Watched in the cinema (149th visit in 2024)
It seems as if the success of "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" in 2018 has encouraged the big Hollywood animation studios to leave the perfect recreation of reality to one side for a while and instead go all out artistically again. The makers behind "The Wild Robot" are also following this trend in their adaptation of Peter Brown's three-part children's book series, with the backgrounds in particular being inspired by Impressionism. As the…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Director, writer and producer Jack Hill earned his spurs in the circle of the then omnipresent B-movie messiah Roger Corman. He and Francis Ford Coppola were the two assistant directors that Corman gave a more or less free hand on "The Terror", whereupon they were allowed to direct a large part of the film independently. Learning by doing, in other words. He initially remained faithful to low-budget drive-in horror, even creating a minor classic of the genre…
Watched on 4K UHD Blu-Ray
"Fast & Furious" is one of the great mysteries that the cinema landscape currently holds in store. Not because the films are so complex and twisty. Even the biggest fans wouldn't call them that. No, the mystery is how a series that is simple in itself has become bigger and more popular over the years. Where others struggle to keep their fans hooked, to sell a concept over and over again, here the popularity grows from…
Watched on Blu-Ray (Extended Cut)
Of course, the series about the devil drivers was successful right from the start. The prelude "The Fast and the Furious" was a real surprise hit in 2001. Since then, with the exception of "Tokyo Drift", box-office takings have gone steadily upwards. But no one expected "Fast & Furious 7" to make another huge leap upwards and almost double the previous blockbuster with worldwide takings of more than 1.5 billion dollars. However, no one expected Paul…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Which franchise reaches its peak in the fifth part? The "Fast and Furious" series shows how exactly this is done. After the successful beginning of Rob Cohen it seemed to be dead after part 2 and 3 creatively and nobody was in mourning mood. Vin Diesel, the big star of the series - and "Fast Five" makes this clear- was far too busy ramming his three potential franchises into the ground (Riddick, F&F, xXx). With Paul Walker…
Watched on Blu-Ray
After "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" had ensured that the high-speed franchise was driven into a dead end by oily screwdriver fantasies and breakneck road races, first artistically and then commercially, with the accelerator pedal depressed, clear overhaul work had to be carried out on the Fast & Furious brand, which originally had a broad impact. To get back on the road to success, there was only one possibility: The two…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Hair gel and exhaust fumes.
Welcome to transmission heaven.
In the absence of Vin Diesel and Paul Walker (and replaced with wooden actors including a slightly bored Sonny Chiba) the car porn series enters its third round. Relocates its high-powered party for racing junkies to a neon Tokyo that looks like a giant playground for overage-looking minors. At the latest this part reveals what this film series is really about so far. Not only that the fast…
Watched on Amazon Prime
The story? The FBI's witness protection program isn't working. That's why witness after witness is murdered, and the Angel Agents are supposed to save what can be saved. And because that's not funny per se, the witnesses are given strange attributes. One watches porn, another is played by Bruce Willis in a grey wig - and the real villain is Demi Moore, Bruce Willis' ex-wife, of all people. An inside joke.
But who is interested in…
Watched on Blu-Ray
So that could have been it, the perfect conclusion to a great trilogy. According to the law of the series, "Rise of the Machines" (in the German version "Rebellion der Maschinen") should easily keep up with the second part, if not surpass both ingenious predecessors. I wish, the reality is unfortunately different. But the opportunity was within reach for years. Just round up all the participants, knock out a real Terminator and finish the saga with a…
Watched in the cinema
In one scene in the "Fast & Furious" spin-off "Hobbs & Shaw", the two eternal rivals Luke and Deckard run through an underground giant garage in which one luxury car follows the other. As usual, the sly-eared Hobbs, embodied by Dwayne Johnson, notices that somebody has something to compensate, before the scene dissolves into a charming punch line, which I don't want to spoil at this point.
Why do I start with this excerpt from the film? Because…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Spider-Man Rewatch Road To Far From Home Step 1 of 7
From today's point of view, returning to the beginnings of the legendary Spider Man often happens only for nostalgic reasons. Indeed, the beginning of Sam Raimi's iconic SPIDER MAN trilogy in 2002, along with the X-MEN released two earlier, was the starting point for a new era of the blockbuster and its heroes. Raimi's film set standards at the time, including in terms of special effects,…