Change Your Image
basvandergraaff
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Mignonnes (2020)
Mignonnes Review
Yes, some shots are somewhat awkward, but it felt realistic to me. I think the original cover did a lot of harm, the current one isn't nearly as bad.
As for the movie itself, it's okay-ish. Not terrible, but a long shot from great. Acting is average, cinematography is decent but nothing special.
I actually felt like the movie was almost making a case about culture clashes (or showing the result of immigration), except for in the final scene. Broken families, polygyny, single mothers, backward traditions and religion, adults yelling at kids, who aren't raised properly and are shown very little affection (and start to steal money and a phone). The lack of integration is very difficult for a kid to deal with and she needs to live a double life in order to fit in with her friends.
Persona (1966)
Too arty-farty for most, and rightly so.
It's a story about 2 women, one under the care of the other. When moved to an isolated location, the patient, who is not speaking, quickly gets on the nerve of the nurse, who soon starts to break down psychologically. She starts share very personal stories with her patient and even hurts her on multiple occasions. She also imagines being her patient and the borders between their personalities seem to fade away.
Parts of it are beautifully filmed, great camera work and excellent suspension. But a random intro, random flashing images and sudden sound outbursts kind of ruin it. And when even the director has stated that he doesn't know what all of it means, I start asking myself why I should want to find out. I'm sure it's all very deep, but it's all very random too. Watch if you're in film school, otherwise, don't bother.
Magnus (2016)
Not bad but a little too standard
A very chronological story, primarily focused on his rise to the title of world champion. There is really no chess positions in it, so if you're not actually seeing anything of his brilliance. But his social situation and character is shown quite well.
One thing I really did not like about it is how Anand is portrayed to be some kind of super memory that can't really think for himself at all, only recite moves from other games. Anyone who knows Anand a little knows that's incredibly far from the truth.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Don't think when watching this
Suddenly, at least half the city seems to be made up of criminals who know John Wick. What's worse, they don't have the slightest problem attacking him alone to get the bounty, even though he's killed over 200 people so far in part 1&2, so they should know their chances are slim to none.
Even abroad, there are apparently hundreds of thugs who get messages on their flip phones telling them to kill John Wick. The dialogue is worse than in the earlier movies, and the storyline is less realistic than a first person shooter game on easy mode. The only thing thicker than Wick's skin is his plot armor.
If you like action, go for it, but don't try.to enjoy the plot...there isn't any.
Super 30 (2019)
Only worth a viewing if you really like Indian movies
I'm baffled by the high scores here, the movie isn't that great. If you're a fan of the genre, go watch it. If you're not, don't bother.
The action scenes would fit very well in an A-Team battle. Kids using their homework to fight off armed baddies. The 3d animations aren't great: the ones in the classroom are terrible, and some other scenes (such as the train scene) suffer because of it as well.
The acting is mediocre. A lot of overacting, very little character development, cheesy dialog. Maybe some jokes were more funny for Indians? The main character makes 1 decision in the entire movie (to quit teaching the rich). The plot is about as predictable as it can get, although seeing 30/30 students from the slum without any selection process make it into a top-notch university makes everything rather unbelievable.
On top of that, add some of the cringy Indian musical-style songs in the middle of the movie (Question Mark, anyone?). And I don't get the purpose of the intro and outro, that was totally unnecessary. I think a 5/10 is in place here.
Sunshine (2007)
Let's skip all science for the story
Beautiful space shots and a decent idea for a story with some twists. But does that mean you can just give up on all logic and science?
- Why is this a manned mission? And why 8 people? All you're trying to do is fly a rocket into the sun. Bringing it there with an enormous ship, which needs to go back afterwards, is stupid and a waste. You can shoot it into the sun at any point.
- Gravity? The ship's core was rotating, but that would only generate a centrifugal force, yet everywhere there is gravity in one direction.
- Not enough oxygen, yet there is a massive hangar (why is that there?) that is pressurized, apparently.
- Why are all the rooms in the ship so big, anyway? The hallways are tens of metres long, without any reason or purpose.
- A supercomputer that can answer almost any kind of questions, but fails to mention simple things, such as changing the course without rotating the shields, noticing an unknown 5th passenger on the ship, etc.
As the characters don't have enough background to make them really interesting (they mostly just represent their occupation) and so many things didn't make sense, I found it hard to keep my attention on this movie. Hollywood, is it so hard to hire a real scientist for a week and get him to point out the logic flaws?