Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Carlos Saldanha (Ice Age 1-2, Rio 1-2), Mike Thurmeier (Ice Age 4)
	Actors (voices): Ray Romano, John Leguizamo (Land of the Dead, Collateral Damage), Denis Leary
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 16.03.2013, SD VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: The Mammoth and his gang, including his pregnant wife, discover a hidden land full of dinosaurs and will have to brave its dangers to rescue their friend the possum.
Review: I found this episode better done and more funny than the 4th one that I have recently reviewed (here). It follows the same pattern as the others: the possum gets in trouble, events are breaking up the team, bad characters become good, and everything ends up well for everybody. If this simplicity doesn't bother you, well you can simply have fun watching a cartoon.
Rating: 5 /10

Jaws (1975)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1975
	Director: Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jurassik Park)
	Actors: Roy Scheider (The French Connection), Robert Shaw (From Russia with Love), Richard Dreyfuss (Encounters of the Third Kind)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 05.03.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: A killer shark is about the ruin the summer season on the Amity island, and chief Brody (Scheider) will have to fight this threat.
Review: I remember very well that this movie gave me nightmares for many nights when I first saw it as a kid, and then I could't watch it again for ten years! The impression it makes on me now is different, I watch it with different eyes, but it doesn't change the fact that Jaws influenced my perception of cinema, as it did influence many filmmakers. It is a straigh-forward adventure film, and all side stories have been removed from the novel from which the movie is adapted. So many monster movies have been done after Jaws that it doesn't look original, but one has to remember that it was the first. Also it is more than a monster movie but a real adventure, and it was shot in this way on purpose as Steven Spielberg explains in the making-of. The Blu-ray is indeed accompanied with a 2-hours making-of documentary. It seems like the interviews were shot in 1995 and the documentary edited in 2005, and it tells everything you wanted to know about the making of the movie that became at that period the most successful of all times. The difficulties in shooting at sea with a capricious mechanical shark, the very long and tiring production, details on how certain scenes were shot, including the introduction one, and how the iconic music from John Williams is responsible for half the success of Jaws. The process of restauration of the original negative is presented in a separate feature. It was done as part of the 100th anniversary of Universal. To really appreciate the improved quality, I watched the first ten minutes of my DVD of Jaws, released for the 25th anniversary (so in 2000), and which is I think the first DVD I ever bought, before I even own a DVD player! The colors and contrast are indeed improved, the resolution also obviously, but the most striking is the removal of all scratched and spots that were still present on the DVD. The Blu-ray edition looks indeed very good and ultimate.
Rating: 9 /10

Detention (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Joseph Kahn (Torque)
	Actors: Josh Hutcherson (Journey the the center of the Earth, The kids are All Right), Shanley Caswell, Spencer Locke (Resident Evil: Extinction)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 13.03.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: The daily life of a group of high school students is upset by the arrival of a serial killer.
Review: This movie is moving very fast, and you can be tempted to watch it a second time to see all the details you missed on the first. But it doesn't neccessarily mean that it is full of energy or good ideas. Its main characteristic is that it contains tons of movie and music references, in particular to the 90's. It also has a certain colorful visual style and storytelling style (actors talking to the camera, inscriptions on the screen...). Not too bad, but in a similar style I preferred Kaboom!
Rating: 6 /10

Citadel (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Ciaran Foy
	Actors: Aneurin Barnard, James Cosmo, Wunmi Mosaku
	Country: GB, IRL
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: A young man (Barnard) becomes agoraphobic after his pregnant wife is attacked and druged by scary-looking kids. He will have to face his fears to save his young daughter.
Review: I had read that the movie was very good, so I was a bit dissapointed by what I saw. It is a bit scary at time, and the main actor is very good. It is disturbing to see him taking care of a young child in spite of his condition. The movie borrows a lot from Heartless, another movie with a guy alone against scary characters in the British suburbs. But I found Heartless much better.
Rating: 5 /10

American Mary (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska
	Actors: Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps 1-3, Freddy vs. Jason), Antonio Cupo, Tristan Risk
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 10.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: Money problems will push Mary Mason (Isabelle), a student in surgery, into a world she didn't know before.
Review: From the first half of the movie trailer I noticed that it was well shot, but I thought the trailer revealed all there is to know about the movie. Well it didn't, and there were still plenty of surprises ahead. The movie cleverly focuses on the perverted minds displayed there (and there are many minds, in many flavours!) rather than gratuitous gore scenes. Yes there is blood but not as much as you would expect from a movie about a rogue surgeon. There are also sensual scenes in juxtaposition to the more brutal ones. The directors are canadian Twisted Twins (that's the name of their production company) that also appear in the movie as a weird couple. The successful Katharine Isabell (already 95 movies on her account!) is perfect in her role, and can be very sexy at times, very scary at others.
Rating: 8 /10

John Dies at the End (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Don Coscarelli (Phantasm I-IV, Bubba Ho-Tep)
	Actors: Chase Williamson, Rob Mayes, Paul Giamatti (The Hangover Part 2), Clancy Brown (Starship Troopers)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: Dave (Williamson) and John(Mayers) can see and hunt down monsters. But how did it come to that?
Review: The story of regular dudes fighting evil forces reminds of Jack Brooks Monster Slayer, Idle Hands or My Name is Bruce. The spirit is indeed the same as in those other movies. The crazy atmosphere is nice, you never know what will hit you: decapitation, a talking dog, parallel universes, hallucinations, organic monsters... There is also a bit of Naked Lunch in there. Not as funny as it could have been, but pleasant (and crazy) enough.
Rating: 6 /10

Painless (2012)

	Also Known As: Insensibles (original)
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Juan Carlos Medina
	Actors: Irene Montalà ( L'Auberge Espagnole, Les Poupées Russes), Derek de Lint (Deep Impact), Félix Gómez (Agnosia)
	Country: E, F, P
	Genre: Horror, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: Tragic events will lead a man (Gómez) to dig into the past of his parents. In parallel we follow a group of children locked in hospital in the 30's.
Review: In this kind of movie children are always scary. The investigation edited in parallel makes you wonder how both stories are going to merge. I found that the political background of the 30's-40's in Spain doesn't bring much to the movie (not like in Pan's Labyrinth). On the contrary, the movie switches from a political story to a family investigation to a scary children movie to a gore horror torture flick. The crudeness of the horror bits contrasts too much with the rest of the film, and my general impression over the whole movie is mitigated.
Rating: 5 /10

Stoker (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Thirst)
	Actors: Mia Wasikowska (The Kids are All Right), Nicole Kidman (The Others, Eyes Wide Shut), Matthew Goode (Watchmen)
	Country: USA, GB
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: On the day of her father's death, India (Wasikowska) learns that she has an uncle (Goode). He will stay for a while with her and her mother (Kidman).
Review: A movie quite typical of Chan-wook Park, but I am afraid that what was good in a Korean movie ten years ago has now turned into something out of place in his first american movie. The images are too good-looking, the framing and the lights are too perfect, the camera motions are very fluid and even distract the attention from the story, the actors are taking very long pauses in front of the camera. OK it looks good, but at some point all this technical perfection starts to be annoying. At least until you understand the true nature of the characters, then the movie gains interest again. I remember reading Matthew Goode beeing called "the new Jeremy Irons "at the time of Watchmen.  Only after watching Stoker I would be more inclined to agree ; it is true that he looks a bit like Jeremy Irons and plays a very good ambiguous character, when he doesn't overdo it.
Rating: 6 /10

The ABCs of Death (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Ti West (The Innkeepers), Ben Weathley (Kill List, Sightseers), Noboru Iguchi (Zombie Ass, Dead Sushi), Xavier Gens (Frontière(s),  Hitman), Brunio Forzani & Hélène Cattet (Amer), Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Angela Bettis (playing in May), Jake West (Evil Aliens, Doghouse), Srdjan Spasojevic (A Serbian Film)
	Actors: Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Cold Prey 1-2), Iván González, Kyra Zagorsky, ...
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 09.03.2013, CITY Kino, MFFFN13
Synopsis: 26 short horror stories based on the letters of the alphabet.
Review: An interesting concept for this anthology movie, and very different from the last movies I have seen of the type, V/H/S and The Theatre bizarre, that were telling 4-8 stories linked by another one. In the ABCs of Death all stories are independant, so that you can really jump between radically different styles from one second to the next. Note that the title of the segment appears at the end of it, because sometimes it would spoil the surprise, and in this way it also keeps you guessing what title could start with that particular letter. All stories have at least a bit of horror in them but in various styles: anime, stop-motion, pure horror, thriller, pure gore, conceptual and even one science fiction segment! Many of them are pretty disgusting and revolve around sex, blood, scatology or violence on animals. Out of all this mess are some very good and funny pieces. Others are also good while being serious. There are often good ideas and only a few segments I found really bad or out of place. About four segments (two of them japanese) are completely crazy and burst with ideas. One of the directors has put his segment for free on Youtube: "T is for Toilet".
Rating: 7 /10

Angels & Demons (2009)

	Also Known As: Illuminati
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Ron Howard (Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code)
	Actors: Tom Hanks (Cast Away, Forrest Gump), Ewan McGregor (Star Wars 1-3, Trainspotting), Ayelet Zurer (Munich), Stellan Skarsgård (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Nikolaj Lie Kaas (The Green Butchers)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 06.03.2013, HD VOD, 11" computer screen + headphones.
Synopsis: Robert Langdon (Hanks) is contacted by the Vatican to investigate the kidnapping of the four cardinals favorite for replacing the recently deceased Pope.
Review: Very much in line with The Da Vinci Code, this movie takes us back to finding clues and decyphering codes in a beautiful town, this time Rome. The topic of ages-old conflict between Church an Science is a very well chosen one, and some of the discussions the characters have on this topic are interesting. The reaction of the characters are sometimes out of place, but in general is it pretty good. Beautiful aerial views of Rome make me want to go and visit the city. I didn't choose on purpose to watch this movie a few days after the resignation of the Pope, but it is a funny coincidence.
Rating: 6 /10