Devil's Pass (2013)

	Also Known As: The Dyatlov Pass Incident
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea)
	Actors: Gemma Atkinson, Richard Reid, Matt Stokoe
	Country: USA, GB, RUS
	Genre: Thriller, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 28.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: A group of students travel to the Oural mountains in Russia to shoot a documentary on the mysterious Dyatlov Pass Incident that occurred in 1959.
Review: I went to see this movie without knowing what it was about because it won the Titra price at the Neuchatel IFFF in July, and I didn't expect a found footage movie (we see the events via the documentary filmed by the students). The darkness and loneliness in those mountains help setting up a scary atmosphere, and you find youself often grabbing tightly the armrests of your seat. The intrigue is involving and the found footage style is well used. But in the end there is not much new compared to REC to which this movie has copied many succesful receipes: infrared vision, the monster's design, the "did you see that thing moving in a corner of the camera when the characters were not looking?". I would have put a higher rating because the movie is well done and scary, but originlity is missing: story, style and even characters.
Rating: 6 /10

Big Ass Spider! (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Mike Mendez (The Convent)
	Actors: Greg Grunberg, Ray Wise (Twin Peaks TV-series, X-Men: First Class, Chillerama), Clare Kramer, Lombardo Boyar, Patrick Bauchau (The Pretender TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, SF, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 28.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: Alex (Grunberg) is a pest exterminator. He ends up in a hospital hunting for a big spider. The military is looking for it as well.
Review: This movie looks extremely cheap and the giant spider looks like it escaped from a Playstation one game but that's not the point. The main character and his mexican sidekick (played by Boyar) are a funny couple and they go through the spider chase like in a monster movie of the 30's. The military are poorly played but who cares?? The movie is a lot of fun and short enough (80 minutes) so that you don't have time to get bored. It is better than the previous attempt of the director (The Convent) which was as cheap but less funny. It looks like a movie made between friends for friends and the cameo by Lloyd Kaufmann (creator of the independant cinema company Troma and director of the classic The Toxic Avenger) confirms this idea.
Rating: 6 /10

The Lords of Salem (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Rob Zombie (The Devil's Rejects, Halloween 1-2)
	Actors: Sheri Moon Zombie (The Devil's Rejects, Halloween 1-2), Bruce Davison (X-men), Jeff Daniel Phillips (Faster, Halloween 2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 28.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: In the town of Salem, a radio hostess called Heidi (Zombie) receives a Vinyl from a band called The Lords. When she plays it she gets a strange feeling.
Review: I have been expecting the new movie from Rob Zombie after appreciating his previous work (in particular The Devil's Rejects). It is clear that he tried to do something different this time and one cannot blame him for trying, but in the end I was dissapointed. He tries to show some strong horrific images but I was not scared at any moment. Some pieces of music are well chosen as in all Rob's movies, but sometimes don't fit with the action. The investigation around the famous witches is the most linear part of the movie and the easiest to follow. His real-life wife Sheri Moon is central to the story (we see her much more than in any previous part) and turns out to be a talented actress.
Rating: 4 /10

The Congress (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir)
	Actors: Robin Wright (Forrest Gump), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, From Dusk till Dawn), Jon Hamm
	Country: F, IL, L, B, PL, D
	Genre: Animation, SF, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: The cinema career of Robin Wright (herself) is on the decline and she wants to spend time with her children. She is offered the last role of her life.
Review: Before watching it, I thought that the opening movie of the Munich Fantasy Filmfest 2013 was a reflexion about the becoming of actors in a CGI world. The story made me think of how the image of Arnold Schwarzenegger (sampled from The Terminator, extrapolated and enhanced with computer graphics) was used in Terminator Salvation without him even knowing about it. But this is only the beginning of the story. The rest is more about a dream world in which people live, hidden behind the image they show of themselves (story influenced by The Matrix?). It seems to me an extension in the future of the current social networks. I love the first half hour shot with live characters. The role of Robin Wright as herself, inspired by her real life, is an excellent idea. Harvey Keitel is also fantastic as her agent. And at some point the movie becomes animated, a bit like when Detective Vaillant enters Toonville in Who framed Roger Rabbit? The imaginary world in which the main character evolves becomes then a bit confused and the story is hard to follow. There are some unexplained gaps and transitions, difficult references and not-so-funny jokes attempts. This might be due to the fact that the animation was done by eight different teams in the eight countries that co-produced the movie, and it took Ari Folman three years to make everythng consistent. So in spite of a great idea, concept and beginning, I got lost in the middle of the movie.
Rating: 5 /10

RKO 281 (1999)

	Also Known As: The Battle over Citizen Kane, Citizen Welles
	Year of first release: 1999
	Director: Benjamin Ross
	Actors: Liev Schreiber (X-men Origins: Wolverine, Scream 1-3), James Cromwell (Babe, I Robot), Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich (Red, Con Air), Roy Scheider (Jaws)
	Country: GB, USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.08.2013, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: The story behind the making of Citizen Kane and the struggle between Orson Welles (Schreiber) and the publishing magnate Hearst (Cromwell) that inspired the main character in the movie.
Review: I had the opportunity to get this DVD for free not long after watching the classic Citizen Kane (1941) and the associated documentary The Battle over Citizen Kane (1996) from which RKO 281 is inspired. Actually the documentary described so well the story behind the movie, the lifes of Hearst, Welles and Kane (all sharing common points) that I couldn't easily tell what is part of recorded history in RKO 281, and what is fiction. I was surprized that it is a TV-movie, i.e. was never released in cinemas in the USA but was in several countries in Europe at least. RKO 281 is the codename of the movie while it was in production at the studios of the R.K.O. Pictures company, dissapeared since 1959. The story was known to me already, so no originality there, but the main strength of the movie is the talented cast: Schreiber and his deep voice perfect as Welles, great classic actors Cromwell and Scheider, and very good second roles Malkovich and Griffith. They do bring a lot to the movie. Another strength is the transition scenes between the elements of recorded history: dialogs between the characters that had to be invented but that are necessary to link all the pieces of the story. One of those creations is the secret meeting between the head of all Hollowood studios (Warner, Disney, ...) to decide the fate of Citizen Kane. The scene is short but it gives a good idea of their relationship with one another. At the end, the fate of the Citizen Kane is cleverly shown in parallel to the one of Hearst, as if the movie had anticipated the decline of the giant. The future of Welles is told in a more positive tone than what it actually became.
Rating: 6 /10

Lady in the Water (2006)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2006
	Director: M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, After Earth)
	Actors: Paul Giamatti (Hangover 2, John dies at the End), Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village), Jeffrey Wright
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 26.08.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A girl (Howard) emerges from the swimming pool of an apartment building, and the caretaker (Giamatti) will slowly discover her real nature and help her go back to her world.
Review: Seven years after the huge hit of The Sixth Sense, M. Night Shyamalan was less and less sucessful and Lady in the Water didn't work very well. I understand one could get tired of the recurrent way of filming typical to Shyamalan: slow development, scarce music, people speaking in whispers, out of focus or out of frame. In Lady in the Water he is creating a Fantasy world that is original and in which the characters don't react like normal people would. It is interesting that it works on the viewer and I cannot critisize the unrealistic tone, but this distance prevents us from getting fully involved. We just watch from outside the story unfold, the unbelievable deductions and chain of events leading to the ending. Note that the mythology of the Water People in this movie reminds a lot of what Guillermo del Toro created in Pan's Labyrinth or in Hellboy 2. Other side comment: it is nice to see Paul Giamatti in a leading role for a change.
Rating: 5 /10

Judge Dredd (1995)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1995
	Director: Danny Cannon (I Still Know What You Did Last Summer)
	Actors: Sylvester Stallone (John Rambo, The Expendables 1-2), Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, Jürgen Prochnow (Das Boot), Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal, Conan the Barbarian), Dane Lane (Man of Steel)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 25.08.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic future, people are squeezed in huge cities like Mega-City One, protected from the Cursed Earth outside. Dredd (Stallone) is one of the Judges (also jury and executioner) trying to keep order. But he will be set up and will need to uncover the truth.
Review: Inspired by a successful comic book, this movie was a failure in 1995, but I wanted to see it for comparison with the recent remake Dredd (2012) starring Karl Urban. The movie started to benefit from the recent developments in CGIs so it doesn't look as cheap as if it would have been done in the 80s. Some props look a bit like plastic (the motorbikes, the armors) but some other effects are pretty well done (the city landscapes, the war robot, the Mean Machine). The movie is clearly centered on Stallone and I didn't like the fact that we often see his face unlike in the remake (he never leaves his helmet then) and in the comic book (I think). However this comment is modereted by the acting of Stallone, more subtle than usual, and some blue and black contact lenses that give him a disturbing look. The story is rather classical but that would be OK if there were not some shortcuts in the screenplay and some incredible rections by some characters, which are for me the main defects in this movie. The music by Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) is advertised on the Blu-ray cover but is not always fitting the story. In the same register, I found that the sound mixing on this Blu-ray edition was uneven, sometimes too weak or too loud, drowning the dialogs, or with too many effects on the rear speakers. Interesting to watch anyway.
Rating: 5 /10

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1936
	Director: Frank Capra (It's a Wonderful Life, It Happened One Night)
	Actors: Gary Cooper (Alice in Wonderland), Jean Arthur (Shane), George Bancroft
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 21.08.2013, DVD, 32" TV, Black & White
Synopsis: Longfellow Deeds (Cooper), a simple guy who never left his small town, inherits twenty million dollars from his uncle he didn't know (a vast fortune in 1936). In New York he will have to navigate between his uncle's advisors, the media, and a girl (Arthur) he is falling in love with.
Review: I learned the existence of this old classic after reviewing the 2002 remake simply entitled Mr Deeds with Adam Sandler. I thought (and read) that some elements were re-used from the original, while actually a lot is taken from it. Deeds was already writing postcards poetry in 1936, and the whole town was coming to the train station to wish him goodbye. The main changes concern the type of humor adapted to Adam Sandler's style vs. the one of the 30's, the increased role of the bulter to fit John Turturro, and the ending that was originally taking place in court. I was pleasantly surprized by how easy it is to watch this movie, in spite of its age (the second oldest reviewed on this blog to date) and the duration of 1h50, including the last thirty minutes in a tribunal. In a different style but as easy to watch as Casablanca (1942) or 12 Angry Men although this one is twenty years younger. No wonder then that the original material needed only little adaptation in 2002. The story and characters are great, the dialogs better and deeper than in the remake, and the stronger conclusion would still fit nowadays: is it being crazy than loving life and trying to help poor people, instead of sharing money with the rich who don't need it?
Rating: 7 /10

Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob (1973)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1973
	Director: Gérard Oury (La Grande Vadrouille, Le Corniaud)
	Actors: Louis de Funès (L'aile ou la Cuisse), Claude Giraud, Miou-Miou (Le Concert, Populaire), Claude Piéplu, Henri Guybet
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 15.08.2013, DVD, 32" TV
Synopsis: Mr Pivert (de Funès) is kidnapped by Slimane, himself chased by killers. They have to dress up like Rabbis and take refuge with a Jewish family.
Review: Holidays in France with my parents is synonym to nostalgy. I have laughted while watching this movie countless times when I was young, and I was curious to see how I would like it now. Well it is very different. The movie is filled with the slapstick humor and exagerated situations typical of Louis de Funès, and he plays them with all his energy as usual. I didn't really laugh, but it was pleasant to watch the movie again, even if just for the classic dance scene. What I missed when I was a kid is the political context (Arabs vs. Jews) and the extreme racism of character played by de Funès, telling sentences that one couldn't place in a movie today, even to make fun of them ("I don't mind them [Arabs] killing each other, the lesser they are the better, but they should do it in their own country"). It is clear for me now that the director criticizes this state of mind, but as it is the funny character of de Funès that embodies this spirit of our grand-grand-parents, I doubt that the audience at that time cought the subtelty of what the director tried to communicate.
Rating: 5 /10

The bling ring (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Sofia Coppola
	Actors: Katie Chang, Israel Broussard, Emma Watson
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 12.08.2013, Schauburg, OV Sneak preview
Synopsis: Inspired by actual events, a group of fame-obsessed teenagers use the internet to track celebrities' whereabouts in order to rob their homes.
Review: This kind of movie is rare. It shows a group of lost fashion victim teenagers. Lives without personal dreams and with the will of having the Occidental way of life, between Iphone and Prada. All should be made available either by the absent or sick parents or by the society in case one becomes a star. That you have to struggle to become something is a non sense. If so many people just need to be on the news and look good to reach it. My problem with the story is that this can either motivate people to live like this or the full opposite, depending on your mind when we watch the movie. If Sofia Coppola would have have a clearer goal, a clearer scenery would have improved the story a lot. This joins a book I am reading about the social consciousness spreading in the society since the famous crises: Une vie peut en cacher une autre, by Mémona Hintermann and Lutz Krusche.  The picture is well done, especially the use of security camera, of cell phone camera, together with the normal film camera. The cut is also well done by varying between fast cuts and long takes. This gives a good rythm to the movie. I would have selected other music to enhance this vision of the society, maybe a bit like in the last version of Great Gatsby, with DiCaprio.
Rating: 7 /10