What's in a Movie year - 2006

Taking a look at the year 2006, picking my 10 favorite movies from that year in random order.
 

Casino Royale
James Bond takes on the evil underworld banker Le Chiffre at Casino Royale. Not in a firefight, but at the poker table. The producers of the film series have seized the opportunity of the 21^st Bond film to re-model and knead their unyielding hero. And with success, because I believe it’s the best Bond film to date. It’s less ironic, more serious, with more emotions and nuances. Daniel Craig was also a very good choice for the role, which he came to reprise four times.
 

Babel
A rich American couple is on vacation in North Africa when a couple of shepherd boys playing around with a gun do something unfortunate. The nanny of the Americans wants to got to her son’s wedding in Mexico, but cannot leave the children on their own. And the daughter of a Japanese tourist gets tangled up with herself. Clever mosaic film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, that links the fate of people all over the world, with fascinating results. The film got seven Oscar nominations and I think this is a movie that a lot of people forget about. Which is a shame.
 

The Departed
With “The Departed” Martin Scorsese returns to his best, grim film from the seventies, such as “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver”. In modern-day Boston, agent Billy Costigan infiltrates the criminal Irish-American world. Mafia boss Frank Costello has an informant with the police. So, two moles, but who makes the first mistake? “The Departed” is a remake of the Hong Kong film hit “Infernal Affairs” and at the same time a rough portrait of contemporary America.
 

The Last King of Scotland
After graduating in the seventies, the Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan leaves for Uganda to work in a small clinic. Then he is approached by the charismatic and charming brand new president Idi Amin, who persuades him to become his personal physician, also because he seems to love Scotland enormously. A bond develops between the two, but gradually Nicholas gets to know the true nature of President Idi Amin. Powerful tour de force of Forest Whitaker, who makes a brilliant transformation. He quite rightly won an Oscar for it.
 

The Painted Veil
The marriage between the spoiled Kitty and the workaholic doctor Walter is not exactly happy. When Walter catches Kitty in the arms of someone else he makes a drastic decision. They go to a remote Cihnese village, to fight cholera, but also to teach Kitty a lesson. A beautiful adaptation of the novel written by M. Somerset Maugham. With great performances by Naomi Watts and Edward Norton.
 

V for Vendetta
In the future Great-Britain will be a dictatorship, the restriction of freedoms will be justified by the government by pointing out the danger of terrorism. The young woman Evey stumbles upon the masked V, the only one who seems to resist oppression. Evey is captured, tortured, bald and has to choose whether to take sides with the rebel. The Wachowskis, previously responsible for “The Matrix”, adapted Alan Moore’s graphic novel into a scenario. Moore’s political message was severely watered down, yet this is an intriguing film that still captured the message.
 

Little Miss Sunshine
A dysfunctional American family goes on a road trip in an old, yellow Volkswagen van. They are on their way to California. The sweet, seven-year-old daughter Olive has made it into the finals of the “Little Miss Sunshine” competition. It’s a sweet story, that will guarantee to put a smile on your face. A great ensemble cast in a heartwarming movie.
 

The Descent
A group of six young women go, to help one of them deal with a trauma, on an expedition in a cave system in a gloomy, dark, remote forest. Caving is a dangerous activity, but the dark, narrow spaces are the least of the girl’s  worries. Because hidden within the caves are some unknown creepy crawlers that have adapted to the darkness. This is one of the scariest movies, not only because of the critters, but also because of the constant claustrophobic atmosphere this film caries.
 

The Prestige
One evening in late nineteenth-century London a performance by illusionists Robert Angier and Alfred Borden goes horribly wrong. This is followed by a quarrel, bitterness and rivalry. From now on, the two are rivals a complex film by director Christopher Nolan in which the viewer, just like the magician’s audience, is constantly misled. Great performances by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as the two rivaling illusionists, and also a good supporting role by Michael Caine.
 

Pan’s Labyrinth
The eleven-year-old girl Ofelia moves to the house of her new stepfather, a high fascist army officer, with her very pregnant, sick mother in 1944. While he ruthlessly hunts down resistance fighters, she discovers a hidden, magical world, where she meets, among other things, a dragonfly with a human head, an enigmatic Faun n a labyrinth and a gigantic, evil path. It’s a gruesome and dark fairy tale for adults. It won Oscars for make-up, art direction and camera work, which is all obviously well-done.
 

Best Plot Twists in Movies

I love a good twist in a movie. Something you never saw coming and changes everything. And in many ways makes the movie even better then it already is. I decided to list the best plot twists in movies. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Parasite (2019)
The Plot: We follow the poor Kim family, whose members attach themselves one by one to a rich family in Seoul.
The Twist: Once inside, they learn the Park family’s former housekeeper, Moon-gwang, is keeping a secret in the basement: her husband. She then learns the Kim’s secret too. All this leads to a bloody massacre that plays out at the Park’s son’s backyard birthday party. In the end, the Kim’s patriarch, Ki-taek, stabs and kills the Park’s patriarch, Park Dong-ik. Ki-taek goes AWOL, but the final twist of the film reveals that he is now living in the Park’s now-vacant basement.

Arrival (2016)
The Plot: A linguist works with the military to communicate with alien lifeform after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world.
The Twist: We aren’t watching a linear film. We’re watching a palindromic film. As. Dr. Banks hacks the heptapods’ language, we learn their means of communicating aren’t linear; they know the ending as they’re writing the beginning. Applying the revelation to the film’s narrative, when Dr. Banks gives birth to her daughter, she knows she’s giving birth to a baby who will die young. She knows how her baby’s story will end before it begins.

The Descent (2005)
The Plot: A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
The Twist: Main girl Sarah is the one that survives. She drags herself out of the cave and into her SUV. She managed to get out, up until her friend Juno appears in the passenger’s seat. And then we get back to the cave, where Sarah still is. It was a dream and Sarah still has to fight for her life.

Identity (2003)
The Plot: Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rain storm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they’re being killed off one by one.
The Twist: It turns out that the little boy is the killer. This is explained as we learn each of the ten strangers stranded at the roadside joint are manifestations of a man who suffers from an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder. The boy is one of those personalities.

Gone Girl (2014)
The Plot: With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, Nick sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.
The Twist: After learning that Nick cheated, Amy meticulously planned her disappearance to make it look like Nick killed her. Later, when she decides to return home to Nick, she gets artificially inseminated with Nick’s semen to ensure he stays with her. She is one sick woman.

Atonement (2017)
The Plot: Thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit.
The Twist: Cecilia and Robbie never had a life together; Robbie died in the war, while Cecilia died in a bombing in London. As an old woman Briony wrote a book in which they lived happily ever after as remorse.

Citizen Kane (1941)
The Plot: Following the death of publishing tycoon Charles Foster Kane, reporters scrambled to uncover the meaning of his final utterance: ‘Rosebud’.
The Twist: ‘Rosebud’ was the name of Kane’s childhood sled, proving the tycoon did have some sentimentality.

Planet of the Apes (1968)
The Plot: An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved.
The Twist: The film’s final scene sees George Taylor, the surviving astronaut, stumbling across a half-sunken Statue of Liberty on the shore, realizing he has been on planet Earth all along.

Psycho (1960)
The Plot: A Phoenix secretary embezzles forty thousand dollars from her employer’s client, goes on the run, and checks into a remote motel run by a Norman Bates under the domination of his mother.
The twist: Norman Bates murdered his mother years before, then developed a split personality that made him believe he is his mother. He murdered Marion disguised as his mother.

Chinatown (1974)
The Plot: A private detective hired to expose an adulterer finds himself caught up in a web of deceit, corruption, and murder.
The Twist: Evelyn reveals her sister is also her daughter, which means she had an incestuous relationship with her father.

Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
The Plot: After the Rebels are brutally overpowered by the Empire on the ice planet Hoth, Like Skywalker begins Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued by Darth Vader and a bounty hunter named Boba Fett all over the galaxy.
The Twist: Luke abandons his training to save his friends from Vader but ends up fighting the Sith Lord. This is arguably the most famous (and most mis-quoted) film line of all-time: “No, I am your father”.

The Usual Suspects (1995)
The Plot: Sole survivor Verbal Kint tells of the twisty events leading up to a horrific gun battle on a boat, which began when five criminals met at a seemingly random police line-up. The legendary criminal Keyser Söze is behind it all, but no one has ever seen or met him.
The Twist: After the police let Verbal Kint go, they realize he’s actually Keyser Söze.

Se7en (1995)
The Plot: Two detectives, rookie David Mills and veteran William Somerset, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his motives.
The Twist: The murdered, John Doe, offers to lead the detectives to the final two bodies that complete the seven sins. When they arrive at a location in the middle of the desert, Somerset receives a box from a deliveryman. Inside the box is the head of Mills’’ wife Tracy. Doe admits he murdered her out of envy, the sixth sin, and challenges Mills to murder him, making wrath the seventh and final sin.

Primal Fear (1996)
The Plot: Alter boy Aaron Stampler, who suffers from multiple personality disorder, is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.
The Twist: Stampler doesn’t actually have the disorder, his true personality is that of the sociopathic Roy.

The Game (1997)
The Plot: After wealthy banker Nicholas is given an opportunity to participate in a mysterious game, his life is turned upside down when he becomes unable to distinguish between the game and reality.
The Twist: The game turns out to be nothing more than an actual game. Nicholas’ brother Conrad orchestrated the entire thing to prevent Nicholas from ending up like his father.

Fallen (1998)
The Plot: Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese’s style. Hobbes begins trailing a copycat killer, who reveals himself to be the demon spirit Azazel, who can inhabit the different bodies of people through touch.
The Twist: In the final showdown, Hobbes kills himself to take down Azazel, but the demon possesses a cat wandering nearby. The narrator who ‘almost died’ wasn’t Hobbes, but Azazel using Hobbes’ voice.

The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Plot: The Young boy Cole can see dead people and seeks help of the disheartened child psychologist Malcolm Crowe.
The Twist: Malcolm Crowe is actually dead.

Fight Club (1999)
The Plot: An insomniac office worker (the unnamed narrator) and soap maker Tyler Durden form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.
The Twist: The narrator is suffering from dissociative identity disorder. He and Tyler Durden are the same person.

American Psycho (2000)
The Plot: Wealthy New York City investment banking executive Patrick Bateman hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
The Twist: In the final scene, Bateman learns many of his victims are supposedly still alive. He may have imagined everything.

Memento (2000)
The Plot: Leonard suffers from short-term memory loss and attempts to track down his wife’s murdered.
The Twist: Leonard’s wife survived the home invasion, but he accidentally killed her later by giving her an overdose of insulin.

The Others (2001)
The Plot: Grace lives in her darkened old family house with her children, who are photosensitive. She becomes convinced that the home is haunted.
The Twist: Grace and her children are the ghosts. She murdered them and herself in a moment of insanity but never realized it.

Donnie Darko (2001)
The Plot: After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, troubled teenager Donnie Darko is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
The Twist: At the moment the apocalypse is supposed to take place, Darko travels back in time, dying in the crash on his bedroom.

Secret Window (2004)
The Plot: Successful writer Mort Rainey is in the midst of a painful divorce and is stalked at his remote lake house by would-be scribe John Shooter who accuses him of plagiarism.
The Twist: Mort is Shooter. He suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Mort is responsible for the strange occurrences, and when his wife and her lover arrive with divorce papers, he kills her.

The Village (2004)
The Plot: Townspeople in the secluded 19th-century village of Convington fear ‘those we don’t speak of’; monsters who roam the surrounding forests.
The Twist: Convington exists in modern times. It was founded by a group of people attempting to escape the suffering in the outside world. The tale of ‘those we don’t speak of’ was created to discourage the villagers from leaving.

Saw (2004)
The Plot: Two strangers, who awaken in a room with a dead body on the floor and no recollection of how they got there, soon discover they’re pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer called Jigsaw.
The Twist: The dead body in the middle of the room isn't quite dead yet. It is in fact Jigsaw himself.

The Prestige (2006)
The Plot: After a tragic accident, stage magicians Alfred Borden and Robert Angier engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
The Twist: Borden is actually two people, twins to be exact. And that’s how he pulled off so many of their tricks. Meanwhile, Angier copied his tricks by cloning himself with the help of Nikola Tesla, killing his clones after each trick.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)
The Plot: Patrick Kenzie and Angie Genaro, two Boston area detectives, investigate a little girl’s kidnapping. It ultimately turns into crisis both professionally and personally.
The Twist: The kidnapping was faked. The missing girl, Amanda, was living with the local police captain whose daughter died years earlier. He kidnapped her because Amanda’s mother was neglecting her. Patrick eventually makes the decision to report it and returns her to her mother, where Amanda is continued being neglected by her.

Shutter Island (2010)
The Plot: In 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels investigates the disappearance of a murdered who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane.
The Twist: Daniels is actually Andrew Laeddis, incarcerated at the mental hospital for murdering his wife Rachel after she killed their three children. the search for Rachel is a ‘game’ concocted to shake him from his insanity.

Us (2019)
The Plot: Adelaide, Gabe and their two children enjoy a serene beach vacation. It turns to chaos when their doppelgängers appear and begin to terrorize them.
The Twist: As a child, Adelaide suffered trauma, when she saw her doppelgänger. At the end we learn that Adelaide is the doppelgänger, also named Tethered, and the real Adelaide is the one stalking the family.

Oldboy (2003)
The Plot: After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.
The Twist: Along the way Oh Dae-Su meets cute sushi chef Mi-do, who he has a passionate relationship with. Only to later find out that she is his daughter.

Soylent Green (1973)
The Plot: In the world ravaged by the greenhouse effect and overpopulation, an NYPD detective investigates the murder of a big company CEO.
The Twist: Soylent green are little green wafers that are said to be made from high-energy plankton. It turns out that it is actually made from humans. Or as Charlton Heston explains: “Soylent Green is people”.

Get Out (2017)
The Plot: Chris, a young African-American, visits his white girlfriend Allison’s parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him eventually reaches a boiling point.
The Twist: When Chris finds hidden photos of Allison with other black boyfriends, even though she said he was the first black man she’d been with, and he recognizes some of the faces as current friends of her parents, he knows he has to leave. That’s when he also realizes he’s trapped inside a homicidal scheme to lobotomize black people and replace their brains with those of rich white people.

The Mist (2007)
The Plot: A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
The Twist: David, his son and three other survivors are left in a car, knowing that they can never make it out alive. They decide on a mass suicide. David shoots all of them, including his son, but there is no bullet left for him. When he leaves the car, to sacrifice himself to the creatures, the mist disappears and the army arrives to save everyone.

The Crying Game (1992)
The Plot: IRA member Fergus promises to protect Dil, the girlfriend of a soldier his group has imprisoned, and soon begins an unexpected relationship with her.
The Twist: Dil is transgender, and was born male. Fergus’ love for her sees him take the fall for the shooting she commits.

The Departed (2006)
The Plot: Cop Frank Costigan infiltrates the organization of gang chief Frank Costello at the same time that criminal Colin Sullivan infiltrated the police force. And both soon suspect they have spies in their midst.
The Twist: Both end up dead. A shocking sequence sees Sullivan kill Costigan who believes he’s got away with it. Sergeant Sean Dignam sees to that in an equally shocking climactic scene.

Unbreakable (2000)
The Plot: David Dunn survives a train crash that kills 130 passengers, and begins to believe he may have special powers. His life soon collides with comic book store owner Elijah, who has a rare bone disorder, and helps David discover he has the ability to see the criminal acts of those he comes into contact with.
The Twist: Elijah is the biggest criminal of them all. When David shakes his hand at the end of the film, he sees that “Mr. Glass” is the mastermind behind numerous terrorist attacks, including the train crash he survived.

Netflix Friday - Volume 4

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

Action: Ready Player One (2018)
When the creator of a virtual reality called the OASIS dies, he makes a posthumous challenge to all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder hos fortune and control of his world.

Drama: Birdman (2014)
A washed-up superhero actor (Michael Keaton) attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.

Comedy: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
A high school wise guy (Matthew Broderick) is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the Principal (Jeffrey Jones) thinks of that.

Animation: Bee Movie (2007)
Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld), a bee just graduated from college, is disillusioned at his lone career choice: making honey. On a special trip outside the hive, Barry’s live is saved by Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), a florist in New York City. As their relationship blossoms, he discovers humans actually eat honey, and subsequently decides to sue them.

Romance: Destination Wedding (2018)
The story of two miserable and unpleasant wedding guests, Lindsay (Winona Ryder) and Frank (Keanu Reeves), who develop a mutual affection despite themselves.

Horror: The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for, discovering the truth behind the cabin in the woods.

Science Fiction: Gravity (2013)
Two astronauts (Sandra Bullock, George Clooney) work together to survive after an accident leaves them stranded in space.

Crime: Molly’s Game
The true story of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), an Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game and became and FBI target.

Thriller: The Prestige (2006)
After a tragic accident, two stage magicians (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale) engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.

Documentary: Becoming (2020)
Join former first lady Michelle Obama in an intimate documentary looking at her life, hopes and connection with others during her 2019 book tour ‘Becoming’.

Family: Babe (1995)
Babe, a pig raised by sheepdogs, learns to her sheep with a little help from Farmer Hodgett (James Cromwell)

Top 5 Thursday: Scarlett Johansson Movies

Scarlett Johansson is one of my favorites, she is unique. I can’t wait to see her in “Don Jon”, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. But for now, I made a list of my five favorite Scarlett Johansson movies.

5. The Island
I never tought a Michael Bay movie would make any top 5, but it did. I really like “The Island”. Clever concept, very well executed.

4. The Other Boleyn Girl
I know the book is better, but I saw the film before reading the novel. I loved it, great performances by Scarlett and Natalie. I’m always fascinated by this time period, with all the beautiful costumes.

3. The Avengers
I didn’t think I would love this movie so much. It’s fantastic! Off course great visuals, but the whole thing is just put together very well. And Scarlett is kick-ass!

2. The Prestige
A great, intriguing story with a nice twist at the end. I always like that. Great cast.

1. Lost in Translation
This is actually also one of my all-time favorite movies. It’s beautiful because of its simplicity, great acting by both Scarlett and Bill Murray.

They Almost Made the Top 5: Ghostworld, Match Point, Scoop, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Top 5 Thursday: Christian Bale Movies

Christian Bale is a fantastic actor. Not the happiest chuck, but very persuasive and real. Also an actor who will go all the way for a role. I enjoy watching him, his performance, his characters. I ranked my favorite movies for you. And probably surprising, but none of the Batman movies are on this list.

5. Equilibrium
I have seen this movie so many times, I stopped counting. It was compaired to "The Matrix" al lot, but (and please don't kill me), this one is so much better. I think it's just taste. I like the concept and the original fighting scenes this movie has.

4. The Machinist
Fascinating! You get all the answers at the end. Great performance by Christian, and this is one of these movies where he did everything to do the job right.

3. American Psycho
Another amazing performance, a real psycho. In the end you still don't really know if he really did it all or it was just in his head. Mindfuck!

2. The Prestige
Christian tops his co-star Hugh Jackman. Brilliant acting. And a nice twist in the end. I always like that.

1. Empire of the Sun
He was just a kid, but you could already see that this was going to be a big one. Thank God he wasn't just another childstar. This is such a beautiful movie.

They almost made the top 5: Rescue Dawn, 3:10 to Yuma, Batman Begins