Knightriders (1981)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1981
	Director: George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Land of the Dead)
	Actors: Ed Harris (A History of Violence, The Truman Show, The Abyss), Gary Lahti, Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn), Ken Foree (The Devil's Rejects)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 15.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: The daily routine of a troupe of renaissance fair and motorcycle jousting led by Billy (Harris).
Review: I had actually never seen a movie by Romero which is not a zombie one, although The Crazies has been in my Amazon basket for a while now, and I am always looking for a Blu-ray edition of Martin. Thus I couldn't really guess if he could do well anything else than showing people eating each other and speaking out against our society of mass consuming like he brilliantly did in Dawn of the Dead in particular. Now I know that he can. The British edition by Arrow (with the newly created poster shown below) is exemplar in many aspects: the image quality that looks very poor in the first minutes actually stabilizes to a pretty good level, the sound is muffled but I guess due to the original poor recording techniques, you get a Blu-ray and DVD version, a commentary by the director, recent interviews by three main actors and to top it an informative booklet thick with original movie still pictures. The story is intriguing: this guy Billy (first major role for Ed Harris, magnificent) is the true king of a troupe that have in common that they want to live by the honor rules of  medieval times, which sets them apart from other renaissance fairs and motorbike stunt groups. The juxtaposition is also striking: renaissance fair (which I learned are popular in the USA and not only in Germany, like the renowned Kaltenberger Ritterturnier near Munich) and guys in costumes fighting for honor...but riding motorbikes instead of horses! I wondered for a while if Romero didn't use horses for logistic reasons (it is easier to handle bikes) but in the end I think he did it on purpose, to show the troupe under another light than the usual hippy one. What starts like a B-movie with cheap costumes (reminding of the worst of the Italian post-nuke of the 80's, like 2019 After the Fall of New York) slowly reveals complex characters that fight for their ideas. And the cheap aspect of the bikes tuning is fully justified by the practicality of their use as both stunt AND show instruments. Still you have to be in the right state of mind to watch Knightriders, and 2h30 could feel very long for this kind of movie, but is not, thanks to the great ability by Romero to tell an interesting story played by convincing actors. Ed Harris really seems invested by his character and delivers towards the end a performance better than anything I have seen him do, actually an actor performance as I rarely see in any movie. The interviews on the Blu-ray, especially the one of Patricia Tallman who plays Julie, shed a light on the profound meaning of the movie, very personal for George Romero: the conflict between the Art you wish to do / values you want to convey, and the job you have to keep to pay your bills. This is very well summarized in the speech by the character Bagman: "You see, the way I see it is this: You got two separate fights. The one for truth and justice and the American way of life and all that. That's gotta take a backseat to the one for staying alive. You gotta stay alive! Man, you can have the most beautiful ideals in the whole world, but if you die, your ideals are gonna die with you! The important thing is we gotta stay together, we gotta keep the troupe together. And if keeping the troupe going means that we have to take some of this promoter's money, then I say let's take it and get some sleep!". It is known that Romero has always fought against the studios to be able to have artistic freedom, and that he had to deliver commercial products like Land of the Dead to be then able to produce movies of his own, like Diary of the Dead. Unfortunately because of those conflicts, he is having a hard time producing personal movies in the vein of Knightriders, and that is a big loss for Cinema as an Art. I was tempted to rate it 9/10, but I found the bike stunts too confused to grant the movie this mark.
Rating: 8 /10

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: George Nolfi
	Actors: Matt Damon (Dogma, Saving Private Ryan), Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow), Michael Kelly, Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 12.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Running for congressman, David Norris (Damon) is defeated, but his meeting with the mysterious Elise (Blunt) effects him deeply, while a group of men seems determined to affect his future.
Review: For some reason I thought this movie was another spy thriller. I was wrong, and in the end only half surprised that the original story (my favorite thing in the movie) is adapted from a novel by Philip K. Dick, paranoid godfather of paranoid Science Fiction. That story is quite classical but placed in a new context (politics) which makes it more attractive. I found refreshing the role of Matt Damon as young politician (instead of another Bourne-like) and Emily Blunt is as lovely as in Edge of Tomorrow (we are likely to see her more and more in the future). About the way the film looks: there are actually similarities with The Matrix in the characters design (hat instead of black glasses), topology (what doors do) and reflexion (about free-will). One could conclude that the Wachowski movie was inspired by The Adustment Team novel (which is dated 1954), but after a quick search it looks to me that none of those elements are present in the original story, making it then more likely that the movie adaptation was inspired by The Matrix. Not a good point for originality once you know that. But ignoring this fact, The Adjustment Bureau is otherwise a nice piece of anticipation thriller like there are not so often (it actually also reminds a lot of Alex Proyas' excellent Dark City).
Rating: 6 /10

Napoleon Dynamite (2004)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Jared Hess
	Actors: Jon Heder, Efren Ramirez, Jon Gries
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 15.10.2014, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Napoleon (Heder) is a bullied high school kid, living with his brother and grandma, and simply trying to make friends.
Review: You have to know that this movie was made for only 400 000 dollars, was a big succes at Sundance and was then bought and distributed by Fox to earn in the end 40 millions and gain a cult following. The characters are really odd: imagine a geek kid with long teeth and a unicorn T-shirt, his older brother with a moustache dating online, his best friend a Mexican inexpressive new kid at school, his uncle obsessed with his missed football career, a tae-kwon-do teacher wearing the American flag as pants, ... all of them making a funny mix. It also looks like the actors playing those roles don't have the appropriate age for them, but they make-do by taking the right facial expressions or language ticks (I love the character of Pedro for that, his lack of facial expression is hilarious). The story isn't much to talk about, and the movie is actually not bad-looking for a small independent one. But its interest definitely lies in the characters. It was so popular at some point that an animated TV-series was produced, only to last 6 episodes before being cancelled.
Rating: 5 /10

Independence Day (1996)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1996
	Director: Roland Emmerich (Stargate, 2012)
	Actors: Will Smith (Bad Boys 1-2, Hancock), Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum (Jurassik Park: The Lost World)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, War
	Conditions of visioning: 11.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: On the 4th of July, alien ships take position above the world major cities. The US president (Pullman) attempts communicating with them.
Review: It is nowadays custom to make fun of and despise this movie, regarded as stupid and overly patriotic. I remember I loved it when it went out around my 18th birthday, I watched it twice and even bought the soundtrack at a discount. People tend to forget that it was revolutionary at that time: alien invasion, massive city destruction, the mix of SF and humour, without forgetting the establishment of Will Smith as funny Action Hero (one year after his cinema comeback in Bad Boys). All the modern disaster movies I can think of (including humor and/or city destruction and/or patriotism) came after it: Volcano (1997), Air Force One (1997), Godzilla (1998), Armageddon (1998), The day after Tomorrow (2004),  Transformers (2007), 2012 (2012), by the way many of them coming from the same director or his equivalent Michael Bay. After the now cult Stargate (1994), Roland Emmerich and his buddy Dean Devlin were still at the top of their game for Independence Day ; for me it all went down only after. Yes the movie contains some "ridiculous" ideas (the US president flying a jet, using a simple virus to defeat the enemy) and coincidences (the wife of the jet pilot hero rescues the wife of the president), but when compared to the movies that follow in the same genre, I find it to be rather well balanced: actors are good, the story simple but solid, the music (by David Arnold) fits, the myth of all-powerful POTUS is present but not as much as in Air Force One, and more importantly the humour is light and not dumb or heavy as it can be in Bad Boys, Armageddon etc. Digital Special Effects were young, so many live mock-ups were still being used (in particular the buildings to be destroyed). When you look closely (and despite the rather poor Blu-ray transfer), you notice that the amount of details in the city destruction shots is not as big as it is nowadays thanks to CGIs, but it is still a hell of a job! So shoot me if you like, but I defend Independence Day. It deserves a better Blu-ray edition. The sequels ID Forever part 1 and 2 (a working title I guess) will be released in 2016-2017.
Rating: 7 /10

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1998
	Director: Steven Spielberg (E.T., Jaws, Schindler's List)
	Actors: Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump), Matt Damon (Dogma), Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down), Barry Pepper (Enemy of the State), Vin Diesel (Pitch Black), Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar), Paul Giamatti (John Dies at the End)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, War
	Conditions of visioning: 10.10.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Shortly after D-day, Captain Miller (Hanks) and a small team is sent on a mission to bring back Private Ryan (Damon) whose three brothers have already died in the war.
Review: I finally found the courage to watch this movie again after I did it only once at the cinema when it went out. I still remembered vividly the realistic (and thus horrible) war scenes that Spielberg managed to depict and that helped him won so many Academy Awards. The scenes that come to mind are of course the first half-hour (D-day) and the last one (I find the knife scene in particular very disturbing). But as I expected, those scenes occupy "only" one third of this three-hour movie, the rest being used to tell a wonderful story and to show us lovable and realistic characters to whom we get attached. After Schindler's List (1993) and this Saving Private Ryan, people started to say that Americans learn World History only when it is told in a Spielberg movie. My only criticism would be that there are too many incredibly good-natured characters (I mean not selfish ones), making the story a bit less believable. But this is well balanced by the display of dark sides of the human nature (the slaughter at the beginning, and the so very human character of Upham). Saving Private Ryan is a good complement to the other classic on the topic: The Longest Day, which was more told in a objective/documentary fashion and displaying a famous cast. Without the same headline, Saving Private Ryan still gathers a solid bunch: Sizemore, Pepper, Ribisi, Giamatti, Diesel (not yet an action hero then). Definitely a must-see.
Rating: 9 /10

Evolution (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop)
	Actors: David Duchovny (The X-files TV-series), Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore (Jurassik Park 2), Sean William Scott (American Pie, Welcome to the Jungle)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 07.10.2014, SD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Two high school professors (Duchovny & Jones) investigate the fall of a meteorite near their little town.
Review: Evolution was supposed to be the great comeback of the no less great Ivan Reitman, and in the line of Ghostbusters. The movie feels a bit out of place outside of the 80's and it will definitely never be as cult as Ghostbusters, but it is a good balance of SF and comedy, not as vulgar and exaggerated as I remembered, somewhere between Eight Legged Freaks and Piranha (the 2010 3D version). Most of the exaggeration is concentrated in the characters played by Jones and Scott, at that time in his best shape. The more "serious" actors Duchovny and Moore and nicely used in roles opposite to their usual ones. Mulder from X-files almost winks at the camera when he says "those are aliens" or "the government is lying to us, trust me I know them". The rather simple story is like a buddy-movie but with four characters (well, isn't that like Ghostbusters!). The special effects are pretty good for the time and generous. It has plenty of downsides (the music, simplistic story, exaggerations) but Evolution makes you spend a nice evening if you like the genre.
Rating: 6 /10

For Y'ur Height Only (1981)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1981
	Director: Eddie Nicart
	Actors:  Weng Weng, Yehlen Catral, Carmi Martin
	Country: RP
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 06.10.2014, DVD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Secret Agent 00 (Weng Weng) is using all of his skills to defeat the organization led by Mr. Giant which kidnapped a scientist who could give them a very destructive weapon.
Review: I first learned about this movie when watching the documentary The Search for Weng Weng at the FEFF2014, about this Australian dude obsessed with Weng Weng and who spent 7 years finding out about his story. For Y'ur Height Only is quite poorly made but I can understand why it reached cult status: it is a pure exploitation movie, or should I rather say midgetsploitation, in which we follow this extremely small actor playing an invin special agent, a one-man army like he is called in the movie. The story may be utterly simple and the editing confused, it doesn't matter much because you see Weng Weng performing all kinds of James Bond-like stunts including kicking bad guys, jumping from the top of building with an umbrella as parachute, or flying a jet-pack! And brace yourself for the fight with the final boss Mr. Giant. For Y'ur Height Only is actually the second one in the franchise after an even more obscure Agent 00 (not to be confused with Leslie Nielsen's movie), apparently forever lost. And the story gives you a hint of that, because the characters are not introduced and it really feels like a build-up of action, obviously trying to top the first movie. The DVD-edition is OK-looking, not benefiting from the latest film transfer technology but easily watchable. It is hard to tell whether the English dubbing dates from when the movie was released or was added later on, the dialogs are very cheesy and the voices and accents exaggerated. The worst problem with this movie is definitely the editing: cuts are abrupt at the point of being disturbing, and the storyline is very fragmented, at some point (after Weng weng conquers three different women) you don't know anymore who is who. Still a must-see for any exploitation fan.
Rating: 4 /10

Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
	Actors (voices): Reese Witherspoon (This Means War), Rainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Seth Rogen (Knocked Up)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 04.10.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: A woman transformed into a giant after she is struck by a meteorite on her wedding day becomes part of a team of monsters sent in by the U.S. government to defeat an alien mastermind trying to take over Earth.
Review: There start to be so many companies producing full-length animated features that it becomes easy to miss one. I heard about Monsters vs. Aliens when it went out, but was not particularly interested in watching it. Now thanks to Netflix it was easy to fill one evening with it. The mix of SF and comedy is not badly done, I liked that it references SF classics like  Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, The Blob (that I will soon own in limited edition Blu-ray), Creature from the Black Lagoon or The Day the Earth Stood Still. The movie can thus be appreciated by kids and adults at different levels, which Astro Boy failed to do for example. I found the animation extremely good-looking even if not watching the movie in full-HD Blu-ray: the textures and details but more especially the fluidity of the motions impressed me (like the hair of the heroin). Something is missing from the movie to make it a great one, but for the reasons mentioned above I liked it.
Rating: 6 /10

Refugiado (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Diego Lerman
	Actors: Julieta Díaz, Sebastián Molinaro
	Country: RA,CO, F, PL
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2014, Kursaal 2, FSSDZ2014, Spanish with English subtitles
Synopsis: Seven year old Matías (Molinaro) finds his mother, Laura (Diaz), unconscious on the floor coming home from a birthday party. Laura decides to flee with Matías to a shelter for battered women.
Review: The story shows a kid very childish who is building slowly his own opinion about his parents through the events lived with his mother fleeing his father. This topic is very strong especially in Spain having had the largest rate of women killed by domestic violence. The shots mix often in the same image in different layers the drama of a women and the comedy or game of the child. These pictures are very strong emotionally. And enhances the suspense recurring all along the story. The acting of both main characters is impressive especially seeing different feelings in the same image. Also the different feelings of the mother: ashamed of talking about this, relieved after having talked about her problem, scared and paranoid in her escape, vaillant coming back to the family appartment.
Rating: 7 /10

20000 days on Earth (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
	Actors: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis
	Country: GB
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2014, Victoria Eugenia Theater, FSSDZ2014, English with Spanish subtitles
Synopsis: Drama and reality combine in a ficticious day in the life of musician Nick Cave.
Review: I am a big fan of Nick Cave and the bad seeds especially the Murder Ballads. I may have expected too much. Finally it does not tell much about Nick Cave. Some anecdotes exchanged with Warren Ellis about their career. So, interesting.
Rating: 3 /10