20s Movie Review - Carry-On

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Genre: Action/ Crime/ Thriller
Runtime: 119 minutes
Year: 2024
Starring: Taron Edgerton, Jason Bateman, Dean Norris, Theo Rossi, Sofia Carson, Logan Marshall-Green, Danielle Deadwyler

Description: A mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails a young TSA agent (Taron Edgerton) into letting a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Eve flight.

Review: Director Jaume Collet-Serra does exactly what a good, fun action film should do: be engaging, exciting and entertaining. And that from the comfort of your own home, because it’s a Netflix-original.
The décor is an airport, where on Christmas Eve, young TSA agent Ethan has to deal with a mysterious traveler who demands that he let a suitcase pass through security without checking it. If not, his girlfriend Nora becomes a target.

This plot makes for a delightful, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat exciting thriller. Full of twists (or credibility, but we’ll let that one pass), it’s the perfect film for a movie night. Just turn of your brain for two hours and enjoy this fun action thriller, because it’s one hell of a ride.

Rating: 3,5/ 5

TV Show Review - Better Call Saul (Season 5)

Season: 5
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Number of episodes: 10
Year: 2020
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorne, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Giancarlo Esposito, Mark Margolis, Tony Dalton, Dean Norris

Description: The trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) in the time before he established his strip-mall law office in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Review: “Better Call Saul” is a spin-off and a prequel to (and to a very limited extent it has some sequel elements) the series “Breaking Bad”, a series considered by many to be the best series ever made. It is therefore all the more impressive that “Better Call Saul” is often also considered one of the best series of the moment. Both “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” are certainly among my favorite series and I think the latter is THE best show of the moment. “Better Call Saul” ‘breathes’ “Breaking Bad”, but has its own identity. This is partly because of the cast’s excellent performance, but also because the series takes its own route, separate from “Breaking Bad”.
“Better Call Saul” focuses on the eccentric lawyer Jimmy McGill, who was introduced as the corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman in season 2 of “Breaking Bad”. “Better Call Saul” is about how Jimmy is slowly changing into Saul, but also offers a lot of background information about other well-known “Breaking Bad” characters, such as Gustavo Frink, the Salamanca family and Mike Ehremantrout.
At the end of the previous season, we first heard of Jimmy’s plans to become Saul Goodman and at the start of season five Jimmy definitively evolves into Saul Goodman. Apart from the fact that he has his name changed, his moral compass is becoming more and more absent. He continues to come up with ideas to win lawsuits that are on the boundary of what is permissible. The market Saul will focus on is that of petty criminals. In addition, this season he becomes more involved in the drug world in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As a result, the transition from “Better Call Saul” to “Breaking Bad” is closer than ever.
Besides Saul, his girlfriend Kim Wexler and handyman Mike are also going through important developments. Mike seems to get used to the role of handyman for the underworld and Kim, who used to serve as a moral compass for Saul, seems to get used to stretching boundaries. The gradual development of these characters has been underway since the first season, but has been built up in a very credible way that the viewers will still sympathize them.
Bob Odenkirk is at its best, but it’s Rhea Seehorne’s season. She is incredibly good as Kim Wexler in this fifth season. And Odenkirk is fantastic too, especially in the season’s 8th episode “Bagman”, which is the best episode of the show so far.
Despite the fact that “Better Call Saul” as a stand-alone series is perfectly watchable, it is advisable to watch “Breaking Bad” first, if you haven’t seen it yet. Season six will most likely be the last season of “Better Call Saul” and the references to “Breaking Bad” will become more frequent, to a point where the shows will meet or overlap each other. Season five will be more enjoyed with the foreknowledge, since one new big character from “Breaking Bad” makes a surprise entrance and the feud between the Salamanca family and Gus Frink will be deepened a lot.
It is inevitable to compare “Better Call Saul” with “Breaking Bad”. Many characters are similar, it takes place in the same region and the cinematographic similarities are not to be missed. “Better Call Saul” is a bit slower than “Breaking Bad”, but that’s one of the strengths of the series. But season five is their best season so far and just as good as the entire series of “Breaking Bad”. This season proofs that “Better Call Saul” is the best series running today. I can’t wait for season six, what it most likely going to be the final season. Hopes are that Walter White and Jesse Pinkman will make an appearance.

10s Movie Review - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

Director: André Øvredal
Genre: Horror
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2019
Starring: Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, Lorraine Toussaint, Kathleen Pollard, Deborah Pollitt, Victoria Fodor, Marie Ward, Mark Steger, Javier Botet, Troy James, Kyle Labine, David Tompa, Karen Glave, Stephanie Belding

Description: On Halloween 1968, reclusive Stella and het two friends meet a mysterious drifter, Ramón, and uncover a sinister notebook of stories.

Review: Some names in Hollywood create high expectations. Like Guillermo del Toro for instance. “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” has a screenplay written by Del Toro, who also produced the film. His name is on the poster. The film is loosely based on the short stories by Alvin Schwartz and directed by the Norwegian André Øvredal. But the film is a bit disappointing.
It's not a direct adaptation of Schwartz’ stories. Instead, some of his stories were bundled into a somewhat coherent narrative about the fears of the teenagers who play the main roles. It’s 1968, in a sleepy American town, where Both Halloween and the Vietnam war are awaiting. Teenager and aspiring writer Stella, her friends Auggie and Chuck and newcomer Ramón are running from a group of bullies and end up in a mysterious, abandoned house.
One day, a girl lived her and she wrote ghost stories in an old book. When Stella finds this book and takes it home, she finds out it is a very special book. There is some sort of a curse on it and the book starts to write stories about Stella and her friends. And whenever they appear in a story, their life isn’t safe.
Many of the almost isolated horror moments are confrontations between the teenager in question and a monster. People are chased, there is some growling and flickering lights, but the variation is hard to find. The only exception is a somewhat older teenager who is confronted with a huge pimple on her cheek before a school performance.
The film had such a promising starting point, but is overall not that special. The film does have some really creepy monsters, but overall it’s a film with a few cheap jump scares. But even for a scaredy-cat like me, this wasn’t the ‘scary story’ that the title promised me. It could have been so much more.

Rating: 2,5 / 5

100 Movie Challenge 2016 - # 150"Secret in Their Eyes

Director: Billy Ray
Genre: Drama/ Crime/ Thriller
Runtime: 111 minutes
Year: 2015
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, Ju;ia Roberts, Dean Norris, Alfred Molina, Joe Cole, Michael Kelly, Zoe Graham, Patrick Davis, Eileen Fogarty, Niko Nicotera

Description: A tight-knit team of rising investigators, along with their supervisor, is suddenly torn apart when they discover that one of their own teenage daughters has been brutally murdered.

Review: “El secreto de sus ojos” was overwhelmed with praise. The American remake, “Secret in Their Eyes”, managed to get an impressive cast. But that’s about all the praise I can give this film.
“Secret in Their Eyes” takes place from 2002 to 2015. It’s a roaring time politically. In 2002, FBI agent Ray Kasten, Jess Cobb and Claire Slaon form an anti terrorist unit. Short after 9/ 11, Los Angeles is feared to be the next target. The team is closely watching a mosque and during a routine check up, a dead body is found. It’s the body of Carolyn Cobb, Jess daughter. Carolyn has been brutally raped and murdered. They can’t find the person who did it, but thirteen years later, Kasten is still looking for him. Many scenes from the movie are an exact copy from the original. Director Billy Ray show ambition by translating this much praised film with an American background. But it also looks a bit lazy, because just placing this story in another time and place isn’t enough. The base material is good, but Ray turned it into an unnecessary film.
The three main actors in the film play solid roles, but they have no chemistry whatsoever. For instance Kidman and Ejiofor’s characters seem to have this desire for each other, but besides some talk about it, you never seem to notice that they do. There is no mystery or tension present in this film and it never keeps me interested the entire runtime. And the jumping in time is not clear. I sometimes don’t know wether a scene is set in the past or present.
In Hollywood they feel the need to copy great foreign films. Almost always it’s the original that wins. With “Secret in Their Eyes” there is no difference. You can skip this film.

Rating: 2/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2015 - # 77: Men, Women & Children

Director: Jason Reitman

Genre: Drama

Runtime: 119 minutes

Year: 2014

Starring: Rosemarie DeWitt, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, Dean Norris, Judy Greer, Emma Thompson, Ansel Elgort, J.K. Simmons, Dennis Haysbert

Description: A group of high school teenagers and their parents attempt to navigate the many ways the Internet has changed their relationships, their communication, their self-image, and their love lives.

Review: Fifteen years after “American Beauty”, little has changed with the relational problems of seeking teens and their disillusioned parents in the suburbs. Only nowadays many of it goes through social media. At least for the characters in “Men, Women & Children”. Director Jason Reitman zooms in on a small group of American men, women and children and how they deal with the temptations of the internet.

Supported by the narration of an ironic Emma Thompson, an above average cast including a very modest Adam Sandler, the movie shows us a disturbing image of the effect of the new media. On sexuality in the modern society: boys grow up with internet porn, girls want to live up to a certain standard and parents that commit adultery. Reitman shows us how today’s teenage life integrates with the smartphone. It’s like real life doesn’t matter anymore, when the real problems happen in real life.

“Men, Women & Children” wants to tell a lot of stories in two hours’ time. For themes like gaming addiction and anorexia there is just not enough time. And because we follow multiple storylines, it’s hard to focus on all of them. Some characters are also in contrast too much. When Judy Greer’s characters publicly ‘sells’ her daughter by posting promiscuous pictures of her daughter online, so she can have a career in Hollywood, Jennifer Garner’s character is obsessed with the incoming and outgoing computer data of her daughter. The acting in the movie is good, it’s especially fun to see Adam Sandler in a more serious role again.

“Men, Women & Children” is not bad, because the concept is good. The movie is just a little to melodramatic, has too many storylines and lacks subtlety.

Rating: 2,5/ 5