Ai Weiwei - never sorry (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Alison Klayman
	Actors: Ai Weiwei
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 03.02.2013, DVD
Synopsis: A documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government.
Review: The documentary shows the engagement of Ai Weiwei for transparency in the modern history of China and in particular in the handling of earthquake missed children. We learn about the importance of Internet and its use and in particular of Twitter for his work. Then because Ai Weiwei art work is conceptual and done for specific events, we do not see much of his art work. This is quite deceiving. Such an activist life starting actually when he came back to China from his extremely long studies in the USA is anyway interesting and actually this increased my interest for this atypical artist. Let's see when he shows up in Europe in the coming years... Hopefully, this movie could inspire more artists for activism and more activists for art.
Rating: 6 /10

(500) days of Summer (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Marc Webb
	Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.02.2013, DVD
Synopsis: Although Summer does not believe in boyfriends - in her assertion, real life will always ultimately get in the way - Tom and Summer become more than colleagues and more than just friends. Through the trials and tribulations of Tom and Summer's so-called relationship, Tom can  always count on the advice of his two best friends and of the good advice of his teenie sister.
Review: Summer is a great period of time, where life is blossoming from everywhere but one day turning to Autumn. Strangely, it sounds like my recent life! Well, the story does good in calming the expectations on love and in destroying the romantic vision of life. Even if this can happen, and then it might be great, it is based on luck. The happiness is pending on the expectations we have of life. This time and this is the modernity of the movie, the romantic is the guy! The story telling is great by having several starting points and reminds a bit Memento by going here and there in time. Well done also the work on the slight colour temperature variations, enhancing the atmosphere and feelings of Tom. The music is great and perfectly selected for the story. I give only an 8 because I think, my view is biased by my current life, but this movie could easily deserve a 9.
Rating: 8 /10

Comme un chef (2012)

	Also Known As: Kochen ist Chefsache
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Daniel Cohen
	Actors: Jean Reno, Mickael Youn
	Country: F, E
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 01.02.2013, DVD
Synopsis: An established chef faces off against his restaurant group's new CEO, who is looking for modernity in the French cuisine by derating the star in order to bring in a younger chef who specializes in molecular gastronomy.
Review: As a French guy in Germany, I felt quite often like Jacky Bonnot in the couple life. This comes as soon as you like more cooking than your girlfriend. The actors are well directed, also by the story, which makes the characters evolve in an interesting way. Both modern and traditional gastronomy are shown as ridiculous in their hype and narrow-mindness. The actor performances are quite simple and basic, but the directing keeps a good rythm and balance between comedy and drama. I got interested into molecular gastronomy. Let's see where there is such a restaurant...
Rating: 5 /10

Small time Crooks (2000)

	Also Known As: Schmalspurganoven
	Year of first release: 2000
	Director: Woody Allen
	Actors: Woody Allen, Trcey Ullman, Hugh Grant
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.01.2013, DVD
Synopsis: Dishwasher and small-fry criminal Ray hits on a plan with his partners in crime to re-open a local pizza place and dig through to the bank down the street. As his wife can't cook pizza but does great cookies, that's what they sell. While the no-hope tunnellers get lost underground, the cookie operation really takes off and the team find themselves rich people. It is not easy to be accepted in the rich society nor to loose its habits.
Review: The movie is a pleasant comedy, in which as often Woody Allen is an hysteric serial loose. His wife is actually the success person because of her cooking talent and behaviour toward people. Nothing special to comment, except that some parts are quite long since they get rich. This already short comedy could have been cut by good 20 minutes to avoid these flaws.
Rating: 4 /10

We need to talk about Kevin (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Lynne Ramsay
	Actors: Tilda Twinton, John Reilly
	Country: UK, USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2013, DVD
Synopsis: From the very beginning, Kevin does not like his mother. She struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly aggressive and vicious things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.
Review: The theory of the movie on the Amok kid Kevin is that the bad in him came from birth. The parents are quite powerless in front of this fate. The way the parents play their role, how she is shoked by her son and how he is continuously confident and reducing the drama shows parents that are not only powerless but who not even try to make something to help the son. And this is indeed a common situation today, that does not necessarily leads to Amok, but only to get asocial grown-ups. Well parents should talk more than these about the education of their kids, that is very true! Even if the movie is directed quite good and played also good by the parents, I cannot share this view that the genes decide for us what we are. This is a thesis quite spread in the USA, but I still believe that education by parents and by the society build a big part of a human being.So the movie is well done, but its essence is wrong.
Rating: 6 /10

Django unchained (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Quentin Tarantino
	Actors: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio
	Country: USA
	Genre: Western
	Conditions of visioning: 16.01.2013, Schauburg
Synopsis: With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.
Review: A bit as in Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino torns the history on a crazy, funny and politically positive way. Christoph Waltz takes a role, where his dialogues will become legendary because of the text and his huge theatrical competence. Leonardo DiCaprio surprises in his brutal role. As often with Tarantino, the music and some scenes enhances greatly the story. The way Americans handle slaves is shown extremely brutally, but truely too.
Rating: 8 /10

Lo imposible (2012)

	Also Known As: The impossible
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
	Actors: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor
	Country: E
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 14.01.2013, Schauburg
Synopsis: An account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
Review: The movie is based on a true story of a Spanish family. It is also good to be focused on this family, through which we see all the disaster and the director builds an strong emotional link. After a while, the words of the family member get more weight, even if these are still simple. The kindness of local people is enhanced, as well as the ambivalent behaviour of occidental tourists (egoist or altruist), as in real life. The camera and sound tracks are working good in this emotional direction, as well as the actors. Actually, I could have awarded an 8/10 if the end of movie would not show the family suddenly extremely privileged, as this does not fit at all to the rest of the movie. If the director missed some 100EUR to hire a couple of walk-on actors, this is really really a pity.
Rating: 6 /10

Zero dark thirty (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Kathrin Bigelow
	Actors: Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler
	Country: USA
	Genre: War
	Conditions of visioning: 07.01.2013, Schauburg
Synopsis: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osana Bin-Laden after the 11.09.2001 attack on the USA, and how this ends in May 2011.
Review: After the Hurt locker in 2008, Kathrin Bigelow continues to depict American war heroes. This might be good for the Americans, so that they can work on their trauma. But as the Hurt locker, the movie does not build any character, who would have an emotional link to the viewer. It is the raw description of the new type of warriors, who collects and analyses information and has to defend an opinion in offices. Interesting point is to see how Bigelow shows a woman confronted to the torture. Strangely, very cold. A long part of the movie is a remake of CNN videos.
Rating: 2 /10

King Kong (2005)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2005
	Director: Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, The Lord of the Rings 1-3)
	Actors: Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive), Jack Black (Tropic Thunder), Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Andy Serkis (The Adventures of Tintin), Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot)
	Country: USA, NZ, D
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 12.03.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In the 1930's, an ambitious movie director (Black) hires a young actress (Watts) and escapes from the American depression in the search for Skull Island.
Review: Peter Jackson's modern version of the 1933 classic, forgetting about the cheap 1978 version. The storyline is very close to the one that was already a success 80 years ago, in particular the whole second act on the island, meeting dinosaurs, giant insects... After seeing this movie in 2005 I watched the original and found it very good (straight forward story, great special effects for the time), then I watched The most Dangerous Game (Les chasses du Comte Zaroff in french) shot in 1932 by the same crew and on the same sets as King Kong, and it was also pretty good. Another recommended video: The lost spider pit sequence, a recreation by Peter Jackson of a scene of the original King Kong movie that was shot but from which the film was lost. This scene is back in the screenplay of the 2005 version. Now about this movie itself. It is visualy impressive, and came right at a time when digital special effects were mature enough to create a believable giant gorilla. The story is still as strong as in the original movie, and I like a lot the restless chase during the second third of the movie: as soon as Ann is kidnapped, it is a race against time and many ferocious creatures to get her back. The third part of the movie, sensational as it takes place in Manhattan but also the most touching, is not neglected. Actors are also good, in particular Jack Black in the best role I have seen him in, playing very well the director ready to do anything to succeed. I was impressed by how good, funny and subtle he can be when properly directed.
Rating: 8 /10

Thor (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Kenneth Branagh (Frankenstein, Hamlet)
	Actors: Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, Legends of the Fall), Natalie Portman (Black Swan, Star Wars 1-3)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 16.03.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: On the crowning day of the new king of Asgard Thor (Hemsworth) by his father Odin (Hopkins) the Frost Giant, ages-old ennemies, reappear. This event will be the beginning for Thor of a test to prove he is worthy to be king.
Review: This was the last individual movie made as part of the preparation for The Avengers, after Iron Man 1-2, The Incredible Hulk and Captain America. The universe is different as half of the movie doesn't take place on Earth. But I found the depiction of those ancien Gods (and their technology) to be too shiny and completely unbelievable. The hammer (Thor's weapon) itself is ridiculous. The character played by Nathalie Portamn is pretty useless and the location for the action on Earth (a small town in New Mexico) is also not very exciting. Each time I hear about Thor, it reminds me of the way this mythology was introduced in the TV-series Stargate SG-1: the Asgardians were actually little grey aliens and the hammer was a spaceship of incredible power: that was a story!
Rating: 3 /10