Reviews

So, let me first say that... this is NOT a bad movie! I know, most of us were somewhat skeptical about another 4th franchise movie since **ahum** Indiana Jones **ahum** which I refuse to acknowledge exists. But anyway, I also had my reservations and was not really excited for this. But I went anyway without any expectations really.

The good:

Chris Pratt... I mean obviously. I'd almost watch it again just for him. He's definitely on the right track with his role choices and I hope to see more of him. Great mix of fun and action. Could be the next John Mclane or Indy if he wanted to.

Jurassic Park memories. The beginning of the movie, where everything is just fine, you really get thrown back into the whole hype of dinosaurs. It's not on the same level as the actual Jurassic Park era but the soundtrack helps a lot. Still one of my faves.

Special effects. OMG, it just all looks so realistic. Very impressed and not too much as would be very ease to go overboard with this.

The bad: Story. Bad is not really the best word for it, it's rather safe than bad. If you haven't seen the movie yet but think about what the storyline will be, 9 out of 10 you'll be right. So nothing really out of the ordinary happens, although there are a few WTF moments for sure.

Open ended... You all saw this coming right... you have to leave room for sequels if this one makes some dough. And it sickens me... but hey, chewing out sequels just for money is what Transformers are all about so.

So yeah, I'm glad I saw it and it's a fun, somewhat brainless, action family movie. If you're gonna see it, do it in a cinema, just to hear the deafening roars!

Sooooo, this was boring.... Sorry to be blunt and all, but that's just the sad truth I'm afraid. As other reviewers already mentioned... nothing really happens in this Part 1. Everything just feels like it's building up to something and then there were credits. Kinda like the first Hobbit movie.

I liked the first 2 movies of Hunger games. It even convinced me to start reading the books. Books are great... but then again, these books can't be stretched anymore to make more money. Aaaaand the movies can. Let's lure more people to the movies, yeah!

So, if you feel like watching a trailer of about 2 hours... be my guest. I'd advice to see the real trailer, it pretty much sums everything up.

Oh yeah acting not bad but mostly forced dialogue. Almost George Lucas'ish... 3 action scenes that'll wake you up in time before the movies over.

Can't wait for part 1,5!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meh... that was our reaction when the credits rolled after seeing Dark Shadows. I wasn't even planning to go see him in the cinema, but my friends wanted to see him and just went along. Afterwards, they liked it even less than me, which was funny. Everyone is talking about the collaborations of Burton and Depp. I dunno, IMO they make only movies for themselves and if the public likes them, they got lucky. Separately they are brilliant and both have great movies. Together, something happens... every movie is "different" to say the least. I think Sleepy Hollow is still their best one yet, and I don't think they can top it. This one however... I'm never going to see again. Because what is it about, do we even have to think about this one? Why did they even take time and money to make it?? Is this what people are waiting for I wonder. OK, short overview: Visuals were great as we've come to expect of Burton. Depp is a great actor, but stuck in a terrible roll. Eva Green is as hot as they come!! The red dress!! The young girl, who I recognized from Kick-Ass is growing up nicely... I know she's fifteen, but you can already tell she's gonna be a beauty in years to come. I actually liked her performance best of all, until she became a *spoiler* at the end when the whole movie was ready to be put out with the trash. What sucked? Everything else... story? no Plot? even less Idiotic chars? Too much! So to conclude: better watch the old goodies once more and keep up the dream of their perfect collaborations.

Best regards, Raf

How does one review a movie, which has the unfavorable label of being the worst flop in movie history... What went wrong, how did it go wrong and who's to blame??

They had all the right ingredients: big budget, good director, original book series as base, etc...

But sometimes, even when you mix all the right ingredients the wrong way... you might not like the taste of it afterwards.

I've just seen the movie at home, but I'd like to share my feelings about it when I first heard of the movie:

I saw a red poster with the Disney logo on it, and the words: JOHN CARTER. So I said to myself: Is Disney making a new animation movie without me knowing it? I mean what or who the h*ll is John Carter supposed to be? FAILURE 1: Choose I title that means something to the public. Then I saw some footage, in the form of stills and a trailer... Ouch... Who was the prince of persia wannabe? They were talking about him like he was this fitness buff or something. Sorry, he's fit.. I'll give him that.. but have any of these idiots watched thor, captain America, X-men... I mean those guys trained their asses off to look big. This guy can't even walk... all he does is jump and look weird. FAILURE 2: Choose your leading man better!! Then the trailer... I just got shudders all over. Bad CGI... probably cost a lot but seemed soooo fake. Even the Matrix had better looking jumps in them and this was in 1999 for crying out loud. And what was with the white monkey type giants??? I don't care who wrote, created or made them... they just plain sucked. Can't say anything good about them. FAILURE 3: Know how the market your movie!!!

And then the movie itself... I thought it started of rather well, until they went to the mars/barsoom stuff. That was horrible. Like a B version of Avatar (which I also didn't like). Of course there will be an audience for this...probably eating popcorn and drinking coke while doing so, but it's not for me.

I can see why it bombed at the box office...

Still gave it a five as the leading girl is quite hot...

OK, There was a potential 9 out of 10 here, but because I had a déjà vu feeling the entire movie I had to make it a 7. Which is still pretty good. First things first, Hunger games. I haven't read the books and tried to not let myself get "captured" by the hype, as it mostly works negatively rather than positively imo. But the basic premise of the story, already dampened my anxiety. Drop people in a cage and the sole survivor wins. Battle royal anyone?? Don't know why no one made this comparison, because it's exactly the same...

OK, I'll admit that this movie has more depth... but you can't deny that the killin' in battle was more awesome. Anywho, it's been done before basically. Also, the feeling of oppression, the underdog, the poor ghetto districts vs the rich and famous,... almost everything felt really familiar. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't good either. Another thing was the shaky camera in the beginning...Don't know the meaning of this, because normally you start a scene with a wide shot and then, you do the close-up etc. You don't shake your way through everything, hoping the audience feels like it's 'into' the movie more. The entire beginning up until the reaping was just one long headache to me. What I did like was the heartfelt acting involved. Have to give it up for the casting department here, because (almost) everyone was perfect. My only casting criticism was our president snow or what's he called? Mr. Donald Sutherland. Very fine actor, but what was he doing in here?? Looked like he was about the fall asleep. Which saddens me, because he got a good surrounding cast to work with. Give it up for Jennifer Lawrence who gives the performance of a lifetime. My favorite movie moment was a certain burial scene when the games are well on their way, and afterwards she gives their district's salute to the entire world, and by doing so, give the nudge to her people to fight for their own. Wow, I was just mesmerized by that.

OK, the guys involved..Hutchersons, Ludwig and Hemsworth are also very fine actors and hold their own. I was even fine with Woody Harrelson, and that's saying something!!

I hope that this movie get's the praise it deserves, as it is soooo much better than a certain other book/movie franchise that's going around, intended for the same age group....

Here's hoping for 2 more movies and here's looking at Jennifer Lawrence!

Raf

Phew... just sat through "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus". And my feelings towards the film coincide a bit with the way I felt when first saying the title... long-winded. It's a mouthful it is, and man can they TALK in this movie !! Pointless conversations that don't lead anywhere... I mean what's point trying to sell a crappy show (sorry, it was.) with endless jam mering.

I'll level with ya... had to take an aspirin after the movie because my head was pounding.

Little bit about the movie:

As they don't use a narrator, which I'm all for, you go into the movie blind without any preparation. But when, after some talking of course, something actually happens... (to me it was the first time someone went in the mirror) you could easily predict the whole story. "...I've lost again"

So we had a fight between good vs evil. Although I find that good wasn't always good and evil most certainly wasn't always evil. If you're gonna make movie like this... you better do it good and that's where Terry lost it's tracks IMO.

So you make a bet with the devil...isn't gambling prohibited? So you have a midget,dwarf, uh, vertically challenged person (best scene of the movie was the stumbling cop, btw... and any lily Cole scene with her body showing) for a conscience.

What was the point of this movie??? I couldn't find anything original story-wise. I liked the settings of the dream-worlds, sure.. very artistic and they've definitely been looking at some clever artists.

You wanna see a better movie about the devil and it's tough choices he could offer you ?? Go see the Devil's advocate!! At least the devil has flair in that movie and not some bowler hat. Good god...

As a side note, this movie gained a lot of hype because of Heath's death but although he did a decent job in this movie... I'll always remember him for his Joker performance, but mostly for his Ennis performance in Brokeback Mountain. Possibly the best love story ever told!

But I'm going off topic, sorry. Back to this sad thing... The other actors filling in all did reasonably well, but they ought too as they were Hollywood's finest.

I'll end my review by using a quote from this movie, which explains my feelings towards it:

Valentina: Is this going to take long? Dr. Parnassus: Yes, yes, yes quite possibly.

(was he talking about this movie?)

P.S.: sorry if this review is long winded, but hey so was the material I had to work with :-)

Regards Raf

Ooooohhhh, what a movie, what an adventure, what a.... I can't... I'm lost for words !! How to describe the experience that is Tintin?? Even the opening credits will have you locked at the screen and it holds you there until the ending.

So we have Tintin, a young reporter, that comes across a model of an old ship: The Unicorn. And so the adventure begins. There are a lot of action scenes that are really fast paced, but just when you think: It's getting too much, they slow down and you can rest for a while.

If you've read the comic books, it helps of course as you remember a lot of things of your childhood. I advise everyone of you to read these comics and go see the movie, you won't regret. Best 10$ I've spend in ages.

Major props to Andy Serkis, who plays Captain Haddock perfectly. Jamie Bell as Tintin is also very good, but I'd have to give it to Steven and Peter for creating this epic, and hopefully successful franchise.

PS.: Try to avoid the 3D version... I didn't have any choice and although it was the best 3D experience yet, I still don't like the format. Stupid glasses and you get tired after 45 minutes...

Best regards, Raf

Just saw the first 3 episodes of the new Mortal Kombat series, and I must say it appears to uphold the quality we first saw with the Mortal Kombat Rebirth short. I think my only criticism is that it's just too short !! I'd like to see a feature film made by this guy, because he definitely knows what he's doing. Strong acting, good action/Martial arts sequences... what more do you want ??

And these are just the character introduction episodes (Kano, Jax, etc) so it can only get better from here on out.

Great job by Kevin Tancharoen and I hope he gets rewarded for his work.

Best regards, Raf

Frits and Freddy... where do I begin. The first thing that comes to mind is hilarious laughter from everyone in the maxed out movie theater during this film. If you've seen the trailer for this movie, that is what you get. The trailer is short and funny, which is exactly what this movie is about. I think the first time I and my friends stopped laughing for a moment, was already passed the one-hour mark of the movie. The end did feel a bit rushed as you're hoping they're gonna build to a climax, confrontation of protagonist and antagonist sort of speak, but that's not the case. I'm not saying it's a bad ending, is just sort of anti climax after laughing for an hour and 15 minutes or so.

They do leave the door open for possible sequels and I think if they can get the story right, it could become a successful franchise. Here's hoping for a sequel !!!

My advise is this, if you're in the neighborhood of a cinema showing this movie, do not pass the opportunity up!! This movie is exactly what we need at the moment... easy going, laugh out loud humor that'll make you laugh so hard you're gonna cry.

My sincere gratitude to Guy Goossens & Marc Punt for making this very funny movie !

Best wishes to everyone out there !!

Raf

Saw this movie yesterday in...Metropolis Antwerp. As I've lived my whole life in Antwerp it's always a lot of fun when you see locations on a big screen that you know so well.

I didn't really know what to expect from this movie, so I just let it wash over me. And that was precisely the best attitude you can have when seeing this movie.

It doesn't rely on a deep story, but more on it's funny dialog ,one-liners and relationship issues. From the start we were just blown away by how funny the jokes were written in this movie. Also the delivery from the outstanding cast was very good.

Especially the older actor playing "Sinterklaas", this is a holly man that you can compare with Santa Claus/Father Christmas but he arrives from Spain on the 6th of December by boat with chocolates and mandarins. He has 2 or more helpers called black peters.

This character/actor raised the rating of the movie to brilliant as he is the worst with little children, but he's forced to be around them anyway.

There are a lot of good scenes that come up with him and it would be a shame to spoil them, but let's just say that there are 2 scenes that stand out : One is when he's trying to explain who "sinterklaas" is to an American black actor whose never heard of this holly man. So he goes and says something like: "Sinterklaas has some black men that are his slaves... and when kids are good we give them treats, but when they are bad we put them in a sack and hit them with a stick..."

Now you can imagine how this must come across for a black person in general... just terrible. But for those who know the tale of sinterklaas it's a lot of fun as we know what he means and it's not that he's wrong, he's just saying it wrong.

Another one is when he's trying to explain something about having children to little kid's, but he get's mixed up in his own stories and it turns out that pikachu (from Pokémon) had a little baby , etc,etc...

One little kid then points out that pikachu was a boy... so all the parents around are just laughing there *ss off and he goes like: "uh, yeah.. he WAS a boy but now he's a girl... uh... how this happened, I'll tell you in another story... "

Man oh man, brilliant if you hear this kind of speech... and there's a lot more of this going on.

Some other characters also have good lines but he blow them all away.

But then if you think back about the film, the sad thing is that it's really predictable, there are no plot changes as there's hardly a plot in the first place. It's more a "day in the life" kind of thing and it rests solely on it's script dialog.

Even just one hour after seeing the movie we forgot almost everything that had happened as it's just a roller-coaster of people coming across the screen and bumping into one another in the most bizarre circumstances.

This makes the movie somewhat forced to keep the ritme going but hey, I had a lot of fun watching it and I can advise anyone that just wants to see a light funny romantic movie to go see this one, lay back and enjoy.

9/10 for comedy and romance 5/10 for lack of story and plot which makes an even 7/10....

Best regards,

Raf

First of all let me tell you that I'm "almost" one of those die-hard fans that now everything about the simpson or have "almost" everything of the simpsons.

I saw them for the first time when I was about 11 years old. That would make it 1992 or 93, which sounds about right.

And like everyone else my age, we were immediately hooked! Favourite character will always be homer to me. The stuff he get's himself into is just too funny imo.

But the greatest credit must go to the writers. The way they've kept the season fresh over the years and always tried to top themselves was amazing.

But as I grew older, the series was getting weaker and so I watched the show fiercely up until season 14...maybe 15. But I must admit, from season 11 and upwards... the quality just went down a drain. No funny stories anymore, toilet humor, lame jokes... just nothing really.

Then sporadicly I saw some new shows but didn't finish'em. Rather saw season 2-8 again and again and again, well you catch my drift.

I think Season 14-17 was the bottom level of the show. After those they've gotten a little bit better with some refreshing stuff now and again. Recently I saw some season 20 and 21 episodes and sometimes, I actually laughed... who would've guessed? But they'll never reached the golden age anymore which was season 2 - 8.

So part of me will always remember them as the greatest show there ever was, but they should've let it go by now imo...

Best regards,

Raf

What everybody needs to understand here is that if you "remake" any movie, which, in this case, has built such a large fan base over the last 20 years... it's going to get compared, not on an objective base, but based on ones emotions of seeing an 80's movie over and over, as oppose to this modern 2010 take on it.

Personally I prefer the original movie, as I grew up watching it...and I admit acting out the "crane technique" over and over. But I think this movie is more aimed at the younger audience who can relate to Dre more than to Daniel. It's basically the same movie, right down the "fly catching scene", which has a more funnier ending in the new one, I must admit. Hilarious. And of course the ultimate tournament at the end.

This was a little too chaotic for my taste, but maybe I'm just getting too old...

Also, they name it Karate kid to profit from the original, but there's no karate in this movie... what's up with that ? Why not call it "The Kung Fu Kid" and mention it's based on the original karate kid... Just my opinion.

The "Wax on/Wax off" changeover to "Jacket on/Jacket off" was also nicely done... didn't think they could reinvent something like that for this movie.

But I was a little bit disappointed with his final kick... what's it called ? Cobra dance/kick ?? Although it was visual very fancy, I found that is was shot very unprofessional. Did you notice how far they were from each other? That's like rocky-far from each other... So how the hell was he able to hit from that distance, he's just turning around his own axle. Weird. And man, I dunno, but if you kick someone with the same foot you're landing on... aren't you going to lose balance when hitting the opponent? I don't do any martial arts so if I'm wrong, I apologize...

To conclude, I think you young generation (10-16) kids will enjoy this version much more than the 80's original. As oppose to myself, late twenties going on thirties... I guess I'll be watching another rerun of the original in the future.

Rating : 5/10 (for the effort)

I wasn't really familiar with the AoW games until this one. But what an eye opener it was !! The best TBS (Turn-Based-Strategy)yet on the market. And that's saying something.

With the amount or races, economic and political possibilities it supports, it's really hard not to enjoy this game.

The combat is something to get used of you're not familiar with TBS games, but after while really gets you involved...

When one assault on a town does not work, you'll want to reload and try a different approach and take'em down ;--) The magic aspect is off course a very large part of the game and they've really created a large amount of spells for it.

A last thing is the stability among all the races that really shines through the flow of the game. Every race has it's base units, but all with their own aspects and skills...

If you can say one negative thing about this game, it would be the more dated graphics... Still in a 2D environment and isometric pov... although it still supports the large wide screen high resolutions like 1920 * 1080 , it would be nice to see a nice a 3D world à la Heroes of Might & Magic V We've seen that triumph studio's can do it with Overlord, so I'll end my review with please make a sequel to AoW Shadow magic in 3D !!!! The world needs it !!!

Why do I call this a superhero movie you ask ?? Well, just look at the premise of this movie and compare it, for argument sake with Batman.

You have a happy woman, about to get married (VERY POORLY WRITING AND ACTING IN THE FIRST 30 Minutes BTW... ) until they get attacked by some thugs for no good reason.( probably punishment for Sayid, taking a vacation from Lost... man oh man, why was he cast... come on !) So the guy dies, which you can just compare with the death of Bruce's parents.

Bruce has his Bat vision to go on a murder spree, and just takes it to new heights... revenge is a B*tch, isn't it ! Jodie buys herself a gun and just goes an kill some thugs, until she finds the ones she wants.

Woohoo, bad guys die and she get's away with it... THE END.

So what's next... "The Braver one: Now she has a costume" ??? In there we'll probably find her against some über thug who doesn't only have a pipe, but get this... also a gun !!! Oscar please !!! Pfff, I only gave it 6/10 because we got to see some cold-blooded murders. And because the wh*re she just saved got run over... funny.

Loft, yet another masterpiece sets its roots in Flemish movie history.

10 thumbs up for brilliant directing from Erik Van Looy, who proves himself once more as one of Belgians greatest directors! And let's not forget about the wonderful screenplay written down by Bart De Pauw, to whom i've been a fan of since "Buiten de Zone".

Everyone already knows the setting of 'Loft'... 5 guys share a loft to bring their mistresses to without their wives knowing. But like all happy songs, this doesn't last long. Pop quiz hotshot, what would you do if you find a dead woman in the loft one morning ?? What would you do ?

I'm not giving anything away about this movie, cause this would ruin the experience... but I'll just say that you will be amazed about the ingenious plot turns that this movie takes... you think one think, it goes another way , etc.

The reminds very much of "The Usual Suspects" in a way, and it deserves this praise!

Of course, for Belgian standards, this is top of the line cinema. You cannot go any better than this. Overall it's a lot better than Erik Van Looy's previous movie : 'De Zaak Alzheimer' although here you don't have the acting one man show that 'Jan Decleir' gave in that one.

Matthias Schoenaerts and Bruno Vanden Broucke show their talent in this one, as does Filip Peeters.

If go for International standards, this is still one of the better movies that you can go see in the theater. But for it to be totally perfect, it does has some flaws.. which are, realism.. some things happen so fast that don't think it's realistic anymore. Sometimes the acting is a bit off, but that negligible...

Overall, this is a great a movie and hope it will make the trip abroad to the states or what not, so it can be acknowledged by everyone !!

Best regards,

Raf

Yesterday evening (20/09), I went to an avant premiere of Ben X. The cast (Greg Timmermans, Marijke Pinoy and Laura Verlinden) and director Nic Balthazar were also there and gave a short explanation about the movie and their experience making it.

I had multiple reasons to go see this film, First of all, I like the idea of using the gaming community (which is so common among us youngsters these days ) to illustrate ones need to escape the real world and enter their own. Secondly, I was curious about the performance of Greg Timmermans as Ben. I didn't know it was his first movie until he himself said it, moments before it began. And finally, the movie became very famous when winning at the World Filmfestival in Montreal.

Let me just say that this movie deserves every praise it got and will get. From beginning until end, you are moved by the world of Ben. His relation to his parents, "friends" , and the world itself.

He explains his feelings through his Gaming alter ego BenX in the game ArchLord, why he is who he is.

Everyone was touched, seeing this movie and we gave it a standing ovation during the credits.

So go see this movie if you can, it's definitely worth it and you won't be disappointed.

Greetings Rafke

P.S. : You don't have to be a "gamer" of just know a lot about gaming to understand this movie... everything is explained.

I saw this movie today and I had certain expectations when I sat in the movie theatre, because I know some of Tim Burton's work ( Batman , Sleepy Hollow , Nightmare before christmas and Beetlejuice too I think... ) and I really like his view on fantasy and imagination. I didn't really know what this film was about so I just went and saw it. I must say it's really really good! Gave it a 10. The perfect storytelling movie... I won't go into detail because I don't want to spoil it for anyone. But I'd recommend it to every person that has a touch of imagination and likes good movies! The story itself is about one man, who everyone likes because he can tell pleasant story's and is a likeable guy... and so his life goes. Also nice romantic feel to it.

To end I just wanna say this film is wonderful and my expectations for another tim burton movie are gone because he has my respect that it's gonna be a good movie anyway...

I would just like to say that I love this movie. First of all, it pleases me to see De Niro when he is at his prime, or at least a lot younger. I think this is the kind of movie, where De niro's desire for humor in movies comes at his best! His ability for perfect sarcasm in this film is beyond me. How many times a laughed in this film, I don't know. Probably trough out the whole movie. But it's not just De Niro, which makes this movie great. Every single actor does his best to make this a fine movie, with good acting and directing. I'd recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a GOOD movie, where he can laugh , or enjoy the action , or even enjoy the "romantic moment" === ( e.g. when his daughter runs out, to give all her babysitting money. To her father, who she hasn't in 9 years.) Thought this was a touchy moment. I gave it 10 out of 10, just because I couldn't find anything that was missing in this movie !! One of the greatest , watch it !!