list/discuss/rate - your recently watched movies

I just want to make a few more comments about "Toni Erdmann". This movie divides the viewers: Some consider it to be horrible and boring, others consider it to be absolutely brilliant. I definitely belong to the latter faction.

I won't go into the story, I just want to talk about a few aspects. I read reviews (on Amazon and IMDB) that stated some scenes were too long and should have been cut ten seconds earlier. Most directors would certainly have done that - the dialogue is over, cut!

But Maren Ade deliberately lets the camera run on to catch the awkward silences afterwards. Here is where the actors can really shine, with just a twitch of the lips, a downcast look or the likes. This makes all the awkward situations feel even more awkward.

Some reviewers also found the movie to be overly long and the pace too slow. I on the other hand would not cut a single second out, and I love slow-paced movies.

Some people also commented they didn't like the end, that there was no real "conclusion". Again this is a thing that I loved about the movie. In real life there is no such thing as "conclusion" except for death, so unless a film ends with the death of the central character all these movie conclusions are fake. "And they lived happily ever after" is nothing but a sugary Hollywood cliche.

The two main actors were absolutely brilliant and believable. And some scenes were utterly hilarious. But again this was not the typical Hollywood humor, so if people expected this from the movie they certainly were disappointed.

I love it when directors (and writers, musicians, painters and the likes) have their own distinctive style. You need balls to have it, but for someone who has an independent mind this is exactly what he or she wants. Who the hell needs the ten-thousandth copy of some Hollywood blockbuster or some number one charts hit? Maren Ade is a woman, but she definitely has balls!

In the past month, including things I had not seen before!

Cul de Sac (Polanski)

Touch of Evil (Welles) --- and I am having a heck of a hard time writing a review because the film is gound breaking!)

If (Anderson)

Mathilde (Uchitel)

Kin ( Baker and Baker)

Padmaavat (Bhansali)

Paris by Night (Hare)

Priceless (Salvadori)

Rock My World (Furie)

Silence (Makhmalbaf)

The Girl King (Kaurismaki)

Yousseu N'Dour: Return to Goree (Borgeaud)

I'm working on some of these reviews right now and likely have to see a couple of these again!

Hi,

I saw it a long time ago, and look to catch it again. At the time I did not think it was that great a film ... but I have to see it again to evaluate it better.

Venom 7/10

Marvel nonsense but quite a lot of fun and played engagingly well by Tom Hardy. Wouldn't mind a second one but guess its probably not on the horizon.

Johnny English Strikes Again 5/10

as good as Rowan Atkinson is (and he is) , this was very thin on decent jokes. But for the extremely gorgeous ex Bond girl Olga Kurylenko being in it , I would not have bothered really.

Il Bidone - 6/10

A Lion Is In The Streets - 5/10

Take a Giant Step - 5/10

The Visitors - 8/10

Ditte, Child of Man - 7/10

I've seen worse, but I won't advertise those... I need more unique (but good) movies. I'm running out of stuff that turns me on.

Set in the early eighties, a cosmonaut comes back from outer space with something nasty inside him. I expected this to be a remake of the classic British Sci-Fi film The Quatermass Experiment, but it wasn't. Very enjoyable and not too generic or CGI heavy sci-fi film that relies on characterisation and a well thought out plot. 8/10

Joe Kidd (1972) - A childhood favourite that makes a lot less impact after 30 years. American-made spaghetti western perhaps?