Tuesday 31 July 2018

Nico, 1988 (4½ Stars)


This is a biographical film, following the last two years in the life of Christa Päffgen, better known as Nico. Maybe the title is misleading. Most of the film takes place in 1986. I would have called it "Nico: The End", a reference that her fans would recognise immediately.

To quickly sum up her life: Christa Päffgen was born in Cologne in 1938 and moved to Berlin with her family in 1940. When she was 16 she became a fashion model and moved to Paris. This was when she began to call herself Nico. She became an actress in 1958 and made a series of films, including the lead role in "Strip-Tease" (1963). She had a brief affair with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, who encouraged her to record her first single in 1965, "I'm not saying", produced by Jimmy Page. Shortly after this she became associated with Andy Warhol, who used her in his experimental films. He encouraged the band Velvet Underground to add her as a singer, which they did grudgingly, because they didn't think she fitted their style. In 1967 she began a solo career as a singer.

From the 1970's on she began to hate the name Nico and wanted to give it up, but her managers persuaded her to retain it because that was how her fans knew her. She wanted her friends at least to call her by her real name, Christa, but it was too difficult to overcome old habits. She remained Nico, whether she liked it or not.


That's the prologue. The film begins in 1986 when she's practically washed out. She's a heroin addict and she's suffering because her son Ari is in a mental institution, but she wants to pull herself together and go on tour. She rents a small house in Manchester as her base of operations. In the film we see her performing an unsuccessful concert in Paris and a very successful concert in Poland. Despite her poor physical state she still has boundless talent which she can unleash when she's not high.

The film shows her relationships to her manager and her backing musicians, most of whom she considered incompetent. Maybe they really were second-rate musicians, but she couldn't find better musicians because they were scared off by her well publicised temper tantrums.

All the time she travelled she had a tape recorder with her which she used whenever she heard interesting sounds. She said she was trying to rediscover the sound that she first heard when Berlin was being bombed in 1945. Was that a drug-induced mania? I don't know.

The actress Trine Dyrholm, who I've never heard of before, puts on a stunning performance as Nico. We can feel her pain in every scene, but what's most amazing is her singing. She isn't quite Nico when she's on stage, but she gets remarkably close.

I'm curious why Trine sings the Alphaville hit, "Big in Japan". I'm not aware that Nico ever sang it. It's not on her albums, anyway. Maybe she performed it live in her final years. Does anyone know? Maybe it's just a way of acknowledging that Nico had a very successful tour of Japan in 1986 which isn't shown in the film.

During her solo career Nico referred to herself as the Priestess of Darkness. Posthumously she was called the world's first goth girl. Those are just titles. She was an incredible singer with a powerful voice tinged with sadness. I just regret that she was ruined by her heroin addiction. We lost her too soon.


I have a few final remarks about something that only indirectly concerns the film. Isn't there any quality control on subtitles? Today I watched the film in its original English version with German subtitles. Normally I wouldn't look at the subtitles, but I couldn't help noticing some errors. The worst was when the assistant of Nico's manager, Laura, was talking about Nico in Paris. She said, "I find her music so hideous". The subtitle read "Ich finde sie so faszinierend" (literally "I find her so fascinating"). I can grudgingly agree with inaccurate, non-literal translations to make a film sound better in a foreign language, but in this case the translation completely hides Laura's dislike of Nico's music, which is relevant to the film.

Monday 30 July 2018

Ant-Man and the Wasp (5 Stars)


This is the year of Marvel. I like the Marvel films anyway, but there have never been so many good films in a row as this year: "Black Panther", "Infinity War" and "Deadpool 2"; now "Ant-Man and the Wasp"; later this year there will be "Venom". It's a great time to be a movie fan.

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" takes place after the events of "Captain America: Civil War", but it also refers to the events of "Ant-Man". It takes place parallel to "Infinity War". It's useful to watch all the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films in order. There will probably be a gigantic box set of all the MCU movies on Blu-ray. I don't just mean the MCU Phase One and Phase Two box sets with six films each, I mean a mega box set with at least 22 films, maybe a lot more. That will be a good starting point for newcomers, but not for me. I've been buying the Blu-rays one by one as they're released.

The film starts with Scott Lang (Ant-Man) under house arrest because of his illegal activities in "Captain America: Civil War". It's very noble of him to obey the requirements of the law. With his powers he could shrink out of the electronic tag, travel halfway round the world, then return home to put the tag back on. But he's a reformed man now.

Most of the story has to do with him helping Hank Pym, the original Ant-Man, to retrieve his lover Janet Van Dyne, the original Wasp, from the Quantum realm where she's been trapped for thirty years.

When the film started I thought it had too much humour. As it continued I changed my mind. It wasn't too much, it was just enough humour to prepare for the hard-hitting action scenes.

This is one of the best films of 2018.

Housewife Report (3 Stars)


Can you guess what this is? Yes, you're right, this is my 3000th post since I started my blog on 14th September 2010.

My 1000th post was published on 22nd October 2013.

My 2000th post was published on 18th April 2016.

Today I'm writing my 3000th post on 30th July 2018.

If I plotted those dates on a graph it would look like my speed of writing is increasing, but I won't make a big deal of it. It might slow down in the future. I keep on saying I want to cut down on my films in order to catch up on the television series I like. I haven't got around to doing this yet, but if I do that it'll slow down my written output. Maybe next year. At the moment there are still so many films I want to watch.

"Housewife Report" (original German title "Hausfrauen-Report") was made in 1971 as an adult alternative to the highly successful "Schoolgirl Report" (1970). A series of six films was made from 1971 to 1977, but they never reached the same popularity as the Schoolgirl Report films. Maybe it's because the topic wasn't as controversial, but it could also be because the director Eberhard Schröder wasn't of the same calibre as the directors who made the Schoolgirl Report films.


"Housewife Report" is structured the same way as the first Schoolgirl Report film. Eight short vignettes are shown, separated by interviewers approaching random people on the streets of Munich to ask their opinions about divorce. I might have thought the interviews were genuine if I hadn't recognised the first woman interviewed. It's Rosl Mayr, the star of almost 100 films from 1952 to 1981. She's such a well known face in Germany that it's obvious she was shown first so that the viewers would know that the interviews aren't meant to be taken seriously. They're all scripted.

And what does Rosl have to say about the rapid increase in the German divorce rate? "I blame it on the Italians. Women leave their husbands because the Italians are so good in bed".

That sets the tone for the later informative discussions. When the film speaks of divorce it's always about women leaving men, not the other way round. Several reasons are given for the increase in the annual German divorce rate from 47,000 in 1969 to 57,000 in 1970.

1. Male potency decreases with age.

2. The advertising media gives women unrealistic expectations about sex.

3. Older women want a second chance to get the sex that they missed out on when they were young.

4. Today's women are emancipated and are prepared to leave if they don't get what they want.

Of course, the second and third reasons could apply just as much to men wanting a divorce, but the film is one-sided.

After the initial explanatory speeches people are sent out into Munich to visit women at home who have filled out questionnaires. The young couple Bernd and Brigitte Mittler are followed. They interview eight married women. What's common to all eight women is that they've had sex with other men. The question of divorce is secondary. Most of them want to stay with their husbands after refreshing their marriage by having an affair.


I'll just point out one of the women. Edith Heimann is the wife of a wealthy marketing director. She's played by Sybil Danning, who was 18 at the time. That's amazing. I'm a fan of Sybil Danning, but I couldn't recognise her in the film. If she hadn't been listed in the credits I wouldn't have suspected it was her. Moreover, she doesn't look anywhere near 18. In the photo above I would have guessed her age between 35 and 40.


Maybe she looks a bit younger with her hair open, but I'd still guess her age at 25.

This isn't one of the best erotic films of the 1970's, but it offers an interesting view of German culture.

Sunday 29 July 2018

Atelier's Wall of Fame


Atelier am Bollwerk, usually called Atelier, is a small independent cinema in the centre of Stuttgart. It presents many films not shown at other cinemas, in particular documentaries and French films. The film advertised above, "Birnenkuchen mit Lavendel", is a French film with the original title "Le Goût des Merveilles", in English "The Sense of Wonder". That narrows down when the photo was taken, because it was released in Germany in March 2016.


At the counter there's a list of famous names from the film industry. Every time I've been to the cinema I've stared at this list in amazement. I recently managed to photograph the counter when it wasn't blocked by customers, and today I typed the 156 names. One of the names, "Monty Pythons", isn't a name, so there are only really 155 names.

I have a few questions for my readers:

1. How many of the names do you know already? (I scored 89, but I googled all the other names afterwards).

2. Two of the names are included twice. Who are they? (They're easy to spot in the list, difficult at the counter).

3. Two of the names have nothing to do with the film industry. Who are they? (They're not mistakes. Both are included for a reason).


Alfred Hitchcock
Jodie Foster
James Stewart
F. W. Murnau
Manfred Rommel
Tippi Hedren
Sean Connery
Isabelle Huppert
Laurence Olivier
Robert Redford
Peter O'Toole
Al Pacino
James Cameron

Robert De Niro
Brian De Palma
Bruno Ganz
James Dean
Gina Lollobrigida
Martin Scorsese
Barbara Sukova
Aki Kaurismäki
Ingrid Bergman
Martin landau
Boris Karloff
Michael Mann
John Carpenter

Jacques Tati
Clark Gable
Sergej Eisenstein
John Wayne
Istvan Szabo
Harvey Keitel
Simone Signoret
Doris Day
Harrison Ford
Gerard Depardieu
Klaus-Maria Brandauer
Anthony Quinn
Catherine Deneuve

Gert Fröbe
Alain Delon
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Luis Bunuel
Roman Polanski
Bette Davis
Orson Welles
Fanny Ardant
Francis Ford Coppola
Frederico Fellini
Peter Erasmus
Audrey Hepburn
Michel Piccoli

Grace Kelly
Erich von Stroheim
Romy Schneider
David Niven
Marcello Mastroianni
Billy Wilder
Andreas Uebele
Anthony Perkins
Klaus Kinski
Marlon Brando
John Waters
Gregory Peck
Spencer Tracy

Ernst Lubitsch
Jean Luis Trintingant
Gene Kelly
Audrey Hepburn
Monty Pythons
Marilyn Monroe
Armin Müller-Stahl
Roberto Rossellini
Jim Jarmusch
Brigitte Mira
Guenther Schaller
Henry Fonda

Max Ophuels
Jack Nicholson
Wim Wenders
Paul Schrader
Francois Truffaut
Akira Kurosawa
Divine
Sam Peckinpah
Herbert Achternbusch
John Ford
Louis Malle
Steve McQueen
Dustin Hoffman

Richard Burton
Josef von Sternberg
Liz Taylor
David Lynch
Anthony Hopkins
Andrej Tarkovski
Nicholas Cage
Stanley Kubrick
Malcolm McDowell
Billy Crystal
Jean Renoir
Eric Rohmer
John Travolta

Kenneth Branagh
Heinrich George
Peter Ustinov
Fritz Lang
Ridley Scott
Rock Hudson
Bertrand Tavernier
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Meryl Streep
Russ Meyer
Anna Magnani
Steven Spielberg
Kirk Douglas

Edgar Reitz
Roy Scheider
Sophia Loren
Werner Herzog
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Fernando Rey
Hanna Schygulla
Michael Douglas
John Sayles
Volker Biermann
Mel Gibson
Woody Allen
Angela Winkler

John Waters
Margarete von Trottha
Errol Flynn
Philippe Noiret
Jack Lemmon
Ingmar Bergman
Jean Luc Godard
Liv Ullmann
Henry Ford
Lauren Bacall
Karl Heinz Böhm
Jane Seymore
Helmut Berger

Fritz Wepper
Hildegard Knef
Heinz Rühmann
Senta Berger
Hans Moser
Conny Froebes
Mario Adorf
Inge Meysel
Willy Millowitsch
O. W. Fischer
Maria Schell
Marika Röck
Theo Lingen
Harald Juhnke

Leave your answers in the comments below.

Blade 2 (4½ Stars)


I'm happy to say that "Blade 2" (or "Blade II", if you prefer) is much better than the first film. I accredit the improvement to the new director, Guillermo Del Toro. Whatever he touches turns to gold.

Damaskinos, the lord of the vampires, sends a delegation to Blade to ask him for a truce. He needs Blade's help to eliminate the Reapers, a new type of vampire that is spreading through Prague and could soon cover the whole world. Due to a new virus the Reapers are a type of vampire mach two. They feed on both humans and vampires, but if they feed on a vampire they turn the vampire into another Reaper. The Reapers are immune to garlic and silver, and it's impossible to stake them because of their hard chest. They heal within seconds from any wounds. Their only weakness is sunlight, to which they seem to be more sensitive than normal vampires.

Over the last two years Damaskinos has been training an elite group of vampires, the Blood Pack, which was supposed to be used to kill Blade. Damaskinos says that Blade should lead the Blood Pack in his battle against the Reapers, which creates a lot of tension.


The biggest problems come from Dieter Reinhardt, the former leader of the Blood Pack, who immediately challenges Blade's authority. I've always liked Ron Perlman as an actor, but in this role he's breathtaking. He's mean and he's evil, but he has such a cool attitude that it's impossible not to like him.


Guillermo Del Toro said in an interview that it was important for him to distance himself from the sensitive type of vampires created by Anne Rice. He wanted his vampires to be monsters. That's not a new idea, the vampires in the first film were already cold-hearted and cruel.


This thinking was behind the design of the vampire lord Damaskino. He's not supposed to look attractive. But don't you think he looks like the Master from the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"? On the other hand, Damaskino's daughter Nyssa doesn't look ugly at all, and her evil tendencies are under control. She looks like she's stepped out of the pages of the Vampire Chronicles.


Not even Blade can keep his hands off her.


The Reapers look totally disgusting. Look at that mouth! I'd never let one of those things bite me, not even if it were a woman. If there are any female Reapers, that is. Nothing is said about their gender, but all the Reapers shown in the film are male.

I criticised Wesley Snipes' acting in the first film, but I can't fault him this time. Maybe it's the presence of a superior director that's drawn more out of him. It could also be that Wesley has grown into the role. Blade is a difficult character to play. He's someone who doesn't reveal his emotions, even though the emotions are there bubbling beneath the surface. In "Blade 2" Wesley Snipes portrays this trait perfectly. He doesn't show full emotions, he just gives a hint of emotion when he's dealing with his partner and best friend Whistler. That's something I didn't think he could do after watching the first film, but he's proved me wrong.

I regret waiting so long, 14 years, before watching this film for the first time. If any of my readers haven't seen it yet you need to, after watching the first film, of course.

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Saturday 28 July 2018

The Witches of Breastwick (4½ Stars)


This is a film made by Jim Wynorski in 2005, in the good old days when he made films with giant breasts, not giant sharks. The three witches shown above, from left to right Stormy Daniels, Julie K. Smith and Glori-Anne Gilbert, are the bustiest witches you'll find in any film. As usual, I'll refrain from posting nude photos of the actresses, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Sometimes I ask myself why I don't post tasteful nude snapshots from the films I watch. I don't know. Maybe I should change things. I'll think it over. I just don't want my blog to become popular for its nude content. It's about films. Please leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on the subject.


David Carter has been visiting a psychiatrist because of recurring nightmares. The same thing always happens. He's tied up and seduced by three busty women in a cabin who force him to have sex with them. Wait! That's a nightmare? The film always ends with him being stabbed to death by one of the women, but isn't that part of the thrill? The psychiatrist, played by the ever-perfect Jay Richardson, can't understand the problem and tells David he should just get over it. Maybe David's problem is that he wants to be faithful to his beautiful wife Tiffany, played by Monique Parent. Okay, I can understand that, but it's only a dream. Dreaming about sex isn't considered infidelity, unless the Catholic Church has special rules I don't know about.

David thinks he recognises the scenery in his dream, so he drives into the woods with Tiffany. Their car breaks down in front of a cabin on an isolated road. When they go to ask for help they find that the occupants are three busty women who look exactly like the women in David's dreams.

Now please, readers, you have to agree that this is how to make a good film. It wouldn't have been anywhere near as good to have the cabin occupied by three giant sharks. That would have spoilt the story. I maintain that film fans the world over would rather see big breasts than big sharks.


David is terrified of Lola (Julie K. Smith) because she's the woman who has repeatedly killed him in his dreams. He wants to leave, but they repeatedly seduce him, one at a time, to persuade him to stay. Doesn't Tiffany mind? She might do, but she's too busy to notice. Whenever one of the women is with David the other two are seducing Tiffany.

Why are they doing this to David? And more importantly, why don't they do it to me instead? We find out that David isn't a random victim. In the early 19th Century a Mexican woman called LaCacanya owned land near the cabin. Other settlers were jealous of her land, so they claimed she was a witch and had her burnt at the stake. As she died she swore a curse that she would kill all the descendants of the settlers. The three women in the cabin are her daughters who have lived all this time, prolonging their lives through witchcraft to fulfil their mother's will. David is unknowingly the last surviving descendant of the settlers, and the witches intend to kill him. They could have killed him a lot faster, but as we all know, girls just wanna have fun.


Oops! Did I just accidentally include a picture with a nipple? Maybe I should include more nudity after all.

This is one of the most erotic films I've ever seen. The beauty and sensuality of the three witches is astounding, and Monique Parent isn't bad either. This film is in serious need of Blu-ray remastering.

Friday 27 July 2018

Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre (4½ Stars)


I've criticised Jim Wynorski more than once for saying that people would rather watch films with giant sharks than films with giant breasts. I still disagree with him, but if his giant shark film also has Christine Nguyen with big guns it can't be all that bad. In fact, despite its silly name "Sharkansas Women's Prison Massacre" is the best giant shark film I've seen since "Jaws".

A work group of five prisoners is driven from an Arkansas women's prison into the nearby swampland to move the branches. This seems like stupid occupational therapy, because the two guards looking after the girls could probably have done the job faster themselves.


Four of the girls have been imprisoned for violent crimes including murder. Christine is the exception. She's been imprisoned for illegally downloading movies. Bad girl! Anyone who illegally downloads this film or any other film that Christine stars in deserves the full punishment of the law.

While working in the swamp one of the girls is attacked and killed by a shark. "But there are no sharks in Arkansas", I can hear my readers saying. You're wrong. An oil company has been fracking in the swamps, and they've made an opening to a large underground lake. Sharks have swum up from this lake to the surface hunting for food. These are giant sharks with hard skins that are capable of leaping out of the water to catch their prey.

The guards decide to drive the four remaining girls back to the prison, but there's a problem on the way. The prison van is stopped by a woman who overpowers the guards. She's the lesbian lover of Anita Conners, second from left in the above picture. She only wants to free Anita, but the others are offered their freedom as well. They drive to a cabin in the woods, surrounded by a swamp, taking the guards as hostages. Soon the cabin is surrounded by sharks, so the prisoners, the guards and two scientists who stumble in have to join forces to defend themselves.


This is a fast paced action film which kept me sitting on the edge of my seat from the beginning to the end. At the beginning of this review I might have given the impression that the film is only good because of Christine Nguyen. That's not true. It would have been a very good film without her, but with her it's even better. It's an example of Jim Wynorski's directing at its best. The picture quality is so sharp on the Blu-ray that it puts most big budget films to shame.

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Thursday 26 July 2018

Lust for a Witch (4 Stars)


David Blake is a writer of romance stories. They're bad romance stories, as he himself admits, but as long as there are people out there with enough bad taste to buy his books he'll carry on writing them. His wife Justine is a model. She's often away from home for photoshoots, giving him time alone for his writing. When the film starts he's suffering from writer's block. That's to be expected. Almost all authors in films have writer's block. It's a common plot device.

One morning, after a heavy drinking session, a woman appears outside his house. She claims to be the house's former owner, a witch who has travelled from the 17th Century into the future to escape the Salem Witch Trials. After a hefty sex session the woman, who isn't named, disappears, leading David to believe he had imagined her, so he swears to never drink again. In the meantime Justine returns home with a photographer and his girlfriend. The witch, who is still hiding in the house, kills the photographer and his girlfriend, then encourages David to kill his wife. At the same time David begins to write again, this time a book about the Salem Witch Trials.

"Lust for a Witch" was made in 2004 with the name "Burn", but it wasn't released on DVD until this year. From what I've read the film's sex scenes were either removed or shortened, cutting the running time from 145 minutes to 83 minutes. That's a lot of cuts!

The film is directed by Michael Windsor, but I suspect it's a pseudonym because no other films are listed for him. I've tried without success to find out who he is. There seems to be a connection with Retromedia, the company that has released the DVD this year, because four of the main actors (Evan Stone, Alexandre Boisvert, Nicole Sheridan and Rebecca Love) were frequent participants in the Medina collection from 2003 to 2012.


I was fascinated by Evan Stone's performance as David Blake. Until now I've only seen him play comedy roles. "Lust for a Witch" proves that he's capable of playing serious roles. When he begins to write again he displays a mania that's reminiscent of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining".


The whole film is darker and grittier than any of the erotic films made by Retromedia. Nevertheless, it shares many of the leitmotifs, such as the background music. If I find out more about the film I'll inform you next time I watch it.

Wednesday 25 July 2018

Anti-Social (2 Stars)


This is a film that highlights the underground criminal culture of London. Marcus is a member of a gang that robs jewellery stories. His younger brother Dee is a graffiti artist who spreads his pictures all over London. Both of them are doing illegal things, but Dee does it as a protest against the establishment while Marcus just wants to line his own pockets.

Dee doesn't get involved in gang activity, but Marcus gives him money to support him. When Marcus gets shot and is badly wounded Dee is faced with a challenge: should he take part in a robbery to help his brother?

English films are a hit or miss affair. "Anti-Social" is a miss. The action scenes are realistic, but the acting is so poor that it's embarrassing. The young cast of newcomers say their lines with blank faces as if they're reading them from an off-screen cue. The only actor with any talent is Christian Berkel, who plays a German art dealer.


Dee's girlfriend is played by Meghan Markle, the current wife of Prince Harry. She displays no more talent than any of the other actors. She's lucky to have married a rich man, because she could never have made much money acting.

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Mamma Mia: Here we go again (4 Stars)


This is a sequel to "Mamma Mia", which was made in 2008. I have nothing against sequels, but I'm always sceptical of delayed sequels. Usually they're a desperate attempt by film studios to make money when they've run out of new ideas. However, I decided to give it a chance because I love the original so much and all the main members of the original cast have returned for the sequel.

The story takes place a few years after the original film. Sophie's mother Donna has passed away, and since her death Sophie has worked on restoring the hotel, renaming it Hotel Bella Donna. She's planned a big re-opening ceremony, inviting her family and her mother's friends.

The film tells two stories in parallel. In addition to dealing with the ceremony it tells the story of Donna's arrival on the island and the three men in her life. Throughout the film we see two versions of the main characters, as people in their twenties and and in their fifties. Sophie's life mirrors that of her mother, apart from only having one man in her life.

"Mamma Mia: Here we go again" – I really should shorten the name to "Mamma Mia 2" – is a happy feel-good film which most people will enjoy, but it falls short of the original. It tries too hard to be funny. Whereas the humour in the first film was subtle, the sequel relies on slapstick and overt comedy. This humour is effective. There was a lot of laughter in the mainly female cinema audience today. If that's what you're looking for the film is right for you, but I missed the emotional depths that made me cry when I watched the first film.

None of the three actors who play the young versions of Sam, Bill and Harry are competent singers. The only weak singer in the first film was Pierce Brosnan, who unfortunately sings again the second time round.

Most of Abba's big hits were used in the first film. "Mamma Mia 2" repeats a few of these songs, like "Dancing Queen" and "I have a dream", but it relies mostly on lesser known songs. If you're an Abba fan you'll know the songs, but I was never a fan, so I only know the big hits that are played on the radio. The strength of the first film was the familiarity of the songs. That's missing in the second film.

I enjoyed the film today, but I can't imagine that I'll want to watch it again. It's not a bad film, but it's unnecessary. Donna's story doesn't add anything, it just retells what we already knew from her diary in the first film.

I found it interesting that there's an after credits scene. It used to be that after credits scenes were reserved for Marvel films and the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but now they're becoming more popular. Could it be they're just a ploy to keep people in the cinema to listen to the final songs?

Monday 23 July 2018

The Dictator (4 Stars)


I decided to watch this film again today because my first review, written in 2013, has crept into my top 10 most popular posts list again. As I write this post it's in 10th place. By tomorrow it will either have climbed a few places or fallen out again.

My readers are fickle. Not all of my posts are good. I know that. What surprises me is that the posts I consider below average quality often have more readers than my best posts. It shouldn't really surprise me. Let me explain what's happening on my blog below the surface:

The top 10 list that I publish in my sidebar is the most read posts of the last 30 days. That's the most meaningful list, in my opinion. I also have lists available of the most read posts of the last 24 hours and the most read posts of the last seven days. Those lists are less significant because they're very volatile. When I publish a new post it usually has a lot of hits over the first 48 hours. This is because I have a lot of followers who read my new posts on a regular basis. That's not just the 22 blog followers listed on my page, I also have followers in Google Plus and Facebook. Almost all of my new posts enter my top 10 posts of the week, but they drop out of the list again after a week and are replaced by newer posts. Maybe one post a week generates enough interest to make it into my top 10 posts of the month. If it's popular enough it might stay in the list for a few months before disappearing again.

Then there are the posts that I call Dauerbrenner, the German word for perpetual flames. Some of these posts, like the Femme Fatales TV series, remain in the list for a year or longer. Others, like my first review of "The Dictator", are in my list for a few months, then disappear for a few months, then come back again. My Dauerbrenner (the German word sounds much better than the English translation) are the result of search engines sending readers to me. It's possible to deliberately use keywords to attract readers, but I don't do that. I write normal prose at all times. However, it sometimes happens that the combination of the words in my normal prose attracts a mass of readers who are looking for something else. For that reason many of my Dauerbrenner get a lot of hits out of pure luck.

There's one other problem in the way that Google sets up its searches. There's a process which Google calls canonicalisation (sic). That's a horrible word. What it means is that if two pages on a web site have either identical content or identical names only one of them is considered "canon" and included in search results. There's an HTML flag for search engines that can determine that a page is to be treated as the important page among a collection of duplicates or near-duplicates, but if this flag is included in more than one of the duplicates the search engine crawler can get confused and exclude the wrong one. Just include <link rel="canonical" href=http://www.example.com/original-url/> in the header. If this flag isn't used the newest page is usually treated as canonical. That might be useful for an online catalogue which replaces old products with new products that have the same name, but it makes things awkward for my blog as a film diary. If I review a film three times it's common for the first (i.e. the oldest) review to be the best because I have less to say on repeated watchings. That also means that writing this review today will stop my old review getting as many hits.

Which are my best and which are my worst reviews? That's a subjective opinion, but I'm an honest judge. It's not just about the length. Sometimes I write a post and even as I'm writing it I think to myself, "This isn't very good, but I've got to finish it now I've started". Other times I write something and I think, "Wow! I really expressed that well". As a rule of thumb I tend to write better reviews of films that I don't like than the films I like. Take this review, for instance. I've written six paragraphs and I still haven't said anything about the film.


Sacha Baron Cohen plays Admiral-General Aladeen, the dictator of a middle eastern country called Wadiya. This is a strongly satirical film from beginning to end, mocking both dictators and America's reaction to dictators. Aladeen is based primarily on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, but there are touches of other dictators in his mannerisms. Most apparent is that Aladeen surrounds himself with beautiful female bodyguards, just like Gadaffi used to do.


I want to be surrounded by women like that. Where do I sign up to become a dictator?


The bodyguards might all be beautiful, but the most attractive is the head guard Etra, played by Busty Heart. Her fighting style can only be described as Boob Fu. She uses her breasts as weapons. She can knock men unconscious with her breasts, and she can suffocate men between her breasts.


There are worse ways to die. I wouldn't try to defend myself. This isn't just something shown in the film, it's a real life ability. Busty Heart has appeared on talent shows smashing thick planks with her breasts.

In between the humour serious messages are contained, so ironical in their directness that we have to stop laughing for a moment. In a speech before the United Nations General Aladeen says:

"Why are you guys so anti-dictators? Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1% of the people have all the nation's wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes, and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group, and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests".

The film is also a love story. Aladeen goes into hiding after an unsuccessful assassination attempt, and he meets the owner of a biological food store. I'll let her describe it in her own words:

"This is my store. This is the Free Earth Collective. We are a vegan, feminist, non-profit cooperative operating within an anti-racist, anti-oppressive framework for people of all or no genders".

In other words, she doesn't know what she's fighting for. She's against everything and for nothing. Aladeen falls in love with her when he sees her shouting at a policeman. Opposites attract.


The newspaper shown above looked correct at first, until I saw the error. The words "scouring the rubble, investigators found" are repeated at the bottom of the first column and the top of the second column. That's just sloppy.


One thing that I regret about the Blu-ray release is that it doesn't have enough extra features. When Sacha Baron Cohen was promoting "The Dictator" he made several controversial appearances, for instance at the Academy Awards, the Cannes Film Festival and on television talk shows. I've seen these on YouTube, of course, but it would be better to have all the videos gathered together in high definition on the Blu-ray disc.

This is a hilariously funny film, but obviously not everyone has a sense of humour. The film was banned in several eastern European countries. In Italy a reference to the Italian prime minister had to be removed. Interestingly, even though "The Dictator" was shown in German cinemas it has never been released on DVD or Blu-ray.

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Sunday 22 July 2018

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (4 Stars)


Today I went to see "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" a second time in the cinema. It's no longer being shown in most cinemas, but I was lucky enough to be able to see it at Cinecity in Crailsheim. I watched it  in German today, and I have to say the dubbing is perfect. It can't be compared with the poor quality dubbing of films into English.

I expect most of my friends have seen it already. It's the third most successful film of 2018, after "Infnity War" and "Black Panther". For reasons unclear to me it's more successful than the first two Jurassic Park films, even though they were much better. They were directed by Steven Spielberg, which is a guarantee for quality. My dream would be for Spielberg to return to direct the next film, but that's unlikely to happen.

If you want to know more about the film read my last review.

Saturday 21 July 2018

Imperium (4 Stars)


Despite its critical acclaim this film was a box office flop. Most cinemas didn't even want to show it. Why not? It's about racism in the USA, which is an unpleasant subject matter, but other films about racism have been more successful. I think that the reason for this film's failure is the way that racism is presented. It doesn't show racism the way people want to see it.

Daniel Radcliffe plays Nate Foster, a quiet young FBI agent who's assigned the task of going undercover in white power organisations. He's picked for the task over all his older more experienced colleagues because he can understand the people he deals with. Nate doesn't just rush in with guns blazing shouting "Racism is wrong". He sits down with racists and tries to understand why they think the way they do. That's also the intention of the film. It wants to help the viewer to understand why racists are racists. That's too much like hard work for the typical anti-racist. It's easier to go to an anti-racism demonstration and throw bricks at racists.

"Imperium" shows that not all racists are the same. Different groups are presented. There are the skinhead thugs that we associate with racism. They're loud-mouthed and brash and get the most publicity. There are also Christian groups that use their religion as justification for being anti-black and anti-Jewish. These groups don't necessarily get on with one another. Then there are the polite intellectuals who sit at home listening to classical music and invite their friends round to discuss the inferiority of other races. The film's message is clear: it's this last group which is the most dangerous. You might have a next-door neighbour who fits into this category, but you would never suspect him of being racist because he's such a nice person. These people aren't seen on the streets demonstrating, not even in peaceful protests. Violent anti-racist or anti-fascist demonstrations just persuade them that they're correct.

One small digression: today the terms fascism and racism are often used as synonyms. There's a lot of overlap, because fascists are usually racists, but not all racists are fascists. Racism is just what the word says: the prejudice against other races, usually identified by skin colours. Fascism is based on three principles: nationalism, dictatorship and government control. Apart from that, the word "fascist" is often used as an insult by people who don't even know what it means.

Understanding racism doesn't mean agreeing with racism. I would go as far as to say that if you oppose something that you don't understand you're an extremist yourself, no better than the ones you're opposing.

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Friday 20 July 2018

Love Sucks (1 Star)


Dennis and Peter are two college graduates who work in a pizza joint in New Jersey. Dennis even finished top of his class. They're embarrassed whenever their friends walk in and see what they're doing.

When I watch a film that I don't like I sit and try to think of something positive to say about it. In this case I can't think of anything. It's a boring film, and when the lead characters try to act funny they just look stupid. Jennifer Love Hewitt's beauty usually lights up any film she's in, but in "Love Sucks" she looks plain. Matthew Lillard is usually a first class comedy actor, but in this film he rolls around like a buffoon.

In America the film was released as "Telling You". In the UK the name was changed to "Love Sucks". Neither name makes sense.

Thursday 19 July 2018

Mamma Mia (5 Stars)


Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie Sheridan, a 20-year-old woman only a few days away from her wedding. She's lived all her life on the small Greek island Kalokairi, where her mother Donna owns a small, unsuccessful hotel. She wants her father to give her away, but there's a problem: her mother has never told her who her father is. He left before she was born. That's all Sophie knows, and it's all her mother wants to tell her.

By chance Sophie finds her mother's diary for the year before her birth. The problem is that she had intimate relationships with three different men within two weeks. Sophie invites all three men to her wedding, sure that she'll recognise her real father when she sees him. All three men accept the invitation, but it's not so easy. All three think she's their daughter when they realise when she was born. All three want to be her father and give her away at the wedding.

Donna, on the other hand, doesn't want to see any of them. She wasn't a slut, however it might seem. There's a saying in England: "Good men are like buses. You wait for ages, then three come at the same time". Sam, Bill and Harry were Donna's three good men, and she's remained single ever since because she's never met anyone else like them.


Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan play the three potential fathers. They're three very different men, all special in their own way, and any of them would be a father for Sophie to be proud of.

The film is best known for including a selection of Abba's hit songs, but that doesn't distract from the fact that this is a beautiful story. "Mamma Mia" made me cry, and I would have been just as moved without the songs. It's a beautiful film in all respects: the music, the acting and the idyllic Greek scenery.

A sequel has recently been made, ten years after the original film. I'm always sceptical about delayed sequels. Usually they suck. I'm going to see it next week. I'll tell you what I think.

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Marvel Years 03.12 - December 1963


The month December 1963 is significant in the history of Marvel comics. It's the month in which the first two-part stories were published, in Tales to Astonish (Giant-Man and the Wasp) and Journey into Mystery (Thor).

Tales to Astonish #50

Title: The Human Top

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Human Top (Dave Cannon)


Giant-Man battles with a young thief who can spin like a top. He's too fast and too agile for Giant-Man to catch him. The Wasp is unable to offer much help.

This is the first half of a two-part story. After his defeat by the Human Top Giant-Man prepares to face him again next issue.

This issue also contains three short anthology stories.




Journey into Mystery #99

Title: The Mysterious Mister Hyde

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Don Heck

Regulars: Jane Foster, Odin

Villain: Mister Hyde (Calvin Zabo)


This is the first half of another two-part story written by Stan Lee. The medical doctor Calvin Zabo suspects that Robert Louis Stevenson based his novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on something that really happened. He experiments until he has invented a formula which will transform himself into a powerful creature that he calls Mister Hyde. After this initial transformation he can change himself to his normal human form and back by will power.

Thor begs his father Odin for the permission to marry Jane Foster. Odin says a God may not marry a mortal, but he will make Jane an immortal if she proves herself worthy.

The story ends on a cliffhanger. Thor seems to have turned evil, as proved when he robs a bank.




Title: Surtur the Fire Demon

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Gods: Odin

In a short story based on Norse legends, Odin fights and defeats Surtur. The story also shows how the Moon was created.

This issue also contains a short anthology story.




Fantastic Four #21

Title: The Hate-Monger

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Jack Kirby

Villain: Hate-Monger (Adolf Hitler)

Regulars: Alicia Masters

Guests: Nick Fury


A hate preacher has started speaking in New York City, inciting the citizens to turn against foreigners. At first Reed Richards says that it's none of the Fantastic Four's business because America is a free country and people are allowed to say anything they want. He changes his mind when he sees violence in the streets.


Note the mixture of positive and negative language. This is always the start. "Cleaning up the country" sounds positive, doesn't it? Everyone wants law and order.


The second step is to reveal what the "cleaning up" really means. It's about the elimination of everything that's different. The foreigners have to be sent back where they came from. This is a foolish statement to make in America, because it's a country in which almost everyone is a foreigner.


And the third step is violence. Any so-called foreigner who won't voluntarily go back where he came from is attacked.

At the end of the story it's revealed that the Hate-Monger is Adolf Hitler. In later stories we find out that a Nazi scientist has been creating clones of Hitler, so his death in this comic isn't the end.


Nick Fury (now a colonel) meets Reed Richards for the first time since Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #3. Note that he doesn't yet wear an eye patch.




Amazing Spider-Man #7

Title: The Return of the Vulture

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Steve Ditko

Villain: Vulture

Regulars: Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan


The Vulture escapes from prison, after Spider-Man captured him in Amazing Spider-Man #2.


In this comic a romance starts to blossom between Peter Parker and Betty Brant. Isn't he too young for her? He can't be older than 15 in this comic, and Betty Brant must be at least 18 as the personal secretary of a newspaper editor.




Tales of Suspense #48

Title: The Mysterious Mr. Doll

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Steve Ditko

Villain: Mr. Doll

Regulars: Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan


An unnamed man has stolen a voodoo doll from a witch doctor in Africa. If he changes the face of the doll to that of a person he can cause that person pain by squeezing the doll.

In this issue Tony Stark changes his suit again. He gives up his heavy suit because it was consuming too much power to move and slowed him down. Now he has built a lighter suit. I'll reprint all three pages of the description here.




Iron Man's suit changes were a recurring feature in the first few years. This is his third suit in ten issues.

This issue also contains a short anthology story.




Strange Tales #115

Title: The Sandman Strikes

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Dick Ayers

Villain: Sandman

Regulars: Reed Richards

Guests: Spider-Man


The Sandman was arrested after being defeated by Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #4. All this time he's been relaxing in prison. He could have escaped at any time, as the guards should have known. How can you keep a man locked up who can transform his body into sand any time he wants?

After escaping he wants to find Spider-Man to take revenge, but the Human Torch insists on challenging him first.




Title: The Origin of Dr. Strange

Writer: Stan Lee
Artist: Steve Ditko

Villain: Baron Mordo

Regulars: Ancient One

This is the origin of Dr. Strange. In the comics he was a lot more unpleasant as a surgeon than he was in the recent film. In the comics he had no regard for human life, it was all about money.

Read the editor's note above for an example of Stan Lee's humour. He claims that he and Steve Ditko have to squeeze in Dr. Strange stories between their busy schedule writing Spider-Man stories. He should have mentioned Iron Man as well. In fact, Stan Lee wrote everything published by Marvel. In addition to the six comics that I've reviewed this month he also wrote Rawhide Kid #37, Kathy #26, Modelling with Millie #28, Patsy Walker #112 and Patsy and Hedy #91. That's a total of eleven comics in December 1963, which was a quiet month because he had written 14 comics in November. Excelsior!

This issue also contains a short anthology story.



Other comics published this month:

Modeling with Millie #28 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Patsy Walker #112 (Stan Lee, Al Hartley)
Patsy and Hedy #91 (Stan Lee, Al Hartley)
Kathy #26 (Stan Lee, Stan Goldberg)
Rawhide Kid #37 (Stan Lee, Dick Ayers)