Netflix Friday - Volume 107

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

Action: The Lost City of Z (2016)
British explorer Percival Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) disappeared whilst searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s.
 

Drama: Schindler’s List (1993)
In German-occupied Poland during World War II, industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.
 

Comedy: Senior Year (2022)
A cheerleading stunt gone wrong landed Stephanie (Rebel Wilson) in a 20-year coma. Now she’s 37, newly awake and ready to live out her high school dream: becoming prom queen.
 

Animation: Apollo 10 ½
A coming-of-age story set in the suburbs of Houston, Texas in the summer of 1969, centered around the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
 

Romance: How Do You Know (2010)
After being cut from thd U.S.A. softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy (Paul Rudd) in crisis competes with her current, baseball playing beau (Owen Wilson).
 

Horror: Dark Shadows (2012)
An imprisoned vampire, Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), is set free and returns to his ancestral home, where his dysfunctional descendants are in need of his protection.
 

Science Fiction: Mute (2018)
A mute bartender (Alexander Skarsgård) goes up against his city’s gangsters (Justin Theroux, Paul Rudd) to find out what happened to his missing partner
 

Crime : Papillon (2017)
Wrongfully convicted for murder, Henri Charriere (Charlie Hunnam) forms an unlikely relationship with fellow inmate and quirky convicted counterfeiter, Louis Dega (Rami Malek), in an attempt to escape from the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island.
 

Thriller: Taken (2008)
A retired CIA agent (Liam Neeson) travel across Europe and relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter (Maggie Grace), who has been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.
 

Documentary: Our Father (2022)
After a woman’s at-home DNA test reveals multiple half-siblings, she discovers a shocking scheme involving donor sperm and a popular fertility doctor.
 

Family: The Karate Kid (2010)
Work causes a single mother (Taraji P. Henson) to move to China with her young son (Jaden Smith); in his new home the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master (Jackie Chan).

90s Movie Review - Schindler's List

Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Drama/ War
Runtime: 195 minutes
Year: 1993
Starring: Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Embeth Davidtz

Description: In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis.

Review: A masterful and touching movie from director Steven Spielberg. Shot in black and white by Janusz Kaminski, who received an Academy Award for his camera work. The goal was to create an authentic atmosphere and this gives “Schindler’s List” that extra power.
The main character is Oskar Schindler, who decides to go to Krakow after the outbreak of WOII to start an enamel factory. He hires Jewish workers, because they are less expensive than Polish workers. The special thing about Schindler is, as he is portrayed, that he’s actually a crook, a profiteer and a womanizer. We never get to know the real Schindler and why he wants to save all those people. In many ways he is like nazi commander Amon Goeth, also a crook, profiteer and womanizer. But where Schindler is an essentially good man, with flaws, Goeth is a sadist and murderer.
It’s incredible that Schindler succeeds in saving many Jews from death. He has contacts and a lot of luck, but what makes him really successful is his audacity and courage. You see that in the scene where he tries to convince fellow factory men Bosch and Madritsch to do even more than they have already done. The two industrials are human and helped their Jewish workers, but realize that there is nothing more to do. Only an adventurer would go even further. And that’s exactly what Schindler does. The greatest achievement is when Schindler goes to Auschwitz, to safe the women and children who were brought to Auschwitz by mistake. By bribe and bluff he manages to let them leave the camp. The only time in this black history that Jews could leave the camp. If it didn’t really happen, nobody would have believed it.
“Schindler’s List” won seven Academy Awards, like best film, director and cinematography. Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes only got nominations. Their performances are amazing, as is Ben Kingsley’s. His portrayal of the smart and timid bookkeeper is impressive.
“Schindler’s List” is filled with striking and memorable scenes. A great screenplay, fantastic acting, this is an absolute classis that you have to watch at least once a year. Just two remember all those people who died in that terrible war and the people who did make it.

Rating: 5 / 5