• Let's celebrate my five hundred reviews on IMDb!

    Ladies and gentlemen!

    A few days ago I wrote my five-hundredth review on the Internet Movie Data Base. I started writing on it eight years ago. My reviews back then weren't too structured and my English was quite poor. As years went by, writing such reviews has become a hobby and I have kept improving and I still am and hope I will still be. In order to look back at five hundred reviews, I have decided to revisit ten of them that I consider to be very particular in one way or another. Enjoy!

    My first review:

     

    Che: Part One (2008) - A little episode of a big book of life - 4/10 (05/04/10)

    Che: Part One (2008)

    First of all, I am someone who is very interested in history and especially in the Cuban revolution and the life of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, so I expected a lot of this movie divided in two parts...

    Well, I am very disappointed about the result. First of all, it would have been interesting to present Che Guevara before the beginnings of the revolution, to explain his reasons, his first contacts with corruption, submission, poverty, politics and revolution. One should have shown the youth of this man, one should have talked about his voyages, of the events that forged his mind and his ideology. Instead of this, the viewer is introduced to the Che Guevara as he is already formed and forged just before the revolution.

    If they hadn't enough time to do a more profound portrait of this legend, I ask myself why the films shows many unnecessary dialogues and scenes in the Cuban jungle during the guerrilla fights. This whole beginning of the movie seems just to be a recitation of Che's most famous speeches, but doesn't look beyond and is sometimes without any chronology. The movie seems just to be based on a lot of intelligent words and speeches, without showing the true intention of it. The few fight scenes which interrupt the endless dialogues, seem somehow poor and there is not just a lack of action or tension, but also of emotion during the little combat scenes that would show us why all this was worth dying for.

    In the end, the movie ends as strange as it began, the real arriving and the real triumph of the victorious revolution and the development of Che's personality during his implication in a new government is not shown and the film seems to be quite incomplete, as if a little chapter of a giant book was chosen without reading or telling its beginning or continuation. The second part of the movie works the same way, but it finishes at least with something concrete.

    All in all, I am really disappointed about this movie and would have expected more about it.

     My most recent review: 

    Numb (2015) - Dumb - 5/10 (30/04/18)

    Numb (2015)

    Well, at least some of the landscapes were beautiful.

    To be honest, Numb had few more things going for it than gorgeous Canadian landscapes. The film had an appropriately cold and sinister atmosphere. Numb doesn't overstay its welcome with a running time around ninety minutes. The initial story sounded interesting enough to spend five bucks on it.

    Numb is about an indebted couple that comes across two hitchhikers, a former prisoner and his prostitute sister. The four come across a man suffering of hypothermia who dies when they try to rescue him in the middle of the night. They find out that he was the only survivor of a group of thieves who robbed four million dollars in gold coins twenty years ago. They retrieve a piece of paper with some GPS data among the dead man's belongings and assume that this must be the spot where the thieves caught the money twenty years ago. The four decide to go out in the woods despite harsh weather conditions to get the money and start new lives. However, conflicts soon occur as the weather gets worse by the hour.

    The premise of the movie sounds good but everything described above is initially the whole story. One never gets to know where the former prisoner and the prostitute actually came from and why they were aimlessly walking outside in the cold weather in the beginning of the story. The reasons why the thief decided to get the money in the middle of winter just after being released from prison after twenty years instead of waiting for the summer are never explained. The fact that the four treasure hunters go out in the woods without gloves, snowshoes, toques or any other kind of equipment to survive in the harsh winter doesn't make any sense at all either. The reasons why they start turning against one another are shallow as well. A random side character who is living in a cabin is introduced out of nowhere and soon killed for very shallow reasons. Even the movie's resolution with the police officer doesn't make any sense at all if you think about it for a second. Overall, the entire script is poorly written. If you expect any explanations, suspense or twists, you are going to be disappointed.

    The acting is just as wooden as the faceless characters for whose fates the viewers don't care because it's impossible to empathize with them: a lying husband, his egoistic wife, a philosophic prisoner and a greedy prostitute with anger management issues.

    Camera and light techniques are average, the film's pace is quite dragging and even the soundtrack is somewhat sleep-inducing.

    At the end of the day, my rating for the film is generous and if I didn't like Canadian winter, I would even give this film a lower rating. This average thriller wastes much initially intriguing potential. You can watch this on a snowy afternoon if you have one and a half hours of free time. Don't spend too much money on it. There are numerous movies set in harsh winter weather conditions like The Grey that are so much better than this Canadian independent film.

    My most popular review (in terms of votes)

     

    Pompeii (2014) - It all depends on your attitude - 7/10 (06/02/14)

    Pompeii (2014)

    You can take this movie from two different sides.

    As somebody who is very much interested in history and geography and has studied both for many years, this movie is obviously full of mistakes and wrong stereotypes. It is almost as inaccurate as the "Spartacus" series. And this is never an original movie. We have all watched movies with very similar story lines about the evil Romans who want to control everything, the poor gladiators who stand up against them and the forbidden love between a rich young woman and a foreign slave. I can understand why many people are rating this film down. If you really want to watch a sophisticated movie about that time, go for the classic "Ben- Hur".

    What I think is strange is that all these stereotypes were highly predictable from the trailers only. I am asking myself why people even went to watch this movie if they were going to hate it for the reasons mentioned above. Some people just want to bash a movie and seem to have a very sad life if they waste their time watching movie they dislike so much.

    I went to watch the movie for something different. I wanted to watch a colourful movie with impressive sets and costumes and stunning 3D effects of an exploding volcano. I was eager to watch a fast pace flick with a lot of fighting scenes, some tension here and there and maybe a few love scenes with beautiful actresses. And I exactly got that.

    In addition to this, the acting was just good enough and included a few interesting characters. I really liked Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Jessica Lucas in this film even though they played stereotypical characters and could have had more screening time. If you are going to watch this movie for Carrie-Anne Moss or Kiefer Sutherland, please do not. They have been much better in other movies in the past. 

    In the end, it all depends on you. If you want to watch an original and profound movie and learn something about the Roman Empire, just forget it. If you want to watch an effect ridden action adventure, you are going to like this. It is not the movie of the year but I surely had a great time watching it. 

     

    My most popular review (in terms of approval)

    Les sept jours du talion / Seven days (2010) - Not what you might expect but very profound - 7/10 (17/10/10)

    Seven Days (2010)

    This movie is a very intense psychological thriller filmed in very grey and depressive images and words that create a perfect atmosphere for this doom slow paced movie. The movie seems to be a simple vengeance story, but it goes far beyond this. Let me warn you first: There are not many torture scenes in this movie, so if you expect some gore stuff here, you may not be satisfied at all in the end. The title and trailer could be somehow misleading.

    The film has in fact a very philosophical touch and questions about the sense of life and death as well as vengeance or forgiveness. The movie shows how difficult such topics are and has almost some documentary influences as it shows the reactions of the society, the police, the victim's families. But there are also metaphoric elements in this movie like the scenes with the dead deer body that represents the dead body of the raped and killed daughter that lead us slowly towards a melancholic end that many find unsatisfying but which fits perfectly to the whole atmosphere and intention of the movie. The story is surprisingly realistic. All those points I really like about this great Quebecker movie.

    What I rather dislike is that there is something like a highlight missing. When the father has kidnapped the murderer of his daughter and the police is looking for him, you expect that the tension and action raises, that each character's profoundness may be developed and that there are some disturbing twists but nothing happens at all. The movie concentrates on the profoundness of the main character but I think that the characters of the murderer, the police officer or the kidnapper's wife could have been more developed. The movie also concentrates too much on the logical follow-up of the story and the tension goes really down at some point in the movie as there are no real surprises or turning points like in the heavier and more disturbing shocker "5150 on Elm Street", a movie based on the novel by the same author as this one. This movie's strength is its depressive atmosphere and the main actor's brilliant acting but it has too much of a one man show.

    If you are looking for an alternative depressive psycho thriller with some philosophical elements, I highly recommend this movie for you. But if you are looking for a bloody shocker with a twisted ending, just forget about it.

    My most popular review on a television series episode

     

    Twin Peaks, third season, eighth episode: Got a light? (25/06/17)

     

    Twin Peaks, third season, eighth episode: Gotta light?

    Eighth episode: Gotta light? / The Return, Part VIII

    Content: Evil Cooper and Ray are driving on a highway after having escaped from prison. Evil Cooper mentions that Ray has some important information he needs to know but Ray refuses to tell him what he wants to hear. When they take a short break, Evil Cooper tries to menace Ray with a weapon but Ray has taken the bullets out of Evil Cooper's gun and proceeds to shoot him instead. When Ray is about to kill Evil Cooper for good, several strange entities looking like woodsmen surround Evil Cooper and perform a ritual to bring him back to life. A bubble with BOB's head inside seems to be a part of Evil Cooper's body. Ray is scared, drives away and calls Phillip Jeffries to inform him about what has just happened. He then seems to be heading for a place called ''The Farm''. After completing the ritual, the woodsmen disappear and Evil Cooper awakens. Back in 1945, the explosion of the first atomic bomb in New Mexico sets off a series of important events. A strange entity creates BOB as well as numerous other creatures. As a response to this, the Giant and a robust female create a golden bubble with Laura Palmer inside and send it down to Earth. Back in 1956, several of the woodsmen appear in New Mexico. One of them enters a radio station, killing a secretary and a menacing a disc-jockey. He proceeds to spread a cryptic message on air that makes several local residents, who are listening to the radio, lose consciousness. One of these residents is a young girl that has just been on a date with a classmate. Meanwhile, a strange creature hatches from an egg in the desert of New Mexico, flies to the young girl's bedroom and crawls into her mouth. Once the creature is inside the young girl, the murdering woodsman leaves the radio station, killing the disc-jockey in the process.

    Analysis: In my opinion, the explosion of the atomic bomb led to the creation of the ultimate form of evil. This creature that gives birth to BOB seems to be the same creature that killed the young couple in the first episode and might be the entity referred to as ''mother'' in the third episode. As a response to this and in order to keep things in balance, the Giant and the wife create a creature that is going to become Laura Palmer. The young couple in New Mexico must be Laura Palmer's future parents, Leland and Sarah Palmer. There are two things that seem to be happening at the same time. The creature that is crawling inside Sarah Palmer's mouth has been sent by the Giant and the wife and is going to become Laura Palmer. At the same time, the woodsmen are preparing a counter-strike and hypnotizing the locals in order to prepare for BOB's arrival who is going to possess Leland Palmer which isn't shown on screen. This explains why Laura Palmer, who was supposed to be an example of purity, has become a fragile soul that has lost parts of its innocence when she got contaminated with BOB via Leland Palmer's semen. Laura Palmer is therefore both an angel and a demon. With this knowledge, she is obviously a threat to BOB which is the reason why he contaminated her and later on tried to possess her. Since he was unable to possess her, he killed her but instead of destroying her, she was sent to the Black Lodge and separated into two distinct entities representing her good and her evil side: doppelganger. This means that the other members of the Black Lodge who have doppelganger have probably the same or a similar origin as Laura Palmer. The woodsmen in the episode are victims of the explosion of the atomic bomb who haven't found their peace of mind and seem to be supporting BOB and the evil entity to get their revenge for the horrible things that have happened to them. The presence of the woodsman in the prison in the first episode and in the morgue in the seventh episode means that BOB alias Evil Cooper are informed about everything that is going on. Leland Palmer asked the Good Cooper in the Back Lodge to find Laura Palmer. Bringing her back to life in her purest form would mean that BOB and Evil Cooper are in danger and that's why they, their numerous associates and the woodsmen are threatening Douglas Jones, who is Good Cooper's host. This means that BOB's nemesis isn't Dale Cooper but Laura Palmer. The former represents the evil that men do and the latter the good that men do. This means that the strange entity that created BOB could be the devil or an immediate representative while the Giant who created Laura Palmer could be God or an immediate representative.

    Description: The eighth episode is unlike any other Twin Peaks episode. It's extremely surreal and reminds of David Lynch's early works but also of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and David Cronenberg's The Fly with a touch of Ed Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. and similar vintage science-fiction movies. The episode is going to be extremely divisive. Those who want a coherent plot and a return to the classic characters of Twin Peaks might be so confused about this episode that they will give up on the series. Those who like all the works of David Lynch and like experimental and surrealist cinema will celebrate this episode as a milestone. David Lynch is taking a big risk with this episode but revolutions have always come with great risks. And this is what this episode actually is: a revolution in the history of film-making. 

    Favorite scene: It's impossible to point out a specific scene. This episode is the best, most original and most revolutionary hour of film-making that has ever appeared on television. You have to experiment it multiple times in one shot, especially the sequence from 16:19 minutes to 56:40 minutes. David Lynch has written history and left a gigantic heritage with this unique piece of art. 

    Rating: 10/10

    A favorite from my home country

     

    Die Tür / The Door (2009) - A gripping and philosophical drama with a multitude of influences - 10/10 (11/04/11)

    Die Tür / The Door (2009) 

     

    This movie is easily the best German movie I have seen in the last three years. It is a haunting and atmospheric drama with some science-fiction elements, an eerie touch of suspense and even psychological horror as well as some action scenes. This flick has also a strong philosophical character without being too educative. The gripping question of fate and morality may affect you way beyond this movie and I thought about this intense film many days after I have watched it first.

    Normally, I hardly give elevated ratings but everything feels right about the movie. The acting of the movie is simply great. Let's point out that Mads Mikkelsen is playing the role of his life and proves once again that he is a great actor that is able to improve every time again and again. He is amongst my favourite actors now. There are many promising German actors that are delivering more than solid jobs here.

    The scenario of this movie is based on a novel and filled with complex actions, cliffhangers and twists, just like a great book. I am really looking forward to read the novel now and though I can't yet compare both, I feel that the movie was intense, detailed and diversified. What I really find fascinating is that the movie, even though the main plot is based on a fictional idea that one could associate to a science-fiction or fantasy movie, the whole flick seems real, authentic and down to earth. The mixture is unique and credible. The movie is not about a magic door that leads to the past or present. This little and only fantastic detail helps to kick the whole story off and one is quickly face to face with situations that mix dreams and reality, wishes and deceptions, hopes and despairs so that one doesn't care about whether the introduction is not fitting or too unreal. This movie is not about something exactly supernatural, it's a lot about the true human character and its ideologies and behaviours.

    The movie has what I consider a perfect structure, it slowly introduces the main characters and creates more and more a creepy atmosphere with some weird, surprising and shocking scenes that lead to a dramatic, emotional and action filled ending. You really get drowned into the whole story and feel with the characters.

    The way the movie is filmed is full of details and the angels and close ups add a lot to the atmosphere of the film. The movie score underlines the incredible and creative story that starts as a drama and ends as a psychological thriller that is more intense than many horror flicks.

    I highly recommend this brilliant and explosive mixture that touches your heart, your nerves and your brain. Spread the word about this rather unknown European flick that should gain worldwide attention as it has now come out in North America and the rest of the world.

    A favorite from my second home

     

    Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006) - Connecting two nations in a hilarious, entertaining and charming way - 10/10 (09/08/10)

    Bon Cop Bad Cop (2006)

    This movie is probably the best action comedy movie that the Quebecker and Canadian cinema has ever seen! While some other Canadian movies have too much of a regional charming and too many inside jokes that may not convince spectators from other countries, this movie has everything to become a world success. I've presented the movie to my parents, some European friends, some Canadian friends and a part of one guy who was a little bit upset about the violence and sex content of the movie, everyone just loved it and even the critical guy was laughing quite a lot during some parts of the movie.

    The story is nothing really extraordinary or innovating: A strange tattoo killer searches revenge for people who have sold Canadian ice hockey teams or famous Canadian hockey players to American managers, cities or teams as it happened for example in the real life with the Nordiques de Québec who became the Colorado Avalanches. A first dead body is found exactly on a giant road sign on the frontier between the French-Canadian state Quebec and the English state Ontario. That's why Colm Feore, who incorporates a more serious, down-to-earth and somehow uncool police officer from Toronto and Patrick Huard, who plays an emotionally driven and somehow crazy and naive cop from Montreal, have to collaborate together to find the killer. The two officers couldn't be more different and the movie certainly plays with a lot of clichés, but because of the two brilliant actors, there are many funny elements in the movie and the viewers learn really a lot about the French-Canadian culture and style, but also about Ontario's way of life and the conflicts and main differences between the two states. There are so many little funny scenes, without losing the main story out of sight, that this moving never gets boring. I've seen this film maybe five times and I'm still liking it and laughing a lot even though it's difficult to make me laugh and though I'm more into other movie genres. That's what makes this movie a cult movie: You must not be a fan of comedy to like it because this movie offers something to everyone: action, sex, crime, comedy, suspense, sports, cultural stuff and a good soundtrack - I'm sure that there is at least one point from this list that you may like or be interested in! And while there are a lot of hilarious moments, the movie has some real big action scenes, has a lot of suspense, some little twists caught in between some predictable events, a great showdown in the end and also a great soundtrack with great Canadian hard rock music. A apart of the two absolutely convincing main actors, there also a few other actors who have some nice cameo roles and who are giving something special and really fresh to the movie. Some really famous actors appear like the French-Canadian stand-up comedian Louis-José Houde and there also some convincing young actors who became more famous with this movie like the very charming Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse or the teen star Erik Knudsen.

    Because of its fresh acting, its unique cultural approach, this movie is different from the typical Hollywood blockbusters, but it's has everything you need for an entertaining movie of this genre. It's a true masterpiece for me! And by the way the best Canadian movie which I know and i Know a lot! And still by the way, it's is really great to see actors, directors and musicians from Ontario and Quebec collaborate and ridicules the clichés of each other's culture to bring those two twisted nations - French and English Canadians - closer to each other. That's why this movie is even more than just a movie - it connects people! And another good thing: Even though this was a blockbuster in Canadian cinemas, everyone accepts the uniqueness of the movie and there is no annoying sequel or remake planned at the moment!

    The worst movie I have watched

     

    The New World (2005) - Slow paced documentary instead of a movie - 1/10 (05/04/10)

    The New World (2005)

    Well, first of all, I would like to tell you that I am really interested in history, especially the North American History. I'm a history and geographic teacher and I'm also learning innu-aimun and watch Inuit movies. When I read about this movie, I was kind of happy because this could have been my kind of film. Well, it wasn't it at all.

    The movie shows a lot of beautiful landscapes, offers some interesting costumes and historical stuff. The movie is like a documentary or a walk through a museum. But there is nothing that happens! The development of the story is very slow and there is no point of acceleration anywhere in the movie. There are almost no dialogues, instead of trying to develop the characters or to create an interesting story about a forbidden romance, the director prefers to show us some birds and trees. I don't get any approach to the characters and their story which should be the core of this movie. When I was watching this first I've almost fallen asleep many times, I was wachting the clock like very five minutes, but I'm a tough guy, so I wanted to finish the movie and hoped for an interesting ending, but it was all in vain. It's just a boring documentary without a real story, without interesting acting, without surprising elements in the story... just avoid to watch this! If you like the general topic of the movie, go ahead for "Nouvelle-France" or "The Last of the Mohicans", but not for this one...

    The best movie I have watched

     

    Janghwa, Hongryeon / A Tale Of Two Sisters (2003) - Attention: This movie breaks your head like a nut - 10/10 (11/04/11)

    A Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

    This Korean movie is one of the roughest and most mind blowing flicks I have ever seen. It's complex and twisted with and plays a lot with illusions. Lynch and Cronenberg seem to be easy entertainment compared to this brilliant plot. This masterpiece absolutely requests multiple viewings if you are not just frustrated or angry after the first try and feel to throw the whole movie away. There is no path in between this extreme movie, you adore or hate this flick. Sometime sit can happen that you severely hate it in the beginning but you can't get away from that flick with that degree of in-satisfaction so that you try it out again and start to like it entirely in the end.

    The particular problem is that all the twists, surprises and revelations are in the last thirty minutes or so of the movie. The amount of details is just too high and at first try you will get completely dumped and lost but that was the intentions of the makers. You really don't see this ending coming as the movie starts like an intriguing and dramatic suspense flick playing in an eerie and haunted house. I felt that the first two thirds of the movie showed us nothing new in the genre of haunted mansions but I still really adored it because of the authentic and intense acting of every single character and a very dark atmosphere that sent some shivers down my spine. All of this is nothing compared to the last third that feels like if you were inside a storm and intense spiral of mental illness. This movie is hard to digest and difficult to appreciate and almost impossible to get fully understood. In the end, you realize that this movie is way more than just a movie about a haunted house. It can be interpreted as a horror movie, as a psychological suspense or as a tragic drama and depending on the attitude and focus of the audition, the movie may completely change its character, its soul. This flick is rich of details and interpretations. It's like a labyrinth that leads to several and very different exits but where you could also get lost forever. I cut off one point from a very subjective point of view as this movie was really hard to watch and appreciate and cost me a lot of time to get familiar with it. I highly recommend the board discussions of this movie but suggest you to watch this movie several times all alone before looking for further interpretations and discussions with the experts that have seen this movie ten times or more.

    I warn you! This intellectual movie is hard to digest. If you want to see an entertaining horror movie playing in an eerie mansion, go for "The Amityville Horror", "The orphanage" or "Rose Red". This movie will break your head like if it was a nut. It's absolutely anti mainstream, weird and unique and will haunt you for hours and days if you are willing to get into it. The movie demands your participation, you can't simply just watch it in order to get entertained. You must play the detective, analyze the scenes, spin backwards and forwards after a first coherent try. Even for experts and fans of Asian cinema like me, this is hard stuff. Nevertheless, this movie should get further attention as it is a unique masterpiece that can't and hopefully won't be remade. Congratulations to the genius that wrote the script and directed this weird stuff and to the amazing actors as well. This movie leads avant-garde cinema to a new level.

    The strangest movie I have ever watched

     

    Marebito (2004) - Weird stuff from Asia - 9/10 (28/01/11)

    Marebito (2004)

    This movie is a pleasant offering for any fan of Japanese cinema and weird mystery movies. I just gave this movie a try because I was attracted by the strange cover of a naked woman and a press text on the back that compared this movie to the works of Cronenberg and especially Lynch which I admire.

    This movie is not as strange and difficult to follow as the works of a David Lynch, but it comes quite close and proves its uniqueness with a weird fantasy story and many original ideas that make you doubt what is reality or illusion in this movie as the frontier between both is a very small path. The movie lives by its strange and mysterious main character, by its dark and frightening scenes in the metro or in the strange apartment and by its idea that the main character films everything he sees. The dark footage, the minimalist dialogues and the atmospheric and frightening music create an intense and uneasy atmosphere like in a morbid horror movie plus the Lynchian weirdness and Japanese originality as well as a shot of intellectual or philosophical content. That's a highly explosive mixture even though it is a typical slow paced flick like many in this genre. I really suggest you to watch this flick if my description already made you curious.

    This is a dark tale of an isolated and frosty man that wants to discover such an intense emotion as deadly gripping fear after he has accidentally filmed the suicide of an unemployed in a metro station. The main character wants to live the same emotion, stops to take his pills against depression and goes out to look what could have frightened the suicidal man in the metro as he is convinced that the man has seen something frightening out there. In the depths of the metro, the main character discover a strange underworld where strange spider men or robots live as well as some beggars and the ghost of the suicidal guy. He later discovers a strange and abandoned city in between some mountains of madness where he meets a naked and pale girl that is imprisoned in a small cave by a chain. The main character liberated the girl and takes her home. But she is very strange as she doesn't speak a single work and refuses to eat or drink anything that her new friend wants to offer her. As the main actor then gets strange and menacing calls and is observed and followed by a hysterical lady that says that the strange girl was her daughter, the camera man realizes that a strange secret surrounds this wicked girl: she needs blood to live and forces her saviour to look for new carcasses if he doesn't want to fail his strange mission and get menaced by the strange calls.

    « Fumer, c'est dégueu, mais la propagande anti-tabac est encore plus dégueueStatements on the pulse of time - A review of GrimSkunk's Unreason in the Age of Madness »
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