Sunday, August 27, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 7: The Dragon and the Wolf (season finale)
















5 second plot: Daenerys and friends show the zombie to Cersei and friends. Sansa and Arya's conflict reaches a boiling point. We find out who Jon really is (it's even more complicated than we first thought). The dead arrive at the wall.

5 second review: It's great to see old friends and foes meet. It's a good thing Bron is there to take the edge off (a little bit). I love the way Ned Stark's legacy is still very much alive. He is still the coolest man in GoT. This episode is unreal. I don't think I've ever in my life seen an episode of a TV show this good. And now we wait...

IMDb score: 9,7/10
Our score: 10/10


Friday, August 25, 2017

Death Note is actually pretty good
















5 second plot: One day a book falls out of the sky. If you write someone's name in it, this person will die. Light (that's the name of the kid that finds the book) tries to do the right thing by writing down the names of evil men (and women?) but he takes his good intentions too far.

5 second review: I was not expecting to be positively surprised by this movie. Nat Wolff (Light, the lead character) has got a natural flair that makes this movie work. It's also not too serious, thank you very much. And Willem Dafoe is perfect as the voice of the evil demon that comes along with the book.

IMDb score: 4,7/10
Our score: 8/10


Sunday, August 20, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 6: Beyond the Wall
















5 second plot: Jon and his band of brothers find the army of the dead. They are able to catch one of them, but at a great cost.  Aria confronts Sansa with something she did a long time ago. She doesn't seem to realize that Littlefinger is playing her.

5 second review: There's a lot of talking and butt-kissing first to get to the spectacular stuff. But it's worth the wait. I don't like where they are going with Aria in the story. I hope she's not as stupid as they are trying to make us believe.

IMDb score: 9,7/10
Our score: 9/10


Saturday, August 19, 2017

Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child is nothing new















5 second plot: There's been an outbreak of self-bred killer monsters on a colonized planet (we're in the future by the way). A military man has got somewhat less than 24 hours to save his family before the planet is destroyed (as a containment precaution).

5 second review: The sci-fi stuff is not bad for a low budget movie. The big set pieces are filmed from a distance or in a bit of a blur, but that's still okay. Some things weren't given enough thought though. Like prison guards with very impractical armor (it had to be cool, not practical, I guess). There's nothing new, nothing original, so why waste your time creating a small budget movie like this? There's no added value.

IMDb score: 5,9/10
Our score: 2/10


Friday, August 18, 2017

The Hitman's Bodyguard is simple fun















5 second plot: Ryan Renolds is a world class bodyguard who has to get Samuel L. Jackson’s world class hit man safely to The Hague to testify against a war criminal.

5 second review: This is a good old fashioned simple uncomplicated team-up action comedy. If ask yourself too many questions while watching this movie it’s very likely you will not make it through it without throwing something at the screen. But if you just go with the flow, you’ll have a great time.

IMDb score: 7,1/10
Our score: 8/10


What Happened to Monday is too much
















5 second plot: The world has become overpopulated. To keep this population fed, scientists have found a way to enhance crops. But this resulted in even more kids. So now the government has decided that parents can only have one child. Somehow the seven (identical) Settmans siblings have survived without being noticed. But now one of them has gone missing.

5 second review: The action sequences are good and Noomi Rapace does a fine job portraying seven different people. The future looks like today. Except for the cheap stuff. It was a good idea on paper, but as a movie it's not that interesting. And it's too much of the same, it's too long and the story comes to a full stop too often (and then it's like no-one knows what to do next).

IMDb score: 6,9/10
Our score: 4/10


Sunday, August 13, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 5: Eastwatch
















5 second plot: Spoilers ahead! Jaime realizes that it's going to be impossible to win the war. Cersei won't hear of it. Jon wants to show Cersei a zombie to convince her to leave Daenerys alone for a bit so she can help him fight the dead. Tyrion secretly meets with Jaime to talk about it. Jon teams up with a magnificent band of heroes and misfits to go snatch the zombie.

5 second review: There's no big battle in this episode. I was kind of getting used to it. Jon's team has got The Hound in it, the bastard son of king Baratheon, Jorah and the leader of the wildlings. Now that's a team-up! I was thinking about the meeting between Jaime and Tyrion. How did they arrange that? They don't have phones so how in the world did he ring that in?

IMDb score: 9,2/10
Our score: 9/10


Friday, August 11, 2017

Annabelle: Creation delivers


















5 second plot: This is the origin story of the doll Annabelle and the evil that comes along with her/it. A group of orphanages are on the receiving end of her wrath when they come live in her house. It takes them a bit to realize what they got themselves into.

5 second review: They were not kidding with the title. It's a good origin story and it connects nicely with the first movie. It is a bit dark and heavy (not much fun) but this darkness combined with some very scary moments and a touch of gore, makes it a pretty decent horror movie. Special kudos to the sound effects.

IMDb score: 6,9/10
Our score: 7/10


Sunday, August 6, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 4: The Spoils of War 


















5 second plot: Spoilers ahead! Cersei regains the trust of the Iron Bank. Aria comes home. Daenerys and Jon are starting to get along but she still wants him to bend the knee. When Daenerys finds out that she is losing the war, she decides to take matters into her own hands. In other words: Jamie and Bronn are screwed.

5 second review: Well girl, if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself, I guess. The way the tension builds up to this episode's battle is awesome. It felt like the Jurassic Parc T-Rex build-up. The production value (battles, dragons, fire, explosions,...) is amazing for a TV show. They were not kidding when they said this season would be BIG.

IMDb score: 9,9/10
Our score: 10/10


Friday, August 4, 2017

The Dark Tower is not as epic as expected


















5 second plot: A tower (a dark one) stands in the middle of the universe. It keeps evil things out of our world (and other worlds). A child's mind can destroy it. Evil dude Walter is kidnapping kids from all over the world to try and take it down. Enter Jake, the kid that can probably destroy it. And Roland, the gunslinger that will do anything to prevent that from happening.

5 second review: It's good, but I was expecting a 2,5 hour epic movie and this is just a tiny part of that. Which makes it feel incomplete or more like an episode of a TV show. Matthew McConaughey is on a roll though as the evil Man in Black. The visuals are good except for a run-in with a weird creature half way through the movie.

IMDb score: 6/10
Our score: 7/10


Message from the King is brutal














5 second plot: Jacob came from South Africa to Los Angeles to find his missing sister. But he is too late, she has been murdered. Jacob starts looking for the men responsible.

5 second review: This is a brutal revenge tale, but it's not slick or cool revenge, it's pure dramatic rage. Overall it's a decent movie with a very strong performance by Chadwick Boseman but there are a couple of false notes, like the strange relationship between Jacob and his neighbor.

IMDb score: 6,3/10
Our score: 7/10