Watched in the cinema (182nd visit in 2024)
"You're Welcome" is not only the biggest hit from "Moana", but also the attitude with which Disney dropped a bombshell in February 2024. Instead of exploring the Polynesian world again in an announced Disney+ series, the studio surprised everyone at a shareholders' meeting by announcing a proper sequel - and this was directly dated for the end of the year. But behind this bright appearance lies a well-calculated, pragmatic move: the originally…
Watched in the cinema (171st visit in 2024)
When you read about the internet phenomenon of Red Rooms, it sends shivers down your spine. Allegedly, these are websites on the darknet where people are murdered, tortured or sexually abused via live stream. Spectators can take part for large sums of money. The actual existence of these sites has never really been proven; in fact, streaming within the darknet would not even be technically possible. The rumours are based on a…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Schocktober 2024 #29
The world into which "American Psycho" transports us is a world that has been planned down to the last detail: the sequence of the training programme. The course of the care programme. The course of the sex life. Nothing is left to chance. Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) attaches great importance to control and controllability. The wealthy investment banker only loses his cool when he is unexpectedly outdone - for example, when one of his…
Watched in the cinema (160th visit in 2024)
Schocktober 2024 #24
Many film projects have gone through a long and problematic development before they are released in cinemas or straight to home cinema, but director Chris Nash and his team seem to have been truly unlucky with "In a Violent Nature". Not only did the Canadian-born director have to completely change the ending he had originally planned for cost reasons, but towards the end of filming his cameraman and the…
Watched in the cinema (159th visit in 2024)
Bertrand Bonello is one of those directors where you never know exactly what he will shoot next. His films are mostly dramas. But it is remarkable how diverse the themes and settings in his works are. In 2014, for example, he told the story of the excessive lifestyle of fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent in "Saint Laurent". In "La Bête", the French filmmaker's latest work, he now takes off completely when he…
Watched in the cinema (156th visit in 2024)
It comes as no surprise that a movie about Donald Trump would be made at some point. After all, he is one of the most enigmatic and controversial figures in recent history. Since his election as US president at the latest, he has also become an international phenomenon. And yet more than a few people may have been surprised by "The Apprentice". Ali Abbasi of all people, who previously became a favorite…
Watched on Disney +
Schocktober 2024 #8
"Cold Creek Manor" is another one of those movies where a maniacal fiend spends an extraordinary amount of energy setting up scenes for the camera. Think of the trouble it would be for a man working alone to kill a horse and throw it into a swimming pool. The movie is a collection of clichés that doesn't neglect both the talking killer who talks when he should be at work and the reliable…
Watched in the cinema (119th visit in 2024)
At the beginning of 2024, the film production company NEON uploaded a teaser to its YouTube channel. Instead of a title for the advertised film, the title of the video only consisted of the words "Every Year There Is Another." In the teaser, we see a frightening close-up of a family photo, accompanied by a disturbing soundtrack, until suddenly we cut to several cadaverous hands sticking out from under a sheet. Without…
Watched in the cinema (117th visit in 2024)
It may sound unbelievable, but it's true: although the Looney Tunes have been around since 1930, "The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie" is the first full-length animated feature film with the characters from Warner Brothers. Previously, only short film compilations and real/animated film hybrids such as "Space Jam" made it to the cinema.
Admittedly, a Looney Tunes film is no easy undertaking, as the characters work best in…
Watched on Amazon Prime Video
With "Men in Black", director Barry Sonnenfeld delivered one of the most successful summer blockbusters of the 1990s. His mixture of buddy comedy and sci-fi actioner, impregnated with affectionate quotes, resulted in a fast-paced piece of entertainment cinema that still works today. Just two years after the first appearance of the men in black, however, Sonnenfeld was to immediately lose all the reputation he had previously built up: The star-studded western parody "Wild Wild West"…
Watched on Netflix
It is now 52 years since a horrific massacre took place during the Summer Olympics in Munich, which ultimately claimed the lives of 17 people. Unsurprisingly, there have been numerous attempts to commemorate this incident over the years. Of course, "Munich" should not be missing from this series. Director Steven Spielberg tells less about the terrorist act itself. Instead, his film is dedicated to a hit squad that, following the motto "an eye for an eye", wanted…
Watched in the cinema (66th visit in 2024)
"Arthur the King" heavily advertises the fact that the movie is based on a true story, but takes a lot of artistic liberties to do so. The real 2014 Adventure Championship took place in Ecuador, but the movie is set in the Dominican Republic. So Arthur is Ecuadorian in real life, so to speak. Likewise, Mark Wahlberg's nationality as Mikael Lindnord is very much lost in the movie. The movie almost suggests…