Horror movies thrive on ambiguity. They want to keep you on your guard, not just uncertain about what is going to happen, but often also uncertain about what is actually happening. A good horror movie twists and surprises, not just with a cheap jump scares, but also by turning the plot in an unexpected direction.… Read the rest
In Lucy, Scarlett Johansson drops down a rabbit hole of silly pseudo-science as innocent bystanders die left and right, unmourned by her or the men pursuing her. This being a Luc Besson movie, there are – of course – also French policemen and there is a car chase.… Read the rest
The Battle of the Five Armies is the last and the least of Peter Jackson’s six Middle-earth movies, but it is still pretty good. The element of surprise is long gone, the movie delivering just more of the same. The po-faced, serious dramatic scenes are on occasion more giggle-worthy here than I remember them being in previous entries.… Read the rest
Going into this sequel, I didn’t remember much about the first How to Train Your Dragon. I remembered that it mas well-made, engaging and that it had a very cute dragon in it. I also remembered it getting wrapped up at the end and not needing a sequel.… Read the rest
Based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man tells the story of George (played by Colin Firth), an English teacher in Los Angeles during the sixties. He recently – suddenly – lost his long-term boyfriend and has a hard time coping.… Read the rest
We’re back at the Hunger Games, where an evil government has draftees from various oppressed regions fight each other to the death, until only one person is left standing. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), survivor of last year’s round, is initially a pawn for the System, then increasingly becomes an obstacle and is thrown into the Games again for a second round, which is intended to be fatal.… Read the rest
Guardians of the Galaxy has just raised the stakes. Not so much for the next Avengers movie or for the other Marvel comic book movies it loosely ties into, but for the upcoming Star Wars sequels. This is how intergalactic high-adventure should be done.… Read the rest
The eighties were not a good time to be gay. A generation of gay men was decimated because of a deadly virus, first called GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), then AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Still high off the sexual revolution, gay men were living it up and celebrating, when it became apparent that an unwanted guest had snuck in and was starting to spoil the party.… Read the rest
Snowpiercer posits an intriguing near-future scenario. It’s the year 2031. To fight global warming, a chemical component was released into the air and things went horribly wrong. The world froze over and mankind is all but wiped out. Around 1000 survivors circle the globe on a giant railway track, in a self-sustaining microcosm aboard a train.… Read the rest
Does Godzilla need a motivation? Don’t we just want to see him mindlessly wreck cities, preferably while fighting other monsters? In this new movie, if I understood things correctly, he is trying to ‘restore balance’ according to a scientist. Get this – Godzilla goes New Age!… Read the rest
