3DD!3

The excellent Johnny Depp in a slightly above average adaptation of King’s short novella Secret Window, Secret Garden. Everything goes perfectly until Koepp begins to play around and totally revamps the whole ending of the movie. I still don’t know why he did it. Because in his novella, King replaced cliché with a surprising outcome and so the punchline is completely elsewhere. Too bad, it was a good attempt.

What on earth have they done to xXx? I knew what I was getting myself in to, but in places it wasn’t even funny, but drives you to tears. Even though, it’s true to say that you probably haven’t see such craziness for a long time. It reminds me of some futuristic game of chess - on the one side there are the “good" black pieces, and on the other, the “bad" white pieces. “The fight for peace in our beloved America." ;-)

A dark, suspenseful thriller, that is a strange combination of all possible movies with the theme “trouble on board a plane". I was surprised about what happened with the story in the end and was gobsmacked about what the screenwriters had managed to put together. And about the kidnapper. He was about as suspicious as another ten people on that plane. But I admit, I had my suspicions ;-)

Bruce Willis in the role of his life as John McClane. He quips, shoots and laughs. What else can you ask for?

An unusual approach to a fascinating story. A wonderfully fairytale approach with elements of thriller and sci-fi. Some of the scenes reminded me at times of my all time favorite, Star Wars. It’s just a shame that in places (especially during the second half) the movie rather loses pace; otherwise I’d give it 4 stars.

The perfect prototype of an action movie. Excellently thought-out action from beginning to end, with a wise lesson to be learned at the end. Perfect camerawork, amazing directing, Powell’s brilliant music, an excellent story... what more can I say? I hope Ultimatum will be at least as good, if not better.

I’m really pleased with part one of the Bourne trilogy. I didn’t use to like Matt Damon much, but thanks to this role I’ve got used to him. The directing is also excellent, even though I tend to prefer Greengrass’s style in The Bourne Supremacy than Liman’s. The story is clever, fast-moving with great momentum and surprises in places that you wouldn’t even think could surprise you. Simply a great watch that, two years later, was surpassed by part two.

For years I heard amazing things about The Shawshank Redemption, but still I avoided watching this wonderful movie. I really like King’s short story and, to be honest, I didn’t believe that the movie adaptation could outdo the original. And I was wrong. Frank Darabont perfectly developed on little hints from the book, adding sequences to it that fitted the original storyline flawlessly. The excellent acting performances, not just from Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, made the movie almost uncannily plausible and convincing, and the amazing music by Thomas Newman sometimes moves you to tears. While watching this movie, you begin realize the spice of life - both its downsides and its beauty... “I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain."

If my mom hadn’t spoiled the ending, I might have gone for five stars. Damn, it was my own fault, I shouldn't have asked so many questions. A lesson for the future...

Jokey nonsense that overdoes it in more than a few scenes. The villains are dumb cretins and the actors who played them are really horrible. Just lucky that Bruce Willis is a fountain of wisecracks and Andie MacDowell looks really good here. The movie doesn’t take itself at all seriously and I have the feeling that Bruce wanted to see Italy, and so he combined business and pleasure.