Todos lo saben (2018)

	Also Known As: Offenes Geheimnis
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Asghar Farhadi
	Actors: Penélop Cruz, Javier Bardem, Ricardo Darín
	Country: E, F, I
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 27.08.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Spanish with German subtitle
Synopsis: Laura (Cruz), a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires, returns to her hometown outside Madrid with her two children to attend her sister's wedding letting her husband Alejandro (Darín). However, the trip is upset by unexpected events that bring secrets into the open.
Review: A movie with these famous actors arises many expectations. The story does not have the same panache. Indeed it is a kind of quest about the daughter of Laura. But it is obvious to any viewer (at least the ones I discussed with after the screening) what will be revealed at the end. I do not know whether it is a question of acting or of dialogue or of pictures where Laura is depicted at the beginning. And if the answer to the big question is clear from the beginning, what is then keeping my interest in the movie?  In the town of rumours and gossip, the main protagonists do not know what everyone else knows.  By luck the acting of Ricardo Darín sounds very authentic. The acting, camera and directing of family scenes are well done. I may have had too much expectations on Asghar Farhadi since the very moving of Le passé.
Rating: 4 /10

Incredibles 2 (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Tomorrowland, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol)
	Actors (voices): Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 03.10.2018, in-flight entertainment 10" screen
Synopsis: The family of Mr Incredible and Elastigirl is contacted by a private entrepreneur on a venture to rehabilitate super-heroes.
Review: I have always loved the first The Incredibles for its mix of children story and adult spy movie, for its several levels of viewing. This sequel comes far too late and with far too few great ideas like the first one had. But I had seen the uninteresting trailer and was ready for it. The movies starts right when the first finished 14 years ago, and it is funny that the quality of the special effects barely improved since the original masterpiece. It was maybe partly done on purpose for continuity. The story includes everything that was to be expected: a new villain of course, manipulation, the kids using their powers, more supers, more Jack-Jack fun, and the continuation of the reflection on work vs. family. Indeed this time Elastigirl takes the lead while the father stays at home to take care of the kids. But I didn't get caught by the movie like I was by the first, and for example I have no memory of its soundtrack while I still surprise myself humming the tune of the theme from the first movie. In the end it was easy to watch, but contrarily to Toy Story 2 which was so good it was upgraded from direct-to-video to theatrical release, Incredibles 2 would have been fine in video only.
Rating: 4 /10

Rampage (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Brad Peyton (San Andreas, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island)
	Actors: Dwayne Johnson (The Rundown, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Naomie Harris (28 days later, Skyfall), Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 03.10.2018, in-flight entertainment 10" screen
Synopsis: In an animal preserve near San Diego, an albino gorilla is beginning to grow after contact with a space station fallen debris. His caretaker Davis (Johnson) tries to protect him while he meets Dr. Kate Caldwell (Harris) who pretends to work for a company that engineered the mutation.
Review: A bit like Battleship, this is a free adaptation of a game (video- in that case) which has a simple backstory that was vastly expanded to fill a Hollywood blockbuster. I like this kind of big action movie with the Rock Johnson like San Andreas, but you really have to not take them seriously. You rather have to take them like Eight Legged Freaks of Evolution even though they don't pretend to be comedies, for me they are the same kind of creature features but with an excessive budget. Not even that excessive as I found the special effects to be generous but not state-of-the-art. The story doesn't make much sense obviously, the character's reactions are not believable, and like in the first Transformers there is no justification for the massive destruction of a city except for being able to show it. But I enjoyed watching the animals in action (yes there is more than one) and even replayed the reveal scene of the last one so much it is over the top but a delight for a fan of the sub-genre. Fun Action flick if you don't take it seriously.
Rating: 5 /10

Den skyldige (2018)

	Also Known As: The guilty
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Gustav Möller
	Actors: Jakob Cedergren
	Country: DK
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 03.09.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Danish version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Alarm dispatcher at 112 and former police officer, Asger Holm (Cedergren), answers an emergency call from a kidnapped woman. When the call is suddenly disconnected, the search for the woman and her kidnapper begins. With the phone as his only tool, Asger enters a race against time to save the endangered woman. But soon he realizes that he is dealing with a crime that is far complexer than he first thought.
Review: On a similar pitch as the great Locke with Tom Hardy, Den skyldige is almost a one man show with an amazing acting by Cedergren. The story line is full of surprises. As one is guided by the only sound track and the voices heard on the phone by Asger, it is easy to get tricked or to misunderstand many things depending on the expectations toward men, women, young people, elderly, etc. The acting of Cedergren is really good. Even if I don't get a word of Danish, his voice and his face told a lot about the feelings, the doubts and the surprises he experiences. It is difficult to speak about acting but the voices used to play all the interlocutors provide a very good atmosphere about the felt emotions and the emotions one wants to transmit. Or maybe it is only the fact that without the image, I focused my senses on the voice. It is not the first time I notice this. This could be a good question for a linguist or communication expert... Anyone?  The movie impressed me from an actor and a director that I did not know at all. Promising!
Rating: 7 /10

BlackkKlansman (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Spike Lee
	Actors: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 13.08.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English with German subtitle
Synopsis: Ron Stallworth (Washington), a rookie African-American police officer from Colorado, infiltrates the local Ku Klux Klan with the help of a white surrogate, his Jewish colleague Flip Zimmermann (Driver).
Review: Whether the story is true or not is quite irrelevant. The story starts with a full bucket of positive and liberating crazyness and it continues. It feels like a fresh and warming wind out of a WASP supremacist environment. So good! I felt something similar on Django unchained. BlacKKKlansman is in a more modern world, the 70s.  The story is just amazingly funny by mixing people in one situation that becomes then full of tension and irony. The dialogues and the eloquence of Washington and Grace are blowing! All along it feels like it is a game, in which kids are playing policemen or kind of justicer, a Robin Hood. And this teases the child in myself.  The photography and image composition is rather classical for a Polar and well done.  The script could be adapted very well to the theatre as the dialogues can be great by becoming very theatrical.
Rating: 8 /10

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind)
	Actors: Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!, Twixt), Woody Harrelson (Ed TV, Zombieland, The Hunger Games 1-4), Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones TV-series, Terminator: Genysis)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 18.09.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen.
Synopsis: The adventures of a young Han Solo (Ehrenreich), dreaming of escaping his planet to become the galaxy's best pilot and smuggler.
Review: On we go with Star Wars spin-off movies that Disney will keep on feeding us in the next decades until they have sucked the last dollar they can out of the franchise and we are sick of it. But I was so wrong with Rogue One that I am inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt for a couple of more movies. They may once in a while hit the jackpot with a good combination of writer and director that will make me remember why I loved Star Wars. Solo is definitely not it, and I am not the only one thinking it, as it turned out to be the least profitable Star Wars movie (adjusted for ticket price inflation, source Box Office Mojo). Even the Special Edition re-release of the first Star Wars made more money! Of course it was tempting to show the origins of this beloved character (expect by the actor who played him, Harrison Ford), but it is disturbing to grasp the time elapsed between this movie and A New Hope, it seems so short and Han Solo must have lived so much in between...  As expected the mandatory fan-service is provided, showing us his introduction to Chewbacca, Lando Calrissian (well incarnated by Donald Glover) and the Millenium Falcon. More subtle details are included and I rather enjoyed those, like the long-debated meaning of the Kessel Run done in 12 parsecs (a unit of distance, not time), or how Han learned to shoot first. All those details are nicely listed in this YouTube video. But the satisfaction of seeing this origins-story didn't compensate for the fact that the movie is rather flat and didn't excite me at all. Maybe because it is too detached from the Star Wars Universe ; what links it the most at the very end of the movie was probably long debated on the internet, and requires watching the season 4 and season 5 of the Clones Wars TV-series. Where is the Empire while it should be omnipresent? And the fan-service is sometimes heavy, like is the use of trendy actors (Emilia Clarke, Paul Bettany). The movie is obviously well-done visually but nothing screamed "Star Wars", like even Millenium Falcon scenes in The Force Awakens, except for one image of an Imperial Cruiser blocking a cloud vortex (see picture below) than made me open my eyes wide. December 2019 will see the release of Episode IX, and the next "A Star Wars Story" solo movies are rumored to be about Obi Wan Kenobi and then Bobba Fett.
Rating: 4 /10

Deadpool 2 (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: David Leitch (Atómica, John Wick)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool, Buried, Green Lantern), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Infinity War, Men in Black 3), Morena Baccarin (Firefly TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 15.09.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool (Reynolds), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg, Cable (Brolin).
Review: As far as sequels go, Deadpool 2 brings you more of the same that you liked in Deadpool, but nothing else. The character is talking even more to the camera, takes even more ridiculous poses and mocks even more ... everything. The fourth wall is broken, shattered to pieces and Deadpool leisurely walks through the opening, asking again the studios to spend more money to show other actors of the X-men franchise (and they do!), calling Cable Thanos (both played by Josh Brolin if you didn't follow), and other crazy ideas in the post-credit scenes that I will not spoil for you. At least in the first movie there was a love story a bad guy, a purpose. This sequel mocks so much everything that in the end I didn't feel involved as audience. Don''t take me wrong, it was OK to watch, but not really useful.
Rating: 4 /10

Breaking Bad - Season 4 (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Creator: Vince Gilligan
	Actors: Bryan Cranston (Drive, Argo), Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris (Total Recall, Starship Troopers)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Black Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: August-September 2018, VOD, 11" tablet screen
Synopsis: Our favorite methamphetamine cooks Walter & Jesse (Cranston, Paul) make the life of their boss Gus hard.
Review: I found this season quite in line with the previous one, i.e. pretty slow and banking on characters, a tone, black humor and actors that we like. But I found again the pace to be far too slow, and it took me a while to find the motivation to go through it all. Some characters evolve a little but most don't. Their are some surprising turns like the series got us used to but only a few, like what Walt does in S4E7 Problem Dog, or the ending of S4E11 Crawl Space. But the most intriguing in this season is the backstory of Gus, an audience's favorite character played by Giancarlo Esposito, developed in S4E8 Hermanos and meeting a dreadful conclusion in S4E10 Salud. And of course the season finale in S4E13 Face Off is awesome, but not enough to make me forget the relative boredom of watching some episodes. I will definitely watch the fifth and last season, expecting all hell to break loose.
Rating: 4 /10

Paradise PD - Season 1 (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Creators: Roger Black, Waco O'Guin
	Actors: Sarah Chalke, David Herman, Kyle Kinane
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: September 2018, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Young Kevin is bent on joining the Police force of the small town of Paradise, led by his own father Randall.
Review: This Netflix original series is rated "16+ for language, nudity, sex, substance, violence", and it delivers on all those promises! I was looking for more adults TV-series after Final Space and Disenchantment and found this one which doesn't follow in the footsteps of The Simpsons or Futurama but rather South Park and Family Guy in that it has almost no taboos. In fact the family issues and more obviously the talking dog relate it a lot to the latter. For some reason I like to watch Family Guy episodes but I got very quickly uninterested and bored by American Dad although by the same creator. And I also kind of liked Paradise PD, I think because of its unconstrained excesses. Be very careful that it is not the kind of animated TV-series to show to your kids, as you will notice within minutes into the first episode. Most of the action is vastly exaggerated as are the characters: drug-addict dog, black cop not using guns, gross police chief who got divorced by the woman now mayor after he lost his masculinity because of a son who now wishes to enter the force! Also a violent female cop attracted to her obese partner, an elderly cop with doubtful sexual preferences, and for some episodes a tiger team including a Stephen Hawking ersatz and head-Siamese twins. If you are adult and distant enough not to be outraged and revolted by the series, you can find it entertaining and tension-releasing.
Rating: 6 /10

La vingança (2016)

	Also Known As: El revenge
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Fernando Fraiha
	Actors: Daniel Furlan, Felipe Rocha, Leandra Leal, Adrián Navarro
	Country: BR, RA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 22.09.2018, Schauburg, FFB2018, Brasilian/Spanish version with English subtitle
Synopsis: When Caco (Rocha) finds his girlfriend Julia (Leal) having sex with a rich Argentinian Facundo (Navarro), he goes to his friend Vadão (Furlan). Together they hit the road to Buenos Aires aboard an orange Opala 72, with a mission: be with as many women as possible. Well Vadão's plan...
Review: The plot sounds very cheap Hollywood comedy but the writing makes it all! The trip is triggered in such a way that it does not look like the two buddies think seriously in having a hot trip. And each encounter is very funny, whoever they meet. The girls at the bar, the mechanic, the girl in the washing room, the musicians in the van.  The dialogues are killing me! The slaps that Caco is getting and that are necessary to wake up and SPOILER really cut from his ex-girlfriend. These are not just crude and direct, these are really things that everybody who listened complains from a good friend not stopping talking about an ex would like to say. It is never sliding to the burlesque or ridiculousness. Every step is thought to push either Caco into freedom from his ex or to push Vadão into freedom from his quest for lust.  The fact that all the Brasilians of the story are going to Argentina brings also some other humor that is enriching the comedy, even if the football theme is recurring and omnipresent as soon as the guys in the van are met. The actors are matching very well the normal characters. The buddies are at the same granularity in their description. This gives more depth to the story and this is really interesting. This movie feels like (500) days of Summer for its authenticity in treating a difficult situation of the sentimental life. Really fine book and script!
Rating: 7 /10