From Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, here comes a great adventure movie. I know, this was pretty big at the turn of the millenium, but it only took me 22 years to see it.

Leonardo DiCaprio is young and Oscar-less, Tilda Swinton is almost not creepy, the French girl is French, and Robert Carlyle does a great short performance of mad man Begbie Daffy. The other actors play nice, but nothing special worth noting.

The soundtrack is filled with great summer music, and now feels like a “Best of 2000 Throwback” album, with bangers from the best of electronic stage in UK: Faithless, Leftfield, Underworld, Orbital, Moby, Chemical Brothers and UNKLE. Oh, and some All Saints, for that extra 2000 kick.

All in all, a good film, well paced, at times a bit unrealistic (that’s a lot of swimming), but it makes for a very good watch. Four popcorns and a map.

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Bounty hunter Boba Fett and mercenary Fennec Shand navigate the underworld when they return to Tatooine to claim Jabba the Hutt’s old turf.

The setting is just as you’d expect from a Star Wars TV series based on Tatooine, the acting is very good, Ming-Na Wen (Agents of SHIELD) is brilliant, and a great appearance of Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, Four Rooms), which at 59 looks like 25. Guess time flows differently on Tattooine. Also, it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces in small roles, expected, as the series is written by Jon Favreau and partly directed by Robert Rodriguez.

All in all, great short series, you can watch it in a rainy day.

May the force be with you.

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Not gonna say too much about how the story is different from the book, although many complained about it. I’m fine with adapting a well known and loved story, when it’s properly done. And this is more than properly done. It’s a kids movie that also grownups will love. The music, the tension, the writing are great. The voice cast is absolutely bonkers, whenever a live action movie has such a great cast, the result is crap. But this is not the case:

• Jeff Bridges as The Aviator
• Mackenzie Foy as The Little Girl
• Rachel McAdams as The Mother
• Marion Cotillard as The Rose (in both the English and the French version)
• Riley Osborne as The Little Prince
• James Franco as The Fox
• Benicio Del Toro as The Snake
• Ricky Gervais as The Conceited Man
• Paul Rudd as Mr. Prince
• Paul Giamatti as The Academy Teacher
• Vincent Cassel as The Fox (in the French version)

I mean, there haven’t been so many good actors together since The Expendables. But this movie is so different. I’ve seen it several times since it was released back in 2015, and it’s always a pleasure to re-watch it. Six popcorns and it stays in The Vault.

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Great animation made by Dreamworks. The jokes are very funny, the voice acting is excellent, the music is just perfect and the animation is superb. The cast is filled with great voices, famous actors and exuberant personalities, like Sam Rockwell (Moon, Mr. Right, a ton of good stuff), Marc Maron, Craig Robinson (Doug Judy in B99), Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2, Joker) and Alex Borstein (Lois in Family Guy). Even Awkwafina is adding on a list of very good roles I’ve recently seen, including Shang-Chi and the Marvel Movie With A Long Name and Raya and the Last Dragon.

This movie will suit both kids and grownups and it’s a great watch, be it a regular evening or a special occasion. Just watch it. Five popcorns.

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This movie is not about motorbikes, the main character’s name is not Akira, and it’s not happening during the Second World War. And yet, it still manages to be one of the best animation movies in history. It’s got everything: Japanese people, amazingly good animation, great voice acting, but most of all, it happens in a sci-fi-cyberpunk future Japan.

Just as with any anime, watch it in Japanese with your desired language subtitles, it’s way better. Six popcorns and it goes into the Vault.

The movie takes place in 2019 and depicts Neo-Tokyo creating a new Olympic stadium. Coincidentally, Tokyo was scheduled to host the 2020 Summer Olympics before the COVID-19 pandemic delayed them until 2021.

The movie consists of 2,212 shots and 160,000 single pictures, 2-3 times more than usual, using 327 different colors (another record in animation film), 50 of which were exclusively created for the film.

Read more trivia on the IMDb page, this movie is a masterpiece.

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Stranger Things is back! The phenomenon-series that has taken over the world comes brings the first part of the fourth season, seven amazing episodes (with two of them, the fourth and the seventh) I think might be the best from the seres.

I’m not a huge fan of horror movies, however, this one captivated me. Its writing is great, the pacing is just right and the acting is amazing, and the music is top notch. Also it’s worth noting the very good acting of new minor characters, the appearances of Robert Englund (and a separate Nightmare on Elm Street reference), the great role played by Jaqen H’ghar Tom Wlaschiha, and the insanely good directing that brought everything together.

Five popcorns and a peanut butter crate. Give it a try, it might make your head explode. Heh.

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Despite his family’s baffling generations-old ban on music, Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colourful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.

“Coco” is one of the best Pixar movies, up to par with their classics. It got two Oscars, one for Best Animated Featured Film, the other for best Original Song. The visuals are excellent, voice acting is great, all in all, this is one of Pixar’s best.

Six popcorns, one guitar 🎸, and it goes into the Vault.

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Throughout the game, players will work their way up a money ladder either by answering questions correctly or by confidently giving incorrect answers - and persuading others that they are accurate.

It’s the perfect game to reflect the stupid times we’re living. This is not a trivia contest, it’s a contest that puts into competition stupid people against other stupid people. It’s fun to see what kind of dumb bullshit some people will fall for.

Howie Mandel is a good and fun host, as always, and the contestants are diverse and they vary from smart and charismatic to pretty dumb and overconfident. Three stars, because it’s a decent background noise to peek at while working.

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The demented Sci-fi shorts anthology is back with its third volume. The styles are once again different, and all in all I find the third volume better than the second.

Three Robots: Exit Strategies

The droid trio is back at it again. Great comedy, lots of laughs.

Bad Travelling

A bit gut-wrenching with a lot of gore, but well executed. One of the best in the volume. Directed by David Fincher.

The Very Pulse of the Machine

Very good animation technique, comes with 2001: Space Odyssey vibes.

Night of the Mini Dead

This mini-version of Resident Evil is better than 95% of any zombie movie out there. Mini apocalypse, maxi laughs.

Kill Team Kill

Something something army, something something bear. Loved the style of this animation

Swarm

Nice setup, reminded me a bit of Avatar for some reason, mostly because it shows how we’d interact with an alien civilization.

Mason’s Rats

Farmer Mason knows he has a real pest problem when they start shooting back. Hilarious, but makes you feel a bit afraid.

In Vaulted Halls Entombed

Deep in the mountains of Afghanistan, a military squad discovers an elder god with terrifying power. Reminded me a lot of WoW’s N’zoth.

Jibaro

Definitely the best executed animation I’ve seen in a long time. Realistic, super detailed, it almost feels like a live action movie. And the way the story unfolds? Goosebumps.

All in all, Volume 3 was a super fun watch, binged it in about an hour and a half, with some breaks, it’s definitely worth seeing.

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Cantor Rabinowitz is concerned and upset because his son Jakie shows so little interest in carrying on the family’s traditions and heritage. For five generations, men in the family have been cantors in the synagogue, but Jakie is more interested in jazz and ragtime music. One day, they have such a bitter argument that Jakie leaves home for good. After a few years on his own, now calling himself Jack Robin, he gets an important opportunity through the help of well-known stage performer Mary Dale. But Jakie finds that in order to balance his career, his relationship with Mary, and his memories of his family, he will be forced to make some difficult choices.

This was the first feature-length movie with audible dialogue. Though the film is widely considered to be the first talking film, there was originally planned to be no spoken dialogue, only singing. Al Jolson improvised all of the dialogue in the talking scenes on spot, and Harry Warner made the call to leave these scenes in the film.

Jack Robin: Wait a minute, wait a minute, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet! Wait a minute, I tell ya! You ain’t heard nothin’! You wanna hear “Toot, Toot, Tootsie”? All right, hold on, hold on…

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On its 374th reboot, the new Batman keeps its gritty tone, its dark mood, Robert Pattinson doing a beter job as the Batman than most of his predecessors, and a very good Bruce Wayne (not as flashy as Christian Bale though, but still very good).

While the cast is filled with great presences, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis (as Alfred, wow!), John Turturro, Paul Dano and others, their performances are not as strong as Robert Pattinson’s. Colin Farrell, though, is fucking amazing as The Penguin.

I liked a lot the music, the tempo, the setting, at some times it feels a lot like a film noir, with Pattinson in the role of the worn-out detective. The fight scenes are well done and generally speaking, it feels like a Batman should feel. And it stands tall on its own, being a strong Batman movie and a very entertaining watch, even if you don’t like superhero movies. Five popcorns and a bat 🦇

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“Restul e tacere” / “The Rest is Silence” is a movie about movie director Grig Ursache and the financial tycoon Leon Negrescu made together the 2 hours long movie “Romania’s Independence” - an as faithful as possible screen adaptation of the real Independence War that had been fought in 1877. The movie blends really well truth and legend (Grig Ursache is based on the real director/writer/actor Grigore Brezeanu, while Leon Negrescu is based on Leon Popescu, land owner, member of the Senate and Parliament)

The movie itself is well written, well acted, filled to the brim with very good and famous Romanian movie and theater actors (Vizante is playing his best role so far). All in all, a great watch, one of the best Romanian movies out there. Five popcorns.

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