The Seventh Seal, 1957 - ★★★★★

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So I've finally watched my first Bergman film.

This movie is about knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his game of chess against Death (Bengt Ekerot) himself. This chess game goes on over several days, every evening they meet to play a little. The knight uses the time to find out about life, death and the existence of god. He travels with his squire Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) and meets many people who follow him.

It sounds really dark, depressing and thought provoking but in some instances it even is funny. There were scenes that made menlaugh out loud. Other scenes were really hard to watch. And even other scenes where really scary, at least for me.

The acting was really good, it all felt so real.

The movie has many memorable characters:
Jof (Nils Poppe), the actor and singer who is probably the nicest character in this movie.
Jöns, the squire who is a little weird sometimes (like when he almost rapes a girl after saving her from rape and probably death and then wants her to be thankful he didn't do that) but has a good heart and is probably the funniest character just by what he is saying.
But my favorite character was Death himself. Bengt Ekerot had the perfect looks for the role, kind of scary but also witty and even a little friendly. I was cheering everytime he was on screen (well not openly but in my mind i was very happy) and the scene where he cuts down a tree is hilarious the way it is played.

The movie is shot greatly, there are some impressive scenes and remarkable editing.

In some parts it maybe is a little slow but for the time it was made this was normal and I think it still holds up, it is still watcheable.

I really enjoyed this movie and can't wait to check out more of Bergmans work in the library. 5 out of 5 stars.

Zardoz, 1974 - ★★

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Watched as part of the Letterboxd Movie Night.

I didn't understand this movie. Maybe it was because I was chatting with all the others on the movie night or because I'm stupid. Or maybe this movie is just weird and not really to understand.
So I could try giving a plot but I won't (also the plot is so crazy that I would take forever and in the end it wouldn't make sense anyway).

The acting was ... well sometimes i wasn't sure if they even tried.

Sean Connery was hot in his red diapers.

To be honest I enjoyed some of the ideas, while I really didn't care too much about most of the movie.

I'm giving this movie 2 out of 5 stars (still better than rollergator).

Fist of Jesus, 2012 - ★★½

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Watched as part of the Letterboxd Movie Night.

Well this movie is crazy. It's not very long, you can check it out on youtube.

Jesus resurrects Lazarus, but accidentally turns him into a zombie. After that it's mostly gore.
I love these old time practical special effects. But that's the only thing I really enjoyed. Some jokes were funny but nothing original.

I give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Dracula, 1958 - ★★★★

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As the biggest horror fan in my group of friends I am ashamed it took me this long to watch this movie. Now I've finally seen it.

Dracula (or Horror of Dracula) starts off with Jonathan Harper visiting Draculas castle to work as his new librarian. His actual plan is to kill Dracula. Of course he doesn't succeed and becomes a vampire. Enter Van Helsing, played by the great Peter Cushing. Even though the movie is titles Dracular, Peter Cushing is the star. Dracula is played by Christopher Lee of course who does a great job at giving the character his own spin. Other than the Bela Lugosi's Dracula who is well spoken and charming this Dracula is more animal-like, he is a real monster for the most parts, only in the beginning he talks normal even though a little fast).

I enjoyed this movie and i thought it was slow but it felt pretty quick, also of course with a runtime of around 79 minutes it can't be that slow. I had fun watching it and I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

22 Jump Street, 2014 - ★★★★½

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If they do a sequel the only way of going more Meta is doing it like Scream 3 and making a movie about making the movie.

It was really funny and different from the first while also being the same. As a fan of meta humor I loved it.

Jacob's Ladder, 1990 - ★★★★

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I went into this movie completely blind. Only things I knew were that it's a horror movie and that it's hard to find in Germany.

The movie follows Jacob Singer, a vietnam veteran who has crazy stuff happening to him. I don't wanna spoil too much so I'm keeping this pretty vague.

First, the opening is great. We start at a scene in a war camp and the sudden shift is great and perfectly acted. First they all just talk and have fun, all are laughing. Then suddenly they get attacked and go serious. And then weird shit starts happening. One remarkable thing I wanted to mention is that they don't hold back on the gore in the war sequences. One guy gets his leg shot off and it looks bloody and real.

But in no way is this just a war movie. It has elements of a war movie but these are mostly flashbacks.

There are lots of great scary scenes that really made me feel scared. I had a bad feeling throughout the movie, always wondering what would happen.

It was very confusing sometimes but other than one scene I never got lost and always knew what was happening.

I really enjoyed this movie and was scared by it. I saw the ending coming but the whole movie was leading up to it, it wasn't like it was a big twist but more of like the only logical conclusion.

I'm giving this movie 4 out of 5 stars.

Victoria, 2015 - ★★★★★

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Probably the best German movie I've ever seen.

First of all for all English speaking people out there: most of the movie is in English. The story is about a spanish girl called Victoria who just recently moved to Germany so her german is not that good.
The movie starts with Victoria dancing in a disco, getting a schnaps and then leaving the bar. Outside she meets 4 guys: Sonne, Blinker, Boxer and Fuss. They want to show her Berlin and she joins them.

There is some more stuff happening that I don't want to spoil for you. I heard this is marketed as an action movie which it is not. It has some action elements, but that's a rather small part.

The characters are great and I kind of wished I could hang out with them myself.

Now to the special part: this 140 minutes long movie is entirely shot in one ... shot. No cuts at all, the camera starts on her and never cuts at all. And it's not like Birdman where they had long takes but it was not really just one shot. It simply is all done in one take.
For that reason most of the scenes where improvised which is probably the reason the characters feel so real. In one scene, Sonne sais Hotel instead of Café and then starts laughing about that mistake. On the one hand this is probably how the character would react but I'm pretty sure it's also the genuine reaction of the actor.

The story takes a turn somewhere in the middle and takes the movie in a different direction that is even more interesting and so exciting. You start feeling for the characters, feeling with them, even though not everything they do is good and nice.

What I thought was interesting is that while in Birdman you are always kind of remembering that it looks like a one shot in Victoria I forgot about it all the time because of the acting, the story, the charactery and also the camera. When I think back about this movie I remember certain shots where the camera was used greatly, never feeling annoying, never feeling out of place.

All in all I really love this movie and I'm thinking about watching it a second time. Really happy that something like this got made in Germany. I give it 5 ouf of 5 stars and a fat like. Everyone should see this.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975

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Watched on Sunday June 14, 2015.

The Wizard of Gore, 1970 - ★★

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In Juno we get a scene of this movie, while Mark Loring tells Juno that this is the best horror movie ever. That scene made me interested, so I got it on DVD (used version for 9,69€ by the way).

This movie is about Montag the Magnificent (Ray Sager), a magician who tortures people on stage and afterwards they come off fine. After a few hours, they die though, in the way they were killed/tortured before.

The movie reminded me somehow of the Coffin Joe series, from the looks of Montag, from the quality and from the gore (only that in the coffin Joe series it's black and white).
It has a cheap look to it (probably because it's cheaply made) which I kinda like, it makes it seem more real, like home footage or something.

One thing Montag sais two times is that in TV and Film you can show anything without anyone being hurt. I liked that and feel it is self referential.
The acting isn't the best, but I've seen worse.

Let's talk about GORE. That's special about this movie, right? The gore. Herschell Gordon Lewis is the godfather of Gore. We always have to realise this movie is from 1970 so it's of course not Saw niveau. So we have some really bad scenes, like a severed head that looks worse than just a puppet head, looks like a balloon with a face painted on. On the other hand we have really great stuff, for example when he moves his hands around in intestins, great stuff. So I think for the 1970s it was really gruesome and for us today it still has some bad parts.

Now for some problem I had. The editing was weird. In the end it all makes sense, but while watching it I just thought it was really shitty cutting. So maybe slight spoiler warning here (as if spoilers are really a thing in this movie).
We have many scenes where we get bloody scenes, then cut to a scene without any blood and then back to bloody scene. I thought they did a sloppy job. But it's the point of view of Montag and the audience in change. Because (again, spoilers ahead) the audience is hypnotised into thinking there was no blood or gore.

The music editing really sucked though.

And I don't even wanna talk about the ending, it's a twist that isn't needed and it's just crazy and weird.

Still I love this movie. It was so much fun to watch even though it was crazy and kinda bad. I'm giving it 2 stars because as a movie in a whole it's not that good, but I'm giving it a like because I really enjoyed it. Make of that what you want.

Scary Movie 3, 2003 - ★★★

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I guess this is my guilty pleasure. I watched this for the first time many years ago when I was a little boy. I think when I watched it the first time I hadn't watched any of the movies it referenced. Still, I loved it. Now many years later, I have seen most of them and still love it.

This is a stupid comedy, a parody of many horror movies, mostly Signs and The Ring, also has scenes from The Matrix and 8 Mile.
The main story is about Cindy Campbell (Anna Harris), who is also the main character in Scary Movie 1,2 and 4. She is a reporter for a TV station and follows the story of farmer Tom (Charlie Sheen) and his brother George (Simon Rex), who have weird Signs in their corn fields. At the same time her friend Brenda (Regina Hall) tells her about a video tape with a Ring in it, where, after 7 days, you die. George also tries to pursue his dreams of being a rapper ...

Yes the plot is crazy, but I think the stories are intervowen really well.

The comedy is mostly really stupid but I kind like this kind of humor. While not all of the jokes work, some are great. Who didn't wanna see Samara get beat up?

The actors are very good, I love all the dialogues between Kevin Hart and Anthony Anderson, they do an awesome job. Also a great role of Leslie Nielsen, who is probably my favorite comedic actor. His delivery is just perfect.

All in all I really love this movie and also the first, second and fourth one. I don't know why and it seems like I'm the only one but I enjoy them so much. I give it 3 out of 5 stars but a like.

Letterboxd Season Challenge 2015-16

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work in progress

1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
2. Top Hat
3. The Godfather: Part II
4. Planet of the Apes
5. King Kong
6. Three Colors: Blue
7. Love Exposure

Juno, 2007 - ★★★★

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This was a fun movie.

It's about Juno (Ellen Page), a 16 year old girl that finds out she is pregnant and then looks for a family to adopt the kid.

I always thought this was like a love story but I realised, even though it's about love too, it's not a love story. It's much more. It's about growing up, it's about parenthood, about fear, about teenage life. All while being pretty funny too.

The acting is great, Ellen Page, Michael Cera, J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner all do a great job.

What I enjoyed the most about this movie is the soundtrack, I don't know why but the music is chosen perfectly, all the songs seem so fitting.

The comedy is good, next to the great and funny scenes the characters do a lot. Also even though it's funny at some times it never goes absurd or crazy, this could pretty much all happen. The character of Juno is really weird and crazy, but that only makes her more loveable. To be honest there is no unlikeable character in this whole movie and no real antagonist I guess.

There are sad moments in this movie though, but they never get too heavy, never bring you down.

I enjoyed this movie a lot and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Goodfellas, 1990 - ★★★★

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Watched on Wednesday June 3, 2015.

Kung Fury, 2015

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Well this is clearly the most 80s movie made in the last 25 years.

Of course this movie is cheesy. Of course this movie has bad acting. But that's the reason this movie is good. It's a parody of cheesy 80s movies.
It even has the Hasselhoff.

Some of the jokes weren't that good but I'm not sure if even the bad jokes are maybe intentional (like when Thor flexes his muscles, didn't work for me).

I'm sure some of the acting is intentionally bad.

The effects are in some parts really good, in other parts really bad. But I never know what was intentional and what not. That's why I'm not rating it.

But watch it, it's only 30 minutes and for free on youtube. It is a fun watch.

Les Misérables, 2012 - ★★★★½

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When I think of musical I think of a movie where, every now and then, they start singing a song. This movie is one long song, there are only seldom parts of dialogue that aren't sung.

We follow Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) through his life, as a convicted slave he flees from the man of the law, Javert (Russel Crowe) and we follow him throughout the decades, always fleeing from Russel Crowe while also raising Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of Fantine (Anne Hathaway), who was abused and died in the first part of the movie.

The story is parted in three stages. First we have Jean Valjean as a free slave, the second part is about him as a mayor and in the third part we follow him as a father, while there is also the French Rebellion.

The cast is great: Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sascha Baron Cohen all do a fantastic job. Not only is their acting great, they are also all great singers. I knew Hugh Jackman could sing, I knew Anne Hathaway could sing and since I've seen Sweeney Todd I know Helena Bonham-Carter can sing too. I didn't expect Russel Crowe to be such a good singer and I was blown away by the singing of Eddie Redmayne. To be honest I only knew him from the Theory of Everything, but he has one of the best voices in this movie.

The story is great and packing, I was really moved by what happened.

Not only were the actors awesome, but the acting was very good. I guess it's very hard to sing like that and still act that great. You really feel for and with the characters. Also all the singing was done live in front of the camera instead of prerecorded and I guess that helps the acting feeling more real.

I had goosebumps at certain parts of the movie because the great singing was mixed with the awesome story. But there weren't only heavy parts, the innkeepers scene for example is very funny while still being a good song.

Not all the songs were catchy and awesome but I guess that is like in the opera, some songs are there to show the feelings, those are long and awesome, but then there are also songs to just move the story forward, they go fast and are almost like talking.

My only real problem was that it was very long, this movie takes two and a half hours but that's because of the story, there is maybe one little sidestory they could have cut out but I think even that small subplot makes the story go on and helps it.

So all in all almost nothing bad to say about this movie. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, if you like musicals or opera, you really should watch this. For people who don't like musicals all that much this movie could be a pain in the ass to sit through though.