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Remember (2015)
A flawed story for the easily entertained
At times it seems almost like a TV film. I found the story ridiculous: one guy who knows the true identity of another guy sends him out on a mission that will probably end in failure. For reasons that are never explained (probably because the film is so illogical), the guy on the mission ends up dead. There is simply no way the sender would have known this would happen.
The ending is a big "surprise". The entire film is more or less built around that moment when the surprise is revealed.
If your story demands are very low, you may enjoy this. If you think logically, I would recommend staying away.
Bridge of Spies (2015)
A very pro-American film
The Donovan character (Tom Hanks) was portrayed as being perfect. A good husband, a good father, a good lawyer, a good humanitarian. While he did lose the first spy case, in the end, he saved his client's life and even got him out of prison. Is there nothing he couldn't do? Pro-American means also anti-communist.
East Berlin. My parents were born in Berlin and my father took me there about 4-5 years after the film takes place. Both my parents lived in what was in the 1960s the Eastern (Russian) zone.
It was no problem to cross the border into East Berlin. I did not see as much war destruction as was shown in the film. In fact, other then some bullet and shell damage to buildings, I can only remember one that showed real damage, and it was only the top two floors of a building. The scene with the gang that steals Hanks coat is pure fiction. East Berlin had both local policemen and Russian soldiers armed with machine guns. There may well have been young men without jobs, but they would not have been permitted to hang around in a group and harass people walking by.
I never saw people being shot down for trying to escape from the east, but I doubt very much the soldiers were even armed with machine guns, much less used them.
The film makes East Berlin look like a hell compared to the US. That is a pretty big exaggeration. The people in East Berlin did not have access to the rich stores and latest goods in West Berlin, but that is not my idea of hell.
It's a simplistic way of looking at the world: we are good/perfect/rich and they are jealous of us.
I did not particularly enjoy the film even within its own context.
Wunderkinder (2011)
Top film, also for mature children
I suggest you ignore the negative reviews of this film as the writers seem to have an agenda. The script is very good, the acting is excellent and the direction is very good as well.
For children old enough to have learned about the war and the holocaust in school, this is a very useful film as the three main characters for almost the entire film are three children. It is true that at the beginning and end of the film there are scenes in the present day and we see the children now as older adults, however, these two scenes together probably account for less than five minutes from the entire film.
There is one short scene in the film when violence is shown (not involving any children), however, considering it is a holocaust film, that is rather minimal.
Although the Nazis are shown as the monsters they were, we also see it from a slightly different perspective: one of the children is German and one of her parents is sympathetic to the Nazi government, though this parent also shows sympathy to some of the Jewish children.
While this film might be enlightening for young people, it is also well suited to adults. This is not specifically a children's film. Rather it tells an interesting and somewhat unusual story about a specific incident in history (I have no idea if the story is about real people).
If you are interested in this unfortunate period in history, this would be a fine addition to your film library.
Frances Ha (2012)
Simply dreadful
Having read the good reviews, I was quite prepared to enjoy this film. However, after a short time, I realised that I would not be enjoying the film.
Although it is a drama, it might be seen as the diary of Frances, the main character. We learn a lot about her fairly quickly. What I learned fairly quickly was that I didn't particularly like her and didn't think very much of her. She is clearly confused about her situation in life. She is in her late 20s. One would expect that by that age, life would no longer be so confusing.
By the midpoint of the film, Frances became really quite irritating. Her life was difficult for me to relate to or to even understand. If the film had been about a group of friends, hopefully a bit brighter than Frances, perhaps there would be something. But this is not a film I could recommend unless you are perhaps in the same situation as Frances.
Admittedly it is not a big Hollywood production, but that does not automatically make it good.
Gone Girl (2014)
Deeply flawed film
Although the film contains several gimmicks which have apparently attracted the attention of the easily entertained, the plot and story are deeply flawed.
The plot contains numerous gaps in logic which are so obvious that there are already several threads about this.
Basically, the story involves a recently married couple. The husband is clearly not as enthralled with his wife as he was when he proposed. The wife, who is aware of this, has become a psychopath and will do anything to damage her husband.
The biggest and most ridiculous flaw in the film is that the wife, among other things, has decided to kill herself so that her husband will be accused of murder and, she hopes, get the death penalty. This is much like the joke of the robber who tells a victim: "Give me your money or I'll shoot myself."
Foreign Letters (2012)
Not much better than just OK
After watching the first few minutes of this film, I was quite encouraged that it would turn out to be quite interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately, I turned out to be wrong.
The film seems to cover a very short period of time. It begins in summer (judging by how people are dressed) and ends in summer, all while school is in session.
It is basically, the story of a young (12-year-old) Israeli girl who moves to the US. She learns to speak English over the course of the film. She does not seem to change very much (other than learning to speak English) in the story.
The story is, as the summaries explain, the friendship between two non-native American girls in an American school.
I didn't feel there was anything particularly interesting about their story, or that it was told in a particularly interesting way. The promise of the first few minutes was, for me, never fulfilled.
Hunted (2012)
Generally awful
Although production values are fairly high, the producers apparently decided to save money on a good script writer and lead actress.
The title of the programme is apparently a "clever" twist on the name of the lead character (Hunter). If there is another meaning, it is certainly not clear as a hunt is certainly not the main focus of the story.
The story itself, such as it is, seems to revolve around a dam in Pakistan and the affiliation and relationships between the main characters and certain shadowy organisations. The significance of the dam has still not been revealed.
The weakest area of the script is a lack in logic. For example, in the opening episode, three armed and brutal-looking young men go after a slim young woman (the main character). She surprises the first assassin by throwing fluid on him, then igniting it. The second assassin, she surprises and shoots. The third, she engages in physical combat. Although both are young and obviously fit, for no obvious reason, the assailant can do nothing to hurt her, yet she kills him with her bare hands.
After killing all three assassins, she goes back to get her bag when several policemen come in. Uh-oh. They are wearing uniforms and training shoes, so they must not be real. Before our heroine can swing/jump/fly away from this, one of then men pulls out a gun and shoots her at arms-length, yet, inexplicably, he aims at her stomach, rather than one of her vital organs.
Every episode contains howlers like these: superwoman can not be hurt, but can easily dispatch men two or three times her size.
Violence, frequently involving guns, often shown in gory detail, takes the place of story exposition and character details. In fact, it is the violence and particularly the unrealistic depiction of a woman taking on men several times her size that actually seems to be the main draw of the program to the very young audience it seems to be aimed at.
The lead actress, Melissa George, may be a good actress, but, if so, she is certainly hiding her talent very well in this programme. In most of the episodes she seems to display a single mood: sullen (usually with a pout). Virtually all of her reactions tend to be muted.
Hunted has been compared to the Bourne, as well as the James Bond films. However, these comparisons are more in terms of what the producers had hoped to achieved. What they have actually achieved, however, is a third-rate drama with enough graphic violence to turn the viewer's stomach.
Hodejegerne (2011)
Excellent satire
This film is a very entertaining and very enjoyable satire. Specifically, it makes fun of the violence seen in so many Hollywood films and, even more, makes fun of the ambitious young businessmen who are so eager to make themselves rich.
As with most satires, the story goes too far to show how ridiculous is the subject it is satirising. So, for example, the main character, the headhunter, is a part-time burglar to make enough money to impress his wife. How many professional headhunters do you think are part-time burglars? The violence comes when the headhunter turns down a candidate for a job. The candidate then tries to kill him. As the headhunter himself says (I am writing this from memory, so it is not exact): "I just turned him down for the job, I don't understand why he is trying to kill me!" There is a lot of humour in this film, so don't take it too seriously. If you only focus on the violence, you will miss enjoying the amusing story. There is no reason that you can't enjoy both.