Spider-Man: Brand New Day (5 Stars)

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" is a good film in its own right, with plenty of action and an entertaining story. It works well as another chapter in Spider-Man's increasingly complicated life, even if the ever-expanding Marvel universe sometimes threatens to overwhelm him.

My biggest problem is the introduction of Jean Grey. The X-Men film chronology was already a mess, and this makes matters worse. More importantly, this Jean Grey bears little resemblance to the character I remember from the comics, particularly in the way her mutant powers are portrayed. I enjoyed the film, but as an old-school X-Men fan I found some of its choices difficult to accept.

Terminator (5 Stars)

Sometimes I'm proud of German cinema audiences. Today "Terminator" was shown in my cinema as part of the monthly "Best Of Cinema" series. The theatre was almost sold out, with only a few empty seats left at the front.

James Cameron's "Terminator" remains one of the greatest films ever made because it blends two distinct genres. On the surface it's science fiction, with time travel and killer robots from the future. In reality it's also one of the most effective horror films ever made, with Arnold Schwarzenegger's unstoppable Terminator playing the role of a relentless monster hunting an ordinary young woman.

The premise is unforgettable: a cyborg assassin travels back in time to murder Sarah Connor before she can give birth to the future leader of the human resistance. From that point onwards the film barely pauses for breath. Schwarzenegger gives the defining performance of his career, creating a villain who's frightening not because of emotion, but because he has none. Linda Hamilton is equally convincing as Sarah, transforming from an unsuspecting waitress into a determined survivor, while Michael Biehn brings unexpected depth to Kyle Reese.

What makes "Terminator" so enduring is its atmosphere. Made on a modest budget, Cameron relies on suspense rather than spectacle, creating a dark, gritty nightmare that still feels more believable than many modern blockbusters. The action is relentless, the pacing is flawless and the film never loses sight of its horror roots, even as it explores one of cinema's most fascinating time travel paradoxes.

More than forty years later, "Terminator" still feels fresh. It isn't simply a great science fiction film or a great horror film. It's one of the rare classics that succeeds brilliantly as both.

Success Rate:  + 10.2

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Cocorico 2 (3 Stars)

I went to see this film as my cinema's sneak peek. Once a week a film is shown before its official release date, but we're not told what it will be. Today the film was a French comedy, "Cocorico 2". I didn't see the first film when it was released in 2024, so I was at a disadvantage. All I'm willing to say is that it's about the friendship of two middle-aged men.

Frédéric Bouvier-Sauvage (Christian Clavier) is a wealthy, proud aristocrat who owns a grand wine estate in Bordeaux. Snobbish, conservative and fiercely protective of his family's social status, he looks down on the Martins as beneath him. DNA test results challenge both his sense of identity and his deeply held prejudices.

Gérard Martin (Didier Bourdon) is a cheerful Peugeot car dealer from a solidly middle-class background. More down-to-earth and outspoken than Frédéric, he's equally proud of his own values and doesn't appreciate being patronised. His rivalry with Frédéric provides most of the film's comedy, as the two men constantly clash over class, culture and family.

Obsession (4 Stars)

I'd already seen this film in April as the opening film of the Stuttgart Nights Festival. I didn't intend to see it again, but one of my friends praised it so highly that I needed to go back and check if my four star rating is high enough. After careful consideration, I'm leaving my rating unchanged.

The film is about a shy boy called Bear who doesn't have the courage to approach a woman called Nikki that he's had a crush on for years. Honestly, he's so insecure that I feel like slapping him. But this isn't a fault that I find with the film. The world is full of insecure young men who're afraid to approach women.

Bear uses a mystical artefact called a One Wish Willow. After breaking it he can make a wish. His wish is for Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world. Even when she comes on to him, Bear backs away, but she won't take No for an answer. We soon see that her love for Bear isn't healthy; it's an obsession. To take just one example, she refuses to let him talk to other women.

What disturbs me about the film is that Nikki does other strange things that have nothing to do with her obsessive love for Bear. For instance, she cooks his dead cat for him. That's just silly. If things like this had been omitted from the film I could have given it a five star rating.

Supergirl [2026 film] (4 Stars)

Over the last few weeks I've seen various trailers for "Supergirl" in the cinema. I rarely watch trailers at home. I've seen videos on YouTube predicting it would be a massive flop. Again, I didn't watch the videos, but the titles and info screens told me all I needed to know. But I didn't let myself be put off. I went to the cinema today, and I enjoyed the film. The only major thing I disliked is that it's set on alien planets. I would have preferred to see Supergirl on Earth.

What I enjoyed most was seeing Supergirl's power. She's more than a match for any opponent or groups of opponents who face her. I couldn't help thinking that her fight scenes are what MCU's Drax should have fought like. The whole outer space alien planet setting reminded me of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, which isn't something bad in itself.

On the way home I watched "Supergirl" reviews on YouTube and replies to the reviews. It seems like most of the critics liked the film less than I did, but I understood their arguments. The replies were less balanced. They claimed that critics don't like "Supergirl" because it's a film about a powerful woman. That's not something I read in any of the critical reviews. They also claimed that the opponents of the film are MAGA supporters. That's an even stranger argument, which isn't backed up by anything I've read online. People are trying to politicise fair criticism. That's wrong.

I'll probably read more criticism of the film. but it won't change my mind. I like it.

Backrooms (4 Stars)

I didn't wait very long to watch "Backrooms" again. I'm visiting my son Benjamin this weekend, and I told him "Backrooms" is a film he needs to see. We went to the Lichterspielhaus in Schwäbisch Hall, one of Germany's oldest cinemas, opened in 1913. In a way it's a perfect setting for the film, since the rooms are dug into the cellars.

We watched it dubbed into German. That wasn't a problem, since German dubbing is so good. Benjamin loved it, and so did I. He's disappointed with me for only rating it four stars. Maybe it deserves more. Ask me again next year when I have the Blu-ray disc in my hand.

As I mentioned in my last review, the film takes place in 1990. That's a good year. Everything looks modern, but there are no smart phones or Internet. Things like that would spoil the film and make parts of the plot impossible.

Backrooms (4 Stars)

Does a film have to explain everything? And if it does offer explanations, do they have to make sense? That's a question I have to ask when I watch a film like "Backrooms". So much in the film is infeasible, even when explanations are offered.

The film takes place in 1990. The owner of a furniture store has recently been thrown out of his home by his wife, so he now lives in an area on an underground floor of the store. He has everything he needs, since the store contains beds, television sets and armchairs. One night he discovers a hidden door which leads to an endless labyrinth of rooms and corridors.

I'll leave the description there. The atmosphere and the tension make up for whatever might remain unexplained. It's a film I want to see again.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, who I first noticed when he played Baron Mordo in "Doctor Strange", is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actors. Something about his calm demeanour even in the midst  of terror fascinates me.

Disclosure Day (3 Stars)

I saw the trailer for "Disclosure Day" frequently in the cinema, at least ten times during the Stuttgart Nights Festival. The trailer looked curious, to say the least, but I thought to myself, "It's a Spielberg film, and any film directed by Steven Spielberg has to be good".

I was being too optimistic. Today I sat down in the cinema, and despite the high quality production I had a sinking feeling in my chest.

Usually when I write about a new film I've just seen in the cinema I just tell my readers what the premise is. This time I can't do it. The film has a relatively simple premise, but it isn't revealed until late in the film, so it would mean giving spoilers to tell you what the film is about.

The film starts with two young people who have seemingly nothing to do with one another. Daniel Kellner is someone who's stolen secret data from Wardex, the company where he works. Margaret Fairchild is a television weather girl who suddenly becomes able to understand and speak every language, as well as gaining the ability to read minds. For the first hour the action jumps between the two people without telling us their connection. This irritated me, but I knew everything would be explained later.

Then it was explained. But I was still unhappy. Some things still didn't make sense.

Usually I would promise to write a second review with spoilers when I have the film on disc, explaining all the things I didn't like. Not this time. I have no intention of watching the film again, not even on streaming. I wasted two and a half hours of my life today. That's enough.

Steven Spielberg is responsible for some of the best films ever made. "Jaws" and "Jurassic Park" are just two examples. His name is a guarantee for quality. Usually. If "Disclosure Day" is the best he can do now, it's time for him to retire.

The Furious (5 Stars)

Today I saw the German premiere of "The Furious". My short spoiler-free review can hardly do it justice. The film is amazing. In trailers it's been compared with "The Raid" (I assume they really mean "The Raid 2"). To me that sounded like typical promotional hype, but within a few minutes I had to admit that the comparison is valid.

The film follows two men who join forces to fight a people trafficking gang. One is Wang Wei, a man whose daughter has been kidnapped. The other is Navin, the husband of a reporter who disappeared while investigating the gang.

That's all I'm telling you. Now sit back and enjoy the action.

Passenger (2 Stars)

This is a stylish but confusing film. At least, it's confusing if you try to explain it.

A young couple give up their apartment in Brooklyn and drive westwards in their mobile home. They refer to their journey as a road trip, but I don't think that this description applies. When you go on a road trip you intend to return home, don't you? Tyler and Maddie have dropped out. They haven't just given up their permanent place of residence, they've also given up their jobs, if they ever had jobs. Do they have a sizable inheritance they can rely on?

The couple attract the attention of a supernatural creature that stalks them. He's called a Passenger. He's always with them, but he's only active at night. He doesn't kill them, he just travels with them so he can kill people around them.

What's the Passenger's motivation? That's the smallest question. There are infeasible elements that are more difficult to understand. The Passenger's weakness is St. Christopher's amulets. They burn him. That's sort of logical in the context of the film; St. Christopher is the patron saint of travellers. Does that mean that the Passenger is someone who adheres to the old religious myths and superstitions? That's confusing, and it makes no sense.

Deus Irae (3 Stars)

I have an aversion to films about demon possession. For a film in this genre to win me over, it has to offer something special. That isn't the case with "Deus Irae". It has a slightly unique take on possession. The film claims that demons are born into human vessels. The film follows two priests and a sister (a nun?) who work together to find and exorcise demons. They're fighting a losing battle. There are always more demons.

The film's imagery is overwhelming. The problem is that it's difficult to follow the plot. I could never be sure what was happening, and the film seemed incomplete.

The film's director Pedro Cristiani and the producer Marcela Cardenas-Alvarez came all the way from Argentina to present the film. They spoke about the financing difficulties that led to the film needing seven years for completion. They spoke about opposition to the film because it's blasphemous. They've done a good job, but I'm sorry, it's just not my sort of film.

Mother Mary (4 Stars)

I went to see this film in the cinema knowing nothing about it. I hadn't seen any trailers in the cinema prior to it being shown.

The film is about a pop singer returning to stage after a three year break caused by an accident on stage. In the film Anne Hathaway reminds me of Lady Gaga in her early years, but I've read that the director based Mother Mary primarily on Taylor Swift. Maybe; I hardly know Taylor Swift. Three days before the concert Mary arrives dishevelled and hardly recognisable at the house of her former costume designer and lover, Samantha, and asks her to design a dress for the concert. That's very short notice, but Samantha agrees.

The film is a talkie. For the first hour of the film the two women discuss their past, with flashbacks to concerts over the last 18 years. The film doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Then the women discover in their conversations that they've both been haunted by the same ghost. Yes, the film needs a whole hour to reach the supernatural part. This is strange, from the pacing, but the story is well told.

One small word of praise. All the songs in the film are sung by Anne Hathaway herself.

Nuremberg (5 Stars)

This is a powerful historical drama about the Nuremberg trials. It focuses on the army psychologist Douglas Kelley, who was assigned to monitor the mental health of 22 senior Nazi officers who were awaiting trial. Even though he dealt with all of them, the film shows only his dealings with Hermann Göring, Hitler's second-in-command.

Göring was highly intelligent, charismatic and a narcissist. Instead of hiding after the war, he surrendered to the allied troops, because he was certain that he would never be found guilty in a court of law. In actual fact, this is discussed at length in the early scenes. There was no legal precedent for putting the leaders of another country on trial. New laws had to be created to make the trials possible. As Göring correctly says, "I am a prisoner because you won and we lost, not because you're morally superior". At least, that's almost correct. The Nazis were morally inferior because they murdered six million Jews, but if Germany had won the war it would probably have been kept secret.

The performances by Russell Crowe and Rami Malek are brilliant. We can feel Göring's charming arrogance in every mannerism played by Crowe. Rami Malek plays Douglas Kelley as a slightly unhinged man, which is the characteristic of almost every psychiatrist.

The Sheep Detectives (4 Stars)

As soon as I saw the trailers I knew this would be a special film.

Hugh Jackman plays George Hardy, a shepherd who's dedicated to his sheep. He lives in a caravan in the middle of his flock, and every night he reads detective novels to his sheep. They sit spellbound around him, and he assumes that they're only enjoying the sound of his voice, not the content of the novels, but he's wrong. They understand every word, and they discuss the stories with one another after he goes to bed at night.

One day George is found dead outside his caravan. The local policeman says it's a heart attack, but the sheep are convinced that he was murdered. If the police fail, it's up to the sheep to solve the crime.

It's a beautiful story, admittedly silly, but delightfully cute. The sheep aren't just a random flock, the main characters are all named and shown with distinct personalities. Maybe four stars isn't enough. I'll think it over next time I watch the film. Yes, there has to be a next time!

Saccharine (1 Star)

This is the 16th film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

"Saccharine" is a film that has some good ideas, but it's visually so ugly that I have to give it a rock bottom rating.

Hana is a medical student struggling to lose weight. She weighs over 80 Kg, and her dream is to get down to 65 Kg. She visits a fitness studio, but it doesn't help because she still eats too much. Then she discovers that she can lose weight if she eats the ash of a burnt person's body. In her classes she has to dissect a dead person, a fat woman, so she takes some of her bones home and burns them to ashes. It works. However much she eats, she sheds weight, and within a few weeks she's down to 45 Kg. Her personal trainer at the fitness studio tells her that it's unhealthy to lose weight so fast, so she eats as much chocolate and cake as she can, which doesn't stop the weight loss. But there's a bigger problem. Hana is being haunted by the woman that she's eating. If she holds up a spoon, she can see her standing behind her in the reflection.

As I said, the film sounds interesting, but you need to see it yourself to realise how unpleasant it is.

This was the last film that I watched in this year's Nights Festival. Overall, I was disappointed. There were no really outstanding films. Maybe next year.

Imposters (4½ Stars)

This is the 15th film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

Paul was a policeman in New York. After he was shot in the back and barely avoided death, he quit the police force and decided to start a new life. He moved with his wife Marie and baby son Theo to a sleepy little town.

They hold a housewarming party to meet their neighbours. They leave Theo alone for less than two minutes, and he's gone. Despite an extensive police search he can't be found. Two weeks later a simple-minded man called Orson visits them and says that he doesn't know who took Theo, but they can find him in a small cave in the woods. Against Paul's protests, Marie crawls into the cave. An hour later she brings Theo out. Paul wants to know why she was gone for so long. Marie says she's forgotten what happened in the cave, but it's obvious that she's lying. Having Theo back is all that matters, isn't it? But after a few days Paul notices that Theo's birthmark is missing from his foot, and he knows that something is wrong.

This is a supernatural mystery film. I can't say anything else without giving away spoilers. I need to watch it again.

The Vile (2 Stars)

This is the 14th film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

Amina lives with her husband Khaled and teenage daughter Noor in Abu Dhabi. She's happy, even though Khaled works away from home. Her idyll is shattered when Khaled comes home one day with a second wife, Zahra. He's angry that Amina doesn't accept the new wife, because it's allowed by Islam. Allowed, maybe, but he should have told Amina in advance.

Khaled goes away again for a few weeks, leaving Zahra alone with Amina and Noor. Zahra makes an effort to be friendly, but Amina totally rejects her. She does whatever she can to make Zahra feel unwelcome.

Most of the film is a twisted family drama. It only becomes clear in the last ten minutes that there's also a supernatural threat. This isn't what I'd call a twist, it's simply a new thought slapped onto the end of the film. The film is poorly written.

Nightborn (5 Stars)

This is the tenth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

Jon and Saga have just got married. They move into the house in Finland where Saga grew up. There's a lot of work to be done, because the house has been empty for years.

Nine months later Saga has a child. The child isn't normal. He has a hairy back, but the doctors reassure her that it's nothing to worry about. Other things are more unusual. Within a few months the baby, that they call Kuura, is able to stand and walk. Most disturbing is that Kuura doesn't want to drink milk, he only wants blood. By the time he's six months old, Saga is feeding him raw meat. At first Saga rejects the child, but she grows to love him, and as they bond she slowly becomes feral.

"Nightborn" is the best film of the festival so far.

Veins (2 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

Isabelle goes to visit her parents, who live in an isolated place in the countryside. If I counted correctly, there are only three houses clustered together, although it's mentioned that they belong to a village that we never see. There's no Internet. Who needs it? Isabelle is shocked to find out that her father died three days previously. She's angry that her mother didn't tell her. Isabelle's mother is acting strangely, and she seems to be under the influence of the retired doctor who lives next door. The mystery slowly unravels.

This isn't an attractive film. There are lots of realistic medical shots, which is something I never like. The pacing is painfully slow. At the end of the film loose ends are left open. Very unsatisfying.

Mag Mag (3 Stars)

This is the eighth film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

We all know Japanese ghost stories, don't we? Films like "The Ring", "The Grudge" and "Dark Water". A female ghost is seeking revenge for some sort of wrong in her life. It's all pretty much the same story, but I don't complain if the film is made well. So when I heard that "Mag Mag" is a Japanese ghost story, I expected it to be the best film of the festival.

Mag Mag is a ghost who kills every man – usually high school boys – that she falls in love with. She leaves them dead on the ground with their eyes gouged out. That's the sort of concept that thrills me. Unfortunately, this film is spoilt by the frequent comedic scenes. Comedy doesn't blend well with a Japanese ghost story. And then the film has multiple twists at the end which spoil the story. I was disappointed.