jakobgf-95 Reviews

Sicario (2015)

Gets better as it goes on.

[7/10 · 8 October 2015]

When i saw the first poster for this movie i decided to see it only because i really liked the design. But of course, i looked up who was involved in the creation of this film because i'm not made of money and decide very carefully which movie i pay to see at the theater.

After finding out that the director is Denis Villeneuve i had a real, legitimate reason to pay for this movie because he has made a few great movies recently. Once again, he teamed up with cinematographer Roger Deakins who really knows how to do his job. The visual choices they made here are absolutely amazing and it gets better as the film goes on.

I also have to give credit to Jóhann Jóhannsson who composed a great soundtrack which underlines the already great built up to the various action scenes which are also done very good.

The characters and the dialogue are written very well and the performances of the actors are great. There are only few little details that really bother me. In one scene a character smokes a cigarette and you can clearly see that it isn't burning and in another scene one character tries to strangle another character but he is clearly not putting any pressure on the throat with his thumb. I don't know if this would bother an average movie goer but for me it was really annoying.

And this might not be any criticism about the film but during my view nobody in the room was competent enough to turn his or her phone off or at least turn it on silent mode because i heard ring tones at least five times during the film and there was also some worthless piece of trash two rows in front of me who checked Facebook almost the entire time. I don't know how such incompetence can even exist but is it really asked to much to put your shitty phone away for two hours? This is really impolite and anyone who does that shouldn't be allowed to leave the theater alive.

But the movie was great. Definitely go and watch it.

Jack (IV) (2015)

Interesting

[7/10 · 29 September 2015]

"JACK" shows the last few years in the life of Jack Unterweger, an Austrian murderer and poet who committed suicide in 1994. Of course, i did a little bit of research before watching it and from what i saw and what i've read i found out that this is not an exact depiction of his life during the time the film takes place in, but more a fictional story with it's roots in reality.

Before i start, i want to say that i don't know much about the real Jack Unterweger and that all my opinions are ONLY about the character that is depicted in this movie, NOT the actual person.

The aspect that stands out the most in this movie is the performance of the main actor Johannes Krisch. To be honest, i didn't even know his name before watching "JACK" but now i want to see as much as possible from him because this is one of the best performances in an Austrian film that i've seen in a long time. The movie makes the audience understand very soon what kind of character this version of Jack Unterweger is and Johannes Krisch just owns the whole movie with his performance. Through his body language and pitch of voice you can always tell exactly what the character is thinking. And even tough he is a murderer he his actually pretty likable. I even felt a bit sorry for him near the end. All the other performances are fine as well. There are only a few silly parts but 99% of the time it is very good.

I also like how the soundtrack sometimes repeats itself to underline certain situations that our main character experienced similarly earlier in the movie.

There are a few really good shots throughout the film and the cinematography is also well done.

Another thing that's worth mentioning is the fact that the film never actually tells you how much time has passed. If you know the real story than that won't be the case for you but seeing that i only knew that the film takes place somewhere between 1990 and 1994 i really enjoyed that the movie never tries to tell the audience how much time has passed between scenes.

I honestly wanted to give this movie an 8 out of 10 and not a 7 but i can't do that because there are some really bad mistakes in it that only completely unexperienced newcomers would make. The film failed to convince me that it takes place between 1990 and 1994 because during my view, i noticed a lot of things in the background that didn't even exist until the 21st century. I saw a flat screen with windows 7, a train from "Westbahn", a billboard that i could swear had an advertisement on it that i just saw a few months ago near my house and a few other little things that you would actually miss if you don't pay enough attention. But for me they where very apparent. I don't know much about interior design and fashion in Vienna in the early nineties and i won't bother looking it up but a few sets and costumes don't really look outdated to me. I won't describe this, in particular, as a flaw because it only comes from my non existing knowledge about the time period but the other things are almost unforgivable.

The movie also felt way longer than it actually is. When it was over, it felt like a bit over two hours had passed when it was actually only one and a half. It doesn't bother me personally because i actually never got bored but it's still a bad sign if a movie feels like it's 30% longer than it's actual runtime. I also think that the music during the end credits is way too loud. This wouldn't bother me normally but the very last scene right before the credits is one of the slowest and most quiet in the whole film and the music starts so abruptly, that it really felt like i got hit in the face.

This also isn't a real flaw but i personally hate it when a movie that is based on real life events ends with a text that says how the character died or how his life went on after the event of the film instead of just showing it.

Overall, i still think this is a movie worth checking out because it's an interesting story, it's a bit funny sometimes and it has one of the best performances of 2015.

Inside Out (I) (2015)

Great for children, but nothing more.

[5/10 · 18 September 2015]

Now, if you are not completely brainless, you should know that 5 is the middle between 1 and 10 and therefore can tell that i'm NOT rating this Movie below average. The reason i'm writing this before my actual review is that there are a lot of people who do not understand this simple system and think that 7 is average and everything below that is below average. I want you to keep in mind that i don't think that this is a bad movie only because i'm not stuck in Pixar's butt.

Personally, i really like Pixar, or rather everything they did before "Up" with the exception of "Cars", and think the main reason they failed to impress me for the past seven years is Disney itself because the people who run things there are so desperate to make money by this point, that they even started ruining their own classics and do not allow anyone who works for them to be a little bit different because otherwise there would be the possibility to earn a bit less cash.

Of course this influences every studio that Disney owns, not just Pixar.

So "Inside out" is the newest unoriginality to come out of this production line and of course everyone praises it to the point where i actually went to see it even dough i didn't care about it in the slightest.

From the trailer, that i personally really liked and not only because it didn't give much away about the actual plot, but i also did find it very funny, i could tell that this would be an enjoyable movie for kids but for some reason i was sure that the jokes used in the trailer where the best ones of the whole movie. Not surprisingly, but sadly, i was almost completely right. There is one other joke that i really loved and one that had the potential to be great but it became to greedy and thus ruining itself. The rest of the humor isn't really my taste but, again, i think that kids will have a good time watching this.

The film marketed itself with it's huge load of originality but, as briefly mentioned before, i do not think that is the case. Nearly everything about this film, the concept, the themes, the characters, the sequence of events, almost everything has been done before. But to give credit where credit is due, this is probably one of the better films with this kind of concept.

But of course it isn't all bad. There are a few things that i think are creative, for example the way dreams are created, and there is nothing in the whole film that i would describe as bad with the exception of the characters.

Basically, we have our human characters who have no personality themselves because they are controlled by other characters who are extremely cut and paste and boring because all of them have only one character trade. Luckily this doesn't count for our main character Joy, but that doesn't mean that she is a good character. That only means the she is the only character who is at least a tiny bit relate-able, but not enough for me to care about her.

There are also a million tiny things that don't make any sense like:

• Why is sadness so stupid at the beginning?

• Why can she change the emotion of a memory and others can't?

• Why has every human being only five emotions?

• Why do the emotions in other brains all have the same gender and identical hair and in the girls head the genders and hair are different?

• Why are the emotions sometimes talking about the girl as if she is a different person who is controlled by them, and sometimes like they are all one and the same?

• Why does she forget how to play Hockey only because her emotions are messed up?

• Does that also mean she has forgotten almost her entire life near the end?

• Why can't they make her feel any emotions at that point?

• And doesn't anyone think it's stupid how they change her emotions instantly, multiple times during specific events? Main example being the scene where the girl slides down a stair railing.

As you can see, i have a few problems with the movie. If you think that i shouldn't be so harsh on it because it's a kid's movie, than you also imply that every kid's movie, no matter how bad it is, should be forgiven for it's mistakes because it's made for children. And i think this movie is great for children but for people with a more developed brain, the mistakes a more than present. And because of that i can't give it a better rating. I would probably give it a 6 if the characters weren't so bad but the mistakes compensate the good things and therefore it is completely average for me.

Batman vs. Robin (2015 Video)

Improved Sequel

[7/10 · 27 August 2015]

I must say that i was a little bit skeptical before watching this one. "Batman vs Robin" is a Sequel to the 2014 DC animated movie "Son of Batman" and while i definitely enjoyed watching that one i didn't really think it was good. The sequel is also based on parts of the comic book " Court of Owls" from the "Night of the Owls" Storyline and as someone who read the comic i must say that it combines those two stories pretty good.

The biggest difference to the source material is Damian who, once again, seems more to be the protagonist rather than his father. So the writers realized that it would be better to make him more likable than in the first movie where he was basically an almost unbearable prick. But here he's a little more like an actual child and it works for the most part especially when Bruce tries to build a relationship with him. Their scenes together are the best in the movie along with the good action which extremely profits from the great animation.

The writing, in general is pretty decent and the voice actors do a great job portraying these characters especially Jason O'Mara who is probably my second favorite Batman by now, after Kevin Conroy of course.

I won't spoil it, but i want to mention that i really like the ending of this movie. It's not written in a way that this type of story normally ends with and it's also a bit emotional showing that Bruce and Damian really care for each other. It also leaves a bit open ended to set up a sequel which i normally don't really like that much but i'm okay with it here because i'd like to see another movie from this series especially when the third one improves as much on the second one as this one did on the first. Because then we probably could talk about the best animated Batman movie up to this point.

Ant-Man (2015)

I've never been so convinced in my life that a movie is OK.

[5/10 · 5 August 2015]

This is probably the best example of a standard modern superhero movie. Of course there are a few things that are slightly above average otherwise i obviously would give it a 5 and not a 6.

I'm happy to see, that the actors and the effects are back being nothing less but great which i thought would be the standard in Marvel movies nowadays but avengers 2 proofed me wrong on that. But in Ant- Man those things are not only back to the way they should be but also slightly improved.

The writing is also back to normal. The script isn't anything near excellent but it's decent enough and the characters are also written in a way that the actors have something work and experiment with. Even tough they are very clichéd.

Otherwise there is nothing much to say. The rest of the film is completely average. It has decent action, standard cinematography, a predictable, but not necessarily bad, story, a generic score, a few jokes here and there, a ton of hints to current and future Marvel movies and the obligatory Stan Lee cameo. But i have to admit, that Ant- Man is probably the first superhero in a marvel movie who i thought had powers that i want to have for myself, because the way they show these powers is really cool.

If you're interested in the movie, give it a watch but don't expect to be blown away.

Terminator Genisys (2015)

It's okay

[4/10 · 11 July 2015]

Before i start i want to say that i really enjoyed this movie despite the fact that it has a few flaws.

One of the biggest ones, obviously, being the story. Now, time travel stories do not make much sense to begin with, but there are a few works of fictional media out there that handle the subject much better than others, for example T2. But in TG it almost never makes sense and it's incredibly distracting. But at least the characters aren't so poorly written and there are a few good lines of dialogue here and there. I would say that the characters have chemistry, if the directing wasn't so awful. The best acting performance in this movie is average at best and Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't even the worst one in this. I think that she gives usually a good performance but Emilia Clarke isn't good at all in this. I personally believe, as i said, that this is the fault of the director. In almost every scene he seems to have forgotten how to do his job and just focused on Emilia Clarke's breasts rather than her acting. I also think that she looks a bit too young for the role of Sarah Connor. There are a few really annoying slow motion shots in the film which try to incorporate the 3D but it was just boring and the 3D was, of course, total crap.

The score is also disappointing. There are a few really good tracks in it but, especially during the action sequences, it is extremely generic and boring. But the action itself is well done.

There are a few failed attempts of social criticism and they are really cheap and being the big budget summer blockbuster that it is, they just have to blow up a computer generated American city and that is really lame.

But there is some good stuff too. As said before, the action is great especially because of the use of a lot of practical effects which i really appreciate. I also loved the way they recreated a few scenes from the first Termitor film in almost every detail which is very cool.

And i, personally, really liked the pacing of this movie. The movie still takes it's time for every event and i think it's the strongest part of the film. The characters are passably developed and it never felt too long or too short.

In between the action, there are sometimes a few funny character scenes which are enjoyable but i think they would work way better if the whole movie wouldn't take itself so seriously which eventually is it's biggest drawback.

Other than that there is nothing else worth mentioning. In the end, i would say that you can definitely enjoy this film if you're willing to forgive it for some of the rough edges and appreciate the stuff that's well done. It feels exactly like what it is. A Terminator movie from 2015.

Maggie (I) (2015)

Good

[7/10 · 11 July 2015]

There where two main reasons why i wanted to watch this movie.

The first one was that i finally wanted to see Arnold Schwarzenegger giving a good performance. And i think he does. It's obvious that the character he plays is written for him. He is very ineloquent, which is fine because Schwarzenegger still needs to work on his line delivery and his accent doesn't really help either, but i still think it is okay. Where i think he shines is his facial and body expressions. In the scenes with no dialogue at all he did a good job making this a decent performance as a whole and i'm glad it turned out that way.

The rest of the performances ranged anywhere from average to good except for Raeden Greer as Maggie's friend Allie, she was terrible. Neither her delivery nor her expressions where anything near acceptable and it was just annoying, but luckily, she isn't in it for long.

The characters themselves where also written okay but during the view it becomes clear that the film is primary about Maggie and her father because all the side characters have 15 minutes of maximum screen time each. Some of them don't even have 5 minutes. But i think it works because the film focuses on what it should focus on and again, all the characters are still written okay.

The other reason i wanted to watch this was because of the story. I think it is a very good and different approach on the Zombie formula and i, personally, haven't seen anything like this before. It works well in combination with the pacing which is very slow and that might bore a few people. But this works just fine for me because it balances out the short length of the film and makes it enjoyable all the way through. I never felt that it was dragged out during my watch.

The score is also very quiet and subtle which i really love and it fits the overall mood of the film very good as well as the bleak cinematography.

There are a few little things that bug me a bit like some of the shots during the driving scenes look very similar to each other and the ending is a bit dumb. It's not bad by any means. I actually think that it is pretty decent. But the way it's executed is a bit illogical. Again, not entirely bad but you'll see what i mean when you watch it.

Other than that i don't really have any complaints and i would recommend you to watch it if you find the idea of this film at least a bit interesting.

Jurassic World (2015)

If you don't take it seriously, you will have a good time.

[6/10 · 18 June 2015]

If you look at it from an objective point of view, technically, this movie is average at best. But if you manage to leave your brain turned on, given that you have one, you will have a lot of fun watching this one. Not that this film is so bad that it's good, but if you just walk into the theater expecting a fun monster movie you won't be disappointed.

The fact that this movie is ironically ripping of Godzilla, might annoy a few people, but the movie is well aware of this. Things like the leader of a group of soldiers, who are basically the Tokyo military, being an Asian, that some people are wearing bullet proof wests while hunting a dinosaur or a dinosaur running in slow-motion, just to name a few, leave the impression that you are not supposed to take this seriously. Also, there are a lot of hilariously clichéd moments like the human villain and the forced family drama of our main characters which are supporting this impression even more. The downside of this though, is that the "emotional" scenes are almost painful to sit through because of our main characters.

The Characters itself weren't that bad, but sometimes during my view i got the feeling, that the writers didn't know how to write teenagers. I mean, i know that wanting to go home to his girlfriend is the only character trait that Zach has but no one, no matter the age, would be bored watching dinosaurs. But in the middle of the film he instantly switches mood with his little brother and is ready to pick up other girls. Grays trades are also only serving as a plot point and Chris Pratts character basically never changes throughout the whole film which means that the only somewhat believable character we have is Claire who at least has something that could be called development. I know that i said that you shouldn't take this seriously, but that doesn't mean that you cant have good characters. However, i have to say that the acting is really good, even the kids are not that bad. There where only two scenes where i burst out laughing because a character spontaneously decided to cry in an instant with no reason other to have an emotional scene but it was just hilarious to me. However, i was glad that all of them are somewhat connected to each other and not some random strangers who just happen to run into each other.

The action is pretty good and makes for some really cool fight scenes and the fact that you can predict everything that is going to happen doesn't make it less fun.

The directing and overall cinematography wasn't anything special but it was descent enough. The only thing that i really didn't like was the the use of the score. First of all, it's not really a good soundtrack. Not bad, but also not something that i haven't heard before. My problem is that the soundtrack was way overused. Ther are a lot of scenes where the movie tries to build tension without knowing that some of them would be way more intense without any background music whatsoever. If a director doesn't allow the imagery on the screen to speak for itself and puts in a soundtrack that tells the audience that they should be afraid or something, than it kinda ruins it for the people paying attention. Not that i demand no background music at all but it could be at least a little bit more subtle because there was basically no scene where the score didn't try to tell you how you should feel. There where also a few other things like no explanation why the Park suddenly works, why they need dinosaur holograms other than to function as another cheap plot point even though there are real dinosaurs in this world or a forced death scene of some random dinosaur but those are only minor issues and didn't bother me that much during my view.

Overall, i'm really glad that this film doesn't really try to be a successor to the original, but rather just having fun with the idea of dinosaurs running amok. I'm happy to say that with this one we got another good monster movie the third year in a row and i had a lot of fun watching it.

Life Eternal (2015)

Really good

[8/10 · 21 May 2015]

Even tough this is an Austrian film and i myself live in Austria i'm still going to write this review in English because i just want to.

But before i start i have to admit that i haven't seen any of Josef Hader's movies about the character of Brenner but after seeing this one i can't wait to check out the other films and this is my favorite movie of 2015 so far.

Personally, i think the best aspect of this movie is the pacing. There are already 3 other movies with Brenner as the main character, but for people like me who don't know the other films this one still takes it's time so that the audience can relate to him. Same with the rest of the characters. Even the side characters are quickly established and nothing feels forced. When our main character enters a new location the film made sure to slow down a bit to get the audience used to the environment of that place and therefore it felt extremely native when you know this kind of environment like i do. Those scenes where also the best directed ones and the time given to each event was perfect. Nothing felt too short or dragged out. Throughout the whole film there where some cleverly subtle placed flashbacks that showed the audience slowly why the main character doesn't want to be in the environment the film takes place in and why the other characters react to him the way they do. These flashbacks don't tell everything that happened but just enough to keep the audience guessing and wanting an explanation. And in the end it all comes together in a very good way. The performances where all good except for Joseph Hader, he was great. Watching Austrian productions in the past it always felt kinda difficult to me not seeing just an actor playing a role but in this one i had absolutely no problem except for one single line somewhere in the middle of the movie which felt really awkward. In this scene a character gets really emotional and starts crying tears of joy. Maybe the actress doesn't have the skills to pull such a thing off or the director didn't pay any attention while shooting that scene but it is only a minor issue because as i said, the rest of the acting is good, even at it's lowest point.

There was some good placed humor throughout the whole film but i'm glad that they didn't use any jokes in some of the more serious scenes.

The score was also good. In some scenes the Volume of the score is turned up a lot to fit the pain that our main character is going through. The music was, in general, never out of place and the movie knew when to turn the music down or completely off to fit the atmosphere.

Also, there is some subtle placed critic about the subject immigrants in Austria. It really works well because it showcases immigrants acting disrespectful in public as well as Austrian people having prejudice against immigrants showing that both sides still need to improve and be more tolerant. Those scenes only last for a few seconds but it definitely sticks in your head if you pay even a little bit attention.

If there was one thing that i would call a flaw, it would be the narrator shortly after the beginning of the movie who explains that Brenner doesn't want to return to Graz. However, this narrator never appears again and that bothers me because it feels like that the writers couldn't find another way to tell the audience that information even tough that would take just one line of dialog between Brenner and his neighbor, for example.

But this is still a great movie and i highly recommend to check it out, especially when you are an Austrian.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Guardians of the Galaxy started a horrible trend

[6/10 · 23 April 2015]

It's both funny and sad at the same time that this movie has the exact same flaws that Guardians of the Galaxy has. But first something positive.

The action is awesome, the effects are, for the most part, pretty good, there where two or free good jokes in it and it is decently directed. I also like the fact that they used some parts from the score of the first movie. There was also a cool scene where Ultron talks to the twins and they tell him what happened to their family. Ultron talked neutral to them and not like someone who is about to wipe out humanity. Finally, though i start to notice that in a lot of Films recently, i want to point out the very first scene which is a Really good action scene and it is done in one shot. But that's about it.

This film is just as lazily written as guardians and i'm beginning to fear that this is a trend that will continue. So let me just point out all the things that are wrong.

The character development sucks. The old characters are not further developed and the ones that are, are extremely forced. Also, the new characters are just not interesting. It doesn't help, that the performances are really not that good either. They're OK, but nothing great and all of these actors can do so much better.

The villain is just bad. Aside from his clichéd motivation, which i don't mind that much but i want to point it out anyway, he is just not intimidating. And the stupid attempt to make him funny by having him have goofy reactions doesn't help.

The dialog between the characters is 90% one liners, especially during the intense action. With this cheap attempt to constantly be funny i cant get sucked in because i permanently have the impression, that none of the characters takes anything seriously. And the jokes where almost never funny.

There is a huge load of plot conveniences in this movie and a ton of things that are never explained.

That's about it. For the rest, i would enter spoiler territory and then i would write forever.

Overall this film is sadly average and gives us nothing new. But i think the main problem with this can be clearly detected with the help of a certain scene. Don't worry, i won't spoil anything but in this scene a character has a vision about the infinity gems and he only sees the ones that have appeared in a movie so far. The images can't come from his own mind because he has no idea about the orb from guardians, at least it's not explained that he might know something about it, which means something different showed him the gems. And whatever made him see the stones, it was somehow aware of the fact that the Last two gems haven't appeared in a Movie so far because there is absolutely no reason for not at least showing them. Which leads me to the conclusion, that those images where not for the character in the film, but for the audience.

Instead of writing a really clever movie we should just through in a bunch of one liners and some images that the audience is going to jerk off to. Why make a peace of art when we can make lots of money?

Song of the Sea (2014)

Beautiful

[8/10 · 1 April 2015]

I'm glad i finally saw this movie because i'm so sick of all the 3D animated movies that came out recently which almost never where anything special. This movie, for me, is the exact opposite.

The animation is absolutely gorgeous. Not only is it 2D, but everything Looks like it came directly out of a children's book. This creates very stunning visuals and makes it really unique.

The story also feels like one from a children's book. It's a very lighthearted, kid friendly tale but there's also good drama in it. And that's why i like it. The movie is obviously for kids but there are a few mature themes that adults can enjoy.

I don't want to give away anything because i think that everyone should experience this on their own. If you're tired of all the generic animated movies of recent years, with a few exceptions, than you owe it to yourself to watch this one. This is finally a new animated movie where i think to myself that this would be one of the first movies that i would show to my children.

Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

average

[5/10 · 20 March 2015]

After seeing how everybody praises this movie i decided to see it myself despite the fact that i was sure this will be an average film at best after seeing the trailers. Surprise, i was right.

But i believe in giving credit where credit is do and there where some parts that i enjoyed.

The movie used a lot of spy movie clichés but by having the characters mentioning the old bond films in the movie it became clear that all those where meant more as an homage rather than cheap plot lines. This works for the over the top spy equipment as well as for the ridiculous plan of the villain. Also, the scene at the beginning where Harry gives young Eggsy the medal of Eggsy's father was a good excuse to set the story in motion. When Eggsy was calling the number on the medal to get help it didn't felt as convenient as it might could've been.

However, there where also a lot of dumb scenes like the same grenades having completely different timers or the character of Roxy performing the side mission to blow up a satellite instead of Eggsy despite the fact that she is afraid of heights and is also an official agent and Eggsy is not. But i liked that the didn't establish a romantic relationship between those two characters.

Everyone told me that the character of Harry was really cool which would be right, if he had any character. Aside from being a bad ass and a gentleman he has no personality whatsoever and i didn't care when he was killed.

The big problem with this movie is that his has no Identity. It obviously tries to be an action comedy like Kick-Ass, which is equally overrated like this one, but for it to be such a movie the action was too boring and the humor was, for like 99% of the time, not present. Also, while the film tells you that you should not take it too seriously, it falls completely apart at the moment where the villain reveals his plan to save the Planet. By doing this the writers completely reverse the style of the film to press an environmental message in the audiences face instead of staying true to what they are claiming to do. The movie would be a little more enjoyable if the bad guy had a completely generic plan to take over the world because it would stay more true to the campy style of the film. However, the methods he used to achieve his goal where still ridiculous like in some old spy films.

In the end, I'm not mad at this movie because it was exactly what i thought it would be. It's a partially enjoyable spy film that leaves no impression and is quickly forgotten.

Asterix and Obelix: Mansion of the Gods (2014)

I liked it.

[6/10 · 15 March 2015]

As a fan of the series i'm happy that they finally made a new animated Asterix movie. The animation was really nice and all the characters looked exactly like in the comics. Also, in the shots that were two-dimensional it really looked amazing and i forgot for a second that this was a 3D animated film. However, during the view i still couldn't stop thinking that i would rather see this movie in classic 2D animation. As i said, the animation is really good and this is only a personal preference.

The dialog was, for the most part, well written and made for a lot good jokes that matched the timeless humor of the series very good. Unfortunately, the rest of the jokes were quite dull and by some choices of words you can easily tell in which time period this movie was released. They also tried to use slow-motion in a few scenes but that got boring really fast.

I think the biggest issue i have with this film is the family they added to the story. The introduction of them was almost identical to a scene in the original comic with the exception that they added a child which was nothing more than a plot- device and was also just there because the writers probably knew that a lot of people would watch this with their little children and thought that they couldn't relate to a husband and his wife without a child.

Aside from that, i still enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to every fan of the Asterix series.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Very enjoyable

[9/10 · 4 March 2015]

This is one of the best films of 2014.

I just can't help but love this film because you notice the effort that was put in every single shot of this picture. I really liked it, that most of the time the camera was placed in the middle of the room and commensurate to the wall it was filming. This made the shots look symmetric and two- dimensional.

The story takes place in different time periods and it's really cool that they used a different aspect ratio for every single one of them. They also bothered to mostly use old practical effects instead of CG like miniatures or pictures in the background which only supports the charm of the movie even more.

Some of the characters are really over the top ridiculous but you'll notice that that's intensional and used as a part of the humor and these characters are all very enjoyable.

Overall i was entertained throughout the whole movie and i suggest that you all check it out.

American Sniper (2014)

Disappointing

[4/10 · 4 March 2015]

I've decided to make this a spoiler free review because if i would include spoilers i would have to write about every single flaw that i found in detail, but i'm not very motivated to do that because in my personal opinion this movie stole enough of my time already.

To sum up my opinion, i think this film overall is not that bad. The cast does a decent job, the score is kinda neat and the scenes that play during the war are made well. The patriotism can get annoying at times but it's never too distracting.

But in the overall picture i started to notice many little flaws. So many in fact, that i started counting them during the view and in the end i found a total of nineteen. While those are not big flaws, it is the pure sum of them that makes this movie so inedible for me. Because there weren't ten minutes in this film without a moment were i couldn't stop thinking how stupid something in the film was and that really ruined my experience.

I know it seems lazy that i don't tell what all those flaws are, but when i write them down and somebody notices them because i pointed them out, then i'm more or less guilty of ruining their experience. I suggest to check it out for yourself because maybe you are not aware of all the mistakes like me and when that's the case you might enjoy it.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Best Movie of 2014

[10/10 · 23 February 2015]

This movie was excellent. It's easily my favorite movie of 2014 and it deserves every price it gets.

The best thing about it was that the whole film is cheated to look like it was taken in one shot. This was a great choice for several reasons. Because the movie is about actors performing a play and you actually see them doing their performances i got dangerously close to constantly reminding myself that i'm just watching actors playing a role. But the fact that you never see a cut as well as the really great performances prevented me from doing so and i got sucked right into it. The other reason is that some methods used in a theatrical production like quickly changing costumes between scenes are also most likely being used in this movie because you can't really tell where the cuts are placed.

I found it also great that there are not many locations. The majority takes place in a theater and you see a lot what's going on Backstage. Other places are parts of the Broadway and a bar. Aside from that there where some other locations but the characters do not stay there very long. Most of the time we are just in the theater seeing the characters preparing the play and i'm glad that this decision was made.

The movie also had a great sense of humor. The film never tries to rub the jokes in you face but they are very well placed and the overall pacing and directing was very good. It also criticized a lot about modern movie going audiences and modern blockbusters in general.

The only thing that distracted me a little was that some parts are really predictable but aside from that nothing bothered me at all and i'm still going to give this movie a perfect rating.

The Imitation Game (2014)

Not perfect, but still great

[7/10 · 4 February 2015]

I finally saw the movie in the theater and i thought it was pretty good. Not that it has no flaws, because there definitely are a few but those are more on a subjective point of view. But I'm still glad to say that i got my money's worth and that the film was pretty much what i expected it to be. I, mainly wanted to see the movie because, of course, Benedict Cumberbatch, but After watching a few trailers i thought that the story was kind of interesting too. I found it important to inform myself about the events and persons this movie's story is based on. So i read a bit about Alan Turing to know what this man was like and i'm glad to say that Cumberbatch plays this character brilliantly. He did a very good job of convincing me, that the man that i see on the screen is Alan Turing and not some guy playing Alan Turing. The other performances were also really good but Cumberbatch shined the most. The majority of the film was also very well directed and there weren't many scenes where i found something that bothered me. However, every time i noticed a flaw, it immediately took me out of the experience and i was reminded that i'm just watching a movie.

In the few scenes where the viewer sees the actual war happen, you don't need to pay extra attention to notice that the computer generated effects are really crappy and it took me out immediately. I know that the movie is not about that but it could have made for a better experience if i wasn't suddenly reminded of the fact that what i'm looking at is not real. I found it also distracting that in the scene where Turings machine finally works, that the music was intrusively loud. The score in this movie is for the most part really quiet and subtle and i really loved that, but in this one scene it gets distractingly loud as if it wants to spoil you what's going to happen, and it does exactly that. It's probably pretty obvious that the machine was going to work in this scene but the movie found it was necessary to tell me that i should feel excited now because the machine is going to work. Also, as someone who informed himself about Alan Turing before watching the movie, i had the feeling that the creators of this picture tried to rub it into my face that Alan Turing created one of the first things known to mankind that we can call a Computer by telling me that at the end through a faded in text. And even if you don't inform yourself about that before the movie, i still think that the audience this film is targeting should be able to realize that by themselves.

But overall i still think this is a great movie because the few flaws that bothered me do not make it necessarily worse. I just think i could enjoy it more If those weren't present. If you're interested in movies or just like Benedict Cumberbatch, i would say go and see it.