Zoolander 2 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Ben Stiller (The Cable Guy, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
	Actors: Ben Stiller (Tropic Thunder, Mystery Men), Owen Wilson (Armageddon), Penélope Cruz (Blow)
	Country: USA, I
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 20.07.2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: When fashion calls them, Derek (Stiller) and Hansel (Wilson) are re-united after 15 years following different paths.
Review: The original Zoolander is a monument of "n'importe quoi", a French term that comes to my mind to describe this absurd Ben Stiller humor that culminated with Dodgeball in 2004. Trying to repeat the same success 15 years later was risky, see Dumb and Dumber 2, and turned out not to work at all for me. The gags repeated from the first movie to create a link and please the fans (the orgy, the look...) don't work anymore, and the new gags are distilled at a slow pace and with the camera staring a bit too long, showing to me that the vivacity of ideas Stiller and his gang had 15 years ago is no more. Still, it is amusing to see them ridicule the world of fashion and what it has become, and the movie correctly dated to that. Also the crazy idea of this world of male models is pushed to the extreme by having them have a special branch at Interpol, led by the sexy Penélope Cruz. The movie plays a lot on the offbeat humor coming from the contradiction between those extreme characters and the real world, but that is not sufficient. But what really managed to get a few smiles out of me were the small roles and cameos: Kiefer Sutherland as orgy leader, Billy Zane (Titanic) as himself, Justin Bieber attempting self-mockery, Sting, a disturbing androgynous Benedict Crumberbatch as the culmination of male slash female modelling, Neil deGrasse Tyson (the astrophysicist from Cosmos) giving the last look of the movie, M.C. Hammer and some real fashion people like Tommy Hilfiger. I won't watch this one as many times as the first.
Rating: 3 /10

Tomb Raider (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Roar Uthaug (Cold Prey, The Wave)
	Actors: Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.), Dominic West (300), Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 14.07.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she discovers the island where her father disappeared.
Review: I said in my review of the 2001 Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie that this new adaptation of the famous video game could not be any good, but I watched it anyway... To me defense it was playing for free on a very long flight. In general it is not as bad as I could have feared, the movie does try to shine a new light on the female hero especially by having her penniless all along, and her look has been updated to a more realistic less male eye-candy version. Not that Alicia Vikander doesn't look good, but even after watching the movie I still find her physique doesn't match the character. The story is as expected: lost father, ancient artifacts, secret society, travels, exotism... And a lot borrowed from the Indiana Jones movies: the three challenges to pass to reach the goal, really?!?, and the tendency to help the enemy in the end. Even if the movie is watchable, it is just a compilation of pre-digested Hollywood Action (including in-your-face product placement), and I failed to see the touch of director Roar Uthaug whose original Norwegian movies are memorable: Cold Prey, The Wave.
Rating: 3 /10

Eye on Juliet (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Kim Nguyen
	Actors: Joe Cole, Lina El Arabi
	Country: CND, F, MA
	Genre: Romance, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.07.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Eye on Juliet tells the story of an unlikely encounter between Gordon (Joe Cole), a hexapod operator, and Ayusha (Lina El Arabi), a young woman from the Middle East. Gordon, guardian of a pipeline in this desert region, becomes fascinated by Ayusha, while piloting his robotic spider from the other side of the world, in America. Ayusha is promised to an older man she doesn't love. Despite the distance, their mutual fear and their imperfect interaction, he will do everything in his power to help her escape her fate.
Review: The story looks at the beginning quite interesting. A bored North American living in a kind of virtual world (driving robots in the desert, meeting people only via Tinder) set in opposition to a couple of Moroccan having no access to technology and having a unfolded love story hidden from their tradition parents. Real life vs virtual life. When the twist appears that he tries to help her, the story becomes a very pathetic romance lacking of authenticity. The acting of Lina El Arabi was very convincing until she meets the robot. The two robots walking around the pipeline and chatting with dialogues as Le big Mac from Pulp Fiction was really good. Nevertheless I am pretty sure there are some good stories to write with this kind of robots making the link between two worlds.
Rating: 4 /10

Hotel Artemis (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Drew Pearce
	Actors: Jodie Foster, Sterlin Brown, Brian Terry Henry, Sofia Boutella, Charlie Day, Dave Bautista, Jeff Goldblum
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 09.07.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version
Synopsis: The Nurse (Foster) takes medical care of special patients in a Los Angeles corrupted by riots. When two robbers arrive wounded they got the rooms Waikiki (Brown) and Honolulu (Henry). They meet other patients Nice (Boutella) and Acapulco (Day). There are strict rules to ensure anonymity and trust. Everest (Bautista) deal with the security and the multiple building repairs.
Review: The movie may become a good video game as it has a closed space, specific characters with very specific outfit and skills, and bad big bosses. There is no much more content in this action movie apart from some sharp dialogues such as "This is America. Eighty-five percent of what I fix is bullet holes".  The action scenes are well done, most of them rather suggest the violence than show it. One of them in a corridor could have become a female-driven Old Boy remake but was kept with much less lyrism. I liked seeing again Jeff Goldblum. He manages to make his secondary role very important to the movie.
Rating: 4 /10

Game over, man! (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Kyle Newacheck
	Actors: Adam Devine, Anders Holmes, Blake Anderson, Jamie Demetriou
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.04.2018, Chilean Netflix, English version
Synopsis: Alex (Devine), Darren (Holmes) and Joel (Anderson) are three friends who try to meet a rich guy entering in their hotel in order to make him finance their video game project. It sounds to work well until a group of terrorists led by Mr. Ahmad (Demetriou) make them all hostages.
Review: The plot sounds a bit geek but is not really. It is more a kind of bringing ideas that come up by playing a video in real life. And this can therefore become very creative, unexpected and funny. This is what I liked in that movie. It is then so full of unexpected scenes, unexpected actions and twists all along the movie. I like it. Few scenes remind me Die hard and that makes it also funny. The acting is rather convincing. Three ingenious video games players and developers living in their world and facing an unknown reality. It is exactly what they look like.  Actually the poster gives already too much hints and reduces the surprise effect on which the plot is working so good. With a kind of cause, the movie could have become much better. It is already a good and surprising entertainment.
Rating: 6 /10

Revolt (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Joe Miale
	Actors: Lee Pace, Bérénice Marlohe
	Country: GB
	Genre: War
	Conditions of visioning: 01.04.2018, Chilean Netflix, English version
Synopsis: The story of humankind's last stand against a cataclysmic alien invasion. In the war-ravaged African countryside, a U.S. soldier (Pace) and a French foreign aid worker (Marlohe) team up to survive the alien onslaught. Their bond will be tested as they search for refuge across a crumbling world.
Review: At the beginning I thought about a kind of extension of Starship troopers plot until it is clear that the insect-like war machines are machines. And then it deals only with that. No insight in the thoughts of the humans. The fights are all alike and are very fast very boring.
Rating: 2 /10

Halal daddy (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Conor McDermottroe
	Actors: Nikesh Patel, Colm Meaney, Sarah Bolger, Art Malik, Deirdre O'Kane
	Country: IRL, F, D
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 11.06.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Raghdan Aziz (Patel) flew from his rich father Amir Aziz (Malik) who already has plans for him, work and wife. After a family clash coupled with the reconversion of an Irish abatoir into a halal one, Raghdan tries to build up a project with all his personal community, with his girlfriend Maeve (Bolger), her enraged father Martin Logan (Meaney), stoned buddies and an ex-lover of his girlfriend.
Review: The story is rather a clash of classes (the rich traditionalist father Amir versus his son Raghdan) than the cliché clash of cultures (Moslim Pakis versus White Christian British). The interesting culture clash lays between the fathers. Amir is rather the despotic and merciless businessman making sure that his counterpart understand who has the money. Martin counts on trust and on people even if he lives on racist stereotypes.  The acting is quite burlesque in the sense of exaggerated and satyrical. The fathers and Raghdan. The only acting that looks authentic is Maeve. But I am not sure that an authentic acting would have made the movie better. The fathers were funny that way.
Rating: 5 /10

Fuerzas especiales (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: José Miguel Zúñiga
	Actors: Sergio Freire, Rodrigo Salinas, Loreto Aravena
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: The adventures and misadventures of Corporals Salinas (Salinas) and Freire (Freire), who will have to settle for their lives to be respected by their superiors.
Review: I watched this movie recommended by my cousin. And it was a good choice! The movie is hilarious. I needed an explanation for the recurring "Buenos días Buenas tardes" of the two heroes. It seems that it is the way city people laugh at country boys who cannot decide between the Good morning and the Good afternoon and say both to be sure to be right. The adventures are all based on the daily work of city policemen. Helping people, getting drunkards in jail, looking for the big number where they could surge and boost their career. The love stories and personal stories are full of humour as well. The actors remind me the French duo Eric et Ramzy and their movies (e.g. La tour Montparnasse infernale, Les Dalton) having a similar humour and where apparently stupid people manage to be real heroes. Freire y Salinas are close friend and collabrated in many stand-up comedies. The remaining actors fulfill the caricatural roles.
Rating: 6 /10

Love, Simon (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Greg Berlanti
	Actors: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Logan Miller
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 18.06.2018, Schauburg, OVE Sneak PReview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Simon Spier (Robinson) keeps a huge secret from his family, his friends, and all of his classmates: he's gay. When one gay declaration pops up in the highschool blog by a guy called Blue, he feels attracted and starts opening up. But this secret is threatened by a classmate (Miller) who is blackmailing him.
Review: How to make a highschool comedy deal with the difficult homosexual coming out drama. The introduction of the characters, most of the interactions between characters and of the side stories remind the few series I have seen. The main story on the black-mailing, the coming out is a bit classical but well done. The improbable happy end does not make the movie better but ok, the movie is North American.  The acting of Nick Robinson is excellent. He is able to make his role very realistic, when he looks at all the men searching for Blue, when he is chatting, when he hang around with his friends, when he is both disturbed of being in the spotlight. Looking at his filmography other of his films seem quite interesting and demanding (Everything everything, Kings of Summer) for the acting and may end up on JoRafCinema soon.
Rating: 5 /10

Sin filtro (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Nicolás López
	Actors: Paz Bascuñán, Ramón Llao
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: Pía (Bascuñán) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Her boss humiliates her, her husband ignores her, her stepson does not respect her, and her best friend does not listen to her. Pía has a strong chest pain and after trying everything to heal she decides to undergo an acupuncture treatment. The Chinese doctor Yi-Ho (Llao) discovers that Pía's pain is caused by repressed feelings and with an ancient technique he takes out the filter. From now on, Pía will not filter and realize that the only way to heal is to say everything she thinks.
Review: The story is full of stereotyped humour with many scenes and characters having low or no credibility. But the dialogues are funny and the vertiginous attack of truth from Pia to everyone around are also funny. The flow of scenes looks like a series of sketches. And the fun comes from the fact that Pia says what sometimes I had in mind in life scenes. The main actress seems most of the time overdoing either when she supposedly contains her anger or when she explodes. Some characters are good in the sketch format but no more in a movie as they evolve less than their roles. The lights and camera are like for the old Brazilian telenovelas (white light, very visible reflectors). The movie has some ideas, but not much more.
Rating: 4 /10