TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5 – Digital Art by Christian Hecker

When I saw Batman Begins in 2005 I never expected it to become a series to be honest. When The Dark Knight hit the big screen, I also did not expect it to be that kind of a monster of a film. Now with The Dark Knight Rises it managed it to keep that level of quality and created a pretty much perfect conclusion to the series.

The latest installment starts eight years after the happenings with the Joker and Harvey Dent. Bruce Wayne has pretty much retired from being Batman and his Wayne Enterprises Corporation is on a decline too. Gotham City managed to get crime under control due to the things that happened eight years ago. Suddenly a new evil spawns in form of Bane. A mysterious guy out of nowhere. He got a little and very loyal army behind his back and plans to start havoc in Gotham City. Bruce Wayne decides to get back into the suit. But not without fighting against personal conflicts and demons. In the mean time Bane slowly but surely gains control over Gotham City. Bane is smart enough to fool the Gotham police into a trap which leaves the city pretty much unprotected. In the end Bane controls the whole city and cuts it off the rest of the world. Gotham City under siege… no one gets in and no one gets out. Bane also manages it to beat Batman and sends him into a far away prison. A broken and destroyed Bruce Wayne has to watch how his Gotham fall apart. Seeing that gives him strength to recover. He eventually gets back to Gotham to face Bane, end the siege and save the city one last time.

I saw a couple of reviews over the past few days and I pretty much agree with what they say. This movie is a Bruce Wayne movie. It’s not exactly a Batman movie if we start to break it down. It’s more about Bruce Wayne who is trying to find back into a normal life. The ‘Batman’ alter ego is actually only there to help him find that new life. At the beginning he’s a broken man. They implemented some nice pointers to Howard Hughes – you’ll recognize it if you are familiar with his biography. As soon as Wayne sees that his city is in danger, he decides to do something. It takes him a bit and you can see his inner struggle. For him, and the past eight long years, Batman was dead.

Right at the beginning we also learn to know a lady named Selina Kyle. We early also understand that she’s Catwoman. I had very many doubts about Anne Hathaway playing that character. But she did a fine enough job, I have to admit. In the movie, I feel her introduction, felt a little rushed though. We never know where she learned to steal or fight the way she does. She just knows how to do it. That is one small nitpick on that end. Throughout the movie she will switch back and forth between playing good and playing bad. Nonetheless there are some dialogue sequences that come across rather clunky. Especially between her and Batman.

Another new character is Blake. A young cop who is still ambitious and eager to do and learn new things. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives him some good character and pretty much fits in perfectly. He is the character that builds a bridge between all the super-characters like Commissioner Gordon, Bruce Wayne etc and the normal people on the streets. It’s a very likable character played very well by Gordon-Levitt.

Bane, the bad guy in the movie, is played by Tom Hardy. Even though he’s constantly behind a mask, we can still see that Hardy is trying to give his character as much emotion as possible. Successfully, from my point of view. In english reviews I heard a lot of complaints about the fact, that sometimes it’s hard to understand, what Bane is saying through his mask. I saw the dubbed version in German language. No problems there. The german voice even managed to add an extra portion of depth to the character. I liked that. The portrayal of Bane in the movie comes across very powerful. He does leave an impression. He literally kicks Batman’s ass. And yeah… why doesn’t Batman go straight for the mask to render Bane useless? That’s a point. Since Bane needs the mask to keep himself stable… he would be an easy target without it. A flaw… but forgivable.

We also have the wondeful Marion Cotillard in this movie. Who, I think, is a perfect addition to the whole tone of the movie. She plays Miranda. A not so screen prominent part as Bruce Wayne’s romance. Miranda finds her way into Wayne Enterprises to save the company from falling apart. She also plays her part in the movie’s finale. I really liked her part. On the other hand… I loved all of Marion Cotillard’s work so far. A wonderful actress.

The movie is very long with its 164 minutes. But if you are familiar with the previous two films you are perfectly entertained throughout every minute. While I would say that you can watch the second movie without having seen the first one, I couldn’t say that you can watch Dark Knight Rises. There are a lot of hints going back to the first movie and, of course, the second one. Even though there is one thing I missed, and that was a single mentioning of the Joker. I think they completely left him behind. Of course you cannot bring him back on screen… but you could have at least mentioned him somewhere. And, if I did not miss anything, they did not.

On the technical aspects there are almost no complaints. The camera, the pacing, cutting, music… it all goes together very well. Fight scenes as well as the mass scenes are well choreographed and executed. Acting is top notch and every actor/actress is trying to get the most off of the character they are playing. Some slightly clunky dialogue here and there. But only in the super hero moments or fight scenes. The VFX work is phenomenal and blends perfectly into the live action footage. Quality work, much like in The Dark Knight. Sound work felt good on most parts. I had more problems with Batman’s rough voice than Bane’s. I don’t know if that ‘super hero mode voice sound change’ was really necessary for Batman.

This movie is a great conclusion to the series and I hope it will keep the Batman franchise untouched, at least for 10 years. I doubt that though. Unfortunately.

8.7/10

The Dark Knight Rises on IMDb

This time it’s documentary time again. Gasland tells the story of a young man. His name is Josh Fox and he lives in the United States, owns a little land in Pennsylvania, where he grew up in a small house in the woods. His parents built it so the land and surrounding forest and a river are near and dear to his heart. In May 2008 a gas company asked if he would like to sell his land. They offered him to pay something like $100.000. The company’s plan is to start drilling for gas in that area by using a technique called ‘hydraulic fracturing’. It is a very efficient and cheap technique. The down side is that the environment will rapidly go down hill in areas where fracturing is used to drill for gas. What we learn is that hydraulic fracturing unfortunately is a very common technique to drill for gas. At least in the United States.

Of course it sounds great to get an offer over 100.000 dollars. But Josh wants to know more. He loves the place where he lives. He grew up there. He wants to keep the environment clean. After trying to get some info about the drilling process from the usual companies, without any success, he decides to head out into the field. He basically travels all accross the USA and meets people who live with the industry. Surrounded by drilling installations.

We see these people and how they live with all the environmental pollution that surrounds them. The most amazing arguments of the movie are the scenes where people turn on their tap water and light it on fire. It’s ridiculous seeing that. The people suffer serious health problems and can’t do anything against it. Except to move away. But, to be honest, not everyone can. It’s a simple solution to suggest but a hard one to execute. Whatever the reason may be. And the movie shows us the reasons. It’s painful to watch these poor people and what they have to deal with. Day in day out. I personally cannot imagine living under such conditions.

We get to see a lot of footage on location of these drilling installations. Some of them look harmless. Others not so much. Especially when we take the environment into account. The movie does a nice job explaining all the circumstances without going into too deep details. Yes I admit, we often hear some strange chemics names but that’s for the sole reason of showing how much junk goes into the earth there. Some of these names I never heard before… and highly doubt will ever hear again. To imagine that this stuff is in the surface water of any region makes me sick. Thinking about all the animals that have to live with it just makes me sad. Some of these animals almost extinct. It’s painful to watch.

Throughout the movie Josh is trying to get some official statements but has absolutely no success whatsoever. Everyone declines interviews. Of course! It’s depressing. And that’s the second half of the movie. It loses a little speed at that point. The viewer can actually only watch it and shake the head. How far can greed go? How much are they willing to sacrifice for that one little extra dollar? The movie really tries to find some answers but the whole system refuses to give any.

That may be the only down side of the documentary. We don’t get any answers. What we get is what should be done to make things better. But there literally isn’t anyone who even wants to try. Governmental institutions might want to take action but are not able to, because some weird laws prevent any them from action. The movies leaves us with the message that there’s at least hope. Even if literally everything speaks against it.

If you want to know how fast our society is declining… then try this movie. Educate yourself and learn some sad truths. That’s never a wrong thing to do. Keep yourself aware of the ongoings out there.

If you are interested in how disgusting ‘hydraulic fracturing’ works out -> What’s Fracking?

7.9/10

Gasland on IMDb

Everyone, at one point in his or her life, wants to be the hero of his or her own personal love story. That’s at least what I hope. Because otherwise it would be a much darker world out there. It’s dark enough out there, wouldn’t you agree?

The movie is about a young guy working in the creative department of a greeting card company. Actually a typical boy meets girl scenario. Suddenly a new girl appears on the scene and he falls in love. Throughout the movie we witness all the things that happen between these two people. All the little things that define what love actually is. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play the two. Watching these two interact with each other looks so natural, that you really see some talent happening there. What we see isn’t all the sugar of love though. We also see the darker parts.

Eventually the girl breaks up with the guy. Now we can see some real talent going on. J. G. Levitt puts so much heart and depth into his character that you can almost feel the pain with him. And when it comes to the girl, you can never feel angry about her. You never hate her. She cleared up her intentions right from the start. It’s actually the boys’ fault going right into the trap. He thought he could make her really love him. And for a while this certainly worked for both of them. There was a spark… but it never turned into an eternal flame. And when it’s over, we see our boy struggling with himself, life and pretty much everything else. Eventually he musters up all his strength and tries to move on. And that’s all you have left in such a situation. And eventually you will succeed and life goes on.

This is a just a beautiful movie. And no, I’m not a romantic movie fan. Certainly, it got its romantic moments and the chemistry between both our actors works amazing well. But I wouldn’t even put this movie into a romantic genre or category. It’s more a movie about a typical lesson of life. How to live through it. How to deal with it. How to learn from it. Something we all have to go through at some point. The movie does all that in a so suprisingly fresh way that there never is a “please don’t go there!” moment. Like I said… there is not much sugar. It’s kept pretty realistic and natural. This movie may also have one of the best endings I’ve seen in a while. Everyone who’s not smiling when seeing it MUST BE A ROBOT!

On a technical level it’s all top work there. The acting of all the people involved is very sound and natural. Camera work, Editing and Soundtrack work nicely and create a really nice flow. One component I don’t want to miss is the great portion of humour they packed into it. There were quite a few moments when I had to laugh. So there is something for everyone in it. An almost perfect mixture of ‘good movie’ ingedients.

So yeah… if you’re a lonely person… watch this to keep your hope alive! If you’re together with someone… watch this because it’s a good and entertaining movie with some lessons that you may appreciate some day. Either way, it’s a good one. Check it out!

8/10

PS: Yeah, there might be one or two “please don’t go there” moments. But I liked those, because they turned out nicely and… again, made me smile or even laugh a bit.

(500) Day Of Summer on IMDb

I’m a big fan of photography. I even have a few friends who are very talented and professional in that field. I’m also a bit fascinated by a very special species amongst photographers. And that’s war photographers.

This movie is about 4 guys who are exactly that. War photographers. The movie plays between 1990 and 1994 in South Africa. Right when the downfall of Apartheid happened. It shows the true story of four young men who pretty much define what photography can do. Strong images can change a lot in the mindset of people. And that’s what these people do. They’re hunting down situations or moments, for that one lucky shot, that will give them the ultimate photo.

The movie gives us Greg Marinovich (Ryan Philippe), who we will follow throughout the movie. At the beginning he’s the new kid in town. Soon he makes connections and teams up with Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), Joao Silva (Neels Van Jaarsveld) and Ken Oosterbroek (Frank Rautenbach). Greg manages to impress the other guys with his dedication and, most importantly, his photography. Soon they’re a true team and go out into the field together. There we can see what it really needs to be in these situations. To get these photos, it often requires to go that one last step farther, than any normal guy would go. Sometimes it’s like a death wish sort of thing. With talent and a good portion of luck, they manage to capture scenes of a live, we normally don’t get to see in our first world countries. Often disturbing and hard material. It’s almost as if these photographers are getting high by hunting down these dangerous situations. And that really is the danger of this job. How much suffering can you absorb with your camera lens… just being a neutral bystander, without breaking apart? That’s one question that movie tries to shed light on. We also get to see the transition these photographers go through when they are not in the field… going back into the field. At night they are out in bars and try to have a good time. Maybe try to let go the horrible things they saw this day. And when it’s time to go out again… it’s like they are preparing to go to war. We get some nice insights into these dynamics.

The movie certainly isn’t a perfect one. While it manages to, what I think, deliver a clear picture of the historical events back then, it also lacks a little depth. The acting is good but portrayed in a way that still left me a little cold. I’m pretty sure each of these four guys deserves a movie on its own… so maybe the fact that they tried to scram it all into one… did not work out too well. At least for me. Nonetheless we learn to understand what a crazy job these guys do. What a mental stress it is, to get these pictures that will go around the world, in all sorts of news formats. For some of these guys it seems as if all this makes them high. It’s like a drug. Adrenalin rush. Especially while following Greg from beginning to end, we see how he is dulling out more and more. But not to a degree that turns him into a machine. He’s still fighting. And it takes him a lot. But again I missed some more moments where the movie explores that a little deeper.

It helps if you’ve seen the documentary ‘War Photographer’. It follows James Nachtway, one of the most respected and talented photographers ever. He pretty much saw everything war has to offer. It’s remarkable that he is as calm and sane as he is. He’s also in the movie (played by an actor) at a later point.

If you are remotely interested in photography, in its rawest shape and form… then it’s best you watch this movie and the documentary ‘War Photographer’ back to back. If that doesn’t leave an impression then… I’m sorry for you. =)

7.3/10

Bang Bang Club on IMDb

Comic fans around the world, for a long time thought, that a movie like this one would be impossible. And their concern is quite understandable. Marvel, for the past 5 or 6 years, slowly built up momentum for this movie. They did it with small little scenes in all the superhero movies. Most famous one probably the one after the credits in the first Iron Man movie. Where we get to see a Nick Fury character for the first time. Since then we had similar scenes in Hulk 2, Thor and Captain America.

Especially in Thor and Captain America we finally really knew where it all is heading. The Avengers movie. All of the movies were quite successful and managed it to appeal to a wide audience. Some more… some less. But altogether, quite a lot. So the inevitable, almost impossible had to happen! All of these heroes in oooone big show! I, honestly, had no big hopes. And I didn’t care too much too. I’m not a big comics guy. Even though I enjoy the movies they made. ‘Doubt’ was written all over that Avengers movie.

The name ‘Joss Whedon’ spawned hope though. Some say he’s one of the most overrated guys ever. Others think he is a god amongst men. He’s the guy that brought us Buffy – The Vampire Slayer, Angel and one beautiful season of Firefly. Somehow he knows how to create characters that work great together. His way of writing is able to create a very good chemistry between characters. The one point that spoke against Whedon was the fact that he never directed a really really big movie. Until now. Everyone had a good right to be sceptical. So ultimately Joss Whedon was a perfect and very risky choice.

And well, what’s to say? Joss Whedon literally must be a god amongst men. He managed to get that impossible project right. And he did it all, ALL, right. The Avengers is certainly the best comic movie out there. Right next to The Dark Knight. One thing The Avengers do different though, is the humour. That’s the one component that really makes The Avengers shine. These well dosed moments of refreshing humour. Sometimes very unexpected humour. Perfectly timed. Mixed with action that was quite amazing too. Well… all around great experience.

The actual story of the movie requires a little backstory from the Captain America and Thor movies. But it’s not entirely crucial to know these things. All characters get introduced properly. So that even newbies understand who is who. Ultimately it’s about a bad guy, Thors half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who wants to conquer Earth. But he needs a mystical energy source that was discovered in the Captain America movie. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his buddies from the ‘Shield’ initiative try to fight that. But they alone surely aren’t enough. That’s why they try to recruit guys like Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Of course all these characters start out with problems. Especially when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) joins. That’s nice to watch because it also reveals all the little character moments. All of them have their strenghts and weaknesses. And the movie does it right to bring it all into the spotlight. It also gets it right, letting all the characters shine when they work together. Of course they understand, they have to work together, to beat the bad guys.

Loki’s motivation is of course revenge on Thor (for happenings in the Thor movie). Loki wants to attack Earth because Thor gave an oath to protect the planet on all costs. So the best way to hurt Thor would be to attack the beloved thing he tries to protect. So Loki formes an alliance with some evil alien race (that is not further introduced in the movie… possible hint to a second Avengers movie), to lead their army through a gate to Earth. And Loki manages it to open that gate. It’s nice to watch how Loki is following/unfolding his plan. And I admit… I like Loki. It’s a great character and Tom Hiddleston surely gets it perfectly right. Now all the superheroes forged an alliance to cross Loki’s plan.

The movie does a remarkable job, giving all these strong characters all the demanded screen time, all of them really deserve. And because of the fact all the characters are so distinctively different, it’s very easy to set them apart from another. Each one of them has a certain skill and look. Easy to recognize. Which leads to the action sequences. These are done so flawlessly fluid that all the Transformers movies could take a lesson from that. No shaky cam, no lightspeed cutting. All scenes are well choreographed and easy to read. A pleasure. Which leads me to the 3d. The 3d in the movie was really good. A seldom case where I enjoyed the effect. Even though I must admit, that it only works when you look at the screen areas the movie demands you to look at. So it’s hard to study elements of the pictures, other than the intended focussed spots. Nonetheless… the 3d worked fine. They used the right cameras to film it.

The VFX, once again, pretty much flawless. It’s always amazing to see how well they can integrate the live action footage into the cg. Only the Hulk still looks a little too CG. Nonethelss, fun to watch. Again it’s amazing how seamlessly they are now able to blend it all together. Especially in the final big fight in the city.

Pretty much everyone expected a catastrophe of a movie. I had no big expectations too. But they made it right. They did the impossible. Joss Whedon certainly plays a big role in that. But it’s surely not him alone. I guess everything fell into the right hands and places.

Oh and I still like the Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) character a lot. This short scene of her with Tony Stark is so fun to watch. Great chemistry between the two. But also in general… the chemistry between all the actors in this movie works so great. Another remarkable achievement that lead to an almost perfect movie.

So yeah… great movie… perfect entertainment. Go check it out! The first big one 2012.

8.5/10

Marvel’s The Avengers on IMDb

The whole time, while watching this movie, I had this question in my mind. Why does this movie function so much better than the first FOUR! movies? It’s actually pretty astonishing. None of the previous films managed to get it as right as X-Men First Class did. X-Men (2000) gets close though. By getting it ‘right’ I mean my personal feeling of watching a good, entertaining movie.

‘First Class’ shows us how all the X-Men thing (according to the story) started in the 1960s. While Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is still studying to become professor, Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is seeking revenge for the happenings in a concentration camp during World War 2. Especially on a person that didn’t really do good things to him, when he was in the camp. It later turns out, that the person Erik is looking for, is a Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). Who is a mutant as well and planning to overthrow human society, to make place for mutants… to rule the world!

We see Eriks efforts to find Shaw and he eventually meets up with Charles. Charles, in the mean time, got hired by the CIA to find more mutants. Their plans are to create a special mutant department, to make use of their special abilities. And that’s how Charles and Erik find each other. They find out what Shaw is planning and, of course, try to cross his plans.

We pretty early see that Charles and Erik follow different directions and motivations. McAvoy and Fassbender deliver great performances with their characters. Maybe it’s these two actors who make the first three X-Men movies a little more plausible now. I never really got into the Magneto motivation until now. Yeah, I know what he’s trying to do. But without all the backstory we now got with ‘First Class’, all previous movies felt empty in certain areas. At least to me. On the other hand all previous four movies were pretty much ‘Wolverine’ movies, if you ask me. So maybe it’s because of the fact that in ‘First Class’ we see a much broader picture… why this movie works so much better than the rest?

Since the story of the movie is set in the 1960s, it’s of course important to get the mood and tone right. And they did it fine. Even if the X-Men were always super fancy hi-tec people… we now see that they started out from scratch too. There are also some musical choices, in certain scenes that deliver some nice vibes, from the 1960s times. Especially in that one scene where these newly recruited mutant kids party around a little. I liked the scene where the kids showed off their powers. That was fun to watch. And then there was this one short scene, where Charles and Erik come into a bar, and it’s Wolverine sitting there, telling them to fu** off, before they even said a word. That was a nice laugh, I admit it!

Sebastian Shaw’s plan takes shape and he gets everything set into position. And that includes russians placing nuclear warheads on Cuba. What leads the whole X-Men story to a fascinating history twist. So Charles, Erik and the gang are eventually out to stop Shaw and the ‘missle crisis’ that’s about to happen.

What I missed a little is more information about Sebastian Shaw. Maybe I was deaf and really missed it. But… who is this guy? So he worked for the germans. Is he a german? Did they hire him to, I don’t know, follow their idiotic plans to create a super race? Shaw mentioned something about his power to absorb energy and we see it in action numerous times. Does this power keep him young as well? How old is he? It seems like he’s just ‘there’ to be a bad guy. Kevin Bacon’s performance was cool though. Would be nice in general to see some more work from him again. Then there is January Jones as Emma Frost. I just saw her in Unknown Identity and found her way of acting pretty cold. And I had the same impression here. As if she didn’t care much about her character. At least she gives some nice views for the men, when she’s in the picture.

The visual effects left a mixed impression. There are nicely executed scenes. When Shaw is entering that CIA building to get the mutant kids for example. He blows up quite some stuff there. Then there is the scene where Magneto is guiding missles back to their ships. Now when the missles exploded, it looked great. But the missles themselfes looked far far far too clean. That stole a lot of credibility. And that mixed impression went throughout the whole movie.

It’s a good film with some nice acting and action. It manages to leave an impression… and both McAvoy and Fassbender play a big role in that. Their motivations and actions are understandable, and we now know where it’s really coming from. Especially with Magneto who, in the end, becomes very much that what he tried to kill in Sebastian Shaw. A guy with a narrow vision, only looking out for his own kind. That was missing in the other films from my point of view. So this movie gives a little more meaning to all the other X-Men films.

Check it out! It’s a fun one!

7.7/10

X-Men First Class on IMDb

A movie inspired by true events, that only life itself can come up with.
The movie basically is about a family and how a family ties up and can mean everything in your life. It also shows how easy it is to ruin relationships. How careful you sometimes have to be, to keep it all together.

There are these two brothers. Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Micky is a professional boxer, waiting for his big shot. Dicky is the older brother and was a professional boxer too. For Micky his brother is a hero. Everything he knows about boxing, his brother taught him. Dicky is also pretty much the local hero of the small town they live in. He got his big shot once and from then on went along the downward spiral. Nothing really worked out for Dicky and he lives from the glory of the past. Micky is now the boxing talent and the whole family is involved in the management. The family pretty much is the management, the training and everything else that has to be done, to keep Micky professionally boxing.

We early on understand that the family, even if it always tries to do the best, often enough fails to do the job right. So Micky gets the wrong fights and starts to question his future as a professional boxer. His brother Dicky, in the meantime became a crack addict and landed in jail, can’t really help his brother. The movie takes a nice trip into both brothers’ lives and we can see how things start to change. Dicky in jail finally gets clean and starts to understand what went wrong all the time. Micky on the other hand falls in love with a girl (Amy Adams) that manages it to open up his eyes. She is the one who tells Micky some truths that, I guess he already knew, but chose to ignore. Like we so often do. It’s hard to accept the truth sometimes. That’s life. Mark Wahlberg plays that part so well here. He has to fight this struggle, chosing between his family or the chance to really get somewhere as a professional boxer.

The family, of course, is against the decision of Micky to go the path alone. First and foremost his mother (Melissa Leo). Of course they all love each other. You can see it really is a close family. Micky’s mother only wants the best. But often enough that’s not enough or the right thing. And it is hard to accept that.

When Dicky gets released from jail he thinks he can join the training with Micky again. To help him prepare for a big fight. Micky’s big chance. Micky though made a deal to keep the family out of his boxingbusiness. That leads all the characters to a point where decisions have to be made. Eventually all the right people find the right decisions.

This movie tells a story that feels so natural and realistic, that for no second you think anything in it did not really happen that way. It is a very convincingly played family drama by everyone involved. Also showing where the characters come from. What milieu built their roots. It, for certain, is not a ‘Rocky’ clone. No way! It stands on its own and deserves every credit. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo received a well deserved Oscar for their performances. Especially Christian Bale and his look in the movie, strongly reminded me on ‘The Machinist’. He really looks worn up and done. Same goes for Mark Wahlberg’s character Micky. Both of them go through some serious crap and it really is visible on screen. That’s how you build a connection with the audience. Believability.

So yeah, a story about how to let go and finding the right paths in life. A straight recommendation.

8.0/10

The Fighter on IMDb

I actually planned to see this while it was in theaters. I did not make it and kind of regret it. It’s a very good movie! I recently read that ‘insert random celebrity name here’ tweeted: “it’s not wise to show this movie on an airplane flight program!”. And yes, after seeing the movie, I can completely understand that statement.

Most of you surely know what the story of the movie is. And honestly… it’s not original. But that’s not what the movie wants to be. The focus is on realism. And that is what sells this movie. It really is realistic. And by that I mean the whole political, scientific aspects as well as the normal people. The scenario as a whole. We get insights international affairs right down to the personal and family related events where people try to cope with the loss of family members. The movie manages it to keep a very good balance, with all the little stories and characters. It’s all connected in some way.

The cast consists of the best that you can get nowadays. All characters had a suitable actor playing them. All of them were pretty much top notch and delivered that too. The characters in that film have to make some really important and hard decisions and it needed actors who can transport the heavy lifting to the audience. All of them managed to do that fine. Good work on that end. By the actors and the casting department.

The movie itself is filmed in an almost documentary style. Almost like all the ‘What If! Earth without people!’ pseudo documentaries that popped up the last couple of years. Of course the movie made all this much more engaging. The characters early on manage to captivate you and make you want to know how it all ends. In some cases it does not end well. In other cases you never know.

I also want to highlight the writing for the movie. The story involves tons of characters, spread throughout the whole planet. The writing held it all together. I never had the feeling I would miss something, because of jumpy cuts, from one place to another. The movie also has a day counter going. The fascinating thing is that we first see day 1 at the end of the movie. The actual story starts with day 2. I found that a good decision that I really appreciated.

On a technical level, the camera is always out to show the audience, how easy a potential virus can spread in todays globalization. When the story leads us into laboratories you always wait for something to happen. That some protection suit gets a hole or some scientist does something stupid. But that never happened. They avoided that cliche and that’s another point for realism. The movie definitely is no Hollywood kaboom! Dustin Hoffman ‘Outbreak’ thing. It’s a quiet movie. It wants to tell the audience something. Without distracting from the message. What is that message?

I think the message is clear. We, as the human race, shouldn’t feel too safe! There is enough unexplored nature left to remove us from the face of the earth. Especially when coincidence comes into play. And… well… maybe that wouldn’t be too bad, for the good of the planet. If something, like the movie’s scenario will happen, we don’t have the best chances.

8.1/10

Contagion on IMDb

“La piel que habito” is a spanish production directed by Pedro Almodovar. Who also took part in writing the screenplay. Whenever I try to think of a category to put this movie in, I seriously cannot find one. But what is this movie about?!

The story of the movie is about a plastic surgeon genius (Antonio Banderas) who is specialized on reconstruction techniques. Fire victims for example. Then we also learn that the doctor lost his wife in a fire. We early on recognize that there is something odd going on with him. As well as the situation at his home. He is keeping a (really beautiful) woman (Elena Anaya) there. But the impression is that he’s not holding her captive. She seems to be there because she wants it. That is one mystery that has to be resolved throughout the movie.

The movie, every now and then, goes into ‘retro-mode’ and shows things that happened in the past. The movie, in fact, jumps around quite a bit. I personally had no big problems to follow it though. We see quite a few disturbing things that happened in the past of our main character. Banderas plays his part pretty cold and almost untouchable. Nonetheless we are always able to see the characters inner workings/emotions through his eyes. Some good work on that part.

Now it comes that the daughter of our doctor is almost getting raped by a young man (Jan Cornet). I personally wouldn’t categorize what happens there under ‘rape’. The young man early enough stops what he’s doing. To me, he seems to be able to understand that he did something wrong. This may be intentional to create a certain mood/setup for this character.However, our doctor is out for revenge and kidnaps the young man. The doctor clearly has a plan.

That’s actually everything I want to tell you about the story. I fear I already told too much and don’t want to spoil it all. The movie offers quite some nice twists and requires the viewer to be up to speed with the things going on. In the later parts of the movie it manages to really play with the viewers perception of the characters. It left a weird impression in my brain and that’s a good thing. It’s a real thought provoking resolution the movie has there. And that’s what I really loved about it.

Beside the really good screenplay, we also have a very nice camera work, to round up the technical aspects of the movie. Acting and performances of all involved worked great too.

I still struggle to put this movie into a specific category. It is an interesting take on ‘kidnapping’ movies. And there we have a ‘sort of’ category for this movie. It constantly keeps us interested in what the conclusion to all the story is. And there will be quite a conclusion!

Normally certainly not my type of movie, but it’s definitely a good thing to be open for new things. Especially with movies. Give this one a chance if you see it somewhere. It’s a pretty good one!

7.7/10

The Skin I Live In on IMDb

This is a movie I absolutely did not have on my radar. I saw a few stills, the dvd cover and it looked like some romantic something movie. Young people and their day in day out shenanigans. However… don’t judge a book by its cover. Same goes for movies. A friend rented the movie and we watched it today.

Storywise it’s settled in England over a course of 30 years. It is about a group of young people that grew/grows up in a special boarding school. Something about the school and how it treats the pupils feels a little odd. We see these kids grow up in this school. We also see that this school certainly doesn’t get treated too well and the kids live not a too privileged life. The movie, in the beginning, does a great job playing with the mystery of that school. Whenever people from outside come in, to do something at the school, they all have a sorry look on their face. Soon we learn that the kids in that school are no normal people. They were basically bred to serve as organ donors for other people. The movie follows three friends. Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. All three grew up together in that school. We see how they first learn what their purpose is. We see how they try to live with it. We see what their hopes are.

Kathy and Tommy become very close friends in school. They build a connection and obviously really like each other. Ruth comes into play and sort of steals Tommy from Kathy. Ruth and Tommy then have a pretty long relationship. Kathy tries to live with it and has a hard time. It takes her a while to cut the bonds and leave the group, to go her own way and leave it all behind. Soon after that, Ruth and Tommy break up. A long time goes by and by accident Kathy finds out that Ruth got picked for her second donation. They meet in a hospital and try to cope with the past. They find out where Tommy is and pick him up. Tommy has already spent an organ too and isn’t in best condition. Ruth opens up to Kathy and Tommy. She feels sorry for stepping between the two. Since, obviously, Kathy and Tommy are meant for each other. Ruth got an address of a woman that may be a chance to postpone any more donations for loving pairs. Kathy and Tommy, happy to finally be together, find the address and want to try their luck.

“This sounds like that Michael Bay ‘The Island’ movie!” – yes it does. The concept is the same… but the execution couldn’t be more different. I admit, the story feels cheesy. I have to say though that, the way it’s shot and played out, feels so natural. It feels realistic. There is no extra sugar coating to make it sweeter. It shows how things normally tend to go in life. That includes painful missed chances, opportunities and not having enough time. It’s a quiet movie. Many things happen in the faces of the actors. The story doesn’t need too many words.

Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) deliver some really good and believable performances. I think after seeing ‘Drive’ and ‘Never let me go’ I became a fan of Carey Mulligan. She’s a talent that is able to express such a scale of emotions with just her face. That’s almost a lost skill these days. She’ll make her way. Andrew Garfield, who’s now the new Spiderman Peter Parker, will hopefully not get wasted on too many big budget movies. He certainly got a range too.

So yeah, ultimately I’m all for this movie. It tells a nice story and keeps you interested in its characters. Yes, it leaves a few questions but I can live with that. You don’t always have to get answers for everything.

For me a 8/10

Never Let Me Go on IMDb