Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Christopher McQuarrie (Jach Reacher)
	Actors: Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Mission Impossible 1-5), Rebecca Ferguson (Hercules), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Star Trek 1-3), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Henry Cavill (Man of Steel)
	Country: USA, CN, F N
	Genre: Action, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 14.12.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen.
Synopsis: After Ethan Hunt (Cruise) chooses the life of his partner over a mission, he gets reprimanded once more, and sets himself the objective to correct his mistake.
Review: This is the sixth Mission: Impossible movie and a direct sequel to the 2015 Rogue Nation. I would recommend to watch them not too far apart, as in fact I was lost in some story-lines that link the two and having Rogue Nation more fresh in my mind would have helped me enjoy the story more. But even though, the story is not the strong point of this movie: it is very very classic for a Mission: Impossible and even suffers from some loopholes and weak characters development. Instead, I could enjoy the movie for its quite spectacular action and stunt sequences around which it is now openly built. Tom Cruise even broke his foot on a jump that the 56 year-old still insists on doing himself. It is rare nowadays to be impressed by the action in a movie because we are so saturated by such scenes, but Fallout did manage to surprise me, and on several occasions. For example there is the drowning truck scene (already in the trailer) simply but very efficiently shot with the camera attached to the truck so that water looks like a wall facing the prisoner (see at the end of this post). Also the car chase in Paris is something we have seen countless times in movies but this one I found refreshing, only partly because Hunt is on a motorbike. The helicopter chase at the end is also nice, but more importantly this scene made me realize that for the first time, a movie of the franchise really embraces the fact that the team goes on a mission which is absolutely impossible to complete.  The highlight of this realization is when Hunt is "hijacking" one helicopter and Benji asks if he knows how to pilot it and Hunt answers something like: "I will figure it out". It is the very essence of this franchise: figuring out how to complete impossible missions. Forget about the story: for me maybe the best in the series for the unabashed stunts.
Rating: 7 /10

Ammore e malavita (2017)

	Also Known As: Love and bullets
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Antonio e Marco Manetti
	Actors: Giampaolo Morelli, Serena Rossi, Claudia Gerini, Carlo Buccirosso, Raiz, Franco Ricciardi
	Country: I
	Genre: Music, Polar, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, Italian/Neapolitan with German subtitle
Synopsis: In order to avoid the death of the husband (the criminal boss Don Vincenzo, "King of the Fish") (Buccirosso), Donna Maria (Gerini) sends her henchmen to kill a lookalike (a shoe-seller) and then she sets up a fake funeral, while the husband is hiding in a secret place. But a nurse saw Don Vincenzo alive in the hospital while he was supposed to be dead, as the TV says. To hush the witness up, Don Vincenzo orders to his best trained bodyguards, Ciro (Morelli) and Rosario (Raiz), to find the nurse and kill her. Ciro finds the nurse: surprisingly she is Fatima (Rossi), the only girl he ever loved, which he had abandoned when he began his criminal career. To save her, Ciro hides Fatima by his uncle Mimmo (Buonomo), and starts a bloody fight with all his clan, including his best friend Rosario and the right hand of the big boss Gennaro (Ricciardi).
Review: The plot is quite simple and reminds the video games classical like Moktar (aka Titus the Fox). And this plays in Napoli and not between France and Marocco. The big originality of the movie is to mix some cruel crime scenes with songs. This effect makes these scenes hilarious. Apart from some explanatory scenes with Don Vincenzo or Donna Maria and before Ciro meets Fatima, the story itself is rather a kind of video game where Ciro meets one or several bad guys or a big boss and has a fight scene.  The acting is in accordance with the style of the movie, both authentic and farcical. The soundtrack does not show the unity provided by Les parapluies de Cherbourg by Jacques Demy or La La Land by Damien Chazelle.
Rating: 6 /10

Razzia sur la Chnouf (1955)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1955
	Director: Henri Decoin
	Actors: Jean Gabin (Le Pacha, Flic ou Voyou), Marcel Dalio, Lino Ventura (La Gifle)
	Country: F
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 14.12.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: Henri (Gabin) is back to France after 10 years in the USA to organize the drug dealing trade for the boss Liski.
Review: While flying to France for the Christmas holidays, I had to watch at least one French film and I chose than one. I was mistaken by the title and thought I would be watching a comedy like Les Tontons Flingueurs or Les Barbouzes, while in fact it is a very serious movie about drug trafficking in France in the 50's. If you want, the equivalent of Blow with Johnny Depp but two decades earlier and in France! Just for that it deserves to be seen. It is very weird to see this black and white action in a typical French setting of Paris: Cafés, people eating all the time (did you ever notice how you recognize French or Asian movies with that in contrast to American movies in which eating is never a pleasure) and drinking strong liquors, ample frock coats (redingotes) like were trendy at the time for both men and women, known French actors and settings. But all the rules of the drug-dealers movie were already there, albeit on very small scales. The boss, importers, manufacturers, distributors and dealers circuit is described for various drugs that were starting to make their way in Paris at that time: cocaine, opium and marijuana. And armed bullies (one played by Lino Ventura) are here to make sure no one double-crosses the boss. There is even a romance between the busy Henri and an innocent waitress, shown in a quite open way I find for the 50's. The same goes for the depraved female character of Léa. So in the end it is a bit weird to watch but well done for the time, and extremely interesting.
Rating: 7 /10

The Meg (2018)

	Also Known As: En eaux troubles (France), Megalodon (Chile)
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Jon Turteltaub (Cool Runnings, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, National Treasure 1-2)
	Actors: Jason Statham (Transporter, The Expendables), Bingbing Li (A World without Thieves, Transformers: Age of Extinction), Rainn Wilson (Super)
	Country: USA, CN
	Genre: Action, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 28.12.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: After discovering a reserve filled with prehistoric animals, the team on-board a top-of-the-art marine research base calls Jonas (Statham) to the rescue to deal with one that escaped.
Review: To think I almost went to see it in the cinema only based on the title (Megalodon in Chile) and poster. For sure it would have allowed me to better enjoy the action and be less distracted by the ridiculous story and acting. 43 years after Jaws (waw!), movie-makers and producers don't know anymore what to do to surf on the still popular sub-genre. I like how they went full pop-culture with Piranha 3DD (but not in its sequel Piranha 3DD), but usually the attempts fail at going younger/trendier (Shark Night 3D), cheaper/weirder (the Sharnako series) or in the case of The Meg, bigger. The 1999 Deep Blue Sea was OK but still only a B-movie. The Meg goes full crazy with a basic story centered around the apparitions of the animal and the poorly depicted relationship between the main characters. The situation is not helped by the Chinese co-production which shows in the mandatory presence of mediocre actors with little interest, the location, the bad humor and morale, and some bad special effects (the beach with thousands of perfectly-spaced buoys, ridiculous). I complained about the Science in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadow but the one here is not much better, and without the excuse of being a SF movie adapted from a cartoon TV-series. Going deeper than the Mariana trench in a small sub-marine, really?? And the behavior of the mega-shark makes no sense. All the bad things in this movie are well listed on this YouTube video. Usually they exaggerate the bad traits of a movie for comic purposes, but this time they just state the obvious. I don't rate it worse because there is still some fun in watching Jason Statham kicking the ass of a prehistoric Megalodon (also watch The Rock doing it to a flying wolf in Rampage), but this no cinema, this is pop-corn entertainment.
Rating: 2 /10

Leave no trace (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Debra Granik
	Actors: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Foster
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 10.09.2018, Schauburg,
Synopsis: Will (Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (McKenzie), have lived off the grid for years in the forests of Portland, Oregon. When their idyllic life is shattered, both are put into social services. After clashing with their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a harrowing journey back to their wild homeland.
Review: The plot sounds a bit like Captain Fantastic. And its drives indeed to the margin of the Western society, where people don't want to deal with consumption and money and want to cut with all human influences that they consider as destructive. Here we have much more realistic interactions with the society. Administration forcing people to be dependent and unhappy. People without understanding for outcast people. This sets another viewpoint on the meaning of having a job, of going to standard school, of paying taxes, of having a house. The fact that Tom struggles to get her father accepting the Western consumption society makes me have more understanding for the ones who do not accept it. The values of freedom and justice are not the same for everyone. It becomes even more critical to make the effort of listening to the other, even if apparently marginal, and to make the effort of accepting different references.  The acting of McKenzie and Foster is very emotional as it (their emotions) is what they have and what cannot be stolen or restricted by the rules of the Canadian society. There is not much action or intrigues that could require different acting register. After having discovered Jennifer Lawrence, Debra Granik discovers Thomasin McKenzie that looks more sensitive but also with a very strong personality.
Rating: 6 /10

Happy end (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Michael Haneke
	Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert, Mathieu Kassowitz, Franz Rogowski, Fantine Harduin
	Country: F, D, A
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.09.2017, Gondel, French version with German subtitle
Synopsis: George Laurent (Trintignant) is gradually succumbing to dementia. This octogenarian patriarch of upper-bourgeois family dislikes sharing his palatial manor in Calais, with his twice-married son, Thomas (Kassowitz), and Anne (Huppert), his divorced workaholic daughter who has taken over the family construction business. Anne has to handle the impact of a disastrous workplace accident caused by her disappointing son Pierre's (Rogowski) negligence, while at the same time, the urgent hospitalisation of Thomas' ex-wife from a mysterious poisoning, leads his sulky 13-year-old daughter, Ève (Harduin), to live with her father and his new wife.
Review: The basic thread is built up slowly. One could say too slow. But like in a Balzac's book, every character is painted so that you know what is his/her situation and what he/she aims at. And also you which reason he/she has to get rid of the old George Laurent or of somebody else in the family. Therefore the family dinners look so deadly in the atmosphere and in the goals of everyone.  As often Isabelle Huppert acts excellently the tormented introverted woman. Mathieu Kassowitz acts in a rare role for him and shows that he an excellent actor even when he is not really challenged nor in focus.  I had the impression that Haneke is directing for the sake of the story but limits the suspense to one scene and the final scene. The relatively boring parts that make most of the film are so in order to highlight these two scenes where the extreme drama appear without much noise but between the lines.
Rating: 5 /10

Good time (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Benny and Josh Safdie
	Actors: Benny Safdie, Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 25.09.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Obsessively caring for his intellectually disabled brother, Nick (Safdie), the volatile criminal, Connie (Pattinson), involves his sibling in a bank robbery that promising being quick and easy ends up being a nightmare. Nick will wind up in Rikers Island after one unanticipated complication, forcing the desperate but determined Connie to embark on a non-stop runaway quest to bail Nick out. Over the course of a long and violent night, Connie will do more harm than good.
Review: The plot is clever. How to bring two marginalised individuals into so-called normal society. By making them feel and show brother affection as anybody would do, because they are in fact as anybody else. The constant instability of Nick is first disturbing and then rather annoying. He cares more about what the viewer would think about him being a good guy than about the good of his brother. This is the latent flaw in the story that is otherwise quite good. With not much to say, there is a kind of suspense and I was not bored for a long time.  This flaw reflects of course on the acting of Robert Pattinson that seems quite monotonous and exaggerated. Benny Safdie acts also very monotonous but it does not look exaggerated and I could buy it.  I liked the photography. Dark and realistic with all the takes in the night. The subjects always in good focus with regard to the darkness of the environment. The camera handling is often close to the documentary.
Rating: 5 /10

The man who killed Don Quixote (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Terry Gilliam
	Actors: Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce
	Country: GB, F, B, E, P
	Genre: Adventure, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 17.09.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English/Spanish version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Toby (Driver), a cynical advertising director finds himself trapped in the outrageous delusions of an old Spanish shoe-maker Javier (Pryce) who believes himself to be Don Quixote. In the course of their comic and increasingly surreal adventures, Toby is forced to confront the tragic repercussions of a film he made in his idealistic youth - a film that changed the hopes and dreams of a small Spanish village forever.
Review: I heard about this movie when it was a project of Terry Gilliam and failed due to the illness of Jean Rochefort and other unexpected events. At that time (2000) it sounded like a curse on the movie. This had been filmed in the almost-making-off of the movie, Lost in La Mancha (2002).  The convinced Don Quixote of now acted by Jonathan Pryce, the lost in acting Don Quixote of Toby's first movie, the ideal of Don Quixote in Toby's mind. The connotation to Don Quixote is imbricated. I like that. We have the impression of travelling in time via the movies shown in the movie, via the costume party that has a major place in the script, via the weird situation of Javier in the village, via the dreams of Toby. And this quest for the remembered hot girl transforming into a quest for his youth brings the arrogant Toby to a human level. And like for Don Quixote the true and cruel reality remains. It is one's choice what we do and what we don't. Toby met his Dulcinea making his study film. The acting of Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce are great. Especially Jonathan Pryce being Javier convinced to be Don Quixote and calling Toby Sancho and treating him as a valet. Adam Driver does not show much emotion visually. Some teacher prefer this to let the story be driven by the director and his story-telling, by the shots. Technically I liked the mix of different types of scenery and of prop and of costumes. This was for me kind of part of the travel through time and space. This travel is also done via the encounter with migrants, with the extravagant mecene and his wife. This way we see how Javier and Toby go through these different worlds.  I like this kind of movie that make me dream and think about parts of the story.
Rating: 7 /10

Next Gen (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Kevin R. Adams, Joe Ksander
	Actors (voices): John Krasinski, Charlyne Yi, Jason Sudeikis (We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses 1-2)
	Country: USA, CN, CDN
	Genre: Animation, Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 06.12.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Rebel teenager Mai prefers her little dog to the pet robots everybody else has. Close to the release of a new model, she encounters a special robot that will get quite attached to her.
Review: Erm erm, this sound a lot like Big Hero 6, but it is far from it. Instead of a well-built Americano-Japanese Universe (around the city of San-Fransokyo), the one in Next Gen is more like a American dream future world in which are inserted a few Chinese elements to too-obviously please the audience of the country that co-produced the thing. Add a non-subtle Steve Jobs / Apple metaphor and voila! Voila nothing. The robot is cute like it should, friendly like it should, has feelings a-la-Wall-E, the colors are pleasing, but I was too disturbed by the action poses and jokes trying too hard. Want to explain why the girl is rebel? Because her father left, as simple as that. I really blame the Chinese influence on this movie. It culminates during one the final battle scenes, when the robot and girl discuss at length what it means to be friend and why the robot likes having one etc... It is all too forced. I am not even sure it is safe to show it to kids for entertainment, because of the weird morale.
Rating: 3 /10

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Peyton Reed (The Break-Up, Ant-Man)
	Actors: Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, The is the End), Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit 2-3), Michael Peña (Extinction), Michael Douglas (The Game)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 28.10.2018, VOD, 42" TV screen.
Synopsis: Scott Lang (Rudd) enjoys spending time with his daughter while on house arrest. When his former associates, who gave him the Ant-Man suit, contact him, he must provide help.
Review: Sequel to the 2015 Ant-Man, this one goes one notch higher with the fan-service and the use of elements only hinted in the first movie: Hope van Dyne (Lilly) joins in the action as the Wasp, Hank Pym's wife is there too, much much more shrinking tech, more streets of San Francisco, and more of what worked in the first (Luis etc...). Note that in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it may help to have seen Captain America: Civil War before. And however separated the events may seem, Ant-Man will play a big role in the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War called Avengers: Endgame (see the trailer). But what about the movie itself? Paul Rudd still plays goofily the thief that wants to be close to his daughter, and starts in a somewhat tense relationship with the Pym family after the events of the latest Captain America. Then comes a threat, good-looking but lacking ambition I found. It is also obvious by the fact that there are a few more enemies throughout the movie (thugs, in the police...) as if the main one was too weak. And the story stays very close to this threat and the Pym family (Hank's wife), never really reaching out. There is not much else to say about this movie. Apart from the possible implications in the future of the MCU, it is quite forgettable.
Rating: 4 /10