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This is a really hard one. Took me about 2 hours to get into it. The characters are great, the actors do a fine job (better than the prosthetics department anyway). I guess this movie is kinda like life. It runs much longer than you would expect (and …

It’s stupid even compared to the first one and it’s – once more – the longest weirdest ad for the armed forces you might ever encounter. Well, until the next Transformers movie of course. They really didn’t put any thought into the plot. But they obvi…

Funny, although heavily relying on what I’d call obvious humor. Not much different from other buddy comedies so far. But then there’s great characters played by magnificent actors that really create a certain depth where you wouldn’t expect it. That b…

Essentially a love story between adventurer Elissen (Hans Albers) and Claire Lennartz (Sibylle Schmitz), sister to the owners of Lennertz-Werke. Created by Droste, a friend of Elissen, they plan to build a swimming platform in the Atlantic ocean so th…

This review reportedly contains spoilers.

First thing: I don’t know the graphic novel this is based on. So no comparing with that

Second thing: I don’t dislike Tom Cruise per sé, or as JoCo puts it: “Tom Cruise is Tom-Cruise-crazy, just be glad it’s him – not you, if you had Tom Cruise’s troubles, you might go Tom-Cruise-Crazy, too.”

Apart from that: The film is visually pleasing but the story is quite simple and non-surprising. I didn’t see the clone-thing coming but other than that things take way too long to actually happen although you already expect them to. Take e.g. Morgan Freeman: You know he’s not the protagonist yet he’s going to appear as a leader of sorts, it’s pretty clear from the first ten minutes that the guys on earth are discarded people and bang – ergo their leader is MF. And so it turns out to be it’s just that it takes about two thirds of the movie to get there! Same happens with the erased memory, the aliens that are nowhere to be seen, the fake wife, the actual wife etc. You expect it to happen long before it does.
Straight forward isn’t bad per se but it doesn’t work if you want to make it a surprise, then it just feels artificial.
So does Cruises acting. Well actually, everybody’s acting. The setting is the real star here, but as it’s mainly American rubble I found it boring after the first 30 minutes. At least they did not show the aliens. And I am probably just disappointed because I actually thought I’d need no popcorn during this movie…

This review reportedly contains spoilers. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of those filmmakers that have a unique style you recognize immediately. His characters are mostly common people, yet they’re quirky and whimsical and special. The line between the pro…