Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Kick-Ass, X-men: First Class)
	Actors: Colin Firth (Love Actually), Taron Egerton (Eddie the Eagle), Mark Strong (Green Lantern), Julianne Moore (Jurassic Park: The Lost World, The Big Lebowski), Jeff Bridges (Iron Man), Hale Berry (X-men 1-3), Pedro Pascal (Narcos TV-series)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 07.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Eggsy is now fully embracing his job as secret agent, while progressing in his personal life by meeting his in-laws.
Review: To get back in the mood I have watched back-to-back with this sequel the original Kingsman: The Secret Service and enjoyed it as much as the first time I saw it. The Golden Circle uses the same recipe and fresh ideas to expand its Universe, showing that Matthew Vaughn is not running out of them (maybe also helped by the original comics). References to the 80's are shifted to the 50's, gadgets are ever more present and sophisticated, the humor is the same (including its morbid side), Merlin is great, there are some welcome winks to the first movie and the expansion to Statesman (those who saw the movie will understand) is a great idea (nice characters played by Hale Berry, Jeff Bridges, Pedro Pascal and Channing Tatum). It is just that the surprise effect coming from the originality of the first movie is passed, leaving me with the feeling that everything was a bit too much, which is hard to avoid in a sequel. Still, the director of Kick-Ass shows a nice fresh view in an otherwise formatted Hollywood.
Rating: 6 /10

The Aristocats (1970)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1970
	Director: Wolfgang Reitherman (Robin Hood, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book)
	Actors: Phil Harris, Eva Gabor, Sterling Holloway
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 08.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Duchess and her three kittens live the perfect aristocratic life, well taken care of by Madame and Edgar her butler. That is until she puts the cats in her will before him.
Review: I enjoyed a lot watching old Disney classics like Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo and Pinocchio, and I hadn't seen The Aristocats since I was a kid so that needed correction. A few things strike me in that movie. First the music is as omnipresent as I remembered, and I could this time appreciate for the first time the original soundtrack with all its funny lyrics, including the opening song half in French by Maurice Chevalier. I loved to hear all those songs, from the classic one to hummed melodies to the street performance by O'Maley to the explosion of the Skat band. Then I was also impressed by the drawings which don't have the perfect quality look of their predecessors, decades older, from the prime time of Disney. Less details can be found in The Aristocrats, in the background for example, and I found the drawings of the cats a bit rough at the edges, almost unfinished, but this gives them a realism that is hard to describe. Moreover beyond the rough lines, the animation of the animals' movements is nothing short of extraordinary, rendering perfectly small movements, dances, swings and the weight of those animals, like I have rarely seen in a hand-draw animated film except for the best Disney like The Jungle Book (by the same director), Dumbo, or by the modern genius Bill Plympton (I Married a Strange Person!, Revengeance). Also movies of that time were on the short end, under 80 minutes for this one, and production was costly so you can see the economy in every frame: everything that is shown is interesting to watch because a lot of work and heart were put into it. There are some scenes that I likes less, for example the two ones between the butler and the dogs, but they are largely compensated by all the ones with cats, geese, mouse... Almost half a Century later, still a great animated film to watch for adults and children alike.
Rating: 8 /10

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure)
	Actors: Nicolas Cage (Ghost Rider 1-2, Face/Off), Diane Kruger (Inglorious Basterds), Justin Bartha, Ed Harris (A History of Violence, The Truman Show), Jon Voigt (Tomb Rider, Anaconda), Harvey Keitel (From Dusk Till Dawn)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 06.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Made famous by the discovery of the Templar's treasure, Benjamin Gates (Cage) is dragged into new adventures after the name of his ancestor is spoiled by Mitch Wilkinson (Harris).
Review: This is the perfect sequel to National Treasure: take the same ingredients, push them a notch and voila! The Gates father is back for more, as are the assistant and the wife who is at the beginning is an ex- in order to leave room for a reunion and a Disney happy ending, unlike in The Mummy Returns (the one with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz) for example in which the wife of the adventurer is fully part of his life. We have a new greedy bad guy leading a bunch of mercenaries and even (spoiler, highlight to read) Gates' mom. But most importantly, our modern American adventurer / archaeologist solves puzzle after puzzle and for doing so has to break a few laws, steal a few things from renowned places, even kidnap someone important, and of course visit landmarks of the American History, extended during this episode to "exotic" places like Paris and London. The movie contained enough action, changes of pace and simple riddles to keep me interested, but to do so I had to lower my standards of logic, and accept for example that El Dorado was built by the Native (North) Americans so that it nicely fits into the plot. Entertaining enough. Note that after Tomb Rider it's the second role of Adventurer's father for John Voigt. And I liked to see Bruce Greenwood (Admiral Pike in Star Trek) as POTUS.
Rating: 5 /10

Mielensäpahoittaja (2014)

	Also Known As: Kaffee mit Milch und Stress
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Dome Karukoski
	Actors: Antti Litja, Mari Perankoski, Iikka Forss
	Country: FIN, ISL
	Genre: Black Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 18.12.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Finnish with German subtitle
Synopsis: Mielensäpahoittaja (Litja) knows that everything used to be so much better in the old days. As the old grumpy has to spend a weekend in Helsinki to attend physiotherapy. Grumpy doesn't like this for four reasons: 1) He has to take a taxi. 2) He can't take daily care of his wife, an Alzheimer's patient. 3) He can't drive, which means he might have to sit in a car with a female driver. 4) He has to spend time with his family. The daughter-in-law Liisa (Perankoski) is a career woman, not keen to spend time with Grumpy when he comes to the city. Her boss has given her the task to look after Russian businessmen supposed to close a major deal over the weekend. It doesn't make her any happier when Grumpy decides to help with the deal. Then Grumpy has to face his useless son Poika (Forss) to become the father he never was, teaching.
Review: The movie has a plot similar to Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino. It is enriched in dialogues and situations that are really funny. Funny due to the contrast of Grumpy with his son Poika unable to confront his father and avoiding all type of conflict, the contrast of Grumpy with Poika's wife Liisa always looking for optimising time and the contrast of Poika, weak and often daydreaming, with his wife Liisa, strong and efficient. Many dialogues and situations sound familiar to me and maybe therefore so funny. I may know many people a bit grumpy, who avoid conflict, who think a lot about being efficient.  The acting of the three main actors fits to the very defined characters without exaggeration. The Russian customers of Liisa are behaving very strangely and they are acted similarly in a very slapstick style. The use of different type of humour is rare and makes the movie also interesting and comparable to theater plays by Molière.
Rating: 7 /10

The killing of a sacred deer (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
	Actors: Colin Farrel, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan
	Country: GB, IRL, USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 04.12.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: The father of 16-year-old Martin (Keoghan) died on the operating table. Little by little, a deep and empathetic bond begins to form between him and the respected cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr Steven Murphy (Farrel). At the first glance, Murphy's family appreciates Martin, even though right from the start, a vague feeling overshadows Martin's honest intent from the parents point of view. And then, unexpectedly, the idyllic family suffers from a fierce and pitiless punishment.
Review: The story is quite good. It is fully obscure all along the movie what is the motive of Martin and how comes that they all become possessed. This was good. The dialogues could be taken as hilarious! Talking about mashed potatoes and death children in the same phrase. But the way the whole Murphy family speaks, these monotonous voices, without emotion, without rythm. I did not like it. It may have been part of the humour, to speak horrible things with this kind of voice. Hmm. I found this turns the good plot boring. The role and face of Keoghan match together as he embodies the devil looking innocent. His innocence comes rather from his impersonal attitude and his body language and the devil from his face and look. This is well done. Colin Farrel is fixed in one face, the beard not improving his expressions.  Even if I did not like the movie, the type of story is good and I may watch his previous works such as The Lobster or Dogtooth.
Rating: 4 /10

Bright (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: David Ayer (Sabotage, Fury, Suicide Squad)
	Actors:  Will Smith (After Earth Men in Black 1-3), Joel Edgerton (The Thing, The Great Gatsby), Noomi Rapace (What happened to Monday?)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.01.2018, VOD, 40" TV screen
Synopsis: In a Fantasy uchronic world, Orcs and Human and Elves and many other species live together, although with prejudice against some. Detective Daryl Ward (Smith) is assigned an Orc partner (Edgerton) for the first time in History, while magical events seem to re-surface.
Review: By quickly looking at the Netflix preview I though that movie was a remake of the 1988 Alien Nation featuring a Human / Alien cop duo. Will Smith's partner is in fact an Orc from Earth but the similarity is still there. This Fantasy Universe reminds in fact also of the TV-series The Shannara Chronicles, and one cannot say that it is not well constructed: hints on the background story between the different species are slowly distilled but are never the center of the story which helps making that World believable. If you pay attention you will find many details that also help with the credibility to the Universe, like a Centaurus cop shown for a second on screen. Leaving this Universe construction aside, I found that everything else in the movie is bad starting with the dialogs. They are so empty that to try and give them strength they have been filled with F**k and S**t words to the extreme, maybe 200 of the first and 50 of the second in the whole movie. Poor dialogs lead to poor performance by the actors supposed to deliver them. This performance is poorly filmed and edited: how many times do they end up in an enclosed space (room, car...) and discuss their friendship?? This is for me the third strike against David Ayer after Sabotage and Suicide Squad (Fury is long forgotten). And when the Action tries to get more scale, it is polluted by a poor soundtrack. The story is also extremely disappointing, starting some sub-plots that are then not followed, following a McGuffin that leads to nothing, and letting us hope for a grand finale that doesn't come. Instead, I got the bad feeling that the movie calls for a sequel, as so much energy and money has been wasted in building that Universe. Apparently the poor critics haven't discouraged Netflix from producing such sequel. This reminds me of a comment a friend of mine made about Tesla or Google's difficulties in mass-producing automobiles while other companies have been perfecting their craft in making them for 100 years. Is Netflix really able to compete with Hollywood in the field of movie-making? It certainly is for smaller productions (I remember Spectral) or series with a specific audience (Stranger Things) but is it for large audience blockbusters?
Rating: 2 /10

A date for mad Mary (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Darren Thornton
	Actors: Seána Kerslake, Charley Bailey, Tara Lee
	Country: IRL
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.11.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: 'Mad' Mary McArdle (Kerslake) returns to Drogheda after a short spell in prison - for something she'd rather forget. Back home, everything and everyone has changed. Her best friend, Charlene (Bailey), is about to get married and Mary is to be her maid of honour. When Charlene refuses Mary a 'plus one' on the grounds that she probably couldn't find a date, Mary becomes determined to prove her wrong.
Review:  Mary always had difficulties with relationships except with Charlene. And she sees that all her dates are failing. When she meets Jess (Lee), a photograph, with whom she starts partying like in the old days with Charlene, she tries out this new relationship, this time with a woman. She comes also closer to her previously hated mother. For me the fact of facing oneself (with one's mistakes) could have been exploited in the scene when Mary faces the girl she stroke almost to death. But instead, she just smokes a cigarette. As this confrontation with her reality is not shown in any other scene, this gives the impression that the visible change of behaviour is due only to her new sexual relationship with Jess and not because she thought about the good and bads she did in her past. The acting of Seána Kerslake is like her role, not in nuances but with very different expressions. And she has a great charisma on screen. Therefore I guess she could play other roles. At least I hope to see this promising actress again.
Rating: 4 /10

God's own country (2017)

	Also Known As: Seule la terre
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Francis Lee
	Actors: Josh O'Connor, Alec Secareanu
	Country: GB
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 23.10.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Spring. Yorkshire. Young farmer Johnny Saxby (O'Connor) numbs his daily frustrations with binge drinking and casual sex, until the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker Gheorghe (Secareanu) for lambing season ignites an intense relationship that sets Johnny on a new path.
Review: Since End of 2014 the same-sex marriage is legal in the United Kingdom. This has the effect of showing homosexuality freely, and not only in the hype London. The movie has almost no dialogue and shows that homosexuality is everywhere but never in public. In the countryside. In the toilets of pubs. Original and modern topic. But I don't see the story. The Gheorghe arrives at Johnny's house, they fuck here, they fuck there, Gheorghe moves out. Not enough for me! The images of the rainy country side have some kind of romantic.
Rating: 3 /10

Dark circus (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Julia Ostertag
	Actors: Angela Maria Romacker, Namjira As-Sefid, Florian Gysin, Annika Strauss, Nikolai Arnold
	Country: D
	Genre: Drama, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 10.12.2017, Cinema am Ostertor, Weird Xperience, German/English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Johanna (Romacker) is struggling with her aimless existence, no job, no family. When she meets or rather follows an intriguing dandy (Arnold), she enters a parallel universe full of bizarre characters and transgressive rituals lead by the mysterious Mistress (As-Sefid).
Review: The story interlocks reality and parallel universes that may be dreamt or real or another side of the mirror. The important is the quest of the inner self, that Johanna is loosing the shame of herself as she tries all what is intriguing her. She feels more self confidence. Many parts of the story are left open, like in the masterpieces by David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive) and I love it.  The fetichism, sadism and masochism that the viewer encounters is presented without judgment, nor dogmatism and is rather fascinating for their artistic aspects, for their creativity, for the artistic perspective of pushing the societal conventions. I love the costumes of the mistress and the horses as well as the scenes of trance.  The acting by Romacker is great and promising even if there are not many dialogues but rather expressions. Due to the role and the story, she comes through many different inner feelings and expresses them very well. Visually, the movie is sometimes great and sometimes not my taste, e.g. the mirror reflections somehow too arty for my taste. The normal world and the outside shots look unclean like in the German TV series while the parallel universe looks very dark, with a clean light and image. Also the costumes of the people and the sceneries in the parallel world are beautiful of light and darkness.
Rating: 6 /10

Miami (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Zaida Bergroth
	Actors: Krista Kosonen, Sonja Kuittinen
	Country: FIN
	Genre: Drama, Melodrama
	Conditions of visioning: 05.11.2017, CineStar3, NFDL2017, Finnish with English subtitle
Synopsis: Being with Angela (Kosonen) is like being high on coke, a man explains to Anna (Kuittinen), “as if the sun were always shining”. But sometimes, he says, "she gets strange ideas". Anna never knew her older half-sister, but when they meet, the younger woman is swept away and lets Angela turn her into a dancer. Together, they trawl nightclubs, moving from one euphoric high to the next – until Angela starts attracting trouble.
Review: In many aspects the movie reminds me Thelma and Louise. The story focuses on the dynamic between the two contrasting sisters. Their dancing show does the same. The extrovert smiling blonde singer and the introvert cold beauty. It develops as road movie following the tour of the dancers and all the bad surprises they encounter, and the bad boys and debts of Angela's previous life. The sisters supporting and loving each other without reservation except the fact of being sisters.  Anna is fully metamorphosed within days, what is not very realistic but does not feel so bad in the movie. Every day of their road trip something escalating the melodrama happens, in the timeline it makes every 20 minutes. More danger because of wrong statements, wrong decisions, wrong behaviours. But I missed a bit the sister talkative relationship as it was rather via experience, looks and music.  Both actresses are great as they manage to express all the non-spoken dialogues with their looks and gestures, especially the promising Sonja Kuittinen.  The camera driving is really good. The soundtrack is some dreamy pop music while I know Finland rather for the heavy metal, tango and classic.  Globally a nice sister road trip.
Rating: 6 /10