90s Movie Review - The Pelican Brief

Director: Alan J. Pakula
Genre: Thriller/ Crime/ Drama/ Action
Runtime: 141 minutes
Year: 1993
Starring: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Tony Goldwyn, Robert Culp, William Atherton

Description: A law students (Julia Roberts) uncovers a conspiracy, putting herself and others in danger.

Review: When two Supreme Court justices are murdered, everyone is groping in the dark for the culprit and his motives. Law student Darby Shaw, however, is determined to find out the truth. And so she sets out to investigate. The end result is a theory that initially seems too bizarre for words. Nevertheless, Darby incorporates her theory into a preliminary, speculative dossier, soon dubbed “The Pelican Brief”. After a while, this report makes its way to the highest levels of government, where it causes major shock waves. Together with investigative journalist Gray Grantham, Darby decides to make her discoveries public. At least, if they manage to survive.
“The Pelican Brief” is not one of the best films based on a John Grisham novel. It’s still a pretty good film though. There is enough tension and the acting is really strong. It’s probably the subject matter that makes the film a lot less gripping than that of movies like “A Time to Kill” or “The Rainmaker”. It’s fairly dull subject matter and the pace is slower.
But because of Denzel Washington (who doesn’t really have a bad movie) and Julie Roberts this movie is still one I would recommend.

Rating: 3 / 5

Movie Review - Framing Britney Spears

Director: Glendyn Ivin
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 75 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: -

Description: Her rise was a global phenomenon. Her downfall was a cruel national sport. People close to Britney Spears and lawyers tied to her conservatorship now reassess her career as she battles her father in court over who should control her life.

Review: Much ado about nothing we didn’t already know, that’s the documentary “Framing Britney Spears” by the New York Times that aired recently. In this documentary, the 12-year legal authority under which the popstar stands is explained. However, this is done rather one-sidedly. It is mainly the fans who want to liberate their idol with the hashtag #freebritney. To be clear: Britney Spears is a free woman, she can go wherever she wants, so she is not detained or anything. However, she no longer wants to work as an artist as long as she is under the legal authority of her father James. In other words, there is a legal dispute between father and daughter and it is mainly about money and image.
The list of names of people who did not want to participate in the documentary is long: James Spears (father), Lynne Spears (mother), Jamie Lynn Spears (sister), Bryan Spears (brother), Andrew Wallet (lawyer, who was a co-trustee from 2008 to 2019), Sam Lufti (Spears’ former manager), Samuel D. Ingham III (lawyer appointed to her by court) and Britney herself.
On a journalistic level, one can therefore wonder whether this documentary is sufficiently balanced. A familiar story is told to the viewer via archival footage, but the main players in this private affair are not featured for the very simple reason that current quotes are lacking. In my opinion, the documentary tries a bit too hard to give the viewers the impression that Britney is a victim, framing her in this way and the bad-guy is her father. When I look at something like this, I quickly remember that is not this black and white. Things are represented more simply while here we are dealing with complex issues and various conflicting interests.
The documentary teaches u bitterly little, because most of what is seen in the film is already known. It’s not really a documentary I would recommend.

Rating: 2/ 5

00s Movie Review - Friends with Money

Director: Nicole Holofcener
Genre: Drama/ Comedy/ Romance
Runtime: 84 minutes
Year: 2006
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand, Joan Cusack, Simon McBurney, Jason Isaacs, Timm Sharp, Greg Germann, Scott Caan, Bob Stephenson, Marin Hinkle, Romy Rosemont, Ty Burell

Description: After she quits her lucrative job, Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) finds herself unsure about her future and het relationship with her successful and wealthy friends.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2021 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 8: A MOVIE SHORTER THEN 90 MINUTES

Review: The four friends Olivia, Jane, Christine and Franny live on the west coast of America. As they approach a certain age, things begin to happen that upset the balance of their lives. Unlike single Olive, married Jane, Christine and Franny lead affluent lives in expensive homes. Olivia has quit her job as a teacher and now works as a housekeeper. She seeks help, both financial and emotional, from her friends and meanwhile always remains in search of a purpose in her life.
Christine and her husband a both screenwriters and in the middle of a major renovation of their house. They are building a storey on top of their house, so that they can better enjoy their view. This to the dismay of their neighbors. Jane is a successful fashion designer, but nowadays not her fashionable herself. Not washing her hair, being grumpy and mad at everyone and everything. And Franny doesn’t have to work a day in her life because she has so much money, and feels like motherhood is all she needs. Meanwhile, the girls all think that Jane’s husband is gay and Franny sets Olivia up with her personal trainer, who turns out to be a dick.
I always enjoy a film like this, with multiple storylines. And although it has a cast full of A-listers, the story itself is a bit dull. Yes, it’s everyday problems in everyday lives, but I’m missing the conflict. You know already where everything is leading, so the element of surprise is completely gone.
I do like all the actors in this film, and that alone is still reason enough to watch “Friends with Money”.

Rating: 3/ 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 43

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.
 

Action: S.W.A.T. (2003)
An imprisoned drug kingpin (Olivier Martinez) offers a huge cash reward to anyone that can break him out of police custody, and only the L.A.P.D.’s Special Weapons and Tactics team can prevent it.
 

Drama: News of the World (2021)
A civiv war vetera agrees to deliver a girl (Helena Zengel), taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle, against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.
 

Comedy: The Dictator (2012)
The heroic story of a dictator (Sacha Baron Cohen) who risked his life to ensure that democracy would bever come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
 

Animation: Spirited Away (2001)
During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
 

Romance: Hitch (2005)
A smooth-talking man (Will Smith) falls for a hardened columnist (Eva Mendes) while helping a shy accountant (Kevin James) woo a beautiful heiress Amber Valetta).
 

Horror: Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
The Lamberts believe that they have defeated the spirits that have haunted their family, but they soon discover that evil is not beaten easily.
 

Science Fiction: Man of Steel (2013)
An alien child (Henry Cavill) is evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among humans. His peace is threatened, when other survivors of his home planet invade Earth.
 

Crime: If Beale Street Could Talks (2018)
A young woman (Kiki Layne) embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn’t commit.
 

Thriller: The Debt (2012)
In 1965, three Mossad Agents (Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton, Csokas) cross into East Berlin to apprehend a notorious Nazi war criminal. Thirty years later, the secrets the agents (Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkenson, Ciáran Hinds) share come back to haunt them.
 

Documentary: Roll Red Roll (2018)
An account of a notable sexual assault that took place in Steubenville, Ohio in 2012, and the role that social media played in the crime and on the community.
 

Family: Goosebumps (2015)
A teenager (Dylan Minetti) teams up with the daughter (Odeya Rush) of young adult horror author R.L. Stine (Jack Black) after the writer’s imaginary demons are set free on the town of Madison, Delaware.
 

10s Movie Review - Hustlers

Director: Lorene Scafaria
Genre: Crime
Runtime: 107 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Lili reinhart, Cardi B, Lizzo, Keke Palmer
Description: Inspired by the viral New York Magazine article, we follow a crew of former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2021 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 7: A MOVIE WITH PINK POSTER ART

Review: “Hustlers” takes its story from the New York Magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores” by the now well-known journalist Jessica Pressler in Hollywood. Her work seems almost to have been written with the intention of turning I into a film. Her investigation into a group of strippers who stole from the rich but did give the loot to the poor is no exception. These strippers are not inferior to many other women in film who stand up for themselves. “Hustlers” therefore fits well into the current ‘women don’t need men’ trend that dominates Hollywood.  
In the years leading up to the 2008 economic crisis, strip club veteran Ramon teaches newcomer Destiny the tricks, dances and arts of the trade. Soon, in the golden days of strip clubs, the duo grows into a money machine and plucks the wealthy stock trader bare. However, with the onset of the Wall Street crisis, unlimited money is soon over. Strip clubs are a luxury, and are emptying out. To maintain sales, the clubs are hire cheaper immigrant girls and a lap dance turns into a three hundred dollar blow job. When Destiny has a child, she gets out of the business and loses sight of Ramona.
When Ramona and Destiny meet again, several years later and somewhat penniless, the story finds its deserved place. The strippers decide to take back what the Wall Street thieves tole from them and everyone else. They put together a team, with the help of a little narcotics, use the art of seduction and rob several Wal Street yuppies. One thousand dollars in one night is not unique.
The women in the film are supposed to be examples of modern feminists, who know that they should not focus on women as a gender but on themselves as women. But somehow it doesn’t fully translate well. Because these women use their bodies and sexuality to hustle the men.
Jennifer Lopez plays Ramona, who in her entrance scene throws her virtually naked, fifty-year-old body into the fray and around a pole in a way that would discourage many twenty-year-olds. Her role has nothing to do with acting, it’s a performance. She is perfect for a role like this. And Lopez does a good job. And that’s a lot coming from me, because I don’t really like her as an actress.
“Hustlers” should and could have been a real power movie, but gets a but bogged down in predictable motives.

Rating: 3/ 5

10s Movie Review - If Beale Street Could Talk

Director: Barry Jenkins
Genre: Drama/ Crime
Runtime: 120 minutes
Year: 2018
Starring: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Michael Beach, Bryan Tyree Henry, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, Ed Skrein

Description: A young woman (Kiki Layne) embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn’t commit.

Review: The moment at the 2017 Oscar ceremony when “Moonlight” managed to walk away with the top prize after all is still vividly remembered by many film fans. The win means a dream start for the career of then still debutant director Barry Jenkins. It raised expectations for his next project, but with a breathtaking adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel “Is Beale Street Could Talks”,  Jenkins more than lived up to them.  
Baldwin’s novel describes the tragic romance of two young African-America lovers from Harlem. Nineteen-year-old Tish and twenty-four-year-old Fonny are head over heels in love with each other and ready to build a future together, but are suddenly brutally separated when the latter is unjustly detained on suspicion of a brutal rape. And as if that fact wasn’t wry enough, Tish also turns out to be pregnant. Whether the father will ever be able to see his child grow up outside prison, however, remains to be seen
Baldwin has a past as an activist. “If Beale Street Could Talk” contains the necessary social criticism of the unjust treatment of black citizens in the American legal system, which despite its setting in the 1970s still feels painfully relevant. On the other hand, a rock-hard indictment is not Jenkins’ film. Rather than a grueling legal drama, his film is primarily a tragic yet hopeful love story. Although the run-up to and repeated postponement of the trial may be the red line of the story on paper, the film regularly flutters back and forth between loving memories from the past and present.
This non-chronological structure immediately forms a nice stylistic break with Jenkin’s debut film “Moonlight”, which was neatly divided into three separate acts. The nice thins is that in some respects “If Beale Street Could Talk” is almost a direct counterpart to Jenkins’ predecessor, but in other respect it manages to further perfect his recognizable stamp as a director.
Starting with the chose color palette. Where “Moonlight” was characterized by many cool, blue tones, symbolic of the state of mind of its main character, “If Beale Street Could Talk” is full of warm autumn colors, with many shades of yellow, red and brown. The musical accompaniment by Nicholas Britell also fits in seamlessly.
What hasn’t changed is Jenkins’ tender and empathetic directorial style. This guarantees once again a number of eye-catching camera performances by his cinematographer James Laxtn. For example, the impressice overhead show with which the film opens. But it’s mainly the close-ups that make the biggest impression. Using a number of clever tricks, such as slowing down time or zooming in on small details of someone’s face. Here he created intimacy. By of the having his characters look straight into the camera without saying anything, Jenkins regularly treat you to a kind of lifelike mini-portrait. It feels almost as if the person on the screen is sitting right across from you.
Extra clever is that Jenkins also succeeds effortlessly, without dialogue, in allowing the viewer to empathize with the emotional world of his characters. Jenkins is able to translate the story on paper into visual language in an extraordinary way without having to lose any of its power.
Just as effortlessly, “If Beale Street Could Talk” captures viewers with the sincere love of Tish and Fonny. So much so, that at times you would almost forget what a desperate premise the film opens with. The injustice stings, but at the same time Jenkins’ portrait remains as hopeful as it is heartbreaking, showing that love can survive even the most difficult obstacles.

Rating: 4,5 / 5

80s Movie Review - Mississippi Burning

Director: Alan Parker
Genre: Thriller/ Crime/ Drama
Runtime: 128 minutes
Year: 1988
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, Michael Rooker, R. Lee Emry, Stephen Tobolowsky, Kevin Dunn

Description: Two F.B.I. Agents (Willem Dafoe, Gene Hackman) with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.

Review: Mississippi, 1964. Three civil rights activists are horribly murdered. Reason enough for investigation. Two FBI agents, the young Ward and the more experienced Anderson, soon find that they are not welcome in the town. The more evidence that comes to light, the more houses are set on fire as a warning.
The film begins one evening in the state of Mississippi. Two Jewish men and one African America man are in a car together, when they are pulled over by a group of men, members of the Ku Klux Clan. Since there is a cop car nearby, they decide to stop. But they have no intention of helping them. The three men are killed.
The FBI is called in to track down the three missing men. Ward and Anderson are from the North and are not used to the ways in Mississippi. The find out that there is a definite racial difference there. African Americans are looked down upon, are seated in a separate area in restaurants and get worse facilities compared to white people.
Ward and Anderson increasingly feel they are not welcome. The people there feel that they should leave and the rest of the country is just jealous that there is still such a racial disparity here. The people of Mississippi are very proud of their way of dealing with African American citizens.
It still amazes me how people could treat other people like this. And how topical many of the issues in “Mississippi Burning” still are. It’s a very strong movie, great performances by the cast and a story that really captivates you.

Rating: 4,5/ 5

00s Movie Review - The Strangers

Director: Bryan Bertino
Genre: Horror/ Thriller
Runtime: 90 minutes
Year: 2008
Starring: Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Alex Fisher, Peter Clayton-Luce, Glenn Howerton

Description: A young couple (Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman) staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants.

Review: Home is your safe haven. There you don’t want to be confronted with worldly problems and certainly not with strangers. Always lock your doors at night to keep unwelcome callers outside. But in “The Strangers” it doesn’t keep them out. Director Bryan Bertino’s exciting and sometimes terrifying horror debut makes domestic terror frighteningly plausible.
The young couple James and Kristen are about to have a wonderful night: in a cozy cottage they will spend a romantic evening together. It all turns out differently. Kristen is very upset about something that happened earlier that night and they are repeatedly harassed by a strange girl who’s knocking on their door. The night progresses, but suddenly there is deafening banging on the door. This heralds the beginning of a horrifying nightmare three masked strangers are targeting the couple and a bloody game of cat-and-mouse ensues. Why? Because they were home.
It's a great move by Bertino to leave much of the story in limbo. Little to nothing is known about James and Kristen’s relationship, but that they have problems is very clear. An ominous opening act transitions into a chilling guessing game after fifteen minutes, when the presence of evil is subtly made palpable. “The Strangers” is at its scariest at these moments: the threat is intangible, it does not yet have a face. Scary is actyally too mils a word: the fearful sweat repeatedly breaks out. The fact that the help of hard violin strokes I called in is not a problem. Few horror films can survive with images alone and in “The Strangers” the right balance has been found between sweat and scary moments.
Bertino’s cinematic approach is correct, as well as the emphasis on anonymous violence, but in the moments when you catch your breath, the clichés become very obvious. “The Strangers” also invites frustrated cries at the protagonists.
In summary, “The Strangers” delivers a fantastic horror experience, but a little too often reverts to the check-off list of horror conventions.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 42

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.
 

Action: 12 Strong (2018)
“12 Strong” tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain (Chris Hemsworth), the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban.
 

Drama: Friends with Money (2006)
After she quits her lucrative job, Olivia (Jennifer Aniston) finds herself unsure about her future and her relationship with her successful and wealthy friends.
 

Comedy: Easy A (2010)
A clean-cut high school student (Emma Stone) relies on the school’s rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.
 

Animation: Sausage Party (2016)
A sausage (Seth Rogen)strives to discover the truth about his existence.
 

Romance: El faro de las Orcas (2016)
A mother with an autistic child travel from Spain to Argentina looking to help her son connect with his emotions.
 

Horror: Don’t Breathe (2016)
Hoping to walk away with a massive fortune, a trio of thieves break into the house of a blind man who isn’t as helpless as he seems.
 

Science Fiction: Lucy (2014)
A woman (Scarlett Johansson), accidentally caught in a dark deal, turns the tables on her captors and transforms into a merciless warrior evolved beyond human logic.
 

Crime: The Texas Killing Fields (2011)
In the Texas bayous, a local homicide detective (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) teams up with a cop from New York City (Sam Worthington) to investigate a series of unsolved murders.
 

Thriller: The Da Vinci Code (2006)
A murder inside the Louvre, and clues in Da Vinci paintings, lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years, which could shake the foundations of Christianity.
 

Documentary: Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)
College student and tourist Elisa Lam vanishes, leaving behind all of her possessions in her hotel room. The Cecil Hotel grows in infamy.
 

Family: We Will Be Heroes (2020)
When alien invaders capture the Earth’s superheroes, their kids must learn to work together to save their parents and the planet.

Movie Review - News of the World

Director: Paul Greengrass
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure
Runtime: 118 minutes
Year: 2021
Starring: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Tom Astor, Mare Winningham, Ray McKinnon, Bill Camp

Description: A Civil War veteran (Tom Hanks) agrees to deliver a girl (Helena Zengel), taken by the Kiowa people years ago, to her aunt and uncle, against her will. They travel hundreds of miles and face grave dangers as they search for a place that either can call home.

Review: Like his movie “Greyhound”, Tom Hanks saw his film “News of the World” go straight to a streaming service. It’s quite understandable due to the pandemic, but it’s a pity, since everyone loves to see new movies on the big screen. But look on the bright side, watching a new movie with Tom Hanks from the comforts of your own home is my way to sit back and relax.
In 1870s Texas, Jefferson Kidd has a remarkable profession: he travels from town to town reading the newspaper to paying listeners. Judging from his introduction, for many this offers a way to forget their daily worries for a moment. A big difference with our present, in which the constant flow of news is the cause of many people’s worries and escapism is mainly served by consuming as little news as possible. As a kind of troubadour of the wild west, Kidd knows how to entertain his audience with beautiful stories, but he has enough integrity to also read out the important news that may not be to their liking. Although Kidd has no specific agenda, he acts as someone who represents civilization in a place where it is sometimes far from it.
During one of his travels, Kidd stumbles upon the young girl Johanna. Originally of German descent but raised by a Native American tribe that has since been wiped out, she is all alone in the world and unfamiliar with the language Kidd speaks. The girls is as unruly as she is intelligible, and so Kidd tries to get rid of her as quickly as possible. But when he realizes that she shouldn’t expect help from anyone else, he decides to take the girl to her only surviving relatives. The resulting journey of over six hundred kilometers would now be a matter of hours, but takes several weeks in 1870 and is not without any dangers. Fortunately for Kidd, he can somewhat combine this undertaking with his work as a newsreader.
Story-wise, the combination of elements is unfortunately not that smooth. The fact that Kidd takes care of the young girl has nothing to do with his work or background. This means that the already fairly episodic story constantly switches between the travel adventures of Kidd and Johanna, and Kidd’s news briefings. Both fine scenes, but they are completely unrelated. Hardly ever do these two elements collide. As a viewer, you thus sit and wait for the premise of someone reading the news to provide some direction to the story, but in the end Kidd’s profession gradually proves less and less relevant to bringing the girl home. Kidd could have been a hunter or salesman, thematically it makes no difference. Tom Hanks portrays Kidd sympathetically and he is easy to believe. Character development isn’t really happening for him, even though his performance is really strong. And I really like the fact that he didn’t portray the usual gunslinger you usually see in westerns. Kidd has a lot more heart and moral and he is a genuinely good person. Could he use more rough edges? Maybe. But then again, he would become a more stereotypical touch guy. “News of the World” shows that the western genre doesn’t only have to contain people shooting guns at each other, thieves robbing trains or cowboys and Indians riding horses. 
While the screenplay might not be the strongest, there is little fault in the execution of “News of the World”. Director Paul Greengrass abandons his signature rough style (with shaky cam) for a more appropriately classic cinematic language: expansive landscapes, natural lighting and a pleasantly calm editing. Only during an intense shootout scene does he use handheld camera work, without damaging the clarity. Also in terms of pace, Greengrass takes it slower than in his previous films. But it’s not a boring movie.
“News of the World” is the type of film whose quality are almost self-evident. A western directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Tom Hanks? Yes, of course it’s worth watching. Even if its not perfect.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

TV Show Review - Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (Mini Series)

Season: Mini Series
Genre: Crime/ Documentary
Number of episodes: 4
Year: 2021
Starring: Viveca Chow, Judy Ho, Artemis Snow, Kim Cooper, Josh Dean, Greg Kading, Santiago Lopez, John Jordan, Tim Marcia, Goud Mungin, Amy Price, Jason Tovar

Description: College student and tourist Elisa Lam vanishes, leaving behind all of her possessions in her hotel room. The Cecil Hotel grows in infamy.

Review: Behind many Los Angeles hotel facades lie extraordinary stories. The Cecil Hotel, in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, doesn’t have a rosy reputation: the stately building built in the 1920s is a place where bad things keep happening, over and over again. Suicides, overdoses, murder, you name it.  
The four-part series takes as its starting point the 2003 disappearance of 22-year-old Elisa Lam. The Canadian, traveling through California that year, disappears one day. In the last footage that has surfaced of her, necessarily released by the LAPD as the investigation stalls, we see her exhibiting strange behavior in an elevator at the Cecil Hotel. Then the makers, known for “The Ted Bundy Tapes”, present through testimony and reconstruction how the Cecil Hotel has been breeding ground for misery for years. Surrounded by Skid Row, the bastion of homeless America.
Tourists who book a cheap room at the Cecil Hotel are in for a shock: some 8000 to 10 000 homeless people (including a tranche of mental health patients and ex-convicts) reside in downtown L.A. For the past several decades, the city council has been deciding that that place, Skid Row, would become the drain on the City of Angels. If you don’t want to see the other person’s misery, you can simply avoid Skid Row. This is, of course, abominable public policy, but equally appropriate for Los Angeles, where the rich of the world have sut themselves away in their gated communities.
That’s exactly where Elisa Lam ends up. In a tumbledown hotel room. Perhaps the room where serial killer Richard Ramirez, the famous ‘Night Stalker’, once spent three weeks in hiding. In that sense, it’s no surprise that the Cecil Hotel is popping up in documentaries and fiction (just look at season five of “American Horror Story”). The structure itself is pure Los Angeles noir. The makers play with this emphatically, so that the series constantly straddles the line between documentary and sensation.
“Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel” is a pretty creepy documentary series, that I watched completely in one sitting.

TV Show Review - Lupin (Season 1)

Season: 1

Genre: Crime/ Drama
Number of episodes: 5
Year: 2021
Starring: Omar Sy, Vincent Londez, Ludivine Sagnier, Hervé Pierre, Etan Simon

Description: Inspired by the adventures of Arséne Lupin, gentleman thief Assane Diop (Omar Sy) sets out to avenge his father for an injustice inflicted by a wealthy family.  

Review: Assane Diop was still a teenager when his father was accused of stealing an extremely expensive necklace. His father then took his own life. Years later, when Assane is now a father himself, the collar reappears. He decides to steal the collar, because that is what he is very good at these days, thanks to a previously obtained book from his father. He just has to do it in the Louvre.
The series is really fantastically put together, making it exciting at every moment. It starts already in the first episode where he plans a heist in the Louvre to get his hands on the piece of jewelry his father was accused of stealing. Down to the last detail, he knows how to plan it. it is somewhat reminiscent of the series “Sherlock”, where we see in detail how he solves cases and what he sees that others do not.
In the series we also see how he came to his action and how he actually became the new Lupin. There are therefore plenty of flashbacks between the present and the youth of Assane Diop.
Big compliments to Omar Sy. We have of course known for a long time that he is a solid and capable actor. Who does not remember his excellent role of Driss in “Intouchables”? He plays the role of Assane Diop really well. He provides a dimensional characters, that feels more like just a character.
If you start, you just sit through at and finish it in one sitting. A really great series at the beginngin of 2021.

20s Movie Review - We Can Be Heroes

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Family/ Adventure/ Fantasy/ Action
Runtime: 100 minutes
Year: 2020
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Boyd Holbrook, Christian Slater, YaYa Gosselin, Priyanka Chopra, Christopher McDonald

Description: When alien invaders capture the Earth’s superheroes, their kids must learn to work together to save their parents and the planet.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2021 MOVIE CHALLENGE.
WEEK 6: A SUPERHERO MOVIE

Review: Superhero movies for a younger audience. Director Robert Rodriguez has had varying degrees of success with it, since the first part of the “Spy Kids” franchise was released in 2001. In the Netflix film “We Can Be heroes”,  he continues his efforts with accessible superheroes in a lighthearted story without heavy moral dilemmas.
A group of superheroes, called the Heroics, have been struggling among themselves since their leader Marcus Moreno decided to stop going on missions since his wife died, ad he now devoted himself entirely to being a father to Missy. During a routine mission, Tech-No and Miracle Guy stumble upon a group of alien ships that want to attack Earth. The head of the Heroics, Ms. Granada, immediately deploys all the superheroes to stop the invasion. But when the heroes are captured, it is up to their children to stop the alien invasion.
Missy follows in her father’s footsteps and immediately takes charge of making sure the rescue mission succeeds. Every child in the group has special powers, with the exception of Missy.
Rodriguez didn’t have a big budget to work with and it shows in the visual effects that come across as cheap. But in the end the story gets the live-action drama it needs. Rodriguez’s script is filled with jokes surrounding the kids and their physical powers.
The kids, of course, set out to save their parents, but the mission is ultimately not the main message Rodriguez wants to convey. The various forces aside, it’s as much about the strength of the individual as it is about be stronger together when you work for the greater good. It seeps in that the children represent the next generation.
Since it is targeted at a younger audience, I forgive the cheesiness. But it also doesn’t take itself seriously and is self-aware. It’s entertaining for a fun family movie night. And for the mom’s there is Pedro Pascal.

Rating: 3/ 5