michvanbeek Reviews

Alien (1979)

Claustophobic and briljant Sci-Fi Horror

[9/10 · 15 May 2024]

After Ridley Scott made an impression with The Duellist in 1977, he came up with the film that ultimately gave him his real breakthrough. Alien is a Science Fiction film, but not in the way we were actually used to. Star Wars brought this genre out of the doldrums, and in 1979 Star Trek also released its first cinema film. As mentioned, Scott took a different approach with Alien, with an oppressive and suffocating work that largely takes place in the narrow corridors of the freighter Nostromo. The then relatively unknown actress Sigourney Weaver plays the leading role of Ripley and she did this three more times. With Tom Skerritt and John Hurt on board, Ridley also had a boatload of quality and experience on board. The film eventually got a sequel Aliens in 1986, which came from director James Cameron and this is still seen as one of the exceptional cases where the sequel is better than the original. Cameron also surpassed his own classic The Terminator with Terminator 2: Judgmentday, so you can leave sequels to Cameron in that regard.

In any case, with Alien Ridley kicked off a franchise that has now spawned a boatload of sequels and spin-offs with Prometheus, Alien Covenant and the soon-to-be-released Alien Romulus. The film is haunting and brilliantly put together. The story is relatively simple, the crew discovers a strange signal, investigates and finds a strange organism that starts killing on their ship. That just describes the story in a nutshell. But the film is so much more than that. It also features one of the first real power women with Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, who of course ends up being the only survivor. I'm not spoiling anything about that at all because that's a simple calculation considering Ripley returns in Aliens. The film opens quite mystical, but also slowly. Ridley builds up the tension by the minute and especially when we are first introduced to the Alien (who is described as Xenomorph in the second part), a search for the beast begins. Don't expect a movie with fast action or even a lot of action, because in that respect Alien and Aliens are very different from each other. While Alien focuses more on the psychological aspect, Aliens focuses fully on the action.

The funny thing is that the Alien (the The ending was also changed and was not how it was described in the first script. For those who have not seen the film, skip this paragraph to avoid spoilers. The original ending had Ripley escaping from the Nostromo and the Alien being left behind. Scott thought this was a bit too easy and managed to get half a million extra budget to create an alternative ending. This was a more dark ending, with the Alien unexpectedly hitching a ride in Ripley's escape pod and Ripley the monster eventually ripping off Ripley's head. In the end, Scott thought the ending would be better if Ripley survived and we got the final ending of the first film as we know it today. Fortunately, because if the dark ending had been chosen, we would not have had Cameron's Aliens in the form we know it today.

Alien is currently celebrating its 45th anniversary and remains one of the best SciFi horror films ever made, along with its 1986 sequel Aliens. With Alien 3 from 1992 they returned to the concept of the first film and although that film was not bad, it was nothing compared to its two predecessors, not to mention the terribly bad Alien Resurrection from 1997. Anyway This first Alien film is also a special one and is more of a psychological horror film. As mentioned before, the Alien itself only has 4 minutes of screen time in the entire film and you have to wait more than an hour before you can see the beast. But don't worry, because the first hour of the film is a perfect build-up to an ultimately thrilling climax. For now, I'm signing off, hopefully the network will pick me up.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Just WOW!

[9/10 · 10 May 2024]

In 1968 we got to see the first film by Planet of the Apes, after the 1963 book by Pierre Boulle. The film got 4 sequels and in 1974 even a television series, which was discontinued after 1 season. It would take until 2001 for another new film about the ape planet to be made. The film was made by Tim Burton, starring Mark Wahlberg, but flopped gigantic after which the plug was pulled out of the project. In 2011 finally came Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which followed Caesar's story, after which Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was made with great success in 2014 and War For the Planet of the Apes in 2017, after which the series was closed with the death of Caesar. Now, seven years later, we can get ready for the sequel, although it has not become a direct sequel, but a film set generations after Caesar. Although the creators claim that this is not a remake of the 1968 original, the trailer really suggests something completely different. Unfortunately, Fox has been in the hands of Disney since 2019 and we all know that Disney likes to destroy franchises. Hopefully they will stay a bit loyal to The Planet of the Apes, so I went into the film with great confidence.

It is certainly not a remake, this film follows a completely own story that is smart and well written. Of course, the film is full of references to its predecessors and even to the old 1968 film. The first half hour comes up quite slowly. The film begins immediately after the events from War For the Planet of the Apes. But after a few minutes we skip generations and end up in a world where monkeys dominate and humans live in the wild and are almost wiped out of the planet. What immediately stands out is the eye-catching CGI, from time to time your mouth will almost fall open, because this is really of an extremely high level. Especially when Noa wakes up again after making a taste on the ground and there is all white ash in his coat. This is done with a lot of detail. After about 40 minutes you will get through where the story wants to go and then the momentum will fortunately come in. Noa is chased by a human after a group of monkeys destroyed his village, killed his father and captured the rest of his tribe. Eventually Noa meets the Urang Utang named Raka, who strictly follows Caesar's word and together with Noa brings the man they first call Nova, but eventually turns out to be called Mae, to her own tribe.

The environments where the film takes place are really fantastic. Half-decayed cities where the buildings have been overgrown with plants, grass and moss over the years look post-apocalyptic and eye-catching. Of course we have seen that more in movies, but the creators of this film have paid a lot of attention to detail. When Noa eventually ends up on the beach, where he joins the self-croowned Proximus Caesar, the film is completely in a gear. Noa and Mae have to forcibly open a large steel door that sits in the rocks, or rather, they have to help Proximus Caesar do that. What is ultimately behind that door may be a bit predictable, but good. The film is most reminiscent of a mix between Planet of the Apes from 1968 and its sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes from 1970, at least a little bit in terms of structure. The end is left completely open and hints directly at a sequel and I do have a suspicion where they want to go, but not.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has become a fantastic spectacle piece, where the CGI is really bizarrely beautiful. The details splash off the screen and every hair, dust particle or whatever has been paid a lot of attention. But the post-apocalyptic setting of the half-decayed cities that are overgrown with greenery is also really beautifully done. The story is smart and well written, although the film takes half an hour to get going. It is smart and well done that the film takes place generations after Caesar and that we are thrown into a completely new adventure on the ape planet. Because the end is left completely open, there is almost no other way than that a sequel will come to this and it can't come fast enough for me. In any case, this fourth film from the new reboot series of films is fantastic.

Land of Bad (2024)

Enjoyable, but without soul

[6/10 · 5 May 2024]

In Land of Bad, the lead roles are played by Liam and Luke Hemsworth, yes Chris's brothers, and none other than Russell Crowe stars alongside the gentlemen as Captain Eddie Grimm 'Reaper'. The direction is in the hands of 43-year-old director William Eubank, who didn't really make a lot of soups for this film, but good. Land of Bad is only his sixth directing job and if you are allowed to work with such a cast, which is bursting with experience, it should basically be fine. Eubank also wrote the story for this film himself, so we have become quite curious. The story is not bursting with originality by the way, because it is purely such a behind enemy lines- film, which we have seen more often in the past, so it is a bit to be hoped that it does not get bogged down in a been there, done that concept. Fortunately, the film doesn't feel that way and it has become an exciting action movie with a lot of action and suspense. Especially if Kinney has to make his way through the jungle of the Philippines on his own with only Reaper as his navigation to get everything to a successful conclusion.

Crowe, incidentally, takes little part in the action and controls the drone and looks from the air to see if there are no enemies present. If in the beginning all the drone has to return due to a defect, the Delta-Force team is blind. If these achieve their goal and a horrific scene takes place, things go completely wrong. To make matters worse, if the enemy deploys RPG elites, Kinney is quickly left alone and is chased up by an army of bad guys. It goes with a lot of weapon rattle, explosions and especially many slow motion shots. This is pretty nicely done, but after doing it once or twice, the fun is a bit off. Fortunately, the director does limit himself to a number of action scenes and it has not become a Zack Snyder movie that has a slow motion scene in it every five minutes. Yet the film is bursting with clichés and the whole thing looks like a cross between Rambo and (for those who still know the film) Bat 21, because Kinney flees into hostile territory, eventually loses communication and runs out of weapons.

Then predictability strikes, especially how Kinney escapes from the predicament and eventually manages to get weapons back. Anyway, you just have to take these kinds of movies with a grain of salt and just watch it and not lift them too heavy at the implausibles or coincidences. The growling and humming Russell Crowe watches from the safe barracks with a look at Monster Energy in his hands. Still, Crowe does play one of his better roles since Unhinged from 2020. Is the movie really worth watching in a cinema? Well, that depends on which attitude you go with and especially with what kind of company you are going to visit the film. The best thing is to visit these kinds of movies with a bunch of friends with a nice drink and a huge container of popcorn.

Land of Bad has become a very entertaining action film, in which the film does little to depth or emotion. The story is quite simple and already done many times more. With a lot of shooting, raging, explosions and great camera work you will be entertained for a short two hours, although this will not be a film that will keep you with you for years. Crowe plays a fine role as a grumpy mob and Liam Hemsworth is shooting through the ferocious landscape of the Philippines. The gradient is standard and predictable, but despite that it manages to get quite exciting here and there. As mentioned, expect some kind of cross between Rambo and Bat 21, which will definitely get tough here and there. For an afternoon or evening of action entertainment, Land of Bad is absolutely suitable.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Easy to follow, even if you didn't see part 1

[9/10 · 5 May 2024]

Frank Herberts' Dune dates back to 1965 and has already been filmed once. The film adaptation dates back to 1984, when director David Lynch made an attempt to make the epic film. The result was very mediocre, because although the film managed to excel in terms of landscapes and cinematography, it stopped there. In 2021, director Denis Villeneuve came up with his version of Dune and immediately managed to impress. Where the 1984 version tapped a total playing time of two hours and seventeen minutes, only the first part of Villeneuve's version had been tapping for two hours and thirty-five minutes and then you're only halfway. This second part even taps two hours and forty-six minutes, so it's a bit to be hoped that it's not going to be a repetition of moves, because although the first part was very strong, the film could have been a lot shorter. Anyone familiar with Dune's whole story knows what will ultimately await him and the film certainly does not disappoint in this. Whether the hype that currently reigns around Dune is right, you will have to see and judge for yourself. In any case, what is certain is that the film contains much more action than the first part.

The film runs seamlessly and we continue the story with Paul and the division among the Fremen where the northerners do not want to accept Paul as 'The One'. Meanwhile, Baron Harkonnen performs his atrocities on the planet and when his nephew Feyd-Rauta appears, Beast Rabban is soon expelled. Feyd-Rauta is portrayed in a very strong way by Austin Butler. So a lot is happening, so the pace is a lot higher than in the first part. What's more striking is the fact that this movie is even easy to follow if you wouldn't even have seen the first part. There is a great explanation about how and what and although the first film does show the beginning, it feels completely unnecessary after seeing this second part. Well, completely superfluous may be a bit exaggerated, but the fact remains that even without that film this second part is like a house and the story will be easy for everyone to follow. If in the end Paul indicates that he does not want to reach for power, Stilgar is convinced that Paul is 'The One', but there is still doubt within the Fremen group that Paul and Jessica are spies.

The film is grotesque, with a bombastic soundtrack and eye-catching locations and slick special effects. Although the soundtrack is really fine, it is not composer Hans Zimmer's most unforgettable work and this (for me then) is not a soundtrack that will stay with me for a very long time. Although the pace is really a lot higher than in the first part, certain pieces still feel too long and this is often a thing from director Villeneuve. As far as I'm concerned, he often knows how to put down films that are sublimely put together, such as Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival, but often goes into the matter too deep, making the films really feel much too long. Perhaps this does not have much to do with going too deep into the matter, but more with the slowness with which this happens. Especially Arrival suffered from that in my eyes, a rock-solid film with a well-thought-out plot, but it's almost great to make a film that is under two hours feel like four hours. Fortunately, that's not too bad in Dune: Part Two and we get to see a movie full of action and adventure. The setup to the third part is made, although I wonder if three parts won't be a bit of a good thing, but we're going to experience it.

Dune: Part Two has become a strong sequel, where the film is still easy to follow even if you haven't seen the first part. The film is grotesque, contains great camera work that manages to create a lot of atmosphere with many yellowish filters. The soundtrack is good and bombastic, but it's not a soundtrack that will stay with you for a long time. It is mainly Austin Butler who, as far as I'm concerned, manages to steal the show as Baron Harkonnen's cruel nephew, Feyd-Rauta. Although the film manages to tick for a good two hours and 45 minutes, whereby that sometimes really felt like a long-paced struggle in the first Dune- film, the pace in this second part is pleasant. Here and there the pace might have been a little higher, but honestly that didn't bother me for a meter. The hype created around the film may be a bit exaggerated, but the movie is definitely worth seeing in the cinema, if you have the chance do it in IMAX.

Dune (2021)

Slow, but a great opener.

[8/10 · 5 May 2024]

Next Thursday, the second part of Dune will premiere in theaters, something many a fan has had to look forward to for almost 3 years. Although the film should actually have been released last year, it was significantly delayed by the writers' strike that was going on in Hollywood at the time. The film already got the green light 4 days after the premiere of this first part, but luckily the time has come and I thought it would be nice to look back at the first part before we get started with part 2. There is already a 1984 film directed by David Lynch. Although the film contained absolutely beautiful camera work, the overall picture was really far below par. Now Denis Villeneuve is at the helm and he has already proven with Blade Runner 2049 that he can definitely make a complex science fiction film. With a $165 million budget, Villeneuve doesn't let any grass grow over it and attracts a large arsenal of big stars and puts a lot of work into the eye-catching effects the film has.

The story is not the easiest story and it is also very careful to be able to follow the story. The film is also quite slow and that is now a feature of this director. For example, Blade Runner 2049 also had a long playing time and the whole thing went in a very slow way. This is no different in this first part of Dune, so you still don't get the whole thing after an hour, in my opinion you might as well stop it and just skip the second part. For those who can follow all this and do not suffer from the slow course, they will be immersed in a very cool world in which a war rages between three parties, in which it is up to the chosen Paul Atreides to save the native people the Fremen from the downfall and the dig to the coveted spice. What is well done is the nightmarish setting that Villeneuve manages to create in the film. Certainly the scene in which Paul and his associates fly to a miner with a plane that has wings like a Dragonfly. Once there, an sandworm arrives in the distance that wants to swallow the whole thing, after which a rescue operation follows and the miner's crew has to evacuate. With the yellow lens filter in the dune plain, it makes things look even more oppressive and especially heated.

The music is provided by none other than grandmaster Hans Zimmer and the whole thing swells well. Still, the soundtrack here and there is just a bit too melancholy and it doesn't always fit the film well, but that will also be a matter of personal taste. In any case, it doesn't make it contribute to getting a little bit of momentum in the film. This takes until deep in the second half that the momentum comes in when Paul and mother Jessica Atreides have to flee after the attack on Leto Atreides. At that moment the role of the Fremen also becomes a little clearer and we also see the malice of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen taking on more and more bizarre forms. It's all a set-up to Dune: Part 2 of course and especially for the people who have already seen the 1984 version, you know about what's coming and it's quite frustrating to have waited so long. What does outline the surprise is that a Dune: Part 3 is already in development, so with that in mind I am very curious what exactly will come and how Villeneuve will work out all this.

Dune: Part One is a great opener of the triptych about House Atreides, Harkonnen and the Fremen people fighting a mutual battle for the planet Caladan. This first part is very slow and your patience is tested for about 155 minutes. The camera work, decors and settings are really very well done, although I find the soundtrack of grandmaster Hans Zimmer sometimes too melancholy, but this can also have to do with taste of course. It also takes more than an hour and a half before the whole thing has got off to a good start, for which a lot of work is done on character development and deepening of the story. Where exactly Villeneuve ultimately wants to go regarding the developed third part is still a bit of the question. The third part is expected to tell The Children of Dune, but yes, at least I don't know for sure. For now, this first part of Dune has become a really cool movie, especially for the real science fiction lover, so let the second part come soon.

Fallout (2024– )

This was awesome!

[9/10 · 5 May 2024]

The game Fallout has been playing since 1997 and has an extremely large crowd of fans in the meantime. Since 2007, Fallout's rights have been sold to Bethesda, with 4 games added to the shelves and a number of additions to them. Anyone who knows the games will have labeled this a bit as fairly unfilmable. Still, Jonathan Nolan, yes Christopher Nolan's 6 years younger brother, wanted to burn his hands on the Fallout project. Jonathan is only more adept at the writers' part and whoever looks at his CV sees that he hardly has anything to his name as a director. The series takes place within the same continuity as the video game franchise, but has become an original story of its own. Executive producer Todd Howard said he wanted to prevent the video games from being tweaked.

Especially people who are not familiar with the Fallout franchise will really have to get used to the weird setting for the first two episodes. The atmosphere in the series is very strong and lives up to the game, but the luguber humor and the completely strange things that happen will make the eyebrows frown for a while. Precisely because the world of Fallout is so atmospheric and well portrayed, this series has perhaps become one of the best game adaptations ever, at least, that's what I think. From the third episode, the whole thing starts to get a bit more structure and you will also understand where the whole thing wants to go in the end. You actually skip between several lines in the story. For example, there is the story of Lucy, who goes through the desert together with Ghoul Cooper, Maximus who ends up in a bizarre situation as a turtle of Knight Titus and of course how Vault 33 wants to pick up the thread again, but does not know how to deal with their captured killers. But in order to fully understand the big picture, we have to go back to the beginning and that's exactly where Fallout works.

In episode 6, structure begins to come into the series and it becomes clear where the big picture wants to go. Every storyline remains equally interesting and the absurdism is only increasing. But exactly how everything is put together remains unclear until the last episode and we also have to go back to the whole beginning. Fortunately, for the rest, it doesn't matter whether you have played the games or not, the series may then connect with the world of Fallout and constantly hint to things from the games, yet the series follows its own path and prior knowledge is absolutely not required. Everything is just well worked out and it reminded me from time to time to time the books of The Dark Tower by Stephen King, which I would like to see filmed in this way and I'm not talking about that halfgare film from 2017. Fallout is just surprisingly good and brings this to the man with a lot of gore and weird humor. After the 8 episodes, you're still looking for a second season.

Fallout - Season 1 is perhaps the best movie of a game ever. Prior knowledge is absolutely not necessary, because although the story takes place in the world fan of the games, it completely follows its own path. As a neutral viewer, you will still have something about the first two episodes of what are you actually looking at, but after that the story starts to take shape. With 8 episodes ranging from playing time from 45 minutes to an hour, it looks away wonderfully and quickly. One must have a strong stomach, by the way, because some scenes are in no way inferior to a spicy horror film, so this is definitely not suitable for young viewers. Eventually when the end has come you will crave for more, but it will be a while for a second season and although nothing is known about that yet, it is quite a certainty that it will really come.

Damsel (2024)

Survive the first 30 minutes of the film and it will get enjoyable and fun.

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Most people knowMillie Bobby Brown from her role as Eleven from the Netflix series Stranger Things. Later she also played in the Netflix productions of Elona Holmes and played in the unspokably bad Godzilla II: King of Monsters. The titles mentioned don't immediately make me eager to watch Damsel, but the trailer decided to do it anyway. Next to Brown, we see Robin Wright as evil queen Isabelle and Angela Bassett as Lady Bayford, Elodie's stepmother. The direction is in the hands of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo who also directed 28 Weeks Later and did so not undeservedly after Danny Boyles 28 Days Later. Throw a budget of a sloppy seventy million dollars and you should really have a good base to make a nice movie. Well, unfortunately that is not often the case with Netflix productions. In fact, I think there are only a handful of really good films made from the Netflix stable, which do a lot better in the field of series.

Fortunately, that is not the case with this film. Despite a lot of negative criticism of this film, I don't really understand that, because Damsel has become an old-fashioned fun adventure. Still, the film needed half an hour of start-up time, where I even considered turning off the film after 20 minutes. This was more because there is a large prince and princess content that you normally get to see in sweet royal comedies. Fortunately, that's just working towards something, because after this half hour the film comes off well. When Elodie is thrown into the dragon's den, it will take a while before we get to see the dragon. Perhaps the dragon could have been a bit more imposing, but the dragon's fire spitting has been well thought out. It's not a normal fire, but when the fire hits things it turns into a kind of lava-like substance, so that when the dragon spits fire you can't hide almost anywhere.

The film has a neat playing time of an hour and 45 minutes and that is a perfect film length for a film like this. It all shouldn't have lasted any longer, giving the film a good balance. Elodie is the great heroine of the story and when it finally becomes clear how the fork really seems to be in the stem, Elodie swears revenge and that leads to the final fight between Elodie and the dragon and that can be called quite exciting. Perhaps the film is just a little too exciting for too young viewers and there are a few pieces in it so that the film has rightly received age advice of 12 years and older. If you want to watch this with younger offspring, it is advisable to check the film yourself in advance whether it is possible.

Damsel has finally become a good Netflix production for young and old. Millie Bobby Brown plays the tough damsel Elodie who has to take on a dragon and escape from his cave. The effects are very beautiful, where it is mainly the fire spitting of the dragon that is very nicely animated. The dragon itself might have been a little more imposing, but good. If you make a movie this way, it's a little thing to take for granted. These kinds of films were actually made on a large scale in the eighties and nineties for the last time, then dragon films went a bit in a different direction, which is why Damsel is a welcome surprise where you will have a very entertaining evening when you go to watch it.

Dumb Money (2023)

Fine by me

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Craig Gillespie has already directed films such as Fright Night (meaning the remake), The Finest Hour, I, Tonya and Cruella in the past. So it concerns a wide range of genres and this time he takes care of Dumb Money. The film has a nice cast with names like Paul Dano, Vincent D'Onofrio, Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, Clancy Brown and Nick Offerman. The story is special and takes place entirely in the Covid-19 period, something that many people may prefer not to be reminded of. Everyone walks up with face masks and speaks to each other. But during this pandemic, something completely different happened on the Wall Street stock exchange. Keith Gill has his own vlog in which he shows people his bank balance by investing in stocks. He himself pumps a lot of money into a seemingly hopeless company called Gamestop. With this the film starts confused and above all chaotic, also using music that you might not really expect with such a film.

The chaos is accompanied by a certain kind of humor that perhaps not everyone will appreciate or understand. Maybe I belong to that second group, because it's not 'my cup of tea' let's just say. Is that bad then and will you find the film less about that? No, strangely not and I have to admit that I was not familiar with this story at all and although the beginning was chaotic and I actually had no idea what exactly was happening, the story did hold me. Once about fifteen minutes later, I began to understand well what was happening. Yet the story is brought in a light-hearted way and I didn't really get the feeling that you were really told what exactly happened.

I never really understood investing money anyway and to be honest I still don't understand that after seeing this movie. Maybe that was also the reason I couldn't quite understand the film with all its terms. Yes, he bought the shares and managed to get a lot of amateur investors into it and I also understand that it started to get so big that a number of large investors got into trouble as a result. But there was so much more involved and I really didn't understand that people who really didn't have a nail to scratch their ass took the risk of eventually losing everything. With finally 23 million in shares and still not selling? Yes I understand the principle and I understand what Gill wanted to achieve, but I don't understand that you don't give in and just sell your shares. This probably immediately indicates that I really didn't eat cheese from that world and that my interest is not there at all. Yet despite all that, Dumb Money has become a great movie that knows how to offer enough entertainment and entertainment.

Dumb Money has become a great movie, where the kind of humor has to be your thing. The first three minutes are mainly chaotic and messy, with the use of the kind of music being quite special. Fortunately, gradually everything becomes a bit clearer and eventually understandable for someone like me, who has not eaten any cheese at all from the theme of investing or someone (also like me) who did not get this whole thing at the time. It makes the film special, but whether this is a film that I would really give a review in the short term remains to be seen. Perhaps if you are familiar with this case yourself, you might like the film better. Anyway, the film is just fine and therefore it is worth a 7 out of 10.

Poor Things (2023)

The Emma Stone show

[10/10 · 5 May 2024]

The 4 Oscar-winning Poor Things was typically one of those movies where I had complete doubts about whether I should go and watch it. Don't ask me why, but it was such a premonition I had, but in this case my feeling was completely wrong. Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter in this slumsical, surreal fairy tale. It is also not surprising that this has become a strange sensation when you consider what director Yorgos Lanthimos has already done in the past. For example, he already made the bizarre The Lobster in 2015, in which a story is marketed so vaguely and strangely that if you only miss two minutes of it, you might as well finish the film. In 2017 he did that again with The Killing of a Sacred Deer and in 2018 with The Favourite. Only Poor Things also got a budget of $35 million, so Lanthimos could do his business and definitely deliver his best work so far to the public, although Poor Things will certainly not be a movie for everyone.

It's especially Emma Stone who steals the show, with her monster of Frankenstein-like run and her brilliant performance as Bella, just brought back to life. Stone rightly received an Oscar for this and although there was still a nominee within that category, it was actually only possible to have the Oscar go to Stone. But Willem Dafoe also plays a brilliant role as the misdead and disturbed scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, a name that Bella abbreviates to God. God teaches Bella everything about life in a protected environment and Bella learns very quickly. One day God takes his student Max Candles with him, and Max soon falls under Bella's spell and eventually God and Max decide that Max must marry Bella. But then Duncan Wedderburn comes into the picture, a self-taken, selfish lawyer who incites Bella to leave God and enter the meadow world with him. The first act therefore takes place in the house of God and Bella and produces quite a few bizarre events, in which absurdism and gore predominate, but all this happens in such an artistic way that you keep looking into a kind of trance.

When Bella joins Duncan in exploring the world and on their way to Lisabon, that's a journey full of sexual excesses. But Bella is becoming increasingly difficult for Duncan to treat, especially when she encounters the rather strange couple Martha and Henry, who let her discover the world of philosophy. It is mainly the bizarre adventures and especially the colors that manage to bring the film to an absolute highlight. For example, the ship Bella sails on looks like it came out of a painting, but also with the strange touches, such as colored smoke coming out of the ship's pipes. Some scenes seem to come out of a nightmare or a restless vague dream. For example, like the scene in which Bella has just arrived in Alexandria and looks down from a mountain where she sees children dying is the hot sun. This is once again oppressively portrayed because the director uses a yellow filter, but really a very present yellow color. Towards the end, everything becomes clear, but at the same time even more absurd.

Poor Things has become a movie that you have to settle down for a few days before you start giving a judgment on this work. Of the no less than 11 Oscar nominations, Poor Things cashed 4 of them, with the Oscar for Emma Stone being completely justified. For the rest, Poor Things is really very special, the color use and camera work are of a very high level. The story is absurd and bizarre and it is recommended to watch the movie and actually let it work on you for a day or maybe two days, before you really start to give a judgment on it. The film has a number of slumsome scenes, which are not really suitable for dear souls. Towards the end everything becomes clear and this is not a film where you have to be Albert Einstein to understand it, but it will make you feel uncomfortable and the film will go through your head for a while.

Past Lives (2023)

Beautiful strong debut film by Celine Song

[8/10 · 5 May 2024]

Past Lives was nominated for an Oscar 2 times this Oscar round, namely that of Best Film and Best Screenplay, but failed to cash in either. Although the film is really special and beautiful, in my opinion the film made no chance with its competitors, but in this case the nominations also say enough about this film. The film is directed by Celine Song. This South Korean director makes her directorial debut with Past Lives and can be quite proud of that, because if you know how to make your directing debut in such a way, we look forward to the future films she will make. Anyway, she goes to war with a relatively unknown cast, where it may only be John Magaro who could perhaps ring a bell. It's not important, because Song portrays this romantic drama in a Woody Allen-like way with sometimes a comical edge.

What the film manages to excel in is the camera work and the non-standard way in which the film proceeds. Na-young lives in South Korea until the age of twelve with her childhood love Hae Sung, until her parent decides to emigrate to Canada. Na-young changes her name to Nora, causing her to disappear from the picture at Hae Sung. This beginning is quite slow and it takes a while before you can get into the story. The deepening of a girl who is torn from her familiar habitat to want to rebuild her life in a foreign country may be well portrayed, but maybe there could have been a little more speed, because after half an hour I started to get bored slightly. Still, it is advisable to bite through it, because although it may get boring, it is ultimately indispensable for the big picture and I wouldn't really know how this should have been made into a movie otherwise.

Another twelve years later, Nora lives in New York and is married to Arthur. She gets back in touch with Hae Song via social media and he eventually decides to travel to New York. Once there, an emotional reunion begins and Nora shows all the spots to Hae Song who is rich in New York. This is really very strongly portrayed and especially that part is very reminiscent of a Woody Allen film. When Nora eventually realizes that she still has feelings for Hae Song and that Arthur is starting to stand out, she tries to suppress those feelings. The special thing is that normally with those kinds of stories a standard course you know exactly how it will all end, and let it be the point where the film walks its own unpredictable path and knows how to excel.

Past Lives may not have been able to cash in on his two Oscar nominations, but it has become a strong debut by director Celine Song. Armed with a very strong script and an unknown cast, she manages to move and even emotionalize the viewer in just under two hours. The film is very reminiscent of Woody Allen films from his glory years, but maybe that's because New York is really portrayed that way. For the rest, the film has very nice camera work and although the part that takes place in South Korea is very slow, it is absolutely worth a bite. Past Lives is just a very beautiful and expertly made film, with a smile and a tear.

Freelance (2023)

Enjoyed it more than i should have...

[7/10 · 5 May 2024]

Show wrestler John Cena has been working hard as an actor in recent years and has had a lot of success with that. He previously starred in The Suicide Squad, Bumblebee, Fast & Furious 9 and a whole st of films. In this action film, the muscle bundle plays the leading role. The direction is in the hands of Pierre Morel, who already proved with the most entertaining Pepermint in 2018 that he has mastered the action genre well and was of course the director of Taken with Liam Neeson. Next to Cena we see Alison Brie, who has quite a bit on her CV, but is not really very familiar with the films she has played with. Well, the film is not too well received by critics and opened this film in the opening weekend even with a 0% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Now that the film is out on Blu-ray, we can judge for ourselves whether this is justified, whether Freelance has secretly become a nice movie.

And this has certainly become a nice movie. Don't expect an ultra-original story or that you're going to be badly surprised. Freelance gives the viewer exactly what you can expect in advance. A stupid, predictable action film with a lot of humor, actually an action film that we were thrown to death with in the 80s. The film begins with the point that Mason becomes a soldier and how he joined the special forces. Eventually the helicopter crashes, on a mission involving Mason dictator Venegas from the small South American country of Paldonia. Mason is seriously injured and eventually Mason goes into normal life and marries, has a daughter and becomes a lawyer. Until his military buddy Sebastian Earle is suddenly on the doorstep and wants to hire Mason as a freelancer to carry out another mission in Paldonia. He has to offer protection to journalist Claire Wellington who has an interview with Venegas, only they come at the wrong time when Venegas' nephew commits a seizure, so Mason is stuck with Venegas. It results in a lot of humor and action, where the film is and remains highly entertaining.

Freelance has become a very entertaining action comedy, in which the mutual chemistry is good and this has an effect on the entire film. It ensures that the fun splashes off the screen and that the film remains fun to watch for the entire duration. For the rest, the film is just a stupid action movie, which we have seen many times in the past. The setup is a bit like that of Romancing the Stone of The Rundown from 2003 with Dwayne Johnson, not that you should expect such a movie of course, but the setup is a bit the same. For those who want to watch a nice brainless movie with a lot of humor, Freelance mood is perfectly suited. For me, the film surprised me a lot and I really managed to entertain myself for the full hour of play.

Madame Web (2024)

One big mess of a movie, stop making Marvel movies this way please.

[4/10 · 5 May 2024]

The Marvel universe has not excelled in releasing good films in recent years, especially after Disney took over the entire Marvel stable, it turned out to be quantity over quality. Yes, of course there were some outliers among them who were really good, but the large part after Avengers: Endgame seemed to be far undersized. The low point was reached in my opinion with The Eternals and The Marvels. The advantage that Madame Web has is that it was once again made by Sony Pictures, so that already offers a little bit of hope. That hope turned out to be unjustified, because immediately after the film was released, Madame Web was razed to the ground by critics, so much so that I really started to have my doubts a bit about whether that was justified. With a dramatically low audience score on both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, Madame Web has been put to dead and I definitely want to judge that myself. It wasn't as bad as these sites wanted to come across and The Eternals and The Marvels still remain the worst out of Marvel's stable, but Madame Web knows how to hold a solid third place very simply as far as I'm concerned.

With a budget of about $80 million in your pocket, names like Dakota Johnson and rising star Sydney Sweeney, you'll still expect to get something decent to see. But that lags far behind. The opening is not yet so terrible, but it lacks some form of logic in the film at every point. Constance, Cassandra Webb's mother, is looking for a special spider in the Jungle along with Ezekiel. With her pregnant belly she finds the spider that should be able to cure diseases, but Ezekiel has other plans with that, why? No idea. Eventually he steals the spider and leaves Contance for death, who is found again by a mysterious tribe that Constance is pricked by the spider and finally get baby Cassandra. You, after the incident she likes spontaneously, but okay. We see that more often in movies. Then the whole thing moves to Manhattan where Cassandra works on the ambulance. No form of explanation or anything is given and suddenly Cassandra has all the powers. It doesn't really hit side or shore, but good.

Then the three ladies Julia, Anya and Mattie come up completely without explanation and out of nowhere and suddenly Ezekiel is after them for no reason in a kind of Spider-Man suit, something Madame Web is a spin off of. All you know is that Ezekiel has visions of the ladies wanting to kill him, the why still remains and mystery. What Ezekiel's big plan actually is, that also remains a mystery and I can really make sure that Ezekiel is really one of the most lousy bad guys I saw in a superhero movie, it doesn't make sense at all and even worse, it really doesn't go anywhere. You are thrown into the action from time to time, the story literally goes in all directions and in the end you can do nothing with it and most people will be left in amazement at what they have actually been looking at. There could have been so much more in this, but in my opinion Madame Web was really rightly burned down and if this is the yardstick that the future Marvel- films are going to come with, then I really give up completely.

Madame Web may not be as bad as many want to make it happen, but the reactions are easy to understand. The story goes in all directions and sometimes really makes no sense at all. In terms of bad guys, with Ezekiel we really get to see the most lousy villain from all Marvel- movies combined. What his final goal was remains a very big mystery even after the film. With a budget of 80 million dollars and such a casting, you would expect to be able to make something much better than this bad product. He always remains even better than The Eternals and The Marvels, but a solid third place definitely takes this film.

Road House (2024)

I enjoyed it, but McGregor is the worst thing about this movie.

[6/10 · 5 May 2024]

In 1989 we were shown the film Road House, starring the then immensely popular actor Patrick Swayze. The film told the story of James Dalton working as a feared and very successful bouncer in the Double Deuce bar. The film acquired a cult status and in 2006 it got a straight to video sequel Road House 2: Last Call, by the way a really terrible bad film, by the way without Swayze. Sadly, Patrick Swayze lost us at the age of 57 in 2009 with the consequences of pancreatic cancer. Now there's the reboot of Road House and actually you have to wonder if you should want that, because didn't an 80's classic like Road House have its time a bit? This time Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead, only this time we follow ex-UFC fighter Elwood Dalton. Funnily enough, MMA fighter Conor McGregor makes his acting debut in this film. McGregor is a beast of a fighter of course, he can't really act alone and that's a smear on this movie.

Yet the film about the big picture is entertaining and it is not much less than its predecessor from 1989. The story is completely different and the only similarities you'll actually find in the film is the name Dalton, which is about bouncers in the film and the bands that have to play behind a piece of mesh in the Road House. For the rest, the comparisons will stop there and maybe that's the salvation, this is a real reboot of Road House and not a remake. Why I like the original from '89 better actually only has to do with the music in the film provided by the blind guitar virtuoso Jeff Healey and his Jeff Healy Band. For the rest, the cult classic from '89 was also nothing more than entertaining and this should not be made bigger than it is. This is just a piece that lacks in this reboot, it lacks the blues-like atmosphere, although of course the setting has moved from Missouri to the Florida Keys.

The action is abundant and we are not going to mee about mistakes or unbelievable things in the film, because this is not the film for that. What in my opinion could have been a lot better are the fights and especially the effects of them. Each fight in the film uses full body-doubles because of the production using a new multi-pass method to perform seamless punches and kicks instead of mimicking hits or bypassing the action to be credible. In each fight, the doubles are pasted a few frames into the mount before being reassembled into real footage. This sometimes gives an effect as if working with AI, where the action is fake. For the rest, the film just runs as a standard action movie by default, where you won't get bored for a second. The film lasts 2 hours and that's really a great playing time for this film.

Road House has become a great reboot of the 1989 cult classic. The only reason that movie was better was the music of The Jeff Healey Band, for the rest it's all of the same sheet a pack. The action is fine, although the fights sometimes look a bit fake. MMA fighter Conor McGregor makes his acting debut in this film and although the beastly fighter is ideally suited for the fight scenes, the man cannot act. Maybe if he's a few movies further that things will get better, but based on this movie I'd say McGregor better stick to the martial arts. Road House does not last too long with its two hours and walks its own way, there are a few similarities with Road House from 1989, but at the end of the film you will really have to draw the conclusion that these have really become two completely different films, where it may be difficult to see separately because of the subject and the name of the film, but it would not be fair to really compare them.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Nice action, but the story seems to be written by a 4-year old.

[5/10 · 5 May 2024]

Movies about King Kong and Godzilla have been out for almost 100 years of course and have been entertaining the audience a lot all this time. With the arrival of Godzilla in 2014, a new Monsterverse was created in which there was slow work towards the meeting of the giant monkey King Kong and the nuclear lizard Godzilla. Now I have to be honest and the series didn't get any better, because after Godzilla from 2014 and Kong: Skull Island from 2017, in 2019 we got the terribly bad Godzilla: King of Monsters and its successor Godzilla vs. Kong from 2021 didn't get much better on that. At the outcome of the trailer, you already know in advance that this is going to be a CGI festival, just like its predecessors. It was recently a relief to be able to see the Japanese Godzilla Minus One, but you already know in advance that this should not even be in the shadow of that film. Then why still visit this movie? Well, I love monster movies anyway and I'm always curious what people have made of it again, so with fear and trake I look forward to this film again.

The story is really too stupid for words, although the story is a lot better than Godzilla: King of the Monsters from 2019, which really didn't have a story in it. It actually occurs from the beginning when Kong turns out to have a toothache. Once to the normal world, a plane thing is pulled, Kong's molar. Yes, that level indeed. The film continues and one is taken to the portals to Hollow Earth across the world, where Monarch keeps an eye on the titans. Meanwhile, Godzilla sleeps in the Italian Colosseum in Rome. Kong gets it up against a number of other monkeys from Hollow Earth and comes across a small monkey there, eventually covering the dreaded Scar King. You already hear it, for the story you don't have to go to the movie and a lot really makes no sense at all. Ilene Andrews is a researcher at Monarch and has taken Jia of Skull Island, one of the last survivors of her tribe, under her care. Why she comes to the blogger Bernie Hayes, who is extremely paranoid, is really still a big mystery. This character really adds absolutely nothing to the story and that is quite clever when you consider that this is one of the main characters from the story.

Whatever was feared for, Godzilla x Kong has become a CGI festival. Large parts of the movie you are wondering if you didn't end up in the wrong room, because it looks like a Disney Pixar movie. Of course, there is little to complain about the CGI effects, it's all quite beautifully made. The director on duty also focuses very much on the use of color in the film and works with quite a few lens flares, probably to amplify the 3D version of the film a bit. Towards the end, the film goes wild and the titans end up in Egypt and Brazil where everything has to be broken. It is the most entertaining part of the film, as the throwing and throwing work and the destruction of entire buildings are incessantly brought to the screen. Sometimes it seems as if the creators have played a lot of a loan at the Transformers- films and at the Planet of the Apes- films. Godzilla plays a relatively small role in the film and is eventually only covered for the last half hour. For the rest, the film might as well have been called Kong: Hollow Earth, because the story is actually largely about the big CGI monkey.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has become a mediocre job, where the story is really very bad. The action and effects are fine and in that regard time flies by. What is the addition of certain characters in the film remains a big mystery and large parts of the story really make no sense at all. The last half hour (maybe it's forty minutes) are the most entertaining, where everything has to be broken and the battle of the titans is unleashed. Where with most films the 3D effect does not really have added value, it is the case with this film. Especially the use of bright colors and the lens fares and of course the excessive use of CGI let you take you in 3D into a world ruled by monsters. For the rest, the film is really nothing special and when the credits start rolling you are actually wondering what you should think of this. One thing is for sure, it's 100% better than Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but a bit like Godzilla vs. Kong.

De Terugreis (2024)

Emotional roadtrip to remember

[9/10 · 3 May 2024]

Martin van Waardenberg is a Dutch comedian, who has been working well in recent years as an actor and even as a director. For example, with his latest film Ome Cor, van Waardenberg played the leading role and directed the film himself. In De Terugreis we also see Leny Breederveld, who also played together with van Waardenberg in Ome Cor. Breederveld is perhaps best known as Judge Helma from the successful television series The Lice Mother. The direction is in the hands of Jelle de Jonge who has already worked with both. De Jonge wrote the story together with Marijn de Wit, where both actually make their writers' debut. Only de Wit wrote something with the short Wes from 2009 before, but we can't really count that when it comes to a full feature film. Anyway, that must be fine with someone like van Waardenberg in your film, of course.

The story is about a couple who have stuck in the past. Jaap in particular has trouble keeping up with his time. If one day he receives a letter from Luis from Spain that he is dying, his wife Maartje wants to travel to Spain immediately, but Jaap doesn't feel like it at all. Maartje is starting to have dementia, only Jaap doesn't want to see that. Where one might expect a thoroughbred comedy, De Terugreis is certainly not. Although there is humor in the film here and there, De Terugreis has become a drama film about aging and how to deal with dementia. At first, Jaap blames Maartje for doing certain things on purpose to snar him. You would think that Jaap is a short-sighted lamlul, but it soon becomes quite clear that Jaap is full of fear and does not know how to deal with the situation and the woman he has been with for 42 years.

Jaap has also been afraid of driving in the car for years and if Jaap decides to travel to Spain anyway in his more than 30-year-old car, he has to defy the speed of the highways. Of course this does not go as he had hoped, which brings with it a number of comical situations. When they eventually drive through France, they get to places where they used to be, but which have completely changed. This is assisted by beautiful images of the French landscape, but we have seen that more often in films of course, take the film Take Me with you from last year. The Return Journey is another film of course and also has a more serious undertone. It is mainly the chemistry between van Waardenberg and Breederveld that really show that they can act very well.

De Terugreis manages to move the viewer with a smile and a tear. What is clever is that the film does not choose the easy way. It's a drama about dealing with a woman with dementia, where the partner doesn't know how to deal with that. Jaap is stuck to routine and the past, and looking outside the news to want Jaap to have as little to do with the outside world as possible. Once on a trip, it takes the two life partners past the most beautiful places and they pass changed places that they have visited in the past on their trip to Spain. The chemistry between Martin van Waardenberg and Leny Breederveld is insanely good and will not leave you as a viewer untouched. One thing is certain and that is that De Terugreis will be difficult to beat for the Dutch films to come this year.

Imaginary (2024)

Oh my god, who comes up with this crap

[2/10 · 3 May 2024]

Under the banner of Blumhouse productions and the creators of M3gan and Five Nights at Freddy's, we are presented with the film Imaginary. At first glance when you watch the trailer it looks pretty good and it seems like we can prepare for a great horror movie. Especially when you consider that director Jeff Wadlow used the 1982 classic Poltergeist as inspiration for this film. Wadlow should be able to deliver a great horror movie, something he did with Truth or Dare in the past. Starring, we see DeWanda Wise, who may know most of Jurassic World Dominion as Kayla Watts. Tom Payne plays the role of Max and we know as Jesus from the series The Walking Dead. Not a mega well-known cast, but well, that never has to be a problem of course.

Let me immediately drop the door in the house, this is bad in every way. The opening still makes you think it could be something, but after a few minutes the creators try to deepen the story and let the viewer create a connection with the characters. When the teddy bear named Chauncey is found in a basement, a piece follows where really nothing happens. Just if you think something is going to happen, nothing happens and then even less happens. It really makes no sense at all, because the little girl Alice thinks the imaginary boyfriend and her parents don't think it's strange that she talks to a teddy bear, which turns out not to be there in the end. That's especially strange, since Jessica, Alice's stepmother, cut the same house in the same house in her past. Attempts are still being made to build up tension, but you will soon get bored as a viewer, especially if you are going to expect an exciting horror movie.

If the last twenty minutes the horror breaks out in the movie, you will really shake your head and wonder what you are actually watching. It's as predictable as I don't know what and nowhere will you be surprised, while really trying to unfold a plot to amaze the viewer. No, none of that. You can see everything coming miles away, the monsters are really laughable and the big picture makes no sense. I really started to lose my interest in the film and soon I was working on completely different things than the film and when I went to make a sanitary stop and came back, it turned out that the film was (unfortunately) not over yet. The best thing about the film was the credits and I'll keep it there for the rest.

Imaginary has become a really bad movie from the stable of Blumhouse. You have to have a long breath, because the first hour and fifteen minutes really nothing happens at all and the story really makes no sense at all. This is not because of acting or camera work or anything, but really because of a lousy script and ridiculous plot twists and ridiculous monsters in the movie. Save your effort and don't go watch this misproduction in the cinema. Even on a boring afternoon on your own TV, the movie is just not worth the view. I don't want to say more about it.

Night Swim (2024)

Boring, and just when you think something will happen, it says boring

[5/10 · 3 May 2024]

There is a big ad with the text that this film is from the producers of M3gan and The Nun, but we now know these kinds of tricks. In addition, M3gan was not such a good movie that you are going to propose that as a promotion for a new film of course. Anyway, Night Swim does have a trailer that manages to trigger many viewers to watch this new movie from the Blumhouse stable of course. Wyatt Russell, yes Kurt's son, we also recently saw in the series Monarch: Lagacy of Monsters. We already saw Kerry Condon in movies like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and in 2022 in the brilliant The Banshees of Inisherin. In terms of papers and trailer, you would say that this has a good chance of succeeding of course. But appearances are deceiving in this case, it may not be extremely bad, but we absolutely cannot speak of a good film and that actually starts with the problem that the film has a very slow build-up and if a horror film has it, you have to come from good houses to keep the viewer's attention.

The first hour of the film is more like a family drama than an exciting horror film. The opening of the film is still quite strong, but after that opening things drop a lot. Ray tries to overcome his illness, his daughter Izzy struggles with some adjustment, but eventually manages to adapt herself well and wife Eve likes everything. Son Elliot has a little more trouble with the change. If Ray deteriorates, the doctor recommends swimming therapy to him and quite coincidentally the family bought the house with an extremely large pool that needs to be refurbished. Once the bath is filled and put into use, the whole family makes good use of it and of course they are right. Then some vague things happen, but it still doesn't get exciting anywhere or anything. Elliot sees and hears some strange things, but the film still focuses more on Ray's disease and how the family deals with it.

Eventually, when the film comes loose a bit and strange things happen, the family makes the link to the previous residents. Eventually there is a plot twist that is basically too predictable for words. What is also very annoying is the lack of even a bit of an attempt to make things look believable. For example, it seems that the whole family is breaking world records under water. Especially Eve, who can really stay underwater for almost 10 minutes without oxygen in the end and when she comes up is barely out of breath or is really out of breath, is really completely hopeless. The outcome is also completely simple and predictable and knows not to surprise anywhere or anything. Where you may first manage to get out of a tight enough, the last 20 minutes of the film know how to pull it to a heavy insufficient and that's a shame, because the film had quite potential. Perhaps the best and most exciting scene is the one from the trailer, where Izzy plays the Marco polo game with her boyfriend in the pool.

Night Swim starts as a family drama and stays on the rather boring side for an hour. Yet the film is still reasonably manageable up to that point and you may still get on and very tight enough. The good scenes can be counted on one hand and are already given away in the trailer anyway. What we get to see in the last 20 minutes does no honor to the film and the film also bursts with the ridiculousness at that point. For example, family members can hold their breath for minutes, where woman Eve sitting can even hold on for almost 10 minutes, without taking a breath. As the end credits start rolling, the disappointment will be complete and it will feel like wasted time. The film is also too predictable for words and that is quite a shame, because in principle the film had plenty of potential. Of course, the end remains fairly open, but it is to be hoped that there will be no sequel to this film.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Who you gonna call... again

[7/10 · 3 May 2024]

The first Ghostbusters- film from 1984 no longer needs an introduction, of course. The film received a not too well-received sequel in 1989 and a reboot in 2016, which was also received with mixed feelings. This reboot was not followed up, while the end was left open and the hint of that was the return of Zuul. Until we were allowed to see Ghostbusters Afterlife in theaters in 2021, the long-awaited sequel to the original Ghostbusters film that features Egon Spengler's daughter and granddaughter. The film was very successful and a sequel could not really be missed. Under the pseudonym Ghostbusters: Hells Kitchen, this project started and later it was renamed Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. The entire cast returns only this time the direction is in the hands of Gil Kenan, who also helped write Ghostbusters Afterlife. The trailer makes you expect a lot, despite the film being received lukewarm from many sides.

I don't understand anything about all that nagging on the movie, because Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has become a really nice movie. However, the film is different from the predecessor Afterlife and that works fine. Perhaps the film leans just a little too much on the past, but on the other hand it does work. For example, the link is made to Ghostbusters 2 in the film, but even more to the first part from 1984. For example, the ghost from the library comes back, the lion image for the library comes to life and the little marshmallow man returns. This time we are not dealing with Zuul or Gozer, but Ray gets his hands on a spherical object, which soon turns out that he has an evil spirit on board that has the other spirits under control. When the ghost storage in the barracks begins to fill up, Winston Zeddemore's Spenglers are told that there is an improved and larger storage elsewhere. This to the great dismay of Mayor Walter Peck, who in Ghostbusters (1984) naturally let all ghosts escape from the storage due to his hatred for the Ghostbusters.

The effects in the film are also more than fine. I visited the 2D version of the film myself, but especially the last half hour of the film will look fantastic in 3D. This is the part where all of New York is frozen and the Ghostbusters have to save the world again from the clutches of an old evil spirit. Maybe the film is somewhat predictable here and there and the formula of the mix of young and old works a little stiff. Still, this is absolutely not in the way of the fun in the film, because the film is a small two hour popcorn entertainment from the top shelf, with the fun of the cast splashing off the screen. As mentioned before, the fans of the old movie(s) are served at their bells and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Can you say that that already happened in the previous film, but in this film it also works fine and that has everything to do with the setting in New York. The ancient icy enemy may be an enemy who is scarer than what we have seen so far in Ghostbusters- movies, so beware off with too young viewers, the film could be just a little too intense for that.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has become a good sequel to 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Fans of the original films are served at their service and perhaps the only small point of criticism is that the film may lean just a little too much on nostalgia. Yet it doesn't bother and maybe the interaction between the old and the new cast is just a bit on the stiff side, but it's fair to say that it doesn't bother a meter. Because the creators have kept the film under two hours, the pace is very high in the film and it is precisely because of this that the film has become a wonderful roller coaster ride and the film really should not have lasted any longer. As already mentioned, the end enemy is perhaps the scariest we've seen so far in a Ghostbusters movie, so be a bit careful with too young viewers. For the rest, I wave away the destructive criticisms of some sour plums, because Frozen Empire is a bin of fun that is absolutely worth checking out. And there is an aftercredit below the credits, but you don't have to stay there after that because after that the film is really over.

Breathe (I) (2024)

This makes no sense, especially the ending

[4/10 · 3 May 2024]

At first glance, the film seems very interesting and Breathe has a great cast on board to become a good film. Starring, we see Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, she received the prestigious figurine in 2007 for her adjoring role in the film Dreamgirls. Quvenzhané Wallis was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for the film Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2013, even becoming the youngest nominee ever in this category at the age of 9 years and 135 days. In addition, we see Milla Jovovich, who of course we all know from films like Resident Evil and The Fifth Element and for dessert we get Sam Worthington, who played Sully in James Cameron's Avatar- films and also has a laundry list of fine films to his name. There is also a (small) role for rapper Common in the film, which also played roles in John Wick: Chapter 2 and Wanted from 2008. The papers are basically good and the story also sounds very interesting. Still, if you see the trailer, this will probably make you doubt, because that looks rather cheap with the red/orange filter.

And unfortunately the trailer was right, because although the first reviews of this film were not too good and this is perhaps a bit very exaggerated, the film is just not good. Especially Sam Worthington, who plays the role of Lucas, really plays an extremely bad role in this film and he probably only played this role for the money and didn't really feel like it. Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson plays mom Maya who is left alone with her daughter Zora (who invents these names by the way) when father Darius disappears without a trace when he wants to bury his father. Hudson does her thing dutifully and doesn't know how to impress or anything like that. Quvenzhané Wallis, who therefore plays the role of Zora, makes a bit of an attempt and perhaps she plays the best role in the film, although we should not exaggerate that either. That remains Milla Jovovich, who plays the role of Tess, who just does her thing and nothing more actually.

The story is put together too simple and you get to see a 'home invasion' movie, where you actually know from the first minute what is going to happen. Not much attempt is made to disguise the course a bit or make it exciting. Here and there the film eventually becomes a bit entertaining when Maya and Tess go out and Lucas and Zora are left alone. In the end, the film will go exactly as you think it will go. The end really makes no sense at all and above all that gives the feeling that the whole fight has been completely for nothing. When Tess and Lucas travel all the way to New York from Philadelphia to watch and get their hands on an oxygen machine, they really had discovered what happened in the end and that gives the film a full stab in the back. Fortunately, the film lasts an hour and a half, but even that still feels like a pure waste of time.

Breathe has unfortunately become what the trailer already suggests, a pure B- film that tries to tear on a few names. Although the story has a lot of potential and sounds very interesting, you eventually get to see a cheap 'home invasion' movie. Here and there the film is still a bit entertaining, but if actually rapper Common puts down one of the best roles with his very small role in the film, you already know enough. How these kinds of films eventually manage to make a cinema internationally is really a mystery, in the past this had ended up directly in the video libraries. Don't be fooled by names like Sam Worthington or Milla Jovovich and don't be tempted at all that the two protagonists have been an Oscar winner and an Oscar nominee, because this film is simply not worth going to a cinema. For the really curious among us, you can wait for the movie to come to a streaming service or so and even then the movie is just not good.

The Garfield Movie (2024)

Never thought i would like this, but it is a lot of fun.

[7/10 · 3 May 2024]

In 1976, the comic called 'Jon' by comic book artist Jim Davis was published locally in the Pendleton Times. The comic was so successful that it was published nationwide under the name Garfield in 1978 and since then the greedy orange cat with a heart of gold has become indispensable. The drawing style was changed in 1984 to a more cartoon--like style as we actually know it well now. In 2002 was one of the most printed comics in the newspaper in 2570 newspapers worldwide with 263 million readers. Now with different animation series and different films we now get to see the second cinema film about the orange hangover. This time voiced by Chris Pratt as Garfield, who of course had a lot of success in recording Mario's voice in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Samuel L. Jackson speaks the voice of Garfield's father Vic and so we can mention a whole bunch of celebrities. In the Dutch version, these are Jim Bakkum and Jörgen Raymann who record the voices of Garfield and his father Vic. Either way, the film promises a lot of fun, fun and action.

With many delays and postponements of the release date, of course due to the pandemic and problems with production, the time has finally come. In a kind of origin--like story telling, we see how a baby Garfield is just left behind by his father Vic. The story actually focuses a lot on that and because of this a main character like Jon is pushed back. When Garfield and his loyal buddy Odie are kidnapped, they end up with the crazy cat Jinx and her two mean service dogs Roland and Nolan. But why is Garfield actually kidnapped out of nowhere? That becomes clear when Vic appears on stage, but of course Garfield doesn't want to know anything about Vic at all. We all understand that leaving Garfield when he was still a kitten had a different reason than that you would think at first glance and that is quite a shame, because it makes the film very predictable for the older viewers. You notice from this that a film like this is really made for an audience under 10 years old, but don't be put off, because apart from that fact, the film is really entertaining for an older audience.

The animation itself is average and nothing more than that. Nowadays it is difficult for most animated films to say anything about it, given that it is most similar in style. Well, well it was not expected in advance that we would get to see an artistic masterpiece, so in that respect the film succeeds in that area with flying colours. The music was a positive point, this was in the hands of composer John Debney and at some points the music was completely reminiscent of the beautiful melancholic sounds that Thomas Newman often makes. In the end, the big picture is crazy fun and you won't be bored for seconds. The humor is good and fun and things like Catflix where Garfield watches cat movies are hilarious. In the end, you have to stay there during the credits for the funny cat movies that continue to play when the credits start rolling.

Garfield has become a successful and funny movie for the whole family. The jokes are fun, the animation is fine and Garfield and Odie get the laughs on their hands very often. Perhaps the predictability of the film could have been a little less, because this actually only makes the film suitable for children up to 10 years old, but well, this is not something you should also care about, because the film is just too fun for that. The animation itself is standard, doesn't excel in anything, but that's fine. The music pops out and from time to time it is reminiscent of a soundtrack that Thomas Newman could have made. Just stay seated at the end credits too because the crazy cat movies that Garfield watches on Catflix make for a last smile on the face.

Civil War (2024)

Disturbing, but briljant. Lost for words after seeing this.

[10/10 · 3 May 2024]

Director Alex Garland already managed to impress with his films in the past. His debut was Ex Machina in 2014 and actually Netflix production Annihilation and Men were really great movies. Now he comes up with Civil War, an action film with a very interesting concept and a trailer that immediately suggests that this will be a 'must see' film for 2024. In the lead role we find Kirsten Dunst, whom we know of course from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films as M. J.. But Dunst of course made more good films such as Melencholia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in the past and as a child she broke through with Interview with a Vampire in a rather controversial role. Next to her, we see Nick offerman, who recently threw a high eye in the series The Last of Us, but recently also featured in Dumb Money. So it's okay with cast and crew and if you add all the points together, then things can't go wrong with this film.

To immediately fall into the house with the door, this makes you quiet for a while. The trailer is totally misleading and anyone who thinks they are going to a Michael Bay-like action movie will come home from a cold fair. Let it be clear that there is enough violence and action in the film, but this has been translated into the screen in a very disturbing and realistic way. The film is about a civil war that breaks out in the United States of America under the yoke of the president, who is going to hold his third term as a dictator. This is not good for a part of the population and the people are rebelling. The president brings the once-powerful nation to the edge of the abyss, but it's not so important what's happening politically and how the president blindly drives the country into the abyss, but the film actually shows what's happening on the battlefield itself. Garland shows that in a gruesome way, raw, ruthless and above all horrific. The film opens hard, but ripples quietly for the first half hour. Lee is a hardened war photographer, who wants to go to Washington DC with Joel and Sammy to ask the president questions. When they come across the young Jessie, who also wants to be a photographer, Lee doesn't like this at all, but it's Joel and Sammy who still manage to box each other that Jessie can travel to the capital.

From New York, the company leaves for the capital and ends up in the most bizarre situations you can expect in a war zone. At first they come to a pumping station, where armed men are standing. When Jessie goes on a reconnaissance, she comes to a horrific discovery that the men have captured and tortured other people in a car wash terminal. This is actually the first scene where you get a taste of how horrible the rest of the film is. But a message is also issued about how the press works. It is not to be imagined for a normal person that the photographers end up in the most horrific situations and have to be neutral from each side. Without judging, heartbreaking and horror moments are captured on the sensitive record, without the journalists giving a judgment about it. Almost numb and heartless. When Jessie has taken a number of photos in which a soldier is dying, she is told by Lee that it is a beautiful photo and a normal-thinking person will go beyond his mind for a while. Towards the end you end up in total chaos and the film goes completely loose. Tanks are already shooting through the streets of Washington DC, helicopters shoot everything at the debris and soldiers shoot at everything that moves in the streets.

Civil War is a disturbing look at what would happen if a civil war broke loose in a country like the United States of America. Don't be fooled by the trailer, because the film is a raw and serious grim look at the battlefield of a war that torn a country under the yoke of a dictator. In the end, you will be a little baffled and you will have to let the film work on you to judge what you were allowed to see. The circumstances are not important, but what happens among the population does and it also shows the cold side of the work that journalists have to deliver at that moment. It is especially Kirsten Dunst who really knows how to make a lot of impression in the film, but in principle the entire cast actually does. This is actually not really suitable for very sensitive viewers and I'm actually just saying this for those who think that Civil War has become a stupid action film with a lot of flag-waving and heroes, so Civil War is absolutely not.

Back to Black (2024)

Save biopic that is afraid to show the truth

[5/10 · 3 May 2024]

Amy Winehouse died a tragic death in 2011 and joined a tragic list of artists who died at the age of 27. Winehouse already had the necessary problems in her youth where her father Mitch left the house when she was 9 years old. This caused Amy to start injuring herself with sharp things and later even developed an eating disorder and alcohol- and drug use became more and more intense. So enough dust to make an intense biopic about the singer. The film is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, who previously directed films like Fifty Shades of Grey and A Million Little Pieces and calls himself a good friend of Amy Winehouse. The role of Amy is played by Marisa Abela, an actress I don't really know at all and if you look at her resume we see that she has done very little. She does show reasonable similarities and a story like that about Amy Winehouse's life naturally offers options and is full of potential. Where the shoe is a bit bad is that this biographical film was made with the approval of Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father, and this gives a crooked picture of the truth. Because father Mitch comes out as Amy's loving father and that is of course in stark contrast to the truth.

The film itself was made without conviction. You are taken through a number of phases of the singer's life, but Marisa Abela does not know how to make an impression like Amy. Abela herself sang in everything for the film and the shoe also wrings a bit there, because although she does her best, you immediately hear that it's just not Amy Winehouse and that's a shame. Either way, you are eventually introduced to Blake Fielder-Civil, Amy's great love on which she eventually based the album Back to Black in 2006. Because her debut album Frank does not reach the British top 10 in 2003, the record company decides not to sell the album to America, on which Winehouse runs away wildly and decides not to make music for a while and then she meets Blake. Then a long-sweet part starts, which has to show Amy's love for Blake to the viewer and suddenly it became clear to me why Back to Black was shown in the Ladies Night. Of course it is part of the story and it is an important period of the singer, but as far as I'm concerned it could have been a little shorter and a little less sweet.

Eventually you come to the darkest period of Amy's life. Blake is arrested for a serious assault of a pub boss and disappeared in jail for 27 months. Amy has become a real junkie, starts drinking more and more, barely eats more and is actually a bit lived. Her father sees everything with sorrow and Winehouse ends up on a rollercoaster of booze and drugs and to make matters worse, Blake wants to divorce Amy, something that eventually happens as we all know. Then Amy decides to go to a rehab clinic to get her life back on track. We still see Amy winning the Grammy for her album Back to Black. In the end, as a viewer you get a lot of information to process that is not really well explained anywhere. The film absolutely plays it on save and does not dare to expose the real pain points. But as mentioned earlier, it almost seems as if Amy came from a happy family, where father and mother are divorced, but that this has had no effect on Amy's life, so that Dad Mitch in particular washes his hands in innocence and gives the viewer a soft picture of a singer with a huge talent but who was pushed into the abyss by her environment.

Back to Black is a biopic that plays everything on extreme save and doesn't want to show the rough hard truth anywhere. Yes we see Amy's mistakes and how she gets drunk and captivated by Blake, the love of her life and eventually her downfall, but nowhere do you get to see as a viewer why Amy was ultimately who she was. This has everything to do with the fact that the film only started at her 18th and reveals little about what really happened in her early childhood. Father Mitch is portrayed as the good-pocket who talks about his daughter with great pride to anyone who wants to hear it. This is all very unfortunate of course, because the movie just comes across as if Blake was the only one who became Amy's demise, while everyone really knows that there was much more to play than just Blake. In the end, the film is not very bad, but we cannot speak of a really successful film. Marisa Abela also doesn't know how to convince as Amy, the songs were sung by Abela herself and maybe that shows guts, but the difference can just be heard and that's just a shame.

The Fall Guy (2024)

An awesome ode to the stuntmen

[8/10 · 3 May 2024]

A new film by director David Leitch is always something to look forward to of of course. With previous films like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and Bullet Train still fresh in memory, only Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw was a reasonable mistake in my opinion, although the film was fairly received anyway. So now there's The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. Gosling was recently nominated for an Oscar for his role as Ken in the film Barbie and Blunt we know of course from films like Edge of Tomorrow and Oppenheimer, for which Blunt also received an Oscar nomination but also failed to cash in. The film is also a remake of the 1981 television series The Fall Guy, which ran for five seasons. This film has been in development since 2010 and before Gosling got the role, names such as Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage, Jason Statham and even Dwayne Johnson have been thought of.

The film itself has become a very entertaining film that is a full ode to stunt people. Funny that David Leitch directs the film again, because Leitch himself has been a stuntman in no less than 82 films for years. The film opens with stunt scenes from Leitch's action movies, including scenes from Atomic Blonde. Colt Seavers tells how he is the stuntman of world famous and immensely popular actor Tom Ryder. He is also in love with the then camerawoman Jody Moreno. But if a stunt goes wrong and Colt breaks his back, Colt disappears in the air, until the day Colt is asked by producer Gail Meyer to do the stunts for Metalstorm, where Colt's services were explicitly requested by director Jody Moreno. However, a big problem appears among the recordings and that is that protagonist Tom Ryder has disappeared from the face of the earth and Gail asks Colt to start a search. Then the whole gelazer starts and as a viewer you are thrown into one action scene after another. When Colt is drugged in a luminous suit by a drug dealer and begins to see unicorns, it immediately becomes clear what kind of action we get to see and that is with a lot of humor and heavily exaggerated and that is precisely what makes the film so much fun.

The film shouldn't really have the story. Yes it's a fun story, but it doesn't pale of the originality or of the genius plot twists or anything. This is also not important, because the simple story keeps things nice and light and doesn't make things unnecessarily complicated or long-winded, because the pace is really good. One of the very best scenes in the film is the one when Colt goes behind a garbage truck and fights with the cooks people who are always behind him. Under Phil Collins Against All Odds, Colt ends up in a container that drags behind a car and in which he fights while the container is dragged through the streets at high speed. It's impressive to see and it offers top entertainment from the top shelf. Towards the end it becomes clear how the fork is in the stem and we get the grand final, which is shown to the viewer with many explosions and wild chases. For the real film freak, there is also a lot to enjoy, in the sense of the many references that are reviewed in the sense of spoken one-liners from old films.

The Fall Guy is a wonderful ode to the stuntmen who have shown us the most bizarre stunts over the years in the movies we watch. With a lot of humor and action, you end up in a roller coaster ride of more than two hours, where you have to tighten the belts of your cinema chair firmly. Many references to other films, humor and a nice story that is of secondary importance, by the way, make this one of those action movies that you don't get to see much. Gosling shows that he is still cut out of the right wood and is really an all-rounder in the acting profession in Hollywood. The role of Emily Blunt is fun, but actually it doesn't represent that much in the film. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who will most likely be the next James Bond, portrays the annoying and above all self-righted actor Tom Ryder in a good way and also shows with this role that the acting profession is perfectly understandable. For the rest, this popcorn entertainment is of the top shelf and the film is definitely a must to watch in the cinema.

Napoleon (2023)

Not historical correct, but still a strong movie

[8/10 · 2 December 2023]

After the gigantic flopping of the film Waterloo in 1970, Stanley Kubrick no longer dared to continue with his life project Napoleon, where he was already in advanced status. After that, there were few to no more films about the French dictator. For example, Kubrick did make the film Barry Lyndon in 1975, which also took place during the French Revolution, but this turned out to be an extremely boring work. Now there is Ridley Scott, the man who already brought us the classic Gladiator in 2000, also coincidentally with Joaquin Phoenix as Caesar Commodus, who held the Roman people in his grip with his dictatorship. After the release of the trailer, I think most people are going to this movie with the completely wrong expectations. Don't expect a Gladiator-like film about Napoleon, because although this film definitely has some grotesque scenes when it comes to battles, the film focuses more on man Napoleon Bonaparte and his relationship with Joséphine. The jealous Napoleon even returns to France from a mission to Egypt when he learns that Joséphine shares the bed with another during his absence.

It is now known that the film is historically not quite correct. The stories about Napoleon not even present at the beheading of Marie Antoinette and we know things like that by now. It's also not very fascinating to be honest, it remains a movie and I'm also not so familiar with everything about Napoleon that it can really bother me. It is a film directed by a British, the film is spoken in English and the role of Napoleon is also played by an American, so we can take the accuracy a little more broadly. I even read criticisms about the fact that Napoleon's hemorrhoids were not included in the film, well... It's just what you want to see and expect from such a bockbuster of course. Anyway, the film has become a great film. Joaquin Phoenix knows how to master the role better than anyone and knows how to translate the jealousy, the anger and especially the insanity to the screen in a way that only he can. People may dismiss the relationship between Napoleon and Joséphine as boring, but this is not it. It is fascinating to see how the two had to separate for France, so that Napoleon's descendants could take over the empire, something that of course did not succeed, fortunately.

The only criticism I can think of is that Scott wanted to stop too much in two and a half hours. Of course, so much has happened during Napoleon's life that it is simply impossible to stop in such a short period of time. It makes sure that it passes by way too much in a hurry and that you are a few years further from one scene in the other scene, where you sometimes lose the overview a bit and wonder how you ended up in certain situations. Fortunately, Scott and AppleTV+ have already announced that a four-hour directors cut will appear on streaming service AppleTV+. This will probably do the film a lot of credit and make it even better than the film already is. Of course, it makes sense to opt for a cinema release to release a film that is under three hours so as not to scare people off. On the other hand, she also dared to do this with Killers of the Flower Moon tapping for no less than 3 hours and 26 minutes and the audience also came to the cinema, so why Scott and AppleTV+ didn't dare to do this is a mystery. Where I often criticize that films take too long, with Napoleon it is just the other way around and I would have liked to see the 4-hour Directors Cut in the cinema.

Napoleon may not be very historically accurate, but people should not whine and pretend that they suddenly know everything about the history of the French Revolution or the time that followed with Napoleon. It remains a movie of course and by and large things are really right. Gladiator doesn't beat for a meter either and people also consider that a masterpiece, so in that respect I do it as a by-hand babbling. What you can blame the film for is that it has a too short playing time, in which it is highlighted in a hurry and you can lose the thread because in some scenes you are so many years further in a second, without anything being explained. For the rest, the story is very interesting and the battles are well developed, something you are used to from director Ridley Scott. The camera work is fantastically done and very beautiful and maybe the film would have been even better if everything had been spoken in the French language, but you have that with big Hollywood productions of course. Napoleon has just become a very strong and good film, where you just have to adjust your expectations and no action-infused spectacle like Gladiator should expect.

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

Visually beautiful, but with a Scooby Doo plot twist

[6/10 · 5 November 2023]

On August 8, 2014, the horror game Five Nights at Freddy's was released on many game platforms and was a great success. The game was about an abandoned Pizzeria that owed its name to the company's animatronic mascot named Freddy Fazbear. Together with Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, he terrified the gamers. Now, nine years later, there is a real cinema film and then also made by production company Blumhouse. The question is of course what to expect from this. What speaks in favor is the fact that Freddy and his animatronic friends have not become computer-generated monstrosities, but real animatronic dolls made by The Jim Henson Company. In any case, this immediately ensures that the film is immediately 2-0, because visually the film is really very strong. In terms of story, it's all very weak and very predictable, but good. What do you actually expect from a movie about murderous teddy bear robots.

The film takes a huge run-up before something really happens. You notice from everything that they still want to delve into the superficial characters. This way we see that Mike can't keep a single security job. He lives with his sister Abby in the house their deceased mother left for them. But their aunt Jane wants custody of Abby, so she can raise money that she would get for it. When Mike eventually takes on a night job where he has to guard the abandoned premises of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, he has strange dreams about his missing brother. Out of nowhere there is suddenly the beautiful police officer Vanessa in front of the door, who stays with Mike every night and Mike turns out to find this normal. It causes a lot of vagueness and actually quite a bit of bored moments. Because up to that point nothing actually happens and you wonder why this film got the label horror film pinned. What is actually even more surprising is why this film has been set the age limit of 16 years and older in the Netherlands, while it has been given a pg 13 in America. Five Nights at Freddy's therefore feels more like a Goosebumps episode.

Well, this sounds very negative, but that's not that bad. Once the film has made its way after just under an hour, it will all be entertaining. Mike's dreams about the running away children become clear and it also becomes clear what Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy actually are and what the big plan is. The final denouement seems to have been stolen from a Scooby Doo episode, but okay. If you adjust your expectations a bit and just don't expect a real horror movie, it's all fine to manage and it even becomes quite amusing. It is also a fairly bloodless work, because a lot is left to the imagination and this goes too far for very young children, but children aged 12 or older are really a little more used to than this. In the end, Five Nights at Freddy's turned out to be a fun movie, with beautiful visual effects and a movie where you don't have to think too much.

Five Nights at Freddy's is a visually beautiful film because the animatronics are not CGI monstrosities, but expertly made robots by The Jim Henson Company. Don't expect a real horror movie, because the level is from a Scooby Doo level. The film also takes more than an hour to get going a bit, in order to deepen the superficial characters. This was completely unnecessary and with a small 20 to 25 minutes of shortening, the creators could have really made their point with this almost bloodless work. This ensures that many people go to the movies with the wrong approach and that will also be fed with the kolderic age limit of 16 years and older. In the end, the film is just entertaining and fun and can still result in a nice sequel.