France is mostly know for it’s arty and serious movies - but "OSS 117" is just pure comedy. Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath was actually created long before Ian Fleming came up with James Bond - and he is actually an American.

The OSS117movie.com was actually produced in 2006 and a great success in France. The movie was released internationally this May. The official site has many more clips and some cool images.

I love the trailer - Jean Dujardin has that old school charm so many new Bonds lack and he doesn’t take himself too serious either - which is always good.

I saw the first Matrix and I was blown away. I saw the second Matrix movie and I was bored. I saw the third Matrix movie and finally understood that I was in the Matrix myself and watching a repeat.

Sometimes bad movies don’t get any better - even when you give them time to grow on you.

Repeating the same idea with loads of violence and special effect doesn’t improve it. And I still want my personal Latex Superchick to fight for me.

Poor old Barbie - and many other cultural Icons - you are no longer the coolest (girly) toy around. I wonder if people will remember Darth Vader, Pac Man, Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Pokemons, Godzilla or King Kong in a 100 years?

So many movies these days are made in front of a green screen - to be mixed and composed with computer generated action later. The actor literally acts without context in a creative a vacuum.

I think we as an audience feel that emptiness and that lack of chemistry between the real actor and his virtual counterpart.

I consider Fritz Lang as one of the greatest directors ever. His movies were ground breaking in his days. His masterpiece ‘M - eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder’ still puts many modern productions to shame. But I also recommend watching his outdated movies like ‘Frau im Mond‘ from 1929. How times have changed … but this movie actually ‘invented’ the countdown, which is still in use today.

You can watch the whole movie here.

What a wonderful movie: quiet, challenging, personal and thoughtful. You hardly see any movie about a spiritual lifestyle today. It’s actually based on a true story.

Today we celebrate Santa Claus in Germany. Are your ready for some Xmas trash and share the happy feelings?

Yes?!

Then download this movie here. Either you’ll laugh a lot or you’ll cry all night …

Who would have thought that her Botox injection was in preparation for a new role?

The movie Golden Compass looks very promising - although I am weary that the plot is going to be too predictable. 

Romantic movies are for chicks and action stuff is for guys. Right? Wrong. There seem an incredible number of chick flicks out there and an even greater number of dumb violent stuff for youngsters - BUT hardly any good stuff for ‘real men’.

Dead Poets Society - or how it feels like to be a boy. One of the few movies who don’t turn growing up into a screwball comedy. This one shows how important it is to have a good mentor (sort of older guy) to introduce young gentlemen to art and higher principles - as an alternative to ‘just’ sex and getting a proper job.

Birdy - Also a story about growing up, but also about coping with tragedy, pain, madness and - mostly - about finding your own way. Friendship also plays an important part in this one. Great Soundtrack by Peter Gabriel.

About Schmidt - This movie kills me every time. About the tragedy of a guy, who discovers at the end of his life that he hasn’t lived at all. Very heartbreaking and a huge warning sign. To do what is expected of you (getting a good job, starting a family and retire to a nice home) isn’t life …

Broken Flowers - Whatever happens to old womanizers? The story of Don and his search for a son or better say a family or steady relationship he never had or could ‘create’. A great movie about lonely guys, who have achieved something, but have nothing.

Any movies my male readers like to add?

This was the last big Adventure movie made with Stop-Motion puppets. If you watch it today it’s cheesy and childish compared to all these computer generated action flicks. Even a decent episode of Xena or Hercules is better.

The list of actors is rather impressive: Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith and Ursula Andress. But even their greatness can’t help the bad script and usual Hollywood distortion of an old Greek myth (a norse Kraken has nothing to do with the Greek Titans).

I am still waiting for some TV show or movie series that tries to portrait Greek mythology in a good and serious manner! There are so many great stories waiting to be retold. But movies like ‘Troy’ or the above mentioned crappy Xena and Hercules certainly DON’T do these great tales ANY justice.

More? Wikipedia entry and watch the whole movie online.

It is amazing how many bad movies Disney has made since the early 80’s. One of them is the SciFi flick ‘The Black Hole’. It coincided with the first Star Wars movie - and was pretty lame compared to Like Skywalker and the most nerve wrecking space battle ever.

The movies production was actually started way before Star Wars, which explains the old school special effects using wires and models - instead of computer animation and computer controlled space ships.

I can only recommend the movie if you really really really don’t find anything else to watch - or you want to bore some kids.

More? Wikipedia entry and watch the whole movie online.

The last Star Trek show ‘Enterprise’ was pretty much a fiasco. It had bad scripts, bad actors, bad everything. Now a new movie is in the making and I already hate it. It’s about young Kirk, young Spock and young McCoy …

Instead of trying to come up with really good ideas, Hollywood just circles the drain and recycles the same idea over and over again.

Gene Roddenberry was a brave men and tried to break old taboos and limits with his wacky little show. He succeeded and that is why the show was so beloved. But today it’s only about the franchise and milking some more dollars out of plastic figures and re-released DVDs.

Why are they afraid to go where no one has gone before?

Since the mid-nineties Asian movies are conquering the global market. Tales from China and India are big hits with western audiences. India - or better Bollywood has always outproduced it’s American rival, but it took a long time until their products were universally accepted.

From a few ’serious’ movies, most Bollywood productions seem to have only singing, dancing and a lot of Kitsch romance in mind. So it’s not really my kind of stuff. But SOMETIMES I like the music, because it’s obscure at best - or has some excellent classical Indian bits in it. And I love classical Indian music.

So here is a typical pop music style Bollywood song with some typical weird English lyric fragments in it (from the movie "Bombay Talkie" (a short and very weird video excerpt here)):

More "traditional" Bollywood soundtrack (the title music for the flick "Teen Kanya"):

More? YouTube is FULL with that stuff. Here an ‘old school’ scene (Jimmy Hendrix meets Bollywood - I nearly pissed myself) and here a modern scene with the Goddess Aishwarya Rai herself.

Today movies have to start with a bang - otherwise the crowd won’t know when to stop munching and pay attention to the big screen.

In the good old days proper movies started with an overture - and if they were longer then 90 minutes they had an Intermission (vulgo pee break).

Overtures are borrowed from classical music, mostly Opera. They were played before the curtain went up - often already introducing themes and Leitmotivs of the upcoming performance.

Three movies come to mind: 2001, Khartoum and Spartacus has all an Overture. Anyone else can remember a classic with an Overture (or peek at the Wikipedia list for such movies)?

As a big movie and soundtrack fan I love Overtures!

The best title for a pr0n movie - ever!

I just feel like getting scratched … really hard …

Johnny Depp has created one of the most memorable character here: the mad pirate Captain, with a twisted sense of honor and humor. I would love to see more movies with this irresistible character.

I think he has the potential to become a long lasting modern archetype, like Spock, Darth Vader or Goucho Marx.

More? the most excellent Wikipedia on Captain Jack - highly recommended

I do hate sailing, but I do love a good ‘naval’ movie! Most of these are centered around the British Navy - and I have a weak spot for the period of British Empire anyway.

Most of the old movies tend to be charmingly naive and adventures (like Horatio Hornblower or the Sea Hawk), but only Master and Commander is both ‘modern’ (read: realistic) and exciting at the same time. And it helps a lot that no phoney love story is woven into the plot … it’s rather bloody, but full of friendship and the terrible truth about the moments of horror of war at sea.

More? Official Trailer

*update*

Boy oh boy, one time I do not check an entry via Wikipedia and I am in trouble. Jolene and Edosan gave me a proper lashing for my failure!

The movie is based on a HUGE series of novels by the great writer Patrick O’Brian - who has been working on navel novels for over 35 years now. Here is a NPR radio special about the author. There is obviously a huge maritime fan base out there - I was completely ignorant about …

I am pretty sure you many of this great Maestro’s artwork. His movie posters are legendary. His style is breath taking and often reminds me of ‘Jugendstil’ and the great Alfons Mucha.

But please judge for yourself - and visit this great gallery of his work.

More? Wikipedia entry

In recent years we have seen a huge flood of computer animated specials - and Penguins - in the movie theatres.

Cuteness doesn’t work for me - at least not to watch a whole movie. But this one is weird, cool and many times very surreal. I mean surfing Penguins are strange enough - but a surfing chicken?

It’s make fun of itself (it’s made like a documentary) and all the other Penguin, Surf and Animal flicks out there. How very refreshing and actually funny.

Excellent choice for a rainy day, Duuuuude!

More? Official site and trailer

An excellent movie about America’s lust for weapons and power. Watch the trailer online or simply the whole movie.

This movie makes an excellent addition to the ‘Fog of War‘, but not so intellectual and focus on a single person (Robert McNamara) - and it gives you a much better oversight how it all developed.

This is the perfect lone wolf and lonely fighter movie. It provided a template for many Hollywood imitations like ‘Last Man standing’ with Bruce Willis.

Akira Kurusawa is one amazing men. Japan’s greatest director, his movies like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Ran and Dreams just blew away any western competition.

Hollywood copied many of his movies.

His solid storytelling and his talent to create amazing characters, just glues me to the screen every time! Hardly any director - apart from Steven Spielberg or David Lean has made so many epical movies.

More? Watch the whole movie online here.

I have always been a great fan of Frank Oz’s work. He produces the kind of silent comedies I love so much. Less slapstick, but great characters and stories.

If you are looking a a dark comedy with some brains - go and watch it, rent it or buy it some other form. Watch the trailer to see what you are getting into.

More? Trailer & Wikipedia entry

So many movies from the Film Noir period are visually simply stunning. In our colorful world the extreme black and white contrasts feel almost alien today. Some more images here.

Photographers: unknown

Click any image for a larger version.

Herr Lorre was a magnificent actor. His performance in "M" is still top notch. But when he later immigrated to Hollywood he was mostly abused for minor and ridiculous roles (although his act as mad wizard in the "Raven" is pretty adorable). Hollywood was just not ready for deep stories (like "M").

post dedicated to Moira - who is a big Peter Lorre fan

I am a great fan of Nick Parker’s work and all the Wallace & Gromit shorts - their last movie is simply brilliant: charming, wonderful humor, hardly any violence, hardly any sex at all (it’s a British movie - remember) and lovely characters. In essence really entertainment for the whole family.

And I have two new favorite characters: Phillip the bad guys dog and you rabbits. Couldn’t find any good pictures - sorry. So if you are looking for a great comedy watch the movie or rent the DVD. Highly recommended.