Time goes so fast! It's April and time to look back on the movies we watched in March! Prepare for a month with quite some horror movies for me (Carola) because I'm preparing for Weekend of Hell!
Still Alice
Still Alice is also a movie I bought recently. I'm wondering, how of many have seen this movie? Julian Moore won an Oscar for her role as Alice in this movie! I have to admit right away: Usually I'm not a fan of Julianne Moore. It's not that she isn't a good actress. It's more that I just usually don't feel any relation to her characters. But I have to say, she was excellent in portraying Alice in this drama movie.
Still Alice is about.. Alice. Alice is happily married. She's the mother of 3 children (they're grown ups already). She loves her job as a linguistic professor. She's great at her job and leads a happy life. Until that moment when she forgets a word during a lecture. She notices she has more memory problems and decides to visit a doctor. She's devastated when she gets diagnosed with Alzheimer disease.
The movie shows the story of a strong and intelligent woman who has to cope with Alzheimer disease. And who noticed the life as she knew it, is slipping away bit by bit.
I thought it was a very touching movie. I really recommend checking it out. At some moments, I felt like time was going a bit too quick (going a month forward for example). The movie could have been a bit longer and focus a bit more also on the stable periods (if they were there at all) or at least no just the big changes. I liked the focus on her relationship with her husband and children.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Michael Myers is back! You all know how much I love watching horror movies. I'm a big fan of classics like Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street. And definitely also of the Halloween movies! But I haven't seen them all yet. So every now and then I decide to watch the next Halloween movie. This movie is the 6th Halloween movie. It's six years later (after people thought Michael died in a fire). But Michael Myers is back! And tat's always fun to watch! If you're into the Halloween movies, don't forget this one!
Sint
Sint is a dutch movie. It's about Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas). In the Netherlands, 'SInterklaas' is celebrated on the 5th of December. He's an historical figure and brings presents on the 5th of December to all children that ave been good that year.
In this movie, Sinterklaas is evil. This year it's full moon on Sinterklaas and then he comes out and murders and kidnaps people.
It's a fun movie if you're Dutch and/ or know about the event of Sinterklaas. Usually Sinterklaas is the good guy and in this movie he kills. It's a bit like watching movies about evil Santa's. I liked the movie. There was a good balance between the history of Sinterklaas, the explanation why he is evil and the current story: Sinterklaas going out killing.
It's not the best horror movie I've ever seen, but t was surely amusing!
Evil Dead 2
Sig and I watched Evil Dead 2 already as a preparation on going to Weekend of Hell at the beginning of April. At Weekend of Hell, Kassie DePavia and Danny Hicks will be a guest. They both play a role in Evil Dead 2. We see Kassie as Bobby Joe and Danny as Jake.
Evil Dead 2 is a horror/ comedy movie from 1987 with a duration of 1 hour and 24 minutes. I'm usually not really up for the combination of horror and comedy, but I actually liked Evil Dead 2. It's a parody sequel to the horror movie The Evil Dead.
Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers also was a preparation for Weekend of Hell! we will meet Seth Gilliam again! I already Seth for The Walking Dead, the Wire and Oz. He also played a small part in Still Alice, the movie I watched earlier this month. We also wanted to watch Starship Troopers now. I had never seen that movie before.
Starship Troopers is an action/ adventure/ sci-fi movie which takes 2 hours and 9 minutes. It's the 23rd century A group of friends graduate and decide to enlist in the Federal Service. They split up, they work in different departments. We follow all of them, but the movie mainly focuses on Johnny Rico. He's part of the mobile infantry. We follow his career when the human race has to fight for survival against giant alien bugs.
The Human Centipede
I had seen the Human Centipede before. But Sig hadn't. And since Weekend of Hell invited quite some Human Centipede guests, we decided to watch the movie. I mostly remembered that i thought it was a really gross movie haha. The second time, I was prepared for that. In the Human Centipede, a scientist (Dieter Laser) kidnaps 3 tourists. He uses them to try out an experiment. He literally wants to create a human centipede. He wants to stitch the people to each other. I won't go into detail, since not all our reader love horror movies :). I liked the movie better the second time. Sig also thought it was nice. Even though the concept just is horrible haha (Not horrible as in bad, but as in gross.) We will make sure to watch part 2 before Weekend of Hell as well.
Savage Streets
Yes, this movie is also a preparation for Weekend of Hell haha. I just need to see lot before going to this convention. It's just fun to attend all the panels if you've see quite some movies an actor or actress has played in. We watched Savage Streets because Linda Blair plays an important role in this movie. You might know her mainly for the Exorcist! In this horror movie, Linda plays the role of Brenda. Brenda and her friends trash the car of 'Scars' gang leader Jake because they were nearly run down by him. Jake wants revenge. The gang rapes Brenda's deaf-mute sister Heather. But tat's not enough for Jake. They also kill Brenda's best friend. And then.. Brenda wants revenge..
Liv
This month I have been preparing for Dutch Comic Con and FACTS. I watched a lot of Gotham and rewatched some Castle, but I also watched some movies. Most of the movies I watched were in preparation for these cons.
The White Helmets
The first "movie" I watched this month, was the documentary "The White Helmets". The week before it had won the Oscar for "Best Documentary Short", so when I saw it was on Netflix I decided to check it out. The White Helmets is a 2016 documentary about the Syria Civil Defense (a.k.a The White Helmets); a group of volunteers that operates in parts of rebel controlled Syria. In the ongoing Civil War in Syria, the bombing of civilian targets is the order of the day. The White Helmets are among the first ones to respond to these bombings and they risk their lives to rescue people from the rubble. I already wrote a short review about it earlier, so if you would like to know some more check it out. Duration:41 minutes.
Finding Dory
As you may know I love animated movies. I especially like the old school Disney movies like: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King. The Jungle Book and so on. One of the best computer-animated movies of the last decades was Finding Nemo (in my humble opinion). And now there is Finding Dory, which can be regarded as a sequel to the immensely popular movie about the search for a little clown fish named Nemo. In this movie we met Dory: a lovable hyperactive blue tang(who speaks whale fluently). In Finding Dory we see that Dory is still living with Marlin and Nemo, but she is having short flashbacks about her parents. She decides to go and search for the, accompanied by Marlin and Nemo. At one point they get separated and the search for Dory is on.
I liked it, but not as much as Finding Nemo. Of course there are a lot of similarities with Finding Nemo and there were even some flashbacks to it. Ellen Degeneres does a great job in her reprisal of the voice of Dory. If you like Pixar and Disney movies, check it out.
Duration: 97 minutes
Lone Survivor
Lone Survivor is a 2013 war movie, based on a true story. I decided to watch it as a preparation for Dutch Comic Con , because Alexander Ludwig is in it. It is based on a 2007 non fiction book with the same name. The book is written by Marcus Luttrell (with Patrick Robinson).
It is set in Afghanistan during the war and tells the story of the unsuccessful US Navy SEALS mission called: Operation Red Wings.
In this mission a four man SEAL team was ordered to to track down and kill one of the Taliban leaders. The team members were team leader Michael P. Murphy (Taylor Kitsch), snipers Marcus Luttrell (Mark Whalberg) and Matthew "Axe" Axelson (Ben Foster); and communications specialist Danny Dietz (Emile Hirsch). To get to the point where the Taliban leader is supposed to be, the team has to make a trek through the mountains. While they do this they start to get some problems with their communications and this will turn out to be a crucial problem during the rest of their mission.
I really liked the movie and I thought it was an incredibly touching story (especially because it is based on a true story). The movie really grabs you and it keeps on doing that throughout the story. I really recommend this one!
Duration: 121 minutes
The Hunger Games
I've already watched all of the Hunger Games movies (multiple times) and I read all the books, so I think it's safe to say I'm a fan of the franchise. Because of this it was no problem for me to re-watch the first movie as a preparation for Dutch Comic Con. As I already mentioned Alexander Ludwig was a guest at DCC and he plays the role of Cato in the first movie. Cato is the District 2 male tribute in the 74th annual Hunger Games and the leader of the career pack (a group of tributes that is trained to compete).
The Hunger Games is set in the post apocalyptic nation of Panem, which consists of 12 districts and is ruled by the Capitol. As a punishment for rebellion in the past, every district has to delegate one male and one female tribute (between the ages of 12 and 18 years) to compete to death in the annual Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) lives in District 12 (the poorest district of them all). When her sister Prim is selected to compete in the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Together with the male tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutchinson) she is sent of to the capitol to prepare for the Games. In the Hunger Games all tributes must fight eachother and try to survive in a special designed playfield, while the rest of the nation follows them on tv. Of course there can be only one winner and that is the last boy or girl standing...
Duration: 142 minutes
Battlestar Galactica
Another preparation for Dutch Comic Con! Dirk Benedict was a guest at Dutch Comic Con. Of course Benedict is best known for his role as Templeton "Face" Peck in the A-team, but he is also knoewn for his role of Lt. Starbuck in the original Battlestar Galactica franchise. I've watched the pilot episode of the series, which can be regarded as a movie (it was released in theaters as a motion picture). It is set in space in the Twelve Colonies of Men. After a big war with the Cylons (a race of warrior robots), the colonies long for peace and it seems like the Cylons are willing to give it. They agree to meet up with the leaders of the twelve colonies to sign a peace treaty. This, however, turns out to be a deception...
Battlestar Galactica was released in 1978 , in the wake of the succes of Star Wars. Although it is fun to watch it can never measure up to it.
Duration:148 minutes
Snatch
Snatch is one of my all time favorite movies and I can keep on watching it. Lennie James was a guest at DCC and that gave me a reason to watch Snatch again (as if I need one!).
Snatch is written and directed by the great Guy Ritchie and it has an amazing cast, with big names like: Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, Benicio del Toro, Dennis Farina and many more.
The movie contains two plots that come together, being: the search for a stolen diamond and the story of a small time boxing promotor named Turkish (Jason Statham).
I'm not gonna talk to much about this, because if you haven't seen it already you are going to watch it right now...
Duration: 102 minutes
Swelter
Another movie I watched before Dutch Comic Con. In Swelter, Lennie James plays the role of Bishop. He is a sheriff in a small town called Baker and suffers of memory loss because of some bullet fragments that are lodged in his brain. When a criminal named Cole is broken out of prison by his former gang members, they make their way to Bishop's town and it turns out that Bishop has a dark past.
I think the movie is not very good. I mean Lennie James is ok, but other actors in the movie (like Jean Claude van Damme) aren't very good.
Duration:96 minutes
Serenity
After DCC it was time for FACTS (April 1st), so the last movie of the month was a FACTS related movie. Serenity is a 2005 movie written by Joss "Buffy"Whedon as a continuation of his cancelled cult hit tv show "Firefly". It takes place after the events of the final episode and it has the same cast. It is the story of the crew and captain of the spaceship called Serenity. Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his first mate Zoe Washburne (Gina Torres) are veterans of the Unification War. They fought against the Alliance, but their side (the Independents) lost. The turned to a live of smuggling and cargo running, but them they get a mysterious psychic passenger (Summer Glau). She and her brother are being hunted by the Alliance. Mal and his crew find out that River harbors a deep and dark secret and become targets for the Alliance too.
I watched this because Nathan Fillion and Morena Baccarin are in it and I liked it very much.It makes me want to watch Firefly and I get why Firefly has gained a big cult following.
Duration: 118 minutes
Write a comment
Joanna (Thursday, 06 April 2017 14:48)
From your list, I have also seen Still Alice recently, while on a movie night with friends. I found it to be very impressive, I actually cried at the end. It was indeed very touching and sad, especially when you think that it could happen to each of us... I would like to watch Finding Dory one day too, but I haven't found it yet on Netflix. I really enjoyed Finding Nemo, it was such a happy and uplifting movie.
Filipa (Thursday, 06 April 2017 23:21)
I didn't watch any of these. But it's an interesting list. Snatch has been on my watchlist for a very long time and I also plan to watch Finding Dory :)
Veethee Dixit (Friday, 07 April 2017 03:18)
I haven't watched these movies but serenify is definitely on my watchlist. I am a huge movie lover and this is an amazing, to the point list! Thanks!
Tina von S (Saturday, 15 April 2017 15:31)
I don't usually watch movies, but I am really excited that I watched at least one of them from the list :)