The Lost City of Z is a good biography

5 second plot: This is the true-life story of Percy Fawcett, a man who spent his entire life looking for a lost city (maybe even a lost city of gold) in the Amazonian jungle.

5 second review: I guess it's a good biography but it's not very entertaining as a movie. The only thing that kept my spirits up was the fact that I was going to see an incredible discovery. Spoiler alert (seriously, if you want to see the movie, do not read on): I didn't get to see jack shit. They probably never found the bloody city. What a waste of my precioussss time.

IMDb score: 6,8/10
Our score: 4/10

Christine will not make you happy

5 second plot: Christine Chubbuck was a reporter who shot herself on live television in 1974. This is the story of the months leading up to that event.

5 second review: If you're looking for a good time at the movies, this is not the one you want to see. This story will not make you happy. Also, there wasn't enough material to make a full length movie out of. So the story is stretched beyond its limits. As a half hour documentary it might have worked, but not as a two hour long fictionalized movie.

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

The Birth of a Nation is not an easy watch

5 second plot: Nat Turner is a slave who has been working on a cotton plantation his entire life. He knows how to read and becomes a preacher who travels to other plantations to preach to other slaves. What he sees on his trips makes him sad and angry. One day he decides it's time to act.

5 second review: This is not an easy watch. It's a tough history lesson. But a very important one. It's a shame the controversy surrounding writer, star and director Nate Parker took away the attention from the important message the movie tries to bring.

IMDb score: 5,9/10
Our score: 7/10

The Infiltrator is great

5 second plot:  In 1985 Robert Mazur, a U.S. Customs official, goes deep undercover to take on the big boys in drug trafficking. Instead of following the drugs, he follows the money. It doesn't take long for him to attract the attention of the top of the food chain.

5 second review: It's incredible that this movie is based on a true story. These people laid their lives on the line to get high end criminals behind bars. Everyone is telling lie after lie to cover up the previous lie, people sitting next to them are getting killed,... You can feel the story moving towards a big climax, but you don't know who is going to live to tell it. Awesome performances (not just you Brian Cranston) in a great movie.

IMDb score: 7,2/10
Our score: 8,5/10

Free State of Jones is a bit overly romanticized

5 second plot: Newton is a 'nurse' in the US Civil War. He doesn't believe in what he's fighting for anymore and deserts. He is hunted down but manages to stay one step ahead. It doesn't take long for him to find a whole bunch of soulmates. Together they fight for justice.

5 second review: There are some very realistic scenes in here that will make you realize what it was like to live in that period in time. It does feel a bit overly romanticized to make it a more comfortable view for a modern audience. I don't know if this guy really was the saint the movie depicts him as, but at least he fought on the side of the good guys. Right?

IMDb score: 6,8/10
Our score: 6/10

Eddie the Eagle is amazing

5 second plot: Eddie's big dream is to go to the Olympics. But he's not very good at sports. Not good enough to be an Olympic athlete anyway. But then he figures out that if he takes on ski jumping, he will be the only one contending for Great Britain and that means that he can go to the Winter Olympics. If he overcomes all the obstacles that are put in his path. Like: not breaking his neck.

5 second review: This is a great true story about dreaming the dream and never ever ever ever giving up to get to where you want to be. With an amazing performance by Taron Egerton.

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

House of Manson is not cool

5 second plot: It's the life story of notorious criminal Charles Manson.

5 second review: It couldn't have been easy to tell this story as boring as they did. The dialogue is not good and the actors don't seem to know what they're doing. It's terrible.

IMDb score: 6,2/10
Our score: 0/10

Joy is quite the struggle

5 second plot: Joy is the central figure in her family. She's holding everyone together like superglue: mother, father, ex-husband, kids, grandmother, half-sister. Her life is a soap opera. On top of taking care of everyone she invents stuff. And now the time has come to think big.

5 second review: What is it with Jennifer Lawrence? How can she be so great in everything she is in? It must be some kind of secret superpower. Almost all the other characters in the movie annoyed the crap out of me. I felt like punching her family in the face myself. I guess that's the whole idea but it's not really my idea of a fun night out.

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

The Big Short is a reality check

5 second plot: In the mid 2000s a couple of smart guys figure out the housing and credit market is going to collapse. This is the true story of the international banking disaster that was right under everyone's nose but no-one saw coming.

5 second review:  The movie starts off funny. We even get Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explaining the basics. And at one point there's a drawing of a testicle on the screen (because we pick up on a random conversation). But after a while the fun's over. The tone of the movie shifts from a funny 'what comes around goes around' story to the sad reality it became for a lot of people.

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

In the Heart of the Sea feels uninspired

5 second plot: It's the story of how Moby Dick came to be. In 1850 the writer of this famous novel writes down the account of the last survivor of the fight between whale hunters and a huge angry white whale. First this big fucker takes out the ship and then he chases the survivors for months.

5 second review: I can't believe this is a Ron Howard movie. The sets look like they're made out of cardboard, the effects are so and so and it just isn't the big adventure it should be. And no way pretty boys with shiny teeth would be sailing boats in the beginning of the 1800s.

IMDb score: 7,2/10
Our score: 5/10

Legend is slick

5 second plot: In the 1960's the London underworld was ruled by the Kray twins. One of them was smart, slick and had a good eye for business. The other one was a dangerous psychopath that belonged in a mental institution. But when he's your brother, what are you going to do?

5 second review: Tom Hardy is one hell of an actor. His portrayal of these two lunatics is pitch perfect. They are so different that it's almost unbelievable it's the same actor portraying them both. I love the cool 'we're-not-scared-of-anyone' gangsta shit, but unfortunately this story is also about the boring parts of their lives.

IMDb score: 7,3/10
Our score: 7,5/10

Spotlight is heavy shit

5 second plot: In 2001 a team of investigative reporters from the Boston Globe uncovers of story of child abuse by Catholic priests on a huge scale. And the cover-up that comes along with it on an ever bigger scale.

5 second review: This is not only a story about horrible child abuse, but it's also about investigative journalism. It runs like a thriller, these guys (and girl) can't believe what they're uncovering. It's a story that needs to be told and it's told perfectly. One thing that really pops out are the performances. Everyone is amazing.

IMDb score: 8,5/10
Our score: 8,5/10

Steve Jobs is all about the man

5 second plot: We get a backstage pass to Steve Jobs' life. Minutes before every (well, the first three big ones) launch everyone close to him feels the need to tell him what they really think.

5 second review: It's a good movie and a great performance. But you have to know it's all about the clockwork of the man, not of the machines. It's not about the awesome speeches, but about the man in between them. I was expecting the speeches though, so that was a little bit of a bummer.

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

Bridge of Spies is solid

5 second plot: In the heat of the Cold War a lawyer is asked to represent a Russian spy. Later on he's asked to arrange the exchange of an American pilot shot down above Russia against this spy.

5 second review: When Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks join up for a historical movie inspired by true events you already know upfront that it's a sure bet. It's beautifully shot, in a very realistic Cold War setting (no expense is spared to show the outside world as it was) and the performances are magnificent.

IMDb score: 7,9/10
Our score: 8,5/10

The Walk is suberb

5 second review: This is the true story of Philippe Petit, a street artist from Paris who had a dream. He wanted to connect a wire between the Twin Towers of New York and walk across that wire from one site to the other.

5 second review: Apart from some unnecessary drama halfway through, this movie is a lot of fun. The planning and execution of this legendary walk almost feels like a cool heist movie. The cinematography and special effects are superb. And it's also a beautiful ode to the memory of the Twin Towers.

IMDb score: 7,5/10
Our score: 8/10

Black Mass is one hell of a performance

5 second plot: This is the real life story of the rise and fall of Whitey Bulger. Boston's notorious friendly neighbor by day and lunatic crime lord by night. In the '80s he became a big player thanks to a deal he made with the FBI.

5 second review: What an amazing cast and what a brilliant performance by Johnny Depp. He translates this psychotic unpredictability so well to the screen, you truly never know what's going to happen, but you're always expecting the worst. It's a shame the story just focuses on the cool lunatic gangster stuff and doesn't try to dig deeper.

IMDb score: 7,9/10
Our score: 8/10

Straight Outta Compton is dope

5 second plot: This is the story of the rise of the legendary hip-hop group NWA in the 1980's and everything that came with it.

5 second review: Good sound, good performances and it seems that no-one's career was harmed in the making of the film. (No-one that matters today anyway.) So I guess it's all good. 

IMDb score: 8,1/10

Our score: 7/10

Selma is a story that needs to be remembered

5 second plot: This is the story of the fight for equal voting rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King. The non-violent protest came to a turning point in 1965 in a small town in Alabama called Selma. The horrible images of peaceful protesters being beaten up by the police went around the world.

5 second review: It's a story about a great man fighting for a great cause. My heart skipped a beat a couple of times. Because this isn't fiction. The importance of the movie is that it makes us remember. It's a shame that it's a really boring production, except for a handful of memorable moments.

IMDb score: 7,7/10
Our score: 5/10

The Imitation Game is an extraordinary story

5 second plot: This is the true story of Alan Turing who built a machine that broke the German Enigma code in WWII, thus saving millions of lives. His work was top secret for a very long time, no-one knew what he had done. A couple of years after the war this exceptional hero was convicted for being gay.

5 second review: It's something we can't even imagine today, being convicted for homosexuality... And this was not that many years ago, this wasn't the Middle Ages. This is one of those great stories that needed to be told. The world needs to know who Alan Turing is. The movie is a little bit too boring for my taste, but that doesn't mean it's not good, it's just not very much my cup of tea. The performances are amazing, there's no discussion there.

IMDb score: 8,2/10
Our score: 6/10

American Sniper honors a great hero

5 second plot: This is the true story of Chris Kyle, a Texas cowboy who decides one day to join the Navy SEALs and fight for his country. He becomes a world class sniper known as 'The Legend'. He does four tours in Irak. With all the horrible things he's seen, it's difficult for him to get back to the real world.

5 second review: You can feel there is a master filmmaker and an incredibly talented actor at work here. Clint Eastwood switches between time periods and places to keep the energy going and creates an enormous tension as we are sucked into the battlefield. This is a great movie about a great American hero.

IMDb score: 7,7/10
Our score: 8,5/10