still prefer that one to Dodgeball. The story manages to turn this children's game into an almost deadly competition to watch on cable TV. Note that this was already done in an episode of South Park. The things I like most about this movie are the multiple references to pop culture (like the appearances of David Hasselhof and Chuck Norris) and most of all the screenplay and dialogs that are full of ideas from one end to the other, but also some romance, friendship, and as the title says, a true underdog story.
Rating: 8 /10