Life of Pi

Last wednesday my roommate came to me expressing his desire to go see a movie, he mentioned Jack Reacher was coming out on thursday and if I would be up for that. My first reaction was filled with a decent amount of hesitation, I had seen the trailer for the movie and well.. it didn't look great.
So I responded: "sure, but let's bring some beer", when looking at the showtimes however we stumbled upon a greater treasure. Life of Pi was having its first showings in the Netherlands, and this was a movie I was actually looking forward to. So after spreading the word around, we gathered a group of 4 willing participants.

Thursday evening came around the corner and the weather outside was frightful, and inside the heating was oh so delightful. So it took some serious dedication to drag ourselves out into the rain, as we were riding through the downpour, feeling like drowning cats. I said to myself: "This better be worth it." Anyways, after the struggle and the cold we managed to settle in our seats and mentally prepared ourselves for the upcoming two hour feature.

The movie itself felt nice to me at first, it was visually brilliant. The use of 3D in this movie is beyond anything I have seen so far. For me, without a doubt, the best 3D movie made to date. And that coming from a guy who hates 3D with a burning fury of a thousand suns. The story was a little silly at first and felt like children's tales at times. But I accepted it for what it was, and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
What I was not prepared for however was a mind blowing shift, that added incredible dimensions to this film that still occupy my mind. You could feel the entire audience holding their breath because of what was unfolding in front of their eyes. It was an experience in itself and for me it lifted this movie to extreme heights.
Of course I am trying to stay somewhat cryptic in an attempt not to spoil anything. Basically what I want to share is that for me this movie is about truth in life, and experience and perspective. And probably most of all, which is something that also interests me because of my affection for art, the message versus the way of conveying that message.

In short: "Go see this breathtaking masterpiece."

As always,

Live long and prosper,

Teun

Movies of november

November was slow, but december should be better.

Wristcutters, a love story (2006) - Quite interesting, I liked it.
Paranorman (2012) - Was more of a children's movie than I expected.
Milo (2012) - Not great, not bad.
Johnny English Reborn (2011) - Was fun.
Barfi! (2012) - Actually watched this twice, one of my new favorites. Just great.
Cloud Atlas (2012) - Incredibly interesting movie, need to watch this again.
Looper (2012) - Awesome.
The Sweeney (2012) - Simply terrible.
50/50 (2011) - Great movie, even got my quite emotional at times. Third time I watch it.
Chasing Amy (1997) - Just rewatching a Kevin Smith movie, was a good watch.

Looking forward to the Hobbit and Wreck it Ralph.

As always,
Live long and prosper.

Movies of october

Let's review yet another month of moviewatching, not quite the score I had last month.

Safety not guaranteed (2012) - I liked this a lot, had a nice feel to it.
Bachelorette (2012) - Had a few laughs, but that's about it.
Hope Springs (2012) - Very cute movie, Tommy Lee Jones is great.
Amour (2012) - Very impressive.
The perks of being a wallflower (2012) - The best coming of age film I've ever seen.
Jagten (2012) - It's scary how credible this was.
Trouble with the curve (2012) - Terribly standard.
Lawless (2012) - It was alright.
Robot & Frank (2012) - I quite liked this one.
Dredd (2012) - It was actually quite cool, didn't expect that.
Alleen maar nette mensen (2012) - Terrible, just terrible, dutch cinema disappointing me yet again. 
Killing them softly (2012) - This was a lot better than I expected, it had a great storytelling feel to it.
Beasts of the southern wild (2012) - Great movie, very impressive.
End of watch (2012) - So much better than I expected.
The awakening (2012) - Not what I would call a bad movie, just kinda 'meh'.
Skyfall (2012) - It was a cool movie, but with Javier Bardem as the bad guy I feel like it could've (maybe even should've) been so much more.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

Moviemania

Good evening,

Today has been a long day filled with movies and..  well, just movies actually. It all started last thursday, after a night of copious drinking we had managed to reel in another sucker to join our Pathe Unlimited crew. Which naturally meant that we had to see at least one movie on friday.
The only movie showing at a practical time that I hadn't already seen already was The Bachelorette, so me, a veteran Pathe Unlimited member and the rookie, set out to sit through the bachelorette trying to rid our bodies of yesterday's poison. To my surprise, I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Sure it was a cinematic piece of crap, but it was funny. And one of the girls was very sexy.
Anyways, after that little box of sunshine I still felt a longing for more. Which resulted in me and my new found moviepartner setting sail for Hope Springs. A movie that was very cute, oh so very cute. I'm going to stop myself here before I start rambling on and on again, because the point was. That after all of that, as we were about to call it a day. I stumbled upon a magazine advertising a film festival on Sunday (today), featuring 5 prerelease viewings. That was an offer too good to pass up, it was a bit of a struggle at first, trying to find someone crazy enough to go sit through five movies in a row with yours truly. But I succeeded, and this morning at 9:45am, I was waiting in front of the movie theater planning on not leaving until after the last movie of the day, which would be at 23:15.

The day started off strong with Amour, a french film that took Cannes by storm, it was an impressive piece of cinema. We were taken on a journey witnessing an elderly woman slowly losing her mind after suffering from a stroke. I felt like the movie was a tad drawn out, it was not necessarily boring, but it felt like it could've been edited down a bit. Apart from that, quite amazing. What I also loved was people applauding at the end of the movie. It made me feel... at home, surrounded by movie lovers I guess. A giant theater filled with people crazy enough to sit through 10 hours of cinema in a single day.
Then we moved on to The perks of being a wallflower. A movie that I was actually looking forward to. And also the movie that surprised me the most. (And that's including the surprise mystery movie) It features Logan Lerman, an actor I had not seen before. And he was joined by two people I was very happy to see being able to break their mold. Emma Watson and Ezra Miller traded their generic molds for something new. And did it quite well. Although afterwards people still referred to Emma as "Hermione", ah well, that's what you get for doing Harry Potter. Anyways, the movie started off feeling like quite the generic High School movie, but as it went along it felt like a snowball rolling down the hill. Taking on more and more topics and depth, finally leaving me choked up for the last 40 minutes of the movie.
The third movie, Jagten, was very impressive. Mads Mikkelsen seems to be growing in popularity and I can see why. I don't have that much to say about this movie other than that it felt incredibly credible to me. (See what I did there?) A lot of quite heavy stuff happened in the movie but it managed to remain very convincing.
On to the mystery movie, I don't know what to say about this. It felt like they wanted to give us a break from all the heavy movies and felt like throwing yet another generic movie at us. So they blessed us with Trouble with the curve, the latest Clint Eastwood movie. It had predictability, it had a struggling father daughter relationship, it had a bad guy, it had a misunderstood good guy and last but not least, it had Justin Timberlake. What can I say? It had it all.
Okay, and finally they sent us away with Lawless, a movie that was slightly above entertaining. It had certain elements that made it incredibly generic. But they seemed well aware of that, and decided to make fun of themselves for that fact. This reminded me of a Grindhouse kind of approach, make your movies so ridiculously over the top, it's awesome again. Sadly, they didn't manage to pull it off. Which leaves me at my original verdict: "slightly above entertaining."

Well, all in all, a great day for a movieloving s-o-b like myself. Can't wait to do it all again next year. Now I'm off to explore rainbows, unicorns and greener pastures in Neverland.

Teun

Movies of september

And another month has passed, got a good score this month.


Ill Manors (2012) - Not a great movie, but it had a narration that was done in the form of spoken word, (as in the music genre) it really appealed to me.
The Bourne Legacy (2012) - I wish they would've stuck to the original 3 movies.
The Angel's Share (2012) - Quite enjoyable.
Your sister's sister (2011) - A fun watch.
Black Dynamite (2009) - Loved it.
Savages (2012) - Feel free to skip this movie.
Ip man (2008) - Epic Kung-Fu movie.
Good Dick (2008) - Uh... well, kinda weird movie. But enjoyable.
Wild Bill (2011) - Better than I expected, love their accents.
The Squid and the Whale (2005) - An interesting look at kids taking sides during a divorce.
C.R.A.Z.Y (2005) - Quite strong movie about a boy struggling with his homosexuality.
The Science of sleep (2006) - I very much liked this movie, it's kind of odd, but very strong.
Tyrannousaur (2011) - I recommend this one, worth watching for their accents alone.Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) - Awesome. Woody Allen as I like him.
Wanderlust (2012) - Uh... it's funny at times, but that's about it.
The Kid (1921) - Awesome!
Back to the future (1985) - Was a fun watch, but I think the beer had something to do with that.
Spartacus (1960) - Epic.
As good as it gets (1997) - Very nice.
Mallrats (1995) - I have a thing for Kevin Smith's movies.
Clerks 2 (2006) - Again, Kevin Smith is awesome.
Being Flynn (2012) - Not great, but decent.
Detachment (2012) - Watched this again, I was not as impressed as the first time, but still strong.
Ruby Sparks (2012) - I quite liked this, wrote a longer story somewhere.
Love is all you need (2012) - A cute movie, romcom, nothing more, nothing less.
Magic Mike (2012) - This was an awesome watch, laughed my balls off.
Shadow Dancer (2012) - Meh, kind of interesting, but not at all captivating.
The Campaign (2012) - Very funny.

As always,
Live long and prosper,

Teun

Ruby

Good evening,

As I am writing this the clock has already struck past midnight well over 35 minutes ago. So my magical pumpkin has left me, and the guards have turned back in to mice. I am however glad to share that I did not attend a ball tonight, but instead I had yet another night of magic and slight mischief at our local theater.

The day took a turn towards fun and adventure at 18:36 pm today. When one of my lifelong friends gave me a call, asking me if I was up for some drinks at one of our favorite bars in Amsterdam (a bar called "de Prael", we have grown quite fond of this place because of a certain area within the bar which has a setting that is designed to give out a 'living room' kind of vibe. This is just the kind of vibe in which we feel incredibly comfortable wetting our whistles.) The proposal went on to suggest that we go see a movie afterwards. Originally starting off with The Bourne Legacy, moving on to The Dark Knight Rises, but me having seen both of these, we finally settled upon a newly released movie called Ruby Sparks. My friend informed me that he was already settled at our favorite 'living room' in Amsterdam, together with another friend I know from my hometown.
So, after I obviously agree to see them later on (I still had to eat dinner), I find myself a backpack and fill it with beer. Because I had a feeling it was going to be one of those nights where getting drunk in the cinema was appropriate. About an hour and a half later I am sitting next to my two friends in our make believe living room, beer in our hands, and music in the air. This goes on for a while, until the fourth and final friend joins us. We finish our delightful beverage and jump on our steeds. The journey from the bar to the cinema was swift, uneventful, yet adventurous. A description that only fits a bike ride made in Amsterdam.

Anyways, this was the prelude. I'm half a page further and the movie hasn't even started yet. As some, or many, have observed, I get more chatty after a beer or two, or three.
This particular movie was about a writer who starts writing about a girl he first envisions in a dream. Although he has never met her, he becomes incredibly intrigued by her and can't stop writing. Until one day, she appears in his life, just as she had been described by him in ink.
To me, I don't really care if this is meant as just a casual case of "the magic of love" or one of those cases of, don't take things too literally. For me, what I found very interesting, was the internal moral debate that the writer is facing. Do I influence (control) her, or should I accept her the way she is?
To me this can be loosely translated to, if I find someone I love do I take her the way she is, or should I try to "fix" her flaws in order to fit her inside my mold. At what point does she lose what makes her the person I fell in love with. And how do I make sure she isn't just a copy of what I feel the perfect woman would be like.
I am a painter myself, what would happen if one day, one of my female nude paintings would separate themselves from the page and materialize into a woman made of flesh and blood. Would this be a mere representation of my fantasy, or would this be a self-aware person, capable of decisions and free will?

Personally, I don't know the answer to these questions just yet. But I'm very glad that I found a movie tonight that was capable of making me ask myself these questions. Although the alcohol may have played a part in this.
This is probably one big incoherent mess, but if this in some way has interested you, go see Ruby Sparks.

As always,
Live long and prosper,

Teun

Movies of august

Hi,

Another month further, another month of movie-watching. This month has been relatively slow.

Seeking a friend for the end of the world (2012) - Very enjoyable, thought the end was slightly over dramatic, but it worked well.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) - This was so terrible it was great.
Lockout (2012) - Exactly what you'd expect, terrible, but lots of explosions.
American History X (1998) - Still an incredibly impressive movie.
La meglio gioventu (2003) - Third time I've seen this six-hour-epic now, and it still blows my mind.
A royal affair (2012) - Darker than I expected, but quite good.
God bless America (2011) - Awesome, feel good movie of the year.
A simple life (2012) - A very nice look into the everyday life of eastern culture.
The expendables 2 (2012) - It was terrible, and they knew it themselves, which is what made it awesome.
The watch (2012) - I had a great laugh.
To Rome with love (2012) - Better than I expected, a lot weirder than other Woody Allen movies, but in a good way I think.
Ted (2012) - I laughed the whole way through.
Gone with the wind (1939) - Truly one of america's masterpieces.

As always,
Live long and prosper,

Teun

Bonnie and Clyde

Good evening,

As I'm writing this my computer clock reads 2:15 am, and I just returned from a late night cinema visit. This night's lucky movie was God Bless America it was a pre-screening kinda thing, the movie won't be released for another week on a national level in the Netherlands.

This movie was one of the few films I have actually been looking forward to. In short, it's about a guy who gets knocked down by life and as he's about to put an end to said life, he gets distracted by an overwhelmingly obnoxious girl on one of MTV's more popular shows called Sweet Sixteen. At that moment he decides to postpone his suicide and instead, put an early end to the life of the girl who so clearly has not earned the right to keep living.
So, at this point, I was already in love with the movie. It reminded me of Super (2010) a film about a guy who decides to become a superhero, which basically means he goes around hurting and killing people he decides are not being nice.
God Bless America however goes a lot deeper into its hatred of particular groups of society. As you watch the movie you can feel the hatred oozing off the screen. I really felt the writer's conviction, and his deep and pure dislike towards certain behavior and cultural developments. And goddamn it, I could not agree more.
Basically, this movie is a dark comedy, and laugh I did. But it was more than that, at some parts the lines and conversation actually make strong arguments and are quite witty and well thought out.

If you are anything like me, and you have a deepfound hatred for the kind of people who are idolized on popular MTV shows, you will love this movie. And if you can't possibly wait until you get to see it in cinemas, may I suggest watching Super in the meantime.

As always,

Teun

Movies of july

Another month of moviewatching has passed, time to evaluate.

La Haine (1995) - Very strong movie.
How I spent my summer vacation (2012) - This was the first sneak preview of the month, and it was a great watch.
Cell 211 (2009) - Very strong story development.
Win Win (2011) - Slightly more than enjoyable.
The Raid (2012) - Lots of fighting, felt like a more gruesome version of Ip Man.
Mar adentro (2004) - Impressive and depressing.
Le Prenom (2012) - Better than expected, kind of like a lighter version of Festen.
Habla con Ella (2002) - Quite intriguing, kinda weird tho.
Entre les Murs (2008) - It was interesting and insightful, but not necessarily enjoyable.
Garden State (2004) - Bad.
A few best men (2012) - Terrible movie quality wise, I still had a good laugh.
La delicatesse (2011) - Quite enjoyable, nothing special, but worth watching.
Detachment (2011) - Very impressive movie, Adrien Brody is a strong actor.
The Wrestler (2008) - A movie I consider to be great for reasons explained in last month's post.
Brave (2012) - A lot more aimed at children than I expected, still fun tho.
Comme un Chef (2012) - A lot more fun than I expected.
Madagascar 3 (2012) - I laughed my ass off.
Batman Begins (2005) - Freaking great, this movie gets a surprising lack of affection from the masses.
The Dark Knight (2008) - Amazing. Heath Ledger achieves a mesmerizing performance.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Not quite the cinematic masterpiece that the Dark Knight was, but still a great ending to the trilogy.
Jeux d'enfants (2003) - I'm not yet sure what my definite opinion on this movie is, for now I'll claim to have liked it.
Big Fish (2003) - Enjoyable, but I don't see why this movie gets so much love. It's a fine movie, but not amazing.
Project X (2012) - Ah well, you gotta watch one of these every once in a while.
Megamind (2010) - A fun watch.
A history of violence (2005) - I remembered it being better than it was.
The Boondock Saints (1999) - I love anything with an irish accent.
Red Lights (2012) - If I could've watched this again and taken away the last few minutes, I would've called it an enjoyable movie. But with this ending it made me want to puke my guts out.

A good score this month.

As always,

Live long as prosper,
Teun

Wrestling

Good evening,
Last week I was trying very hard to keep myself occupied in an attempt to soothe the voice in my head that was screaming "badabadabadabada-BATMAN!" over and over again. One of those close to futile attempts started quite late. I believe it was last wednesday, around half past midnight, I asked my roommate if he would be up for a movie. I had set my sights on "The Wrestler", a movie I've found quite hard to convince people to watch because of the name alone. As soon as I mention the title people seem to scatter and run for the hills. Because who would want to watch a wrestling movie?
Usually I would try to explain to these people that The Wrestler is no more about wrestling than let's say.. Black Swan is about ballet or House M.D. is about medicine. It is just some kind of base that is required to convey a message. And almost always, I'd get the response: "yeah, yeah, what other movies you got?"
But on this night, my roommate caved, and we watched The Wrestler. A movie I had seen once before, when it first came out, I had watched it on one of my flights across the pond separating my homeland from my sister's. Also known as the Atlantic ocean. I had liked it back then, it had made a certain impression on me that made it somewhat memorable.

Last wednesday however, it struck me in a whole new way. I really sat down for it, and let it do it's work on me. A movie that is strayed away from by quite a few because of the wrestling aspect, showed me a very different underlying message.
To me this movie shows us an incredibly interesting triangle in the life of a wrestler nearing retirement. At one end of this triangle we have our Wrestling superhero "Randy the Ram", and you see him doing his thing. The crowd goes wild, and he gives them a great show. This is truly what he likes to do, and he does it well. The public sees him as a living legend.
Then there's his colleagues, his fellow wrestlers, we get a view at the professional aspect of wrestling. The interaction between the wrestlers, he is treated with respect but also a certain level of carefulness. People realize he's nearing his limit, and he can't do the things he used to be able to do.
And then there's the handful of people who actually know him when he's not putting on a show. The few people who interact with him during day to day life. In this film we see him reaching out to these people. Attempting to break free of all his roles, his shows, his characters.
The overlap between these three worlds, and the direct interaction between them, is what makes this is a great film for me.

If this verbal diarrhea manages to get even one person closer to ignoring their inner voice telling them they don't want to see a movie about the ballet, or wrestling or two gay cowboys, I have done my good deed for the day.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

Movies of june

Time for another monthly report.

Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - Awesome movie, great feel to it.
Prometheus (2012) - Cool movie, left me with a lot of questions tho. 
Almost Famous (2000) - Was a nice watch, I liked the music. 
Cosmopolis (2012) - I've heard mixed reactions to this movie, I thought it was badly executed.
Donnie Darko (2001) - I've watched this movie a couple of times now, I hope to one day truly understand it.
De rouille et D'os (2012) - Very strong movie, I liked this a lot. Seen it twice already now.
Drive (2011) - Man I love this movie.
Shame (2011) - I needed to rewatch this, so I did. Intense movie.
I am Sam (2001) - Sean Penn can play anything.
21 Jump street (2012) - Saw this with a filled movie theater, the crowd was going wild.
Starbuck (2012) - Very enjoyable, was better than I expected.
Blue Valentine (2011) - Ryan Gosling is great.
Paris, Texas (1984) - This movie had a great pace to it. 
The Raven (2021) - Okay to see, nothing special. But not bad.
The lucky one (2012) - Truly terrible, but we had an afternoon to fill.
The Five-year engagement (2012) - Had me laughing out loud for a good portion of the 2 hour movie.
Cashback (2006) - I quite liked this, had a nice feel to it.
Lilya-4-Ever (2002) - Quite impressive and depressing at the same time.
The amazing Spiderman (2012) - If you're a superhero fan like me, go watch this. If not, it's not that much different from the original spiderman.
Full Metal Jacket (1987) - Awesome.
Ice Age 4 (2012) - Lots of fun.

All in all, june has been a good movie month, but July is going to unleash The Dark Knight Rises. That's gonna be tough to beat.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

De rouille et d'os

I think this deserves some kind of preface. My frequency of visiting the movie theaters has resulted in me seeing the trailer for this movie somewhere between 10-20 times. I thought it was a good trailer, so I was excited to see the movie. So much so, that I actually wanted to see the premiere revealing last friday, but due to lack of enthusiasm, I stayed home and chilled.
My friend however, did go to see it, thinking I would be there to accompany him. He reported back to me the next day, referring to this movie as an "okay movie to watch, nothing special".
I however, was still quite excited to go see this. So fast-fowarding a little less than a week, here I am thursday afternoon, asking my roommates if anybody would be up for watching a french movie I had been excited to see for quite a while.
This request resulted in me spending a lovely evening with one of the before mentioned roommates. She did however have one condition.  We would  have to bring some beer.
A couple of hours later, here we were. Sitting the theaters, a backpack filled with beer and snacks. Ready for action.
I wasn't sure what to expect, but I didn't care much. I was certain I would at least be entertained, and I had brought beer, so who cared?

Nothing however could've prepared me for what coming my way. People who know me even a little bit should know that I have watched hundreds of movies the last couple of years. But what I experienced this night, only a couple of hours ago, is something completely new to me. Something in years and years of moviewatching has never happened to me before.
I sat there, in my seat, holding a beer, and as the plot was thickening on the screen before my eyes. I actually found myself feeling and thinking; "Oh God, I really hope this ends well."

This might not sound that impressive to most of you, but coming from a guy who watches movies from a 99.9% analytic point of view. This was revolutionary emotional empathy.

Another thing I really loved about this movie was how misleading the trailer was. The one thing that drove me to want to see this movie, was a complete lie. And regardless of that fact I still loved every moment of this film.
As I am writing this, I feel like I'm skipping steps, or maybe not making complete sense. This is mostly due to the copious amounts of alcohol I have consumed during this movie, and partly due to the emotional excitement I have racing through my veins after experiencing this work of art.

As always.

Live long and prosper,
Teun.

Moons and pregnancies

Good morning,

This time I thought I would cover my cinematic adventures of multiple days.
Let us rewind to last sunday, after awakening from a drunken slumber my plans were to return to Amsterdam, take a look at my new school building, and move on to the room I have the privilege of calling home. Those plans were slightly altered when more people decided to join me for my journey. Which ultimately resulted in me and two friends sitting with a backpack filled with snacks and beer in the dinnertime showing of "What to expect when you're expecting" a movie probably frowned upon by many. Granted, this movie will not end up in the books of cinematic history, but I still enjoyed myself. Although at one point all the women around us were not-so-silently weeping over the intense emotions oozing off the screen. But luckily, us men have had years and years of thorough training on how to get through tough emotional moments. So we decided to crack open another beer and laugh it off.

For me, the real plan of that night was the 21:20 showing of "Moonrise Kingdom", a movie I had been looking forward to for weeks, ever since they decided to show the trailer before every freaking movie I went to see. Resulting in me seeing it about 10 times in the past month. So after stuffing ourselves full of unhealthy burgers for the 3rd time that day, I entered the Pathe City with a slight feeling of excitement. So far I had not heard that much of the movie, but everything had been positive. What I was not prepared for was that I would absolutely love this movie. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, you'll know it. The combination of oddness and humor reminded me in a way of Amelie, some may take this as an offense, as if I'm calling it unoriginal, but I find calling a movie reminiscent of Amelie a grand compliment. Anways, this movie has a certain oddness to it, that works up to a point where it makes everything more amusing and enjoyable and somehow does not come off as overly weird. That is an amazingly fine balance that they managed to hit spot on.
This is a movie I am certain will be re watched by me and many others. If I know myself even a little, I'll probably go see it in theaters again soon enough.

So, after closing off sunday with such success and enjoyment. I took a day off, no movies for me on monday.

But, tuesday, of course meant time to get back in action. Somewhere in the afternoon I approached my friend if we were planning on raping any cinemas that evening. And after going through what was showing, cross-matching the play times, and even contemplating going to see multiple movies, we decided it was time to go see "Prometheus". A movie I insisted we go see in the Grand Hall of Pathé Tuschinski, a beautiful hall in a most beautiful theater. Definitely my favorite cinema to go to.
It had been maybe 10 years since I saw Alien, it was at a slumber party during one of my visits to the states. We were a group of young boys watching a movie we probably shouldn't be watching. And it made quite the impression.
So I knew who Ridley Scott was when the name appeared to me on the giant movie screen. But I had no real expectations of what Prometheus would bring me. I figured just going to see it and letting it wash over me was a good approach. What I must confess is that I'm actually not that big of a fan of this genre. I think this comes from my very analytical approach to movies, this helps me appreciate a lot of movies a whole lot more. But when it comes to movies that are supposed to have you trembling in your seat, I can never quite get that same thrill that others are getting. Because I'm not looking at the movie in the same way, I can never quite get sucked in to the point of shared fear.
I don't think too much should be said about Prometheus, it looked amazing, although at some points I thought certain design choices made a couple of objects look outright funny, but as a whole, it was incredibly impressive.
My personal judgement of this movie is this: It made me want to go back and re watch Alien.

So, for those of you who have been paying attention, there is a shared theme between these three movies one I realized as I was riding my bike back home last night. Moons and pregnancies. For the Alien fans out there, that should be good news.

As always.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

Movies of may

Good morning,

I think I'd like to do a monthly summary of what I've watched the past month and a very quick word of judgement. Hopefully I can do this somewhat chronologically.

Shame (2011) - Very impressive movie, need to rewatch this.
The Avengers (2012) - Superhero-movies are my weakness, and this is an awesome one.
Un Prophète (2009) - Quite nice, and felt different somehow from what you usually see.
Safe (2012) - Bad movie, watch this if you're bored and you need some action.
The Artist (2011) - Great film, go watch this.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2012) - It's alright.
This must be the place (2012) - I like Sean Penn, it's a nice movie, kind of odd tho.
The Diving bell and the Butterfly (2007) - Great movie, second time I watch this. Definitely recommend it.
Zack and Miri make a porno (2008) - Incredibly funny.
The Dictator (2012) - Quite enjoyable
Dark Shadows (2012) - Different from what I expected, but I liked it.
Cabin in the Woods (2012) - I've read great things about this, but I disliked it. Definitely not my thing.
Finding Neverland (2004) - One of Johnny Depp's better performances in my opinion.
Men in Black III (2012) - Very enjoyable, and two stars from No Country for old Men, what more could you wish for?
On the Road (2012) - Around 8-10 people left the theater during this movie, unlike them, I quite liked it.
The Hunger Games (2012) - Have a long version of my opinion on this movie, basically: bad rip-off.
Fetih 1453 (2012) - I've read a lot of praise on this movie, I thought it was terrible.
Iron Sky (2012) - I already knew I'd like this just because of the plot summary on IMDB.
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) - Read below, I thought it had more potential.

As always.

Live long and prosper,
Teun
 

Snow White

Good evening,

As I am writing this it is 2:16 am on a friday night, and I have had a few drinks.
My night started out expecting to go to Moonrise Kingdom, a movie I had been quite excited to go see since its trailer has been shown with incredible frequency in all the movies I've gone to see lately. The downside of this movie was its showtime, it was showing at 19:20 pm, which for me meant I had to rush dinner, which resulted in me eating a bowl of cereal.

I showed up at the theater on time, but due to a 52 hour roller coaster ride of sleep deprivation my friends did not manage to achieve the same result. So, instead of going to see Moonrise Kingdom, we went out and had the before mentioned drinks. Me and my friend were however still longing for our cinema fix, we were craving a friday night movie and darn it, we would have one!
So, we decided to go see Snow White and the Huntsman which was showing at 23:00pm at a local theater. A movie I had not been as excited about, but expected it to be at least somewhat worth watching. The magnitude of me claiming a Kristen Stewart movie to be "worth watching" is greater than you might realize.

For I may have not mentioned this before but within me there is a righteous fury that burns with incredible hatred for a girl called Kristen Stewart and a man called Nicolas Cage (I know I'm not alone on the second one). My hatred for Kristen started when I watched the first twilight movie and I started to realize that she had a very specific way of looking whenever she wanted to appear longing or in love.
She would slightly close her eyes and open her mouth, and if she really wanted to drive her point home, she would lightly bite her lower lip.
At that moment I had a startling realization. I had seen this look before. I knew this look from a movie that is one of my favorites and that bear some fond memories. The movie I am speaking of is Into the Wild, and upon realizing that this look is some generic acting trick, I can never look at a major part of Into the Wild with the same loving eyes.
And for this injustice, I hate Kristen Stewart with a righteous fury.

So, ignoring this hatred for the sake of cinematic history, I went to see Snow White and the Huntsman, which turned out to be a pre-theatrical release. Close to sold out even, luckily me and my friend had free entrance and just strolled in. The movie kind of disappointed me.


Where I think they went terribly wrong is their general decision making. A great majority of the film feels like some world that reminds me of Lord of the Rings, and if they had went all the way with it I think they could've made a great fantasy re-imagining of Snow White.
But they didn't, from time to time they would pay some small, let's call them... homages. To the original Disney Snow White, and they would break out of their fantasy feeling and throw in some very unfitting cheesy moments. This took the movie for me from a point of "this could be great" down to just "worth watching". In my opinion, they should've either gone for a realistic remake of the Disney Snow White, or they should've gone for a fantasy re-imagining, either way they could've made it into a great movie. But turning this movie into a blend of two contradicting ways of portraying a story doomed this movie from the start.
Ah well, at least Kristen Stewart didn't show us her generic lovey-dovey-look-at-me-I'm-in-love-look.
Believe it or not, but this mediocre film actually improved my view of Kristen as an actress, almost as much as seeing her boobies in On the Road did.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

The Hunger Games.

Yesterday I went to see The Hunger Games, a movie I was very skeptical about. It has received a lot of hype and excitement, but for the most part I've heard people cheering about how original the story was, and what a great story Suzanne Collins has created.

The movie is about a society where the government is forcing civilians, one boy and one girl picked from every of the twelve so-called "division" (making a total of 24), to fight each other until only one remains. This is done as a reminder and a general scare tactic to keep the country in check as to avoid a repetition of a great rebellion.

After seeing the trailer, it made me think of another movie I have seen. This may require some introduction to illustrate my personal attachment to this film.
When I was in my first year of high school I had a classmate with a passion for manga. One day he brought one of his many books to school, this one was called "Battle Royale" he explained it was a series of books describing the tale of a group of high school students who got abducted and placed on an island. They were told that they would have to kill each other until only one person would remain, that student would be allowed to go home.
This "Battle Royale" was held as a punishment and a government intimidation tactic because of the ongoing rebellion they were experiencing in their country. Hm... this sounds familiar.
So I read some of my friend's books and I was excited because the books were incredibly brutal, which makes them a lot more fun to secretly read during high school classes.

This manga series has been made into a movie unsurprisingly called Battle Royale.


Having seen and read Battle Royale, the story Suzanne Collins has created and which Gary Ross and visualized did not seem as original to me as it seemed to a lot of people I've talked to about it.
This made the Hunger Games feel like a bad rip-off to me, a lot of what attracted me to Battle Royale was missing from the Hunger Games, probably in order to make it more appropriate for the western cinema.
I feel like the natural reaction to being told by your government that you are being sent out to fight for your life in an arena should be falling to the ground and shaking and trembling in the fetal position for hours, perhaps days. This expression of utter fear was incredibly lacking in the Hunger Games, sure they were scared and they were nervous. But the kids crying for days at end shaking and trembling, fearing for their lives, were absent. This bothered me heavily.
There are several other points I could ramble on about, which I have to my accompanying friend yesterday evening. But I shouldn't turn this into a giant rant.

I think what I'm trying to say is: The Hunger Games has been made into a movie appropriate for western cinema, which I feel is a giant mistake, since it's a subject that should be incredibly disturbing. If you want an entertaining movie, with action, emotion and pretty girls, go see The Hunger Games.
If you want a movie that shows you what happens when high school kids are forced to fight for survival, go see Battle Royale. I personally highly recommend the latter.

Live long and prosper,
Teun

Hello,

My name is Teun de Boer. I'm a 20 year old guy living in Amsterdam with a drive for painting, a struggle with the piano and a passion for movies. (For those of you who are interested in my paintings, feel free to browse www.teundeboer.com.)

A couple of friends and I have recently purchased a so called "Pathe Unlimited" card, which basically allows me to go to any movie showing in Amsterdam's cinemas free of charge. Which has resulted in me sitting in the theaters about 4-5 times a week.
Over the years I've watched what must've been several thousands of movies, hopefully this qualifies me to some degree to make basic judgements on movies, or at least share my thoughts and leave it up to others to what extend they will value those thoughts.
I figured since I very much enjoy discussing movies, or as Alabama puts it in "True Romance": "After I see a movie I like to get a piece of pie and talk about it." I might as well try to write about it and see if I can get the ball rolling that way.

Some general information about my taste in movies:
- I love Quentin Tarantino with all my heart and soul, certain scenes in Death Proof give me endless joy.
- Christopher Nolan is one of my heroes for taking superheroes movies from a place where they were considered to be for geeks and 12 year old boys to a level where they are works of art.
- I have a weakness for Kevin Smith and any superhero movie, for some reason superpowers excite and entertain me to no end. (Except for Captain America, I have no idea how that guy got popular.)
- Some movies I always have available on my laptop for moments when I'm bored, hung over, need to entertain guests or just feel like it's been too long since I last saw one of them are:
A Beautiful Mind (2001)-I love the way it allows me to imagine the horror of his uncertainty.
City of God (2002)-A great look into a world I didn't know much about.
Crash (2004)-Watching and analyzing people interact just interests me to no extend.
Das Leben der Anderen (2006)-Just watch it.
Donnie Darko (2001)-I have spent hours trying to figure this movie out, I still don't think I have.
Drive (2011)-This is a great example of a story told a million times before but now done a million times better.
Fargo (1996)-Steve Buscemi. Very underrrated actor, he shines in Boardwalk Empire.
Fight Club (1999)-Gets better every time I rewatch it.
Grindhouse-Death Proof (2007)-One of my absolute favorites, Tarantino has a gift for writing dialogue.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)-Nazi's getting their skulls crushed.
Into the Wild (2007)-Interesting story with an amazing soundtrack done by Eddie Vedder.
Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain (2001)-Just love the way this story is told.
Memento (2000)-Christopher Nolan.
No Country For Old Men (2007)-I could watch this movie 5 times a day.
Pulp Fiction (1994)-A cinematic piece of greatness.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)-I love the tip scene.
La meglio gioventù (2003)-This is probably my all-time favorite, a 6 hour Italian epic following the life of two brothers. A general must-see for everybody in my opinion.




Anyways, I plan to update this page with posts containing my opinion on movies I've seen, both recently and in the past.


Live long and prosper,
Teun