Timeline (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon 1-4, Superman, The Omen, The Goonies)
	Actors: Paul Walker (Fast & Furious 1-7, Pawn Shop Chronicles), Gerard Butler (300, Gamer), Billy Connolly, Neal McDonough (Ticking Clock, Minority Report)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: A group of today's archaeologists become trapped in the 14th century France when they go there to retrieve a friend.
Review: The Netflix movie poster advertises a lot on the name of the departed Paul Walker who played in it while in the fame of the first Fast & Furious movies, in fact quite smaller than the one around the latest of the franchise. He is accompanied by a pre-300 Gerald Butler. This is not a huge blockbuster movie, even by the standards of 2003, meaning that it is relatively modest in its ambitions but I found that to be a good thing. There is just enough Science Fiction, tensions in the present, medieval Anglo-French war, death and brutality, and time-traveling connections (The Final Countdown comes to mind) that nicely wrap-up the whole thing. I was a bit scared that the handling of languages wouldn't make sense but the British speak English and the French speak French except for the educated ones that manage some English, like our very own Lambert Wilson (who became known to the world after The Matrix Reloaded in which he displayed a nice accent). Only two of the characters have an obvious American accent when speaking French although they are supposed to be natives, but I guess one can accept that. A few digital effects look cheap, but otherwise all the medieval action takes place in solid sets which makes Timeline interesting as a History film even aside from the time-travel story. All in all an honest B-movie.
Rating: 6 /10

Suburbicon (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: George Clooney
	Actors: Matt Damon, Juliane Moore, Oscar Isaac
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Drama, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.11.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Suburbicon, a family-centred white suburb, is under tension when the first African-American family moves in this idyllic community, in summer 1959. Gardner Lodge (Damon) and his family start catching a few disturbing glimpses of the once welcoming neighbourhood. Acts of unprecedented violence paired with a gruesome death will inevitably blemish Suburbicon's picture-perfect facade.
Review: The intention may have been to show how a white facade can hide dark interiors. But the plot arrived to me as quite flat mafia story. The only role bringing some humour to the plot are the insurance representative played by Oscar Isaac with his ironic humour and look on the family.  The story is full of verbal violence played with a one-face Matt Damon, that is quite unusual. Juliane Moore manages to act her sacrastic role excellently. The part on the racist white North American people does not bring much new apart from the mix of violence and ridicule. In particular when all the whites are making noise during days in front of the house while the black family does not care.  For a black comedy, basically the trailer said too much and spoiled the one really black comedy scene with the car accident.  Again the plot is good and could have been developped in a very sarcastic comedy. Great casting. But George Clooney missed something.
Rating: 4 /10

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool), Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction), Gary Oldman (1984, The Fifth Element), Elodie Yung (Daredevil TV-series)
	Country: USA, CN, NL, BG
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Former triple-A bodyguard Michael Bryce (Reynolds) is trying to recover his grade when his ex working at Interpol Amelia (Yung) asks for his help in protecting the hitman Marius Kincaid (Jackson) about to testify against the dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Oldman).
Review: This movie relies on the often-used comedy recipe of forcing together two characters that everything opposes. In that case the world's best bodyguard played by the serious and involuntarily funny Ryan Reynolds (reminding me of his role in Deadpool and Green Lantern, so I guess this is close to the actor's own character) and the world' best hitman played by the unavoidable Sam L. Jackson who also sticks to his image (since Pulp Fiction for instance) and says about a hundred time the word motherf***er. Those two are antagonists in their line of work as much as in their approach to life, which leads to a few interesting discussions in the middle of a movie otherwise very oriented towards Action and buddy-film comedy. They are complemented by the presence on screen of Salma Hayek (From Dusk till Dawn, Frida), Gary Oldman and the lovely Elodie Yung that I discovered in the TV-series Daredevil followed by The Defenders. Nothing really remarkable about this movie but I was looking for an easy Action Comedy and that's exactly what I got.
Rating: 5 /10

La Cuisine au Beurre (1963)

	Also Known As: Alles in Butter, My Wife's Husband
	Year of first release: 1963
	Director: Gilles Grangier
	Actors: Fernandel (La Vache et le Prisonier), Bourvil (La Grande Vadrouille), Claire Maurier
	Country: F, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen.
Synopsis: Presumed killed during WWII, Fernand Jouvin (Fernandel) was in fact enjoying the hospitality of a farm in Tirol. When forced to go back to his old life, he finds out that his wife (Maurier) has remarried to a Normand Chef (Bourvil) now in charge of his former restaurant.
Review: The deception of the 2015 remake Pension Complète was good for one thing: make me want to re-discover this classic of the post-war French comedies which united two of the monsters of the time: Fernandel and Bourvil. The humor was undoubtedly different 50 years ago, spending more time focusing on the acting of the main characters rather then enumerating gags. And this movie really looks like it was designed around the one-off collaboration of the two actors, with roles customized to the character we associate them to: Bourvil from Normandie, rigorous, hard-working, insecure and stressed against Fernandel from Marseilles, carefree, cheat, a bit lazy and appreciating the good-life. The relationship within the trio of wife and two husbands evolves slowly, often driven by a manipulating Fernandel. And the whole story revolves around a couple of very French themes like the rivalry North/South in lifestyle, weather and of course cooking thus the title (butter is the main cooking ingredient in Normandy vs. olive oil in the south). Even if not as cult as La Grande Vadrouille (with Bourvil and Louis de Funès), La Cuisine au Beurre was for me very easy and pleasant to watch, even if just to re-discover that period of cinema and those two French monuments that were Bourvil and Fernandel, especially in the few scenes when they exchange anecdotes (cleverly not audible to the audience) that launch them into bursts of laughter (see picture below), very contagious.
Rating: 7 /10

Godzilla: Monster Planet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Hiroyuki Seshita, Kôbun Shizuno
	Actors (voices): Chris Niosi, Martin Billany, Robbie Daymond
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 18.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Earth is devastated by monsters including Godzilla, humanity is forced to escape from the planet and seek refuge in the stars. After more than 20 years of travel close to light-speed, one human in particular is strongly motivated to take back our mother planet which has meanwhile aged thousands of years.
Review: I have described my history with the famous Japanese atomic monster in my review of the 2014 American version Godzilla. Since then the emblematic Toho studio has produced a reboot in 2016 entitled Shin Godzilla, and Netflix has now entered the game by distributing this movie, first of a trilogy, also produced by the rights' owner Toho. Making it an animated film gives then the possibility to the movie-makers to extend the story beyond the classic attack against the Earth (well, usually mostly Japan). So you have to hold on for the first 20 minutes of the movie that explain the whole backstory filled with useless elements that are not of importance afterwards (what are two alien species doing in the mix?!?). This long introduction, like the rest of the movie, follows the Japanese cinematic tradition of over-explaining everything and doing so twice to make sure you got it. Paradoxically, the motivation of the characters and the military strategy stayed very confused to me, and the story stays full of loopholes. The designs are OK although not new, and there are plenty of displays everywhere but it is hard to enjoy them while watching the movie in original Japanese that forces you to read the constant flow of sub-titles, so much that I switch to English spoken language for the last half hour in the hope to try and enjoy the graphics if I couldn't the story. This didn't help much. Quite a disappointment. Japanese blockbusters are often like that, and one should rather travel to the Udine Far East Film Festival to enjoy the much better small popular productions the archipelago has to offer.
Rating: 3 /10

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Chris Weitz
	Actors: Kristen Stewart (Snow White and the Huntsman), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Taylor Lautner
	Country: USA
	Genre: Romance, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 17.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After Edward (Pattinson) and his family skips town, Bella (Stewart) will heal by getting closer to her childhood friend Jacob (Lautner) who also hides a paranormal secret.
Review: Sequel to the hit Twilight that I liked better than expected, New Moon can be summarized in two words: Love triangle, which not much to fill in 2h15 of film. Apart from a few action scenes (shot in the unexciting slow-motion style proper to the saga) and the new characters of werewolves (Oh what a surprise, one of the most predictable twists ever), the movie basically consists in Bella talking about her feelings for Edward by email, her feelings for Jacob to Jacob, her feeling for Edward to Jacob also, and so on and so forth. We learn only a little more about the Universe introduced in the first movie, via a ridiculous trip to Italy, but there is nothing in this movie to be remembered. Or maybe the playfulness of the werewolf teenagers that may have inspired Taika Waititi for his awesome What we do in the shadows. Will I find the courage to go through the three remaining movies?
Rating: 2 /10

Downsizing (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Alexander Payne (About Schmidt, Sideways)
	Actors: Matt Damon (Elysium, Saving Private Ryan), Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, Jango Unchained), Hong Chau
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 17.01.2018, Cinema theater
Synopsis: A group of scientists has discovered a way to reduce the size of humans, opening a way to diminish the pressure on our planet's resources. Paul Safranek (Damon) is tempted by the idea.
Review: The trailer incited me to go and watch that movie, as it was pretty vague on the genre in fact. Then I read it was a comedy while I could have expected an anticipation story with bitter ending. In fact Downsizing is a bit of everything and that's its biggest problem. The movie pleasantly takes it time to advertise the scientific discovery and its benefits, and introduces a character we can relate to (Damon). All along are some comedy notes (including small roles for Jason Sudeikis, Neil Patrick Harris or Laura Dern) but no big laughter either. Some sad events occur but no deep drama, the appealing SF story doesn't develop once Paul is small, a few hints of social satire don't lead to anything, and finally the main characters are under-used, like the great Udo Kier (lately seen in Iron Sky) or more importantly Christopher Walz super-trendy since Inglorious Basterds but whose participation is rather useless. So in spite of good looks and some good promises, the movies doesn't go anywhere and I got bored. Surprising because I usually find big-budget movies watchable thanks to Action, special effects... you always notice that some people (producers) paid attention that it doesn't sink, while Downsizing seems to have been left to live its life alone, without control.
Rating: 4 /10

Twilight (2008)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Catherine Hardwicke (Red Riding Hood)
	Actors: Kristen Stewart (Snow White and the Huntsman), Robert Pattinson (Cosmopolis), Billy Burke
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 14.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Bella (Steward) moves with her father to the grey town of Forks. In her new school she will start to have conflicting feelings for Edward (Pattinson) whose behavior will lead her to think he is not who he seems.
Review: This is the movie that launched the fashion for Romance / Fantasy sagas for young adults. It has some notes of horror being somehow a vampire movie, so it belongs to a Genre I would watch but I heard some much about how cheesy it is in the past years (10 already!) that I had put it off until now. I thought I could fight a night of insomnia with it but it didn't work as the movie is not so badly done in fact. The Romance is a bit cheesy, and the attractive aspect of the vampires enhanced (they glitter in sunlight!!) but the story to which any half-rebel teenager (so, all of them) can identify is well told, well shot and the actors turned out to be better than I expected. On this blog we have criticized the "one-look" acting of Kristen Steward in Snow White and the Huntsman and Personal Shopper, but I was surprised to see that she didn't start like that in fact. She does manage to convey emotions with her face and body, something she may have forgotten afterward. Pattinson, that I have only seen since in Cosmopolis, is alright as are the other actors. The background story reminds a little of 30 days of night (Alaska is mentioned) and gives clues of a vaster universe and a follow-up story. Because as annoying as Apple's programmed obsolescence, this programmed saga don't make much effort for being self-contained and you know you will be stuck with watching the rest of them, including the fourth movie in two parts, to get to some sort of closure. I will personally take a break before continuing. In summary, not a great vampire movie according to my current taste, but in all objectivity a relatively well-done job.
Rating: 6 /10

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1989
	Director: Stephen Herek (101 Dalmatians)
	Actors: Keanu Reeves (Speed, The Matrix 1-3), Alex Winter, George Carlin
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 13.01.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: About to drop out of high school, rock-star wannabees Bill & Ted (Winter & Reeves) are met by a time-traveler here to help them reaching a bright future.
Review: I had never seen that early movie with Keanu Reeves which, if not his debut, was his first huge success in the USA. It is much less known in Europe, unlike Wayne's World with witch it can be compared for its two dumb pre-adult main characters, the time of release, the trendy expressions (Excellent)... But a big difference is that here the two young dudes are acting in a goofy story while Mike Myers was the architect of Wayne's World, and included a very offbeat humor there. So the two friends go on through time to collect celebrities for the their History report, a story not believable on purpose for the sake of Comedy but I can understand that it stroke a cord with high-school students of the time. Probably it just arrived at the right moment. The success was so large that it generated a sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey just two years later. For me, it was funny to see that young Keanu Reeves playing dumb-dumb, to experience some very 80's special effects and soundtrack, but otherwise I didn't find the movie very good. I guess you rather have to watch it at the right age, in the right mood and the right year.
Rating: 3 /10

Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Matt Schrader
	Actors: -
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 09.01.2018, City Kino
Synopsis: On the importance of the score in movies.
Review: This Documentary, funded by Kickstarter, constitutes a most welcome overview on the topic. I am always on the look-out for movies with a good or original soundtrack, and as I wrote in that article, in the vast majority of movies the soundtrack is not worth mentioning and in the worst cases it disturbs the viewing experience, often by underlining too much the action. But in some rare cases the score is noteworthy, and this is what this Documentary highlights. And it does a good job at it, showing interviews of the most relevant people: score composers of course, but also the directors that commission those composers, movie producers, a film historian and even a psychologist to explain to us how image and sound interact in our brain. The structure of the Documentary is also well-done although classic, interleaving interviews about how to make a good score with a chronological timeline of soundtrack History, highlights on the best composers and some more technical sections (like how all the sounds are mixed together). I was glad that the Documentary reminded me what a huge artist John Williams is. I am too often thinking about his un-remarkable work on the latest Star Wars movies (like Star Wars: The Force Awakens) re-using old recipes and themes, his last great work on he saga being to me the theme Duel of Fates in Episode I - The Phantom Menace. One should never forget what he did on E.T., Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Superman or Jaws of course, examples that gave me the shivers when I heard them again in the Documentary. It is interesting that the 80's were dubbed the John Williams era while we are now in the Hans Zimmer era, another great contributor to the art with movies like Batman Begins, Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator ... What I can criticize from the Documentary is the omission of the work of some composers I judge of importance. the existence of director-composers like John Carpenter (seen in action at the NIFFF2016) is not mentioned at all, nor is the band Daft Punk for their revolutionary work on Tron: Legacy although we see the poster of that movie in the background during the section about soundtracks composed by a new breed of artists. More important omissions are the one of Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and the unforgivable one of Basil Poledouris, my personal favorite, responsible for one of the undoubtedly best film scores ever (Conan the Barbarian) and some other no less remarkable (like Starship Troopers). Was he deliberately forgotten because he exercised in the shadow of Williams and that would have been redundant in the Documentary, or because Genre movies were purposefully avoided (same reason for Carpenter). In any case that costs one rating point to that otherwise very good Documentary.
Rating: 7 /10