Films 201603-04

50. Patriot Games / Phillip Noyce / 1992 / ***
    When CIA Analyst Jack Ryan interferes with an IRA assassination, a renegade faction targets him and his family for revenge.
51. Clear and Present Danger / Phillip Noyce / 1994 / ***
    CIA Analyst Jack Ryan is drawn into an illegal war fought by the US government against a Colombian drug cartel.
    Hoewel hij in 1982 al Heatwave had gedraaid, kwam regisseur Phillip Noyce pas echt in de spotlight toen hij in 1989 de filmcarrière van Nicole Kidman helemaal lanceerde, met Dead Calm. Hij strikte Harrison Ford als Jack Ryan –ter vervanging van Alec Baldwin– in de twee vervolgfilms op John McTiernans The Hunt for Red October (gebaseerd op de gelijknamige boeken van Tom Clancy).
52. The Game / David Fincher / 1997 / ***
    Wealthy San Francisco financier Nicholas Van Orton gets a strange birthday present from wayward brother Conrad: a live-action game that consumes his life.
53. Carol / Todd Haynes / 2015 / ***
    An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman.
54. Frank / Lenny Abrahamson / 2014 / ***(*)
    Jon, a young wanna-be musician, discovers he’s bitten off more than he can chew when he joins an eccentric pop band led by the mysterious and enigmatic Frank.
    Lenny Abrahamson stond recent vooral in de spotlight voor zijn film Room, maar deze Frank, met fantastische prestaties van Michael Fassbender (in de titelrol), Domhnall Gleeson en Maggie Gyllenhaal, staat toch wel op een iets hoger niveau.
55. Emelie / Michael Thelin / 2015 / *
    A couple’s replacement babysitter turns out to be more than they bargined for when she subjects their kids to a series of twisted activities.
56. The Uninvited / Charles Guard & Thomas Guard (als The Guard Brothers) / 2009 / **
    Anna Ivers returns home to her sister Alex after a stint in a mental hospital, though her recovery is jeopardized thanks to her cruel stepmother. Her dismay quickly turns to horror when she is visited by ghastly visions of her dead mother.
    Ik zag de pointe al van vijf kilometer ver aankomen. Helaas.
57. Midnight in Paris / Woody Allen / 2011 / **
    While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée’s family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s everyday at midnight.
    Ok, maar zeker niet de beste Woody Allen film, met deze toch wel zeer dunne plotlijn. Interessant concept, maar dat volstaat niet.
58. Dementia / John Parker / 1955 / ***
    This film, with no dialogue at all, follows a psychotic young woman’s nightmarish experiences through one skid-row night.
59. Vampyr / Carl Theodor Dreyer / 1932 / ***
    A drifter obsessed with the supernatural stumbles upon an inn where a severely ill adolescent girl is slowly becoming a vampire.
    Beide vfilms gezien met live orkestbegeleiding in De Bijloke, en dat was een fantastische ervaring.
60. Triple 9 / John Hillcoat
    / 2016 / **
    A gang of criminals and corrupt cops plan the murder of a police officer in order to pull off their biggest heist yet across town.
61. Deadpool / Tim Miller / 2016 / ***
    A former Special Forces operative turned mercenary is subjected to a rogue experiment that leaves him with accelerated healing powers, adopting the alter ego Deadpool.
62. Unknown / Jaume Collet-Serra / 2011 / **
    A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.
    Typische Liam ‘Taken’ Neeson-prent.
63. The Revenant / Alejandro G. Iñárritu / 2015 / ***(*)
    A frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
    DiCaprio heeft alvast zijn oscar niet gestolen!
64. Ratter / Branden Kramer / 2015 / *
    Emma, a graduate student living alone in NYC, is being watched by a stalker who hacks into the technology that surrounds her – laptop, cell phone, and other web connected devices. This obsession continues to grow as the hacker records Emma’s most intimate moments. When the thrill of watching isn’t enough, the situation escalates to a dangerous and terrifying level.
65. Red Lights / Rodrigo Cortés / 2012 / **
    Psychologist Margaret Matheson and her assistant study paranormal activity, which leads them to investigate a world-renowned psychic who has resurfaced years after his toughest critic mysteriously passed away.
66. Backtrack / Michael Petroni / 2015 / (*)
    Psychologist Peter Bower’s life is thrown into turmoil when he discovers a strange secret about his patients. Risking his own sanity, Peter delves into his past to uncover a terrifying secret which only he can put right.
67. Cannibal / Manuel Martín Cuenca / 2013 / **(*)
    Carlos is the most prestigious tailor in Granada, but he’s also a murderer in the shadows. He feels no remorse, no guilt, until Nina appears in his life and love awakens.
    Zeer sereen.
68. L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie / Eric Lartigau / 2010 / ***
    Paul Exben is a success story – partner in one of Paris’s most exclusive law firms, big salary, big house, glamorous wife and two sons straight out of a Gap catalog. But when he finds out that Sarah, his wife, is cheating on him with Greg Kremer, a local photographer, a rush of blood provokes Paul into a fatal error. Standing over the corpse of his wife’s lover, Paul knows that his perfect life has gone for good. But by assuming the dead man’s identity and fleeing for an isolated part of former Yugoslavia on the beautiful Adriatic coast, Paul gets another shot at being himself and, at last, seeing the big picture.
69. Hush / Mike Flanagan / 2016 / **
    A deaf writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears at her window.
    Onderhoudend, maar daar houdt het dan ook op.
70. In the Cut / Jane Campion / 2003 / *(*)
    New York writing professor, Frannie Avery, has an affair with a police detective who is investigating the murder of a beautiful young woman in her neighbourhood.
    Al veel beter uitgevoerde versies van dit plot gezien.
71. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 / Francis Lawrence / 2015 / *
    As the war of Panem escalates to the destruction of other districts, Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant leader of the rebellion, must bring together an army against President Snow, while all she holds dear hangs in the balance.
    Eerlijk? Dan kijk ik liever naar Twilight.
72. The 5th Wave / J Blakeson / 2016 / **
    Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Cassie is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother.
    Allez, hop. We zijn weer vertrokken voor een nieuwe franchise. J Blakeson is dezelfde regisseur die in 2009 The Disappearance of Alice Creed maakte.
73. Breathe In / Drake Doremus / 2013 / **
    When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family’s relationships and alters their lives forever.
    De onvermijdelijke clichés zaten er natuurlijk wel in, maar al bij al viel het nog mee. Met Felicity Jones.
74. 6 Years / Hannah Fidell / 2015 / **
    A young couple bound by a seemingly ideal love, begins to unravel as unexpected opportunities spin them down a volatile and violent path and threaten the future they had always imagined.
    Slechte karakterschets. Van dezelfde regisseur die eerder al het barslechte A Teacher afleverde.
75. Little Dead Rotting Hood / Jared Cohn / 2016 / *
    The residents of a small town discover that something more sinister than killer wolves is lurking in the backwoods: first the wolves start turning up dead…then people.
    Jared Cohn maakt meer slechte films in een jaar dan Pier Aspe gelijkaardige boeken.
76. The Forest / Jason Zada / 2016 / *
    A woman goes into Japan’s Suicide Forest to find her twin sister, and confronts supernatural terror.
    Daar had ik nu eens zo veel van verwacht. Helaas.
77. The Invitation / Karyn Kusama / 2015 / **
    While attending a dinner party at his former home, a man thinks his ex-wife and her new husband have sinister intentions for their guests.
    Het begint zeer traag en understated, maar culmineert in een mooi einde en een binnen de verwachtingen vallend eindbeeld.
78. The Girl in the Photographs / Nick Simon / 2015 / *
    A bored young woman in a sleepy community called Spearfish starts receiving photographs of brutally murdered young women. Are they real or staged? The culprit is either a serial killer or some creep with a sick sense of humour.
    Een mooie, uitnodigende titel, maar een ontgoochelende film.
79. Rest Stop / John Shiban / 2006 / *
    The film follows Nicole Carrow, a young woman who is threatened by a maniac serial killer, after her boyfriend Jess, is abducted in a rest stop.
80. Holidays / various / 2016 / *
    Holidays is an anthology feature film that puts a uniquely dark and original spin on some of the most iconic and beloved holidays of all time by challenging our folklore, traditions and assumptions.
81. The ABCs of Death / various / 2012 / *
    A 26-chapter anthology that showcases death in all its vicious wonder and brutal beauty.
82. Julia’s Eyes (Los ojos de Julia) / Guillem Morales / 2010 / **
    The story of a woman who is slowly losing her sight whilst trying to investigate the mysterious death of her twin sister.
83. Remember / Atom Egoyan / 2015 / **
    With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.
    Goed geacteerd, maar ik had de pointe al door na vijf minuten.
84. Het Diner / Menno Meyjes / 2013 / **
    Two well-to-do couples with plenty to lose have dinner to discuss the gruesome act their teenage sons may or may not have committed together.
    Het boek was beter. Dacht ik toch.
85. Blood, Sweat, and Beer / Chip Hiden, Alexis Irvin / 2015 / **(*)
    A documentary exploring the explosive growth of the craft beer industry and the struggles of two start-up breweries.
    Interessant, maar zeker geen must see.
86. The Trust / Alex Brewer & Benjamin Brewer / 2016 / *
    A pair of cops investigating a drug invasion stumble upon a mysterious bank vault.
87. Made in France / Nicolas Boukhrief / 2015 / **(*)
    After the horrible terrorist attacks that rocked Paris, this daring investigation thriller plunges you inside the extremist muslim groups that grow inside western countries and can strike at any moment.
    Gemaakt vóór de aanslagen in Parijs, werd de release van deze film verscheidene keren uitgesteld. De fictie ging de realiteit vooraf. De moeite van het bekijken waard.
88. Le tout nouveau testament / Jaco Van Dormael / 2015 / **(*)
    Did you know that God is alive and lives in Brussels with his daughter?
    Een typisch Van Dormael-universum, deze film. Zeker de moeite.
89. Schneider vs. Bax / Alex van Warmerdam / 2015 / ***
    On his birthday, a hitman reluctantly takes on the easy task of killing a writer, only to find the job a lot more difficult than expected.
    Heerlijk!

0 te vermijden / * slecht, maar bekijkbaar / ** goed / *** zeer goed / **** fantastisch (meer uitleg bij de quotering)

(films vorige maand)