jbaur-98503 Reviews

Zootopia (2016)

Zootopia: a so called kids-movie, more daring than most of Hollywood

[8/10 · 7 April 2016]

Racism and xenophobia are becoming a bigger problem in recent times. Due to terrorism, many people have the misconception that whole religious and/or ethnic groups are guilty. Most mainstream directors and filmmakers are too scared to talk about this risqué subject matter. Of all movies, a "cute" animated movie from Disney for the whole family is delivering these dark themes with excellency.

Zootopia is about Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a bunny who moves to the metropolis of Zootopia, to become a police officer. She is joined by the con-artist, Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman) who is a fox, normally a natural enemy to the bunny, to solve a case to find a missing otter. The plot on its own is an interesting crime story and will be loved by children.

But the actually interesting part of Zootopia is its heavy themes and political messages about prejudice and xenophobia. At the beginning of the film, the movie focuses on the prejudice Judy has to deal with because of her size in contrast to the other policemen and the stereotype of Nick being sly and treacherous, because he is a fox, but throughout the film, it tells more the tension between prey and predators. The city Zootopia is advertised as fair and where everyone lives in harmony. However, it is discriminating against predators for being "potentially dangerous". This is a very clever metaphor for the current situation with Islam in Europe, or black people in America.

The animation is very beautiful but does not quite reach Pixar level. The characters are very colorful and the screenplay is often funny but also has very serious moments. The score is OK but not recognizable outside the movie. The main song is in my opinion absolutely terrible. I also think that the last fifteen to ten minutes felt a bit forced. There are many pop culture references to, among others, The Godfather or Breaking Bad.

Zootopia is a beautiful movie that will enjoy children but will really interest more mature minds, due to its themes and references. The message is clear, but is not forced. The main song is maybe Shakira's worst song (that means very bad). In total a great, deep but also fun animation movie. 9/10

Deadpool (2016)

Deadpool: The Merc finally got his mouth (and a movie)

[6/10 · 5 March 2016]

I have never been very interested in superhero movies. Although there are some rare exceptions, these mostly come from DC (The Dark Knight or V for Vendetta, for example) and not from Marvel. Yet, I was highly anticipating the new film by Marvel Studios, starring the Merc with a mouth, Deadpool. Let me tell you why and how these expectations were satisfied.

Deadpool tells the story of Wade Wilson, a mercenary with a very dark and sarcastic kind of humor. Wilson is diagnosed with terminal cancer in his liver, lungs, brain and prostate. He takes part in an experiment, to develop regenerative powers which, as a side effect leave him permanently disfigured. Then follows a typical revenge story to the people who have disfigured him. The story is not really the high point of this movie and the villain seem uninspired. They are just "bad" because they are and have no real motives.

However, Deadpool's strength lies in his very special and meta humor. It already starts of perfectly in the opening credits where the writers are described as "the real heroes here" and the director as an "overpaid tool". This is the sarcasm and hilarity people want to see in Deadpool! There are many other funny moments, but sometimes audiences have to wait to long for the next laugh. There are two interwoven time lines in this film which eventually combine: The Wade Wilson pre Deadpool time line and the Deadpool time line. I personally found the Deadpool time line much more entertaining than the former.

The acting is solid, but nothing special. The visual effects are very good, but also not the best we have ever seen. The soundtrack features, among others, a song from George Michael, for comedic purposes, but also actually good songs like Hit The Road Jack or X Gon' Give It To Ya.

In the end, Deadpool is a great action-comedy with its flaws. It features hilarious humor, good effects and a diverse soundtrack, but also has a bit too clichéd plot, boring villains and sometimes a bit too much waiting time until the next good joke. 8/10

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Saving Private Ryan: Spielberg spills more blood than Tarantino has ever seen

[8/10 · 21 February 2016]

There aren't many film directors as influential and recognizable as Steven Spielberg. He is mostly known for his fun films for almost all ages. Yet, one of his most acclaimed works to date is called one of the most violent, most realistic and grittiest depictions of war in cinema history. This is one of Spielberg's greatest movies.

The film is set in the Normandy during World War II. Three of the four brothers named Ryan have fallen in battle. The military decides it is the best to escort the last brother, James Ryan (played by Matt Damon) back home, so that his family wouldn't lose all of their sons. Captain Miller (played by Tom Hanks) is told to guide a group of soldiers (including actors such as Vin Diesel, Barry Pepper and Jeremy Davis among others) to find Ryan.

The acting in Saving Private Ryan is very amazing. Tom Hanks is, as always, the master of his doings, but we have seen better roles by Tom Hanks a few times. Although he functions more like a McGuffin than an actual character, and has not so much screen time, Matt Damon has one of his best performances ever. The supporting actors Barry Pepper and Jeremy Davis do their job very well too.

The cinematography in this films is among the best I have ever seen. In some scenes, like the famous Omaha Beach scene, at the beginning of the movie, the camera is very shaky, but you can still see what is going on. This adds to the tension of the scene. The visual style is very realistically brutal, as claimed by many historians and survivors of the D-Day battle.

Saving Private Ryan is one of the best, if not the best, war movies ever made. Cinematography is flawless, acting is amazing and it is one of these films that truly show how terrible war actually is. This is a very depressing movie, but it also has some uplifting and even funny moments (like when Corporal Upham trips over the typewriter). To sum it up: this is about how far you can get from a movie being "fubar". 10/10

Goodfellas (1990)

GoodFellas: the violent way of the mobster

[10/10 · 25 January 2016]

Martin Scorsese is one of the most iconic film directors of all time. From Raging Bull to Shutter Island, from Taxi Driver to Wolf of Wall Street, he has done it all. Scorsese also played a big part in the success of actors such as Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci and Leonardo DiCaprio. In his career of 23 feature length films, for me, it is the 12th movie, I think is his best; GoodFellas. So, let me review two hours and twenty-seven minutes full of swearwords, drugs, violence and Rolling Stones music.

GoodFellas is about Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta), a New Yorker sucked into the mafia-business at a very young age. The viewer experiences a span of three decades, in the life of Hill and his gangster colleagues Jimmy Conway (played by Robert de Niro), Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci), Paul Cicero (played by Paul Sorvino) and more, in the mafia. The movie is based on the true story, of Henry Hill. Hill said himself that the film depicts his life in the mafia very accurately. The script and dialog in the different scenes is very good and humorous.

The acting in GoodFellas is brilliant. Liotta plays his role excellently and delivers his voice-overs fantastically. However, it is the acting by de Niro and Pesci, which is one of the things, that make this film so special. Pesci's intense and choleric acting even earned him an Oscar for Best Actor in a supporting role. Lorraine Bracco, who plays Karen Hill, Henry's wife, also plays her role well, but not quite with the excellence, like the before mentioned actors.

The soundtrack of this film is very interestingly structured. It starts with music from the sixties, where also the plot begins. It moves alongside the story up until the eighties. Typical for Scorsese, the soundtrack has many songs from the Rolling Stones, but also features Eric Clapton among other artists. The music in GoodFellas is overall very well picked and fitting.

GoodFellas is my favorite gangster/mafia film, due to an amazing story, funny dialog and monologue, superb acting and good music. It is also my favorite Scorsese film, my second favorite nineties film and my third favorite movie of all time 10/10

Blueprint (2003)

Blueprint: pseudo-artistic disaster, with all the problems

[1/10 · 22 January 2016]

As a German, I am quite proud of movies from my native country. Sure, German films aren't as successful as American or French films, nor did they revolutionized a specific genre, like the Italian spaghetti-westerns, but compared to many countries, German movies have high production values. So, naturally, let me review the worst German film I have seen.

Blueprint is a drama, directed by Rolf Schübel, based on a novel written by Charlotte Kerner, by the same name. The film is about cloning, and which struggles someone has to face, when being the perfect clone of another person. The main character, Iris Sellin (played by Franka Potente) is a famous and successful pianist, who has multiple sclerosis. To prevent her from dying, she decides to take part in a scientific experiment, which makes her able to clone herself, to let her piano talent transport to her clone (just don't ask). After 13 years her clone, Siri (oh, how very creative), finds out that she isn't a normal, individual child, but rather a cloned, younger version of her mother (because she couldn't figure that out earlier, based on her facial features, her piano talent without learning and that her name is just her mother's name in reverse). The plot is very predictable, pseudo-dramatic, pseudo-tragic and pseudo-society-critical. There are also too many sub-plots, pointless characters and plot-holes.

The acting in Blueprint is just terrible! Franka Potente both plays Iris and adult Siri. Even if the movie is supposed to be a drama, Potente is just emotionless all the time. Ullrich Thomsen, who plays the scientists, who clones Iris, also has a very boring and pointless role. However, it's the character Greg Lucas (who doesn't even appear in the novel), played by Hilmir Snær Guðnason, that annoys me the most. Terrible acting, stupid dialog and no significance to the plot whatsoever, contribute to one of the worst characters I have ever seen in a movie.

In total, this was one of the worst films I have ever seen. It isn't even bad in a funny kind of way, so it doesn't even qualify as fun trash. A boring, nonsensical story, with amateur acting and idiotic characters. It tries too hard, to be intelligent or deep, but fails to deliver. 1/10

The Hateful Eight (2015)

The Hateful Eight: Tarantino is back

[8/10 · 15 January 2016]

First of all, let me say this: Quentin Tarantino is my favorite film director of all time. Yes, even better than Scorsese, Fincher, Spielberg or Kubrick. So, I had pretty high expectations on the Hateful Eight, the new Western by Tarantino. Let me explain you how and why these expectations were met.

All you need to know about the plot of the Hateful Eight has been said in the trailers. Eight strangers are stuck in a lonely cottage, due to a blizzard. You don't need to know more and you shouldn't know more than that, before watching the film. These strangers are played by Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russel, Bruce Dern, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Like in Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction the film is divided into chapters. Most of the movie takes place in said cottage. The story overall is very thrilling and unpredictable. While the first half of the movie consist almost entirely out of dialogues, the second half is more typical Tarantino.

The acting in the Hateful Eight is superb. Especially Sam Jackson, Walton Goggins and Jennifer Jason Leigh do their job very well. Like people are expecting, when it comes to Sam Jackson, his character is pure badass and Jennifer Jason Leigh even got an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a supporting role. Tim Roth, Kurt Russell and Bruce Dern also play their parts with excellence. Channing Tatum has as well a small role, which he also plays good (Yes, I know it's Channing Tatum, but Tarantino once even managed to make Til Schweiger play OK, so why not Tatum?). The script is brilliant and very quotable, even for Tarantino standards. Sam Jackson's character also has a few very intelligent and interesting monologues.

One of the most anticipated features of the Hateful Eight was the soundtrack. Tarantino is known for using music, composed by Ennio Morricone, since Kill Bill. However, for the first time, apart from one single song in Django Unchained, Morricone composes new original score for a Tarantino movie. Ennio Morricone is, together with John Williams, my most beloved film composer. The soundtrack overall is excellent and fitting. Although I think Star Wars VII, which has great music too, will win the Oscar for Best Original Score, I hope Morricone gets the honor.

I find the Hateful Eight to be Quentin's fourth best film to date, right after Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and Pulp Fiction. Beautiful visual, amazing and unpredictable story, many characters with unique traits, excellent acting and all the things that are typical Tarantino. 10/10

The Revenant (I) (2015)

The Revenant: epic visuals in this fight for survival

[10/10 · 13 January 2016]

Alexander Gonzales Iñaritu is one of the best film directors of the last past years. I always knew that the Birdman director will one day make a masterpiece, that will go down in film history as one of the finest movies ever made. It seems like this day has come.

The Revenant is approximately two and a half hours long, yet no single second is boring. The plot is about a group of trappers, led by Andrew Henry (played by Domhnall Gleeson), hunting for fur. On one day, famous trapper Hugh Glass (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is attacked and almost killed by a Bear. One of the hunters, John Fitzgerald (played by Tom Hardy), betrays and him buries him alive. However, Glass survives. I don't want to spoil more about the plot.

The acting in the Revenant is incredible. Leonardo DiCaprio just has to win an Oscar for this. His commitment to this film goes so far, that, for example, he even ate real raw buffalo liver, among other extreme actions he did for his role. Tom Hardy always was an OK actor, in my opinion. He is neither one of the best nor worst, just a normal good actor. But in this movie is performance was absolutely brilliant. Definitely his best performance to date. I like Domhnall Gleeson since I saw Ex Machina, last year. His performance in the Revenant was also very good.

But the best part of the Revenant aren't the actors, but the visuals. Emmanuel Lubeski is the mastermind behind the amazing camera in this film. Sometimes the movie shows breathtaking scenery, other times shocking brutality. The shots are sometimes two minutes long (or maybe even longer) without a single cut. The soundtrack is very fitting, but not memorable outside the film.

To sum it up, the Revenant is an epic masterpiece with great acting, fitting music, and one of the best visuals I have even seen in movie history. It should at least win the Oscars for Best Actor in a lead role, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and maybe even Best Actor in a supporting role and Best Picture. 10/10

Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club: fights, terror and soap

[10/10 · 10 January 2016]

The first rule about Fight Club is "you don't talk about Fight Club." Guess I have to break that rule. In this Fincher classic based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name the viewer accompanies the nameless protagonist on a spectacular journey. This is my favorite movie of all time, and I don't have much to criticize about. This is a movie everybody should have seen. Let me tell you why.

At the beginning of the film the Narrator works a car company and has insomnia. A chain of events leads to the introduction of Tyler Durden, a soap producer and bohemian. Together the two start a fight club. Men participate for different reasons; the Narrator does this to be able to sleep, Tyler, to upset the basic societal structure. I don't want to tell more about the story. It's a thrilling experience everyone has to take in on his own. The story is absolutely mind blowing and fascinating.

Edward Norton is one of my favorite actors of modern time, and while his performance in American History X certainly competes with the one as the Narrator here, I think this is his best performance to date, because you can really sympathize with him. Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter both play very extravagant, crazy characters. They both play these characters very well, especially Pitt's Tyler Durden is one of the most iconic movie characters of the 90's if not even movie history. Jared Leto (Angeleyes), Meat Loaf (Bob) and Zach Greiner (The Narrator's Boss) also contribute to the quality of this movie.

Some critics say the message of Fight Club is pure anarchy. I say it goes a lot deeper, but I can't say how without spoiling it. Fight Club also has a special look. Most of the film is dark, either due to night or weak lighting. This works in harmony with the overall dark tone of the plot. Single scenes also have there uniqueness due to cool dialog, memorable quotes and some very dark humor. The soundtrack is composed by the Dust Brothers and consists mainly of electronic music. Personally, not my type of music, but it fits the film and I quite enjoy the tracks "Stealing Fat" and "Jack's Smirking Revenge". And, off course, there is "Where is my Mind", performed by the Pixies. I love the song very much. The song "Going Out West" by Tom Waits is almost just as awesome.

So, Fight Club is a film with gripping story, interesting characters, quotable dialog, amazing acting performances, unique style, a political message, humor and fitting soundtrack. in short: the perfect movie. 10/10