TKoote Reviews

House of Cards (2013–2018)

Season 3: a very long pilot to season 4

[7/10 · 1 March 2015]

Season 3 review:

This season felt like a long, must-do set up of a sensational Season 4. That's where all the plot lines point to and in retrospect, how they feel after finishing this season. The Russian angle didn't get as tense as I was hoping it to be, mostly because Victor Petrov is played as a really charismatic guy and the strings he pulls aren't as interesting as those pulled by the politicians in season 1 and 2. Sure, the cast is great . The show looks great (except for the final showdown between Frank and Victor, which looks like a soda-commercial) and I really like all those fancy dresses, but in the end I feel a bit hollow. This season reminded me of how much I loved season 1, and that's not really a good sign. I really hope they live up to the promise and expectations they laid down here because the show might just fall flat when they don't deliver an explosive Season 4.

127 Hours (2010)

Staggering

[7/10 · 26 February 2011]

When you walk into 127 Hours, you know what you'll get; a film about a man who cuts it's arm off. I'll admit, I wasn't very happy to go see it, but I'm an Oscar-fan-boy, so I had to go before the "big night".

It delivered in every possible way.

If you live under a rock, 127 Hours is a movie about a man who is in the exact same position. An arrogant hiker falls into a cliff with a boulder landing on his right arm and gets stuck. It's not really a typical storyline for the big screen, but they've pulled it off.

First of all, let me tell you about Danny Boyle. I'm not a very big fan of this Britih director. Slumdog Millionaire remains one of my most hated movies and The Beach wasn't a masterpiece either. In 127 Hours however, the man shows all of his skills. Split screen, wide shots, flashbacks; the lot. He, in combination with his cinematographers Enrique Chediak and Anthony Dod Mantle, created an interesting contrast. The cliff looks extremely small and claustrophobic, while the flashback-shots look wide and open. Even when their shot inside a car.

It is however, the movie of James Franco. He is no less then epic in this movie, creating an arrogant chap who becomes more and more self-conscious during his time under the boulder. His great performance tops during the scene where he acts like he is interviewing himself. In that scene, his optimistic arrogant self turns into a scared and exhausted man in such a gripping way, you know only a truly great actor could pull this off. Franco is that great an actor.

And then "the scene". The amputations scene has had quite some attention. It had people vomiting, stroking and fainting and I have to say, some visitors leaved the room just before "the scene" was due to begin. I was seriously nervous about it too, having a thick stomach, but not the most blood-proof eyes. I'm glad I've seen it though. The amputation is as gruesome as you'd expect. As explicit as you may not have wanted, but as great as you'd wish. The intense and loud music, the amazing, not to say epic, editing combined with the journey you've been pulled into the hour before, makes this scene one of the best, intense and quite simply epic apotheoses ever in cinema.

It's a masterpiece. It's not about an amputation, but about the journey that makes him do it.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Good film let down by poor directing

[8/10 · 3 June 2009]

Let me start with saying I'm not a big Terminator-fan. Until I was wowed by the trailer I haven't seen them and for understanding this film, I've watched them. And still wasen't a big fan.

Terminator Salvation isen't a Terminator-movie in the sense that it doesen't deliver the moral reasoning the first two films did and in that matter, it's more a sequel on Terminator III, not on the first two.

Salvation is a real treat to the eye. The stunts are perfectly performed and the CGI, although not really convincing in the air-scenes, is revolutionary good. The MotorTerminators are the best examples for that. They may be the coolest machines I've ever seen.

Christian Bale gives, as always, a good performance but the real star is, its said before, Sam Worthington. His debut is excellent and impressive and I really hope that the scriptwriters find a way of continuing his role in the upcoming Terminator-movies.

The real letdown for me was the directing. There are some fantastic scenes and stunt performed, but McG decides often to cut to a camera view in which the stunt don't deliver as they could have done. est example for that is the collapsed building in LA. They've got a great shot of that (briefly seen in the trailer) but McG decides to cut to a front-view in which you only see dust, instead of the devastation.

It's not all bad off course, in the very beginning of the film we see Bale crash his helicopter in a way that wasen't thinkable a couple of years ago and it's really nice to have action filmed in a relaxing way. I'll explain that. With the Bourne-trilogy for instance, the camera shocks and vibrates constantly, even when the scene only shows two people talking. With a big blockbuster like Salvation, it's really hard to get a clear view of what's happening in the scene and I must compliment McG for doing the right thing here and focus the camera.

Last point and definitely not least; why o why diden't Connor die? Maybe I'm nuts but when you get a metal beam through your longs and everything else you can imagine within that part of the human body, I'm pretty sure you die. I know I would have enjoyed the end if Bale's character died (nothing personal) and Worthington lives. It now seems that humans are better build that the almost indestructible Terminator's they're trying to destroy.

But the 8 stars don't come out of nowhere and I must admit, as pure popcorn-entertainment, Terminator Salvation delivers.

Star Trek (2009)

Best Sci-Fi Film I've Ever Seen

[8/10 · 29 May 2009]

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Star Trek. His baldness and the strange-eared never appealed to me and therefore I've never watched more than one episode, but the spectacular trailer got me interested. Could Star Trek finally be cool? First of all, the director. J.J. Abrams is one of the finest directors of this time. With Cloverfield he proved he has a new, fresh look on former styles and trends. With Star Trek he proves it again. The directing is absolutely brilliant and as a non-Trekkie I was immediately sucked into the movie.

The realism was interesting too. It's logical that Sci-Fi movies have strange creatures and machinery, because in space, you never know what will happen. Star Trek however, differs from this. You have ordinary guns and ordinary clothes. The thing that got me noticed that even the "aliens" all look remarkably human. I only noticed three real different creatures.

Then the CGI. It was magnificent. Not a good movie though when you're epileptic. The whole film has this massive CGI-sets when hundreds of little ships attack for instance the Enterprise and lots of explosions and debree follows. Most impressive was the destroying of "the" planet though. That was seriously impressive stuff.

As the whole film was actually. The acting is good, the story is good, the action is great and the CGI is unexceedable. Fantastic film.

Watchmen (2009)

Delivers different than expected

[8/10 · 7 March 2009]

I went to see Watchmen today with high expectations and I haven't read the comic since I wasen't even born when it was first published. I really thought this would be the best blockbuster of the year, but it doesen't turn out to bee a blockbuster. Instead, it delivers on almost every other front.

The story is complicated but amazing and very very deep. You really have to be alert every second of the film to understand the next twist in the plot. The producers changed the ending of the comic in a new ending and I really can't understand why this isen't the end of the comic. Thats the biggest compliment I can give! The actors were good although Marilin Akerman was a bit disappointing. You really can't ignore the fact that she was casted for her beautiful looks, instead of her acting. The main part of the film she plays well but when it starts to get more intense, or emotional, she fails to convince you. A shame because she plays one of the most interesting characters.

The star of the show however is Jackey Earle Haley. He play's Rorschach, a tormented psychopath with a textile "face". Rorschach investigates the murder on The Comedian, one of the former Minutemen and Watchmen. Rorschach immediately thinks that someone is trying to kill all of the former superheroes.

There is only one person however, which has superpowers and that's Dr. Manhattan. As a result of a accident during a scientific experiment, he can teleport, make himself enormously big and change the substantion of materials. Dr. Manhattan is a fully CG character but most of the film you don't realize that. What plays a big part in that is that Dr. Manhattan glows blue, so the animators didn't have to precisely reproduce all the lighting in the set. This blue guy is one of the mayor philosophic characters and sometimes you want him to shut up and do his magic. But when you think about his part in the story after wards you're glad he didn't. I'll explain in a few moments.

The last two main-characters are Night Owl and the superhero with the most ridiculous name ever; Ozymandias. Those two people are almost the exact opposite. Night Owl is someone who's afraid of the suit he's wearing and has a low sense of self-assurance. Ozymandias however is an arrogant prick who loves being the worlds smartest man, and turned his Watchmen-image into a wealthy industry.

I forgot one person, the victim, The Comedian. In the first shot of the film you see he's brutally murdered and the ongoing of the film increasingly want's you to know who's done it. The big reason for this seems to lay in the fact that he played a big part in the outcome of the Vietnam-war, together with Dr. Manhattan. So was it a political killing, or is someone really picking on costumed-heroes? The outcome, I have to admit, didn't surprise me that much. I've looked at all the sites and the down-loadable images from the inter web and I had a feeling the film would end like this. The main part of the theater I was in however didn't, so you can see the polttwist as a success.

Watchmen is not a bluckbuster. Of course there are big expolsions, amazing fighting-scenes and simply spectaculair special effects, but the film serves an other goal. It doesen't want to push you into your'e chair thrilling of excitement, and therefore it doesen't. But is does let you think about everything else. What exactly the point was the film tries to make I still don't know, but it still keeps me busy. And that's something I never expected.

The Wrestler (2008)

One of the most disappointing movies I''ve ever seen.

[2/10 · 9 February 2009]

This movie really winds me up. I have never seen a movie that disappointed me more than this one. I'll explain why.

First of all, there is absolutely NO story. It's just a collection of boring and uninteresting events. Man has job. Man loses job because of his health. Man in love with woman. Man tries to band with child. Man goes to work again. That's it. I've actually seen it twice because I wanted to know if I was missing anything, but I still can't get the point of it.

Mickey Rourke plays a good role but he isen't great. To be honest I think he doesen't deserve a BAFTA, it's character is way to flat for that. And the same count's for the lovely Marisa Tomei.

Very, very disappointing.

Hunger (2008)

The best non-Hollywood movie of the year?

[9/10 · 6 December 2008]

To be honest; I'm getting bored with all the Hollywood uninspired film that are currently released, and therefore I'm extremely happy that some new stars are rising. Steve McQueen for instance. The directing he did with Hunger is absolutely brilliant.

First the story. Bobby Sands was an IRA-activist and was willing to go very far for his political beliefs. Even within prison the IRA continued their protest by spreading their own excrement's on the walls and pouring pie in the hallways. Bobby Sands however starts a hunger strike.

Don't expect a happy view. Hunger wasen't made to entertain you. McQueen isen't scared of excessive violence and Hunger delivers that twice. The scary and seizing part of Hunger is however the way everything was filmed and mounted together. Hunger makes you smell the pie and excrement's, makes you feel the wounds and is in the end leaving you behind, staggered.

Another compliment is in place for the lead players; Michael Fassbender. In the movie there is a shot of fifteen minutes ( ! ! ! ) of just talking between Fassbender and Cunningham (who plays a vickor). It must have been an absolute torture for the two actors to make that scene. Impressive stuff.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Poor movie

[3/10 · 23 November 2008]

I'm just back from Quantum of Solace and I just can't help feeling swindled.

The new Bond movie tries to hard to be a good action-movie, but the scenes are to shocky to follow and sometimes hard to believe. The opening is good with a spectacular chase along the Italian lakes, but the main problem immediately becomes clear; it's unbelievably hard to follow the scenes which are so shocky and far to hastily.

Then there's another problem; the story. Or better; the lack of it. I got the feeling that the writers' only target was to put as many action scenes in as many country's they could get. The villain, Dominic Green, handles in a business with is in touch with the time, but ridiculous and almost laughing.

And who's come up with that awful title-song? There are some good things though; the clandestine advertising from Ford is far less striking then in Casino Royale and Olga Kurylenko is in my point of view the star of the show. She gives a very good performance as the tormented Camille.

All in all this movie is very disappointing. It doesen't deliver as an action-movie, but it also doesen't deliver as Bond-movie. It falls right in between those two and is nothing more than a shamefull sequel of Casino Royale.

The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Most expensive German movie ever; it shows.

[8/10 · 23 November 2008]

I went to see this movie without any knowledge of the RAF. I wasen't even born when the RAF was active. Still I could follow the story of the movie because, even though some figures are vague and get no introduction, the most important story lines are explained.

The movie follows the beginning, top and ending of the first RAF-members; Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof in particular. The rest of the group doesen't get the big introduction Ulrike got but with so many interesting characters the film would get even longer then its 2.5 hours.

That is inmediatly the biggest problem with the film; it's length. Because of the variety of events and characters, Der Baader-Meinhof complex never gets boring, but at some point in the movie you start to get irritated by the new events. It would be more wisely if the director had chosen to make a sequel, sothat the second RAF-members get the attention they deserve.

So why 8 out of 10 stars? Simple, as an action-movie this is brilliant. The story is good and the movie doesen't tell more than it has to. The biggest achievement however is in my point of view the political statement. It doesen't make it. Der Baader-Meinhof complex tells the story of the RAF, but never approves the actions of the group, but also doesen't disapprove them. And that is a great achievement.