Iron Sky, 2012 - ★★★

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I mean. It is pretty bad. But then again, I think that was planned, because a serious take on this story would not be possible. So they just decided to go full B-Movie and embrace it fully.

What's always a plus for me is when they have actual German actors who actually speak German to play Germans, especially in these kinds of movies. So that's a plus.

This movie is just full of fun, and ends up having a good message: Nazis are bad. Hooray.

I'm rating Iron Sky 3 out of 5 stars and a like.

Letterboxd ShowDown: Best Remakes

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Sorted by title.

I'm not sure all of them surpassed the original, but they are all great movies that are also remakes.

They also feel original enough that they're not just another remake to make more money.

• Dawn of the Dead
• Insomnia
• Little Shop of Horrors
• Maniac
• The Departed
• The Fly
• The Grudge
• The Hills Have Eyes
• The Ring
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Amy, 2015 - ★★★★★

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Watched on Saturday May 27, 2017.

I Saw the Devil, 2010 - ★★★★½

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What happens when a serial killer horribly murders the girlfriend of a psychopath? You get another classic in Korean cinema.

I Saw The Devil is just such a strong movie, with the long known message: there are no winners in revenge.

Min-sik Choi gives probably his greatest performance since Oldboy, maybe even surpassing it. His character is just evil through and through.

I just wonder how many serial killers wander the streets of South Korea... different strokes for different folks I guess.

Hear more of my thoughts in the most recent episode of the Filmhaus Podcast (a day early for you letterboxd folks today)

Alien: Covenant, 2017 - ★★★½

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While it still was no ALIEN, Alien: Covenant made a step into the right direction.

Alien was a great Sci-Fi Horror movie, scary as hell, bloody, just a slasher in space. James Cameron took the franchise with Aliens in a completely different direction, making it Sci-Fi Action and pretty much taking out all the horror. And I'm not sure what David Fincher did in Alien 3.

When Ridley Scott came back to do Prometheus, he stuck to the sci-fi, but added in some horror elements. Now the sequel to Prometheus, Alien: Covenant, came back to horror.

It's not a perfect movie, there are flaws. But I actually enjoyed Alien: Covenant, telling us more about these Xenomorphs, and most importantly, explaining what has been going on in Prometheus. Well, at least a little.

It's beautifully shot, great scenes in space, and I think I saw one or two practical effects used, which is always a plus for me.

The acting was good, the actors were well cast, even though most of them were not more than stereotypical characters. I was really surprised seeing James Franco, who only really had one scene, in a video frame, which I'm sure was set mere hours before 127 hours.

And I haven't even mentioned Michael Fassbender, who at one point kisses himself, after some mild foreplay involving a flute.

All in all I liked this movie more than I thought, and I'm excited what Ridley Scott has next for us. I'm rating Alien:Covenant 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like.

Hear more of my thoughts on this movie on a soon to be episode of the Filmhaus Podcast.

Chungking Express, 1994

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Watched on Tuesday May 23, 2017.

Satanic, 2016

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Watched on Tuesday May 23, 2017.

History of the Entire World, I Guess, 2017

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Watched at Letterboxd Movie Night, finished this morning.

This was so fast that I forgot about half of it already.

The Pirate Movie, 1982 - ★★½

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Watched for Letterboxd Movie Night.

Seltzer and Friedberg must have watched this and thought "We can do this too". And that's all they did for the rest of their lifes.

Love Exposure, 2008

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Watched on Saturday May 20, 2017.

Citizen Kane, 1941 - ★★★★★

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Watched on Friday May 19, 2017.

Filmhaus Podcast Episode 3: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

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In todays episode of the Filmhaus Podcast, Josh and Michael talk about the Marvel Cinematic Universe and all the movies that are a part of it.

As always though they first talk about what they've been watching, which is a bit longer conversation this time.

The Movie of the Bi-Week is Edge of Tomorrow, the action sci-fi movie starring Tom Cruise.(21:09)

In the main segment of the podcast, Josh and Michael talk about the MCU, all the movies in it. They also talk about what they like and what they dislike about it. Lastly they give their wishes for future installments.(34:39)

After that lengthy conversation it's time for some games, so they play a round of Me, Myself and iRate, where they have to remember how they once rated movies on letterboxd. (95:06)

Thanks for listening, leave your thoughts in the comments or write us an Email at filmhauspodcast@gmail.com.

Once again, the link to the episode:

http://ift.tt/2qIAUM1

• Ghost in the Shell
• Ghost in the Shell
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Edge of Tomorrow
• Iron Man
• The Incredible Hulk
• Iron Man 2
• Thor
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• The Avengers

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Elvis & Nixon, 2016

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Watched on Sunday May 14, 2017.

The Incident, 2014 - ★★★½

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Watched on Sunday May 14, 2017.

Mean Girls, 2004 - ★★★★

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I mean, I heard that Mean Girls is good and fun, but I did not expect it to be that good.

Maybe I'm actually a teenage girl, who knows...

Tower, 2016 - ★★★★

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Watched on Saturday May 13, 2017.

Mindhorn, 2016 - ★★★½

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It was Friday evening, I got home from work and planned on finally watching the newest episode of Better Call Saul. I sit down, start Netflix, the top header shows "Mindhorn". I become interested. I click to check what it's about.

A crazy killer only wants to talk to Mindhorn, a fictional TV Cop from the 80s. The former actor is coming back to save the day.

Sounds interesting enough, and as I am reading, the movie auto starts (Netflix, if you're reading this: Autoplay sucks. Please don't do that anymore!). "Ah well, might as well watch it."

88 minutes later...

"Wow."

Okay, I did not actually say Wow out loud, but that's what I felt like saying. Mostly because it was better than I expected.

No, it wasn't a modern classic. No, it was not a masterpiece of cinema. But it was damn entertaining. Mindhorn is basically Ron Burgondy from Anchorman, but with the backstory of David Hasselhoff. And it's hilarious.

The plot manages to be very simple, yet intriguing enough so you want to find out what will happen next. And while the main character might not be so bright, the movie is never completely stupid.

It's nothing people will celebrate in the next decades, but for that Friday Night, it was the perfect getaway. I'm rating Mindhorn 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like.

And after that I watched Season 3 Episode 5 of Better Call Saul and damn, give Michael McKean all the awards please.

City of the Living Dead, 1980 - ★★★★½

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Watched on Thursday May 11, 2017.

Broadcast Killer, 2005 - ★½

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Seemed like an interesting concept and with a running time of 66 minutes what could go wrong? Lots.

It's about a television show called "Have a Life". We are not told what the premise of the show is, we just get a quick introduction to the four contestants. Then we are thrown right into a scenario, their car broke down in the middle of nowhere while Toni, a random guy, showed up. He then takes one of the contestants hostage and tries to force the others to give up the game. Is he a real threat? Or is he just part of the show?

To be fair, this is a low-budget independent movie from 2005 from Germany. So you can already expect to be underwhelmed. And while the idea was interesting enough, the execution was done poorly.

The weakest actor of the group, Tony, has to do the most acting, which is bad because when the antagonist of the movie is not believable, everything falls down. The others are okay, what you'd expect from a no-budget production.

I didn't like this that much and actually thought about turning it off halfway through, but I'm not that kind of guy, I wanna see the movie to the end. I'm rating it 1.5 out of 5 stars, it feels like they had fun and good ideas, it was just not done very well.

The Incredible Hulk, 2008

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Watched on Monday May 8, 2017.

Welcome to the Hartmanns, 2016 - ★★½

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It was ... alright I guess?

It's a well shot comedy trying to talk about an important issue in Germany right now, that of immigration and refugees.

But while the comedy is okay, some funny moments are in this for sure, to me the message was kind of lost in all the other nonsense happening. You could cut out the refugee part and end up with almost the same movie.

Other than the topic it's a generic comedy, following all the same beats every German comedy seems to follow these days.

The actors were all good, no one stood out as bad, so that's a plus.

I'm rating Welcome to the Hartmanns with 2.5 stars, it's right there in the middle.

Wilderness, 2006 - ★★★½

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To set the scene you need to know I got this movie as a DVD for around 18 cents. Furthermore I found out this movie is banned in Germany. So I went into this movie expecting a cheap, gory but in the end probably stupid movie that would be okay but I'd probably not watch again.

I was pleasently surprised to find out this was actually a good movie. Not great, but good enough to keep me watching.

Wilderness is about a group of male inmates in a facility for criminal youths who are sent to a "deserted" island to maybe start behaving better. First they find out for some reason a second group, a group of girls who are there for similar reasons. Soon after they find out there is someone else there, with a crossbow and bloodthirsty dogs.

Like I said, it's not great, it's not new. But what it wants to do it does well. The story is compelling and fun, the characters are stereotypical but still fun. Of course there is a "love story" and a "villain" in the group, but I think they are all well portrait and don't feel forced.

I really enjoyed this movie, maybe thanks to my low expectations, or maybe it is because I'm a horror fan. But I was compelled and couldn't stop watching, even though when I started it I didn't even feel like watching a movie at all. So I'm rating Wilderness 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like. That might seem high, but that's how I feel, even 2 days removed.

Gladiator, 2000

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Watched on Saturday May 6, 2017.

Maps to the Stars, 2014 - ★★★½

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Somehow Cronenberg manages to go crazier and crazier. He started off doing Body Horror, now he does ... something else.

I'm not even sure how I would categorize it. Sure it's a drama, but not the kind of drama you'd expect. It's also not a typical horror movie, but it sure got horrific elements in it. It's not a comedy, but it got a gross-out horror feel to it.

Agatha, a young girl with burn-scars comes to Hollywood for sight-seeing, and to meet up with Carrie Fisher, who wants to write a movie about her. She soon meets Havana, an actress with her own demons.
On the other side of the story we follow Benjie, a famous child actor who just came back from his first rehab.

It's a hate-letter to Hollywood. It's about the behind the scenes of the city of stars. All people in this movie are despicable. Not just unlikeable, I would not want to be named in the same sentence as most of these characters.

Even the wallflower Agatha, played by Mia Wasikowska, who comes from outside and looks innocent, is not at all likeable. I think the most "likeable" character is Robert Pattinson's Chauffeur, but even he isn't a good guy.

It all looks really dirty, after watching this movie I wanted to take a long shower, maybe wash out my eyes, and look at puppies.

That all being said, this was exactly what Cronenberg meant to accomplish. He wanted to show that it isn't all playing nice and being happy. Hollywood backstage, unfiltered. Sex, Drugs and Fame, that's what Hollywood is all about.

So even though I hated everyone in this movie, even though I felt dirty after watching it, I liked it for what it was. The acting was top notch, the story was intriguing and so crazy that you just had to follow along. I also enjoyed the name-dropping, made everything feel real.

I'm rating Maps to the Stars 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like. It's crazy, but give it a chance.

WarGames, 1983

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I feel like this is still the most realistic movie about hacking, and it's about someone accidentally hacking into NORAD and almost starting a nuclear war.

Weiner, 2016 - ★★★★½

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This documentary was so good. Not only because it takes a look behind the scenes of American elections, not only as a view into how it feels to be the main attention of journalists during a scandal, but also because let's be real here, Anthony Weiner still manages to come out of this documentary about his scandals as kind of a likeable guy.

"Why are you letting us film this?" is probably the greatest thing a documentarian has ever asked their focus point. And Weiner doesn't even answer.

It's just a great documentary, a sure watch for anyone. 4.5 out of 5 stars.