The movie was shot in Paris, where RAMMSTEIN played two shows in front of 17.000 people in the Bercy-Arena. Åkerlund used 30 cameras to record every moment of the show and to always get the perfect perspective. In the editing process, he created a styled up music video with fucking well made cuts, always in the right rhythm and speed with the music. Also, the sound is flawless, the force of the music is captured very well. And so,

RAMMSTEIN: Paris becomes a 100-minute-long music video.

The gimmicks generated while editing and the harsh cuts do the rest. The audience stays an anonymous mass and sadly, there is almost no real concert feeling. The viewer is nearer to RAMMSTEIN than they’ll possibly ever be and one can see the details of the show: how the guitars burn, for example. Flake, the keyboarder, is cooked into a mega-pot and Lindemann douse the audience with a fake penis.

The quality of sound and picture is amazing.

The musicians stay musicians and the audience a celebrating crowd. A bit more personality would have been nice. RAMMSTEIN: Paris is a perfectly choreographed night of superlatives!

Visit a cinema in your neighbourhood to watch RAMMSTEIN: Paris in theatres until Wednesday, March 29th, 2017.

And tell us how you liked it in the comments!

Multiple Personality Disorder is a common film trope, but what happens if 24 (!) different personalities inhabit a body and even change its physiology?

Split won’t make you guess who is the villain, but rather when they’re going to attack.

When it comes to thrillers and horror movies I prefer those with good, interesting storylines and less gore – bonus points if it’s a Psychological Thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. The latest M. Night Shyamalan movie takes the mentally ill psychopath even further with a theory explained by the film’s psychiatrist, stating that multiple personalities can not only live inside but also change a human body. One of the examples given is that a person with multiple personalities (in the film they’re mostly called “identities”) could have high cholesterol or need insulin only when a certain “identity” is active or present. With this principle in mind, Split‘s villain can summon one of their identities, which has evolved to have “superpowers”.

I know, it’s already getting complicated and weird, but after almost two hours of film the theory is much easier to understand. Of course that’s only one side of the film’s story. There’s also the thriller-side, in which three teenage girls are kidnapped and only make things worse, when trying to escape their confinement, etc. But honestly, I was more captivated by the psycho-analytical complexity of the plot – that’s what kept me on the edge of my seat.

Check out the trailer and give the movie a chance – it might not frighten you to the core, but it will make you think about the possibilities and the wonders of the human brain.

Split (2016/2017)

Production: Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions.
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan.

Have you watched Split yet? Did you like it? Leave us a comment and share this review!

To be honest – I don’t know what happened. I don’t read comics at all and when the first Marvel movies hit the cinemas, I wasn’t interested much. I watched “The Avengers” once on DVD, as well as “Thor” which I didn’t like back then. But after watching “Avengers – Age of Ultron” I had to watch/rewatch all of them and my collection of Blurays has grown since then.

What I love about the Marvel movies is that it’s a whole universe.

The different stories are connected and actually follow a story line. Some funny facts, running gags and backgrounds can only be understood, if you know the other movies. BUT you can follow and understand the story itself anyway without knowing the other movies. Some people call me alien, because I don’t watch any series at all (except Sailor Moon and Power Rangers). But “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” got me and I love that the story is influenced by the movie’s plot (even though I’m not binge-watching or going crazy about a new season/episode). Plus I buy a lot of merchandise, especially shirts.

For those of you who actually aren’t familiar with the story, let me help you: In World War II, the Americans created Captain America – one could say he is a mutant, getting his super powers out of a science experiment. After doing his job, he flew an airplane into a sea of ice to save the world and woke up many, many years later. During that time Tony Stark, a super talented mechanic, built an armour with which he is able to fly and do other amazing things, calling himself Iron Man. He had to do this, because he was kidnapped and it was the only possibility to flee. After all, Iron Man was born and starting to save the world, too.

You know the big green guy? Hulk is not a classical hero. He doesn’t want to be one and cannot control himself, but he has a good heart and also is a very, very intelligent man. He and Tony Stark are brothers in science, so to speak. The other important hero, Thor, is the god of thunder. He was sent to earth by his father after neglecting his orders and then fell in love with a woman and the planet itself.

There are two main characters who are often called sidekicks, but their importance grows with every story they take part in: Natasha Romanoff is Black Widow, an agent who was trained in Russia, Clint Barton is Hawkeye, an amazing archer,  also good at combat fighting. They don’t have their own movies, but appear in some of them (all the connections…) – there are rumours about a series on Hawkeye which I definetly would watch by the way (thanks to Jeremy, again)! They know each other for a long time – Hawkeye has been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for a long time and one of his missions was to kill Black Widow who was trained by the Soviets to be a killing machine. But when they met, he didn’t kill her and she became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, too (they aren’t a couple, though and we find out about Hawkeye’s private life in “Age of Ultron”).

So we have three normal people who have very, very good skills (Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Man) and three people with super powers (Captain America, Hulk, Thor) forming a team called the Avengers. During the movies, more heroes join the team. They come together to save the world from aliens, robots, artificial intelligence, psychopaths and so on. The story behind all of it is that they have to find the infinity stones. Otherwise, an alien king would conquer the world – you might have seen him in “Guardians of the Galaxy”. And this is the other thing I’m curious about: The guardians will join forces sooner or later!

But the Avengers had to decide recently, if they want to quit doing what they do or work for the US government. That led to a split – Captain America doesn’t want to work for an institution, Iron Man agrees. I was really, really afraid of this movie and don’t know how I managed not to cry, when my heroes fought against each other. Now I’m really looking forward to the reunion – because that has to happen when the space invaders appear again.

Simple stories – but a lot of action, humour and science fiction!

The other Marvel team that is not connected to the Avengers’ universe (as far as I know) is X-Men. There are mutants living in our world – it just happened, you might be born as a mutant and have super powers. It’s nothing you can achieve by doing something. Charles Xavier aka Professor X has a school for mutants in which they learn “normal” stuff like history, math and so on, but also how to control and live with their super powers. There have been mutants for a long time, because Magneto was a child during the time when the Nazis ruled Germany and in “X-Men Apocalypse” a mutant appears that was buried in a pyramid for thousands of years. Some people fear the mutants, some mutants are evil and want to rule the world, some even want to destroy it.

And that’s more or less what the stories are about. There is no enemy from outside of the world. But there are different storylines! The first X-Men movies are older and they are about one of the storylines, including the Wolverine movies. In “X-Men: Days of future past” nearly all mutants have been killed and Wolverine was sent back in time to change a key event that led to this. He succeeded and another storyline was born, playing in the parallel universe where that event didn’t happen and mostly featuring the younger versions of X-Men.

Now, with the upcoming movie “Logan”, a third storyline is written – the time after “X-Men: Days of future past” when the mutants lost and most of them were killed, so after Wolverine failed in saving them. But as I said earlier, some people are born as mutants out of nothing so there will always be others.

Confusing? I know! But you can understand every movie in itself and watching them in the right “order” is fun! Even though I only watched the first Wolverine movie, I am able to follow the plot. The most important X-Men who appear in almost every movie are Professor X as founder and headmaster of the school, Magneto, who first tried to conquer Professor X but is allied with him now, Mystique and Wolverine. Deadpool belongs to the universe of the X-Men by the way (did I say, you are born with your super powers? Well the exception proves the rule, right?).

Double agents.

Two characters belong to both universes: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The two are brother and sister (Magneto’s children) and appear in “Age of Ultron” together. But Quicksilver plays an important role in “X-Men: Days of future past” and “X-Men Apocalypse”… I guess, Marvel decided to split the couple and (spoiler alert!) let Quicksilver die in “Age of Ultron”. Scarlet Witch doesn’t appear in X-Men at all (yet).

Another confusing fact is that several people own the rights on the characters. Disney is not allowed to do a Hulk movie. The Hulk can appear in the movies but he can’t have his own. The actors playing Hulk in the already existing Hulk movies are different from our current Hulk (which isn’t that bad because the character grew older). But he’ll appear in Thor 3! And there is still hope for another Hulk movie if the parties can agree on selling the licence.

What’s next?

As I said, there are some really amazing movies coming in 2017! I’m looking forward to these Marvel movies:

Do you like these movies? Did you read the comics? Are you as excited as I am to see the upcoming films? Let us know in the comments!

It’s the story of Jenny and Steve who want to have a peaceful weekend at Eden Lake. But a few teenagers are also there and disturb the silence. By accident, the dog of the group leader dies. That’s the beginning of a brutal spiral of violence, actions and obligations.
While watching I sat there with my mouth wide open after 15 minutes, and could not believe what’s happening.

EDEN LAKE goes the way it decided to go until the end. No break, no turn, just straight ahead.

The plot is consistent as I’ve never seen before. And that’s why EDEN LAKE is so surprising. You share the emotions with the characters, wait for a solution or only a twist in the plot. But there isn’t anything. It’s a spiral which goes further and further.

The emotional bond to the characters is also a result of the good actors. The actor of protagonist Jenny, Kelly Reilly, plays very authentic and fills the role with life.

EDEN LAKE is an emotional horror-thriller.

The brutalities come from the actions, the morally abysses. It’s no splatter or typical scary movie with clear wretches. But it’s horrible to see what humans are possible to do and to force. The moral debate is also set into a context of social criticism which makes it even more realistic and terrible. The viewer sees all sides of the plot, the borders of good and bad disappear more and more while watching. Everyone is guilty. Also because no one is able or just don’t want to break out of the vicious circle.

Country: GB

Year: 2008

Director and scriptwriter: James Watkins

Starring: Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Thomas Turgoose, Jack O’Connell
and more

What is your latest movie, which let your mouth stand wide open?

#StayPeculiar: Tim Burton’s new movie appeals to the outcast in all of us.

Although Miss Peregrine’s is kind of a family drama, it certainly is not for the very faint of heart, including little children – the boy sitting behind me and whispering “Daddy, who is that?” must have had some nightmares. Of course, this is no horror movie, but a level of discerning intellect is required in order to understand and appreciate the plot fully. For the story starts in present day Florida, but is entangled with incidents from World War II.

The film adaptation of Ransom Riggs’ debut novel of the same name follows the protagonist, Jake, to a happy place, where everybody who feels different – or peculiar, as they put it – can live happily, fitting in among other peculiar humans and playing a specific role in the community. This place, which gives the movie its title, is threatened however by other peculiar beings turned monsters by the greed of seeking immortality.

Although the story of the outcast hero is not uncommon in pop culture, the promotion of the film took a very modern and digital turn by introducing the hashtag #StayPeculiar. Coming from darkly gifted Tim Burton it is very relatable and moving to encourage viewers to embrace their “otherness”.

Spoiler alert: there are monsters but also a happy ending.

There might be some spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned.

Terence Stamp is Abe, grandfather to our protagonist Jake (played by Asa Butterfield), who has been telling him fantastic stories about children with special abilities since Jake was a kid. But Abe dies in the beginning of the movie, before he could tell Jake his role in those stories. The teenage protagonist sets out to find the truth about those stories, with the first obstacle being his parents’ skepticism. They rationalise that Abe’s account of fighting monsters only represents his participation in WWII, implying Abe’s monsters were the nazis he fought against. This is a metaphor that could be explored further, but comes a bit short in this mainstream movie adaptation – obviously. The discovery, that the “fantastic” tellings of the grandfather are actually real also happens quickly and without much surprise for Jake.

As with any adventure film, the narrative unfolds giving space to the introduction of each character with special abilities, in this case the peculiar children, the foreseeable scene where the viewer but no characters recognise the villain gaining ground and then the typically brutal but bloodless battle. The latter takes place on a pier between invisible monsters, dumb villains that get run over by the tram and the peculiar children, who are able to manipulate fake skeletons and other fair attractions into fighting for them in a hilarious manner. Director Tim Burton makes a short appearance in this scene, in case you missed it!

The spectacular visuals and 3D-effects throughout the film – but especially in the action scenes –  win the viewer over, in spite of a somewhat lacking script that doesn’t clear up or at least further deal with the topics mentioned before nor with Jake’s own “otherness”, his ordeal not to fitting into his family and school-environment. Maybe it’s only the German dubbing but I also missed some more background on why Abe was sent to this children’s home, all the way in Wales. I would also like to know a little more about the whole time manipulation, which is a very important theory for the narrative and the essence of Eva Green‘s character Miss Peregrine.

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is light on the burton-style, aimed for more mainstream audiences – much like 2010’s Alice in Wonderland. As a fan of Burton’s darker movies, I enjoyed the lightness of the monsters and the spookier children’s abilities with an evil smirk. The happy ending that arises out of a change in the past and its consequences, like the reversal of Abe’s death, was a little bit confusing but naturally heroic. And when exactly did Jake fall in love so hard, that he had to travel the world through time and space in order to reunite with his grandpa’s ex….?! Anyway that’s the love story that plays out.

Whoah, this was a long movie review.

I know, right? And I will probably have much more to say about this film, as soon as I have gotten it on blu-ray and watched it 3 more times. Maybe I’ll understand it better then, so ask me again in a year, ok?

Something I cannot leave unsaid is: how amazing is it that Ransom Riggs’ debut novel was turned into a Burton-movie?! That’s hell of an achievement by age 37… And on a side note, there’s an interesting goodreads-review of the book version that compares Miss Peregrine’s to X-men. Now I got you thinking, huh?

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children (2016)

Production: Twentieth Century Fox, Scope Pictures, TSG Entertainment, among others.
Directed by: Tim Burton.
Written by: Jane Goldman, based on the novel by Ransom Riggs.

Have you watched it yet? Did you like it? Share this review, leave us a comment and #StayPeculiar!

A movie about a digital game in the real world that gets really out of hand. Kind of like global peer pressure that no one can stop.

Got Nerve? Dare you to watch it!

Now that “Augmented Reality” is in everybody’s mind (thanks, Pokémon GO!), we can have a good understanding of how social media and online games can get entangled into real life. In ‘Nerve’ protagonist Venus ‘Vee’ Delmonico, a creative girl in her senior year of high school, pressures herself into participating in a game of digital “truth or dare”, in order to shut up her limelight-hog friend. The game is full of dares only though, which are broadcasted live to the internet with viewers paying the “stars” to do those activities and deciding what these are.

In this weird social media game turned reality show, the financial “rewards” for the challenges rise with time and so does the danger that comes with them, to the point when the players try to bail – but can’t.

Thrilling, funny, romantic but not cheesy – great combination.

Spoilers ahead! Go watch the movie and come back.

On the one side we have the lighter side of the plot: the protagonist is in high school and so confronted with the age’s problems. Vee’s so called “friend” shames her for being shy and pressures her into playing a game; she wants to go to art school but her mother raises her alone and probably can’t afford to pay for it; she then gets a scholarship but is thinking of declining it, because she doesn’t want to leave her mother alone, who is still mourning Vee’s late brother. Normal teen stuff, you know.

On the other side, the movie also raises contemporary questions, such as who do you turn to, when something can’t be brought to the authorities, because it leaves no verifiable trace? How do you escape the pressure of someone, who has ALL your online data and can access your bank account? And what happens when the world can’t take anything seriously anymore and doesn’t realise the harm it’s doing for the sake of entertainment?

I watched the film in the theatre on a sneak peek, so I was very lucky to watch such a thrilling movie that made me (almost) scream on one second and laugh loudly the next. But it also meant that I watched it in German even though I always try to watch movies from the US in English. And now that I re-watch the trailer and hear Dave Franco’s voice, I’m glad I watched it in German! However, I still recommend it, in whatever language you want – go watch ‘Nerve’! Even if just to see ‘Orange Is The New Black’-actresses Samira Wiley and Kimiko Glenn play the roles of a hacker and a high-schooler respectively (in contrast to their roles in the Netflix-show, the adorable inmate-couple Poussey and Soso).

Nerve (2016)

Production: Allison Shearmur Productions, Keep Your Head, Lionsgate, Supermarché.
Directed by: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Have you watched this movie? Did you enjoy it? Leave us a comment!

“Warcraft”

“Short” discussion about the WARCRAFT film while gaming (or trying).

The film’s director Duncan Jones told Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls in the interview I mentioned, that he thinks movies and media need more female leading roles and that’s why the character of Garona was added to the Warcraft story. If you haven’t yet – go watch it!

Soaring Highs & Brutal Lows: The Voices Of Women in Metal

Interview with the documentary’s filmmaker.

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Director: Oliver Megaton

Taken: Part 3 is different – Bryan Mills has to flee.

For me, 96 Hours Taken was one of the best action thrillers ever. A father saves his daughter from white slavers. In part two, his ex-wife and still big love was taken in revenge for what Mills did to the bad guys and he saved her together with his daughter. 96 Hours Taken 3 is not a kidnapping story any more. There is no connection to the bad guys from the prequels.

After a short introduction, Mills finds his ex-wife dead in his flat. For the police it looks like he is the murderer. Now he has to handle two things: flee from the police and find out who really killed his ex-wife. The story is again full of action and stunts, this time – unfortunately – without his daughter but together with his colleagues who act really cool and help Mills.

Taken 3 – It Ends Here.

For the first time, Taken also activates the psychological part of the brain/heart, because the story’s background is uncertain and many characters inscrutable. The storyline is muddled, you do not know who’s the bad guy like in the former movies.

I didn’t like Taken 2 that much, but part 3 has again an original story and enough action scenes that the child in me is happy. The subheading says “It ends here”, but Liam Neeson already said, if people want to see a fourth part he wouldn’t say no. A cooperation with Forest Whitaker who played the police officer would be really cool!

Big Eyes

The Weinstein Company
Tim Burton

Big Eyes can be summarized in 45 minutes and the rest is exasperatingly sluggish.

Being a big, big fan of Tim Burton and after watching trailers of his latest directing job, I was very eager to see the biopic “Big Eyes”. And since it is not opening here in Germany for some time, I took the time to go to the movies during my New York vacation during the December holidays.

Long story short: wannabe painter, but really just a shameless plagiarist, Walter Keane convinces Margaret Ulbrich to marry him and then to let him sell her work under his name all over the world. And well, I was really disappointed by the rhythm of the film. Unlike most of Burton’s movies, Big Eyes tells the story really slowly. Even now that I watch an interview with the director, I see him talk and communicate pretty quickly, while the picture’s 106 minutes running time feel like decades. The moments of action can be summarized in 45 minutes and the rest is exasperatingly sluggish.

Now that some two weeks have passed since I watched it, I’ve started to idealize “Big Eyes” and remember a beautifully complicated story, full of strong emotions and inner struggles; around some gorgeous works of art and a genius woman just a bit ahead of her time.

A Golden Globe for the leading lady.

Amy Adams totally deserved her Golden Globe for this absolutely moving performance that – if you’re anything like me – pulls you in to share her quiet desperation. As for the rest of the main cast: Christoph Waltz and his Walter Keane disgusted me throughout the movie, his acting not matching the temper of the film. Krysten Ritter’s appearances were far too few for my taste and the character of Margaret’s daughter Jane, was better portrayed by Delaney Raye – an enigmatic kid – than by Madeleine Arthur, whose teenage version of the girl was simply boring.

I missed Burton’s voice and style and I really had to concentrate to feel the real story: the heartbreaking struggle of an artistic spirit caged in a lie. I recommend to go see “Big Eyes” if you have really nothing else to do, but it’s probably better to wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it on a rainy day, when you wouldn’t do anything anyway.