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Amsterdamned II – Dick Maas (2025)

  • arthouse

Because every old film has to get a revamp, here we have the follow up of the Dutch classic “Amsterdamned” from 1988.

30 Years after the events of the original film, similar murders occur in the canals of Amsterdam. The officer who was on the original case has long been retired, but he is lured back to the current case.

This is good, because most actors in the film have the unconvincing, Dutch type of acting. Only Huub Stapel saves the film.

The film is mostly a commercial for Amsterdam with lengthy (drone) shots of Amsterdam, scenes in museums, houses near water, etc. The story is similar to that of the original film, so no surprises here.

Not boring, but I am not sure if this will be a new classic.

2 Guns – Baltasar Kormákur (2013)

  • action

An action comedy buddy whodunnit heist with a fairly amusing Denzil Washington and Mark Wahlberg.

The two form a hip duo who perform a heist with a much bigger booty than anticipated. For the rest of the film, the two seem to be trying to skim off a part of the booty while the ‘whodunnit’ question keeps shifting. Are they the good guys or the bad guys?

Quite funny.

Stranger Things – Matt & Ross Duffer (series, season 5 – 2025)

I am pretty sure that I also saw season 4, but I apparently forgot to review it. In any case, season 5 was announced big, so hard to miss. Eight more episodes.

Even though season 4 came out 3 years ago, you come in flying. Things basically pick up where they left off. The teenage friend group is still after the evil spirit and not even just in the real world, but also in the “down under”.

There are some old and new elements, the same characters, some of whom grew up a bit. The atmosphere is again decent, but the surprise is of course off. Season 5 makes a big spectacle with too much drama for my liking (especially in the 2+ hour final episode), but it does seem that the story is now all wrapped up.

Perhaps not a masterpiece, but “Stranger Things” is certainly one of the better series of recent times.

Knight Of Cups – Terrence Malick (2015)

  • arthouse

This film has been on my wish list for some time, but Amazon Prima hid it behind a sub-subscription or something. Now suddenly it was available for rent.

Malick makes interesting arthouse films. Just as “Tree Of Life”, “Knight Of Cups” is not an easy film. It is perhaps a bit less dramatic and less ‘artsy’.

Based on the legend of the pearl and layered with Tarot-symbolism, we follow Rick (Christian Bale) who forgot his heavenly descent and quest. He tries to make his stay on earth worthwile by falling in love. Six women give him temporary happiness.

The film is somewhat spiritual, dreamy and quite slow. Malick created beautiful shots and managed to attract an interesting line of actors.

Landscape With Invisible Hand – Cory Finley (2023)

A rather amusing absurdistic sci-fi comedy.

Earth has been taken over by a supreme intelligence which set out to save the planet. Their bureaucracy is so efficient that most people are poor, unemployed and living on earth, while the elite lives in large cities floating above the surface.

We follow one family on earth which is doing relatively fine. The son invites another family into their basement which slowly starts to cause tensions.

The alien occupiers are cubes with legs who speak by rubbing their paws.

Anyway, weird situations, strange dialogues and a bit of a message.

The Rip – Joe Carnahan (2026)

A rapidly chosen Netflix killing time movie turned out to be quite alright.

Produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, both took the leading parts in an action thriller in which policemen find a house where a gigantic amount of drug money is hidden. In a lengthy ‘who’s the bad guy’ it seems as if everybody is after the money, different police forces, cartels and the men on the floor. The suspect changes a couple of times, but this becomes a bit overdone towards the end where everybody in the film is shortly a subject for a few minutes.

The film has a nice, dense atmosphere of upcoming doom and a few violent outbursts.

Sinners – Ryan Coogler (2025)

This film has been on my whishlist for a while, but it being a horror it was not too high. The Golden Globes made it rise enough to watch it.

The film starts wonderfully with 1920’ies American black culture. Some blacks are still working on cotton plantations, while others have made their (criminal) ways in the big cities. Segregation is massive. KKK still rules.

Two brothers who have become rich in Chicago return to the area where they grew up with the idea to start a “juke”; a black music bar. They know the gifted blues musician Sammie who has got the gift to play away the veil that divides the ‘real’ and the ‘spirit’ worlds.

While dancing to (modernised for extra effect) blues and other black music, the “juke” is attacked and the film turns into a horror.

The first part is the most interesting. The horror part is alright.

Heads Of State – Ilya Naishuller (2025)

An action comedy with Idris Alba. I was curious if he would be funny. Well, “Heads Of State” is not a hilarious action comedy, rather an action film with some jokes. Alba does not get to make a lot of those.

The veteran prime minister of the UK (Alba) and the newly elected actor prime minister of the USA (Will Derringer) do not get along well. Still they agree to share the Air Force One for a visit to Poland.

During the flight, terrorists take down Air Force One, but the heads of state survive. They have to try to find their way to a safehouse in Poland. Of course this becomes a cock-fight turning into a buddies type of film with a lot of action and a few jokes.

Not boring, not great.

Of the director of the brilliant “Hardcore Henry” by the way.

Eden – Ron Howard (2024)

  • drama

Ritter moved to one of the Galapagos islands to work on a radical new philosophy. His manuscripts are literally shipped to newspapers who happily publish his adventures (and philosophy?).

These publications inspire other people to also travel to the island, so all the sudden Ritter and his partner are no longer in only inhabitents of the island, they are accompanied by a family. Convinced that the family will give up soon enough, Ritter does little to help them.

Later also a pomp “baroness” shows up with the wild idea to build a luxury hotel on the island. From then on the different parties are going to try to play out each other against one another.

“Eden” is an alright drama about human behavior, but not exactly a high-flyer.

House Of Guinness – Steven Knight (series 2025)

Sir Benjamin Guinness of the famous Guinness brewery (who had already taken over from his father) dies and he has specific plans for his business, inheritance and children. He had three sons and a daughter. The inheritance is not to the liking of all the children and two of the sons think of a way to both honour the will of their father and rule the business as they themselves seem fit.

We are talking late 19th century, right in the middle of big tensions in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants. The Guinness family is Protestant. Catholics form the working class and start an organisation (the Fenian Brotherhood) to fight their oppression. This divide still shows in Ireland today.

Violent clashes, unlikely alliances, impossible romances; the series show a dramatised version of the rapidly rising star of Guinness beer, the influence of the family in politics, the scandals they were involved in and the way they tried to navigate this minefield.

A fairly interesting series about an interesting time in history. Judging the massive cliff hanger with which the series ends, I suppose more seasons are to follow.