Ad Astra (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: James Gray
	Actors: Brad Pitt (World War Z, Fight Club), Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black 1-3, The Fugitive), Ruth Negga (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 20.02.2020, in-flight entertainment, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Astronaut Roy McBride (Pitt) undertakes a mission across an unforgiving solar system to uncover the truth about his missing father and his doomed expedition that now, 30 years later, threatens the Earth.
Review: "Realistic" Solar system exploration is trendy in Cinema and TV those days: Europa Report, Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian, Ascension, The Expanse, MARS. Mind the quotes around "realistic". I like the title of the movie (meaning "to the Stars") and what it is trying to accomplish: showing us a society where mankind is advancing towards Space. It even mentions the Space Corps, the kind of military entity that has been recently created in several countries to protect their interests in Space, and protect those countries from threats from above. The Universe of Ad Astra borrows from (or reminds of, I don't know who came first) The Expanse, with its solar system engulfed in conflicts. It also reminds of the excellent graphic novel Universal War. The large budget permits good special effects, the opening scene in particular is stunning, a pity I missed this movie release in theaters. The cold-blooded character of Roy McBride is also interesting and of course excellently played by Brad Pitt: he can really convey the emotions of this rather cool-tempered hero. I really like the movie until the arrival and discovery on Mars, even though the Science is more and more out the window (travel times, pirates on the Moon...) and it suffers from a mild case of World War Z syndrome (deadly trouble follows the hero wherever he goes but he remains unscathed). I loved to see Donald Sutherland playing a kind of mentor figure, even though for a short time. But I was baffled by the third act: putting aside the fact that Roy survives more and more impossible stunts, the tension going crescendo until then falls completely flat, I was so disappointed that nothing happens, and the morale and final image is so predictible, although I couldn't believe they would do that until the last moment. I understand that the movie is about the journey of the main character into his soul, but it would have been nice that he takes us somewhere with him on this journey. So disappointing.
Rating: 4 /10

Bad Boys 2 (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers 1-5)
	Actors: Will Smith (Independence Day, After Earth, Bright), Martin Lawrence (Blue Streak), Gabrielle Union, Jordi Moll (Riddick), Peter Stormare (Minority Report)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 13.01.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Cop partners Marcus (Lawrence) and Mike (Smith) are back, this time investigating a flow of Ecstasy drugs in Miami.
Review: It took Michael Bay eight years to deliver this sequel to the hit Bad Boys. Surprising, one would think it would have come much sooner. But in the meantime the director could perfect his skills, his style and his ability to handle large budgets with The Rock, Armageddon and Pearl Harbor, so that he could give to the world an awesome sequel, and maybe his best movie. I am surprised I don't find it even mentioned in the comments to the Excellent YouTube video Making the Perfect Sequel. I have a confession to make: I love this movie. It fixes every problem there was with the first one and gives the audience so much more. The humor is the same but more: they probably say 200 times "shit" in the movie, which at least makes me laugh. The movie starts with a butt joke and drags it until the end. Nobody close to us dies in the movie, so we don't have the drama issue of the first. The main characters are threatened a lot, but you know they will survive anything. And I burst into laughter when Martin Lawrence makes his rat jokes. Michael Bay hits us with some insane scenes, like the camera rotation through two adjacent room between the cops and the bad guys, or the crazy car chase that happens at an unexpected moment, reminding me of the one in Matrix Reloaded. And who cares how many innocent people die in their cars... We are also rewarded with the most slow motion, sunset, low angles and topless Will Smith that Michael Bay can do. The soundtrack is fun. The side-story with Marcus' sister spices things up a bit. The bad guys really are evil so we just enjoy when they are all cut to pieces. Edgard Wright's Hot Fuzz glorifies Bad Boys 2, and is the reason why re-discovered it and love it. As they say in Hot Fuzz, it is awesome when you think the movie is over while in fact you still ave a half hour to go and a full Cuban adventure including Action that tops what you have seen until now. I think I could watch it again after a week (this time on a big screen) and enjoy it as much.
Rating: 8 /10

Rim of the World (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: McG (Charlie's Angels, Terminator Salvation)
	Actors: Jack Gore, Miya Cech, Benjamin Flores Jr.
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 12.02.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: When an alien invasion starts, four kids in a summer camp unite to stay alive, and maybe defeat some aliens.
Review: This movie is surfing on the wave of the recently popular Alien invasion genre (District 9, Battle Los Angeles, Ender's Game, Arrival...), but maybe a bit late. It also features kids as main characters to surf on that other wave of 80's / Amblin revival (Stranger Things, Super 8...). I wanted to write that director McG is a bit disappointing but his previous movies were no masterpiece either. Rim of the World is a Netflix production, which may explain the lower quality standard as for big Hollywood studios (on that example in particular, because they are able to do much better sometimes, like Annihilation). The story is quite classic for the genre, but too over-the-top and not believable at all. The character of Dariush behaves like well beyond his age and the jokes revolving around him are exaggerated. The motivation of the Chinese girl is fuzzy, and her perfect English doesn't make any sense. The fact that kids are entrusted such an important mission made me laugh. The challenges they have to go through seem very staged, and the worst is when at the end each of them has to overcome his worst weakness to make the mission succeed. The pace is also strange and the special effects borderline. Not really a good movie.
Rating: 3 /10

Bad Boys (1995)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1995
	Director: Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers 1-5)
	Actors: Will Smith (Independence Day, After Earth, Bright), Martin Lawrence (Blue Streak), Tchéky Karyo (Doberman), Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix), Téa Leoni (Deep Impact)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 10.01.2019, VOD, 42" TV screen.
Synopsis: Two hip detectives protect a witness to a murder while investigating a case of stolen heroin from the evidence storage room from their police precinct.
Review: After a full career in music videos and commercials, Michael Bay directed with Bad Boys his first feature-length film. This is pretty impressive when you see the quality of the end product. OK the cinematography is not the best, there you see he still had to learn, but otherwise the movie clearly shows that he knew what he was doing and where he wanted to go. Looking back now, it seems like he wanted to re-introduce the 80's Action genre and its mix of Action scenes and Comedy, but adjusted to more recent humor. In fact Action movies not to take seriously. That was a hit and he went on with more movies and franchises in the same style, in particular Armageddon and all the Transformers movies, to saturation. Countless modern movies follow in his footsteps, I am thinking about the latest in the Fast and Furious saga although they have less humor. The movie is made easy for you to watch: purely bad guys, a damsel in distress, cool cops cracking jokes, making fun of each other, funny misunderstandings, sex jokes, car chases and tons of explosions with capital letters. There is also the shouting unhappy police commissioner (nice Joe Pantoliano) directly from the 80's movies. I think the setting in Miami and the cops investigating on drugs rather than the usual robberies or crimes is also a welcome change that contributed to the success of the movie. The downside of this formula is that because the movie doesn't take itself seriously, neither can you and it is hard to feel any serious drama. For example the death early in the movie that connects all the characters and drives them ends up being forgotten and almost joked about.
Rating: 6 /10

The Toys that made Us - Season 3 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Brian Volk-Weiss
	Actors: -
	Country: USA
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: January 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: The history of the success of famous toy lines, and anecdotes behind those.
Review: The original concept of the "eight-part Documentary series about the toys that we all know" must have been successful because after those 8 episodes split into Season 1 and Season 2, the series is back for more! The mechanics of the series are now well in place and the creators start to dig into less known toy lines in this third Season. It is well in line with the second season and gets the same rating, not as good as the first one because the novelty effect has passed, and again I miss the "context of the period: political, social, economical, fashion". Still it is pretty entertaining to watch. The Power Rangers episode fascinated me more for the concept of the TV-series (Japanese Super-Sentai series dubbed and with additional scenes shot with American actors) than the one of the toys. My Little Pony was just OK. The Wrestling episode gives more insight on the business, and the one on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is quite interesting for the comics book origin and the participation of its creators to the toy lines. There is not much more to say.
Rating: 5 /10

Furious 6 (2013)

	Also Known As: Fast & Furious 6
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-4-5-6-9-10, Star Trek Beyond)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Riddick, xXx), Paul Walker (Pleasantville, Timeline, Into the Blue), Dwayne Johnson (Rampage, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Jordana Brewster, Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 08.01.2020, Blu-ray, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: While Dom (Diesel) and O'Connor (Walker) enjoy their freedom, Hobbs (Johnson) finds them with a mission they cannot refuse.
Review: You know that the franchise has increased its ambitions (and budget) when most of a movie takes place in London, after the USA, Mexico and Brazil. After two movies trying find the good recipe (Fast and Furious and Fast Five), they finally did it, and I find this movie the best of the franchise until this point. I may have to revise the ratings of all movies depending on what comes next. Special effects: good all-along. Team assembling: seamless Bad-ass fist-fights: Dwayne Johnson starts to find his place Universe-building: done with movies that tie in to the previous and next one (even to older ones, see the time-altering post-credit scene) Car chases with new models: of course, this time with an excuse to run older cars in another city environment Family: yes, against the rest of the world Bad guy: resourceful Twists: some Fan-service: you bet, with the return of former cast Jokes: no more than needed Scale: the World is not enough Basically all the flaws from the previous movies are fixed, and don't tell me that a bigger budget only did that. In this movie I found that all the characters have a well-balanced presence and no amount of money can guarantee a good screenplay and director. For example the mini-story between Han and Gisele is OK and not distracting. Tyrese Gibson is more at ease and does a nice meta-joke (comparing the two teams). Tej is the tech guy. Hobbs sees the good in this band of criminals. Walker is still not acting good but it fits his character by now. The story between Dom and Letty is well-done and even though they play the classic memory-loss trick, it is not resolved by a hit to the head but actions and feelings give it a meaning. And we get to see Vin Diesel as an actor more than usual. One thing that can disturb the delicate audience is the exaggeration in the stunts, I mean how many times can a guy take a bullet or get hit by a moving car on the highway without feeling a thing. Also how long can an airport runway be? I didn't mind, as it goes with the rest of the story. I liked the fake ending a-la-Bad Boys 2, and was jumping on my seat as much as our heroes did (Tyrese again) at the apparition of the tank. Awesome. All in all a great action movie. I have to try and slow down the pace at which I watch those movies or they may feel too repetitive. The next two movies were not directed by Justin Lin, let's see how they fare.
Rating: 7 /10

Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: J. J. Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek, The Force Awakens)
	Actors: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega (Attack the Block), Adam Driver (J. Edgar, Lincoln), Oscar Isaac (X-men: Apocalypse, Annihilation)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Fantasy, Epic, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 05.01.2019, Cine Hoyts Mallplaza Antofagasta
Synopsis: While the Rebellion regroups its Forces, Kylo Ren (Driver) searched the Galaxy for the source of a message sent by a Sith Lord thought dead.
Review: After being disappointed by the two previous episodes, I was entering the theater with low expectations so they were exceeded and this last episode of the Skywalker saga turned out to be my favorite of the sequel trilogy. Like in other modern blockbusters, it seemed to me that the first half hour serves the double purpose of showing everything you thought was spoiler from the trailer, and getting you slowly into the movie with a lot of action and few emotional scenes in order to wait for the audience to have finished their popcorn so that you can finally start enjoying the movie. I like that this movie brings a kind of conclusion to the stories of the characters we have discovered in this new trilogy: Rey, Poe, Finn, Kylo, while still delivering a good dose of fan service with appearance by the stars of the original trilogy. However, the movie spends a lot of time undoing what the previous one The Last Jedi did, to steer back in the direction that director J. J. Abrams initiated with The Force Awakens. It turns out that the Studio (well, Disney now) didn't plan the story of the three films ahead ; they used the starting ideas of Abrams but then it seems like they wanted to keep the flexibility to react to the Box Office between two films. An apparently good strategy to maximize the money return and minimize the audience disappointment, but not one to make a cohesive trilogy. Even George Lucas had the prequel trilogy planned! I like that this movie concludes with a tone similar to the one of the original movies, this is what I wanted, I didn't want a new take on the Star Wars Universe because I knew it was too risky for the studios to go this direction. In the end they went half-half which is not great for anybody. Fortunately for me, they conclude in my preferred direction. The movie is very dense, many many things happen as the characters move from place to place (this calls for a second viewing) but I was never confused and questionning this planet-hopping less than the few adventures in The Last Jedi (argh the casino planet). Note that while The Force Awakens was sold as Han Solo's movie and The Last Jedi Luke's, this one was planned as Leia's movie but sadly actress Carrie Fischer passed away before production started. So the ended up using left-over footage from the previous movies for this one and drastically reduced her role. It is disturbing because her character lacks interaction with the others and the special effects are not perfect, but I found that given the circumstances the studio did its best. The space battles are exciting and the light sabre battles better than before. But I still found many problems with the movie, like character's motivation and reactions, and some basic logic (everybody survives the apparently deadly giant waves). It is also too obviously gender-conscious, with many voices of female Storm-troopers and a same-sex kiss at the end. Part of the ending reminds of the Beacons of Gondor from The Return of the King but that's always a winner, although the music should have been pumped up some more. Another part of the ending reminded too much of that other recent Disney movie Avengers: Endgame. You will know when you hear it. If you can't have enough of hearing about this movie, I can recommend this breakdown by NewRockstars, this recap by Kevin Smith although not as heartfelt as he did before, and this review of the sequel trilogy by The Cosmonaut Variety Hour. I will probably need a second viewing to get clearer ideas on the movie, and maybe revisit the two others. Now like everybody does, let me try to rank all the Star Wars movies (and some series) from my least to most favorite. Disclaimer: this is based on my feelings of today and may not be fully aligned with the ratings I gave at the time I posted my reviews, and this is such a difficult exercise don't blame me for it: 14. Attack of the Clones (I like a few scenes around Mace Windu's "This party's over" but can't stand the love story and the rest) 13. The Last Jedi (I can only watch it for Luke and Yoda) 12. Revenge of the Sith (for the ending) 11. The worst seasons of The Clone Wars, like season 5 10. Solo 9. The Phantom Menace (for nostalgia of my first viewing, but then with the short version of the Pod Race) 8. The Force Awakens (I don't like the Starkiller base) 7. The best seasons of The Clone Wars, like season 6 6. The Mandalorian (more than just fan service) 5. The Rise of Skywalker 4. Rogue One (surprising) 3. A New Hope (of course I love it, tight with the two others) 2. Return of the Jedi (sorry, I love how it concludes the trilogy) 1. The Empire Strikes Back (best balance of everything Star Wars)
Rating: 7 /10

Starship Troopers 5: Traitor of Mars (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Starship Troopers: Invasion), Masaru Matsumoto
	Actors (voices): Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers 1&3), Dina Meyer, DeRay Davis
	Country: USA, J
	Genre: SF, Action, Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 07.01.2020, VOD, 11" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Federation trooper Johnny Rico (Van Dien) is ordered to work with a group of new recruits on a satellite station on Mars, where giant bugs have decided to target their next attack
Review: After a fourth movie in the Starship Troopers saga that I really liked (read my post on this Invasion), this one produced five years later is really disappointing. The concept is the same as in the last movie (fully animated) but this time even Casper Van Dien and Dina Meyer are back to voice their characters from the first Starship Troopers. It is amazing that 20 years after the release of Paul Verhoeven's movie, its influence can still be seen on today's directors and producers, to the point that they keep on delivering new movies with the hope of reproducing what they saw, maybe what drove them to work in Cinema in the first place... But whatever good visuals, story and production magic operated on the previous movie, this one lost it all. The characters' faces and their displacement look very bad, the backbone of the story is simple but not very attractive, but the worst of all is the character development which is awful. In particular the young soldiers and clumsy and cowards, and it doesn't make any sense that bad-ass Johnny Rico has to stand them. The Action scenes are also badly directed, with problems and solution appearing when the screenplay needs them to, as bugs getting killed more or less easily depending on the needs of the story, this kind of things. It is pretty annoying to watch. I have the feeling that the American co-production that had controlled the previous movie this time left free reign to the Japanese crew that delivered a typically Japanese product with a very awkward pace. Not recommended.
Rating: 2 /10

Fast Five (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-4-5-6-9-10, Star Trek Beyond)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Riddick, xXx), Paul Walker (Pleasantville, Timeline, Into the Blue), Dwayne Johnson (Rampage, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Jordana Brewster, Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 29.12.2019, Blu-ray, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: On the run, Brian (Walker), Dom (Diesel) and Mia (Brewster) meet up in Brazil. A failed robbery will attract the attention of the FBI who will send his best agent Hobbs (Johnson).
Review: Following Fast and Furious, this fifth movie definitely launches the franchise in the direction of the big blockbusters. It has a certain Avengers feel to it, gathering characters from other movies: of course Brian, Dom and Mia from the Fast and the Furious and Fast and Furious but also Sung Kang's character from Tokyo Drift, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris rescued from the memory of the bad 2 Fast 2 Furious and Gal Gadot, Don Omar and Tego Calderon from the last movie. Add a classic bad guy played by Joaquim de Almeida and a new badass with Dwayne Johnson ad you got an ensemble cast. Too much maybe, as with so many characters the movie had to over-extend its duration and even then, not all get the same treatment. Tyrese Gibson in particular is under-used. For a fresher look in the franchise, the whole movie takes place in Rio de Janeiro, but unfortunately scenes like rooftop chases have been over-done (in The Incredible Hulk for example). Also the movie rapidly turns into a heist story which I have grown to dislike after watching the Episode 3 in Rick and Morty's season 4. And this movie follows the same rules: assembling the team, coming up with a plan... except that cars and the Rock are involved, and that in the end they screw subtlety and end up (spoiler, highlight to read) racing through the city with a safe in tow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales-style. Besides the Action, the themes of the movie of Family and stopping running are relatable, but not really exploiteed fully in the middle of the rest. In this YouTube review of the saga, Marcus says that Dwayne Johnson is the best thing to have happened to the franchise but I didn't see that yet. I found that he was sidelined. This movie was serious-looking but a bit of a mess, let's see what comes next.
Rating: 4 /10

Fast & Furious (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Justin Lin (Fast & Furious 3-4-5-6-9-10, Star Trek Beyond)
	Actors: Vin Diesel (Pitch Black, Riddick, xXx), Paul Walker (Pleasantville, Timeline, Into the Blue), Michelle Rodriguez (Avatar), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)
	Country: USA, J
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 25.12.2019, Blu-ray, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: FBI officer Brian O'Connor (Walker) and recently retired car racer and criminal Dominic Toretto (Diesel) will cross paths again while they both track down a drug lord that passes his merchandise through the Mexican border using fast cars (of course).
Review: As I had expected and heard about (in this YouTube review of the saga), this fourth installment in the Fast and Furious saga marks a kind of turning point, which will be accentuated (and amplified) still with the next movie. First, the title kind of tells you they want to reboot the franchise. Then they compiled the best of the previous movies: an small undercover cop story but overshadowed by the long-awaited reunion between the morally ambiguous Brian and the Toretto gang, after Brian's solo adventure in 2 Fast 2 Furious. The director Justin Lin of the best movie until that point (Tokyo Drift) is also back, bringing with him one actor from that movie: Sung Kang.  They got rid of the crap from the previous movies like light-speed special effects, over-use of Nitrogen Oxyde, cheap direction, unexciting races. Those defect are all gathered in this movie in the tunnel scenes (ugly CGI and unreadable action) but absent otherwise. And the movie starts with a bang with an incredible Car Chase / Action Scene that I had to watch twice. The motivation of the characters are clear and their actions make sense. In particular Brian's journey is interesting to follow. In this movie he does have to fight his way back in the gang. Of course in the end of the day it is only a relatively dumb Action / Muscle cars movie, but it does a good fan service and lays down the foundations for the following blockbusters. In particular two moments make you tick that something is happening, spoiler, highlight to read: when Dom is hit by a bullet to the shoulder but ignores it and when he stops with one hand the chain holding a 100-kg car motor from falling. That movie was really easy and funny to watch.
Rating: 6 /10