danny_van_welden Reviews

Last Christmas (2019)

a film that captures the spirit of Christmas

[9/10 · 25 December 2022]

Context: I saw the film on Christmas Eve at home on TV after watching a number of simplistic boring commercial childish American Christmas films on TV that seem to be mass-produced based on the same trivial formula of a light-hearted storyline where my wife and I can predict the ending and plot twists as early as 5 minutes after the beginning. So, I had almost given up hope of seeing a good Christmas movie at home on Christmas Eve.

Thankfully, this heartwarming film is not so predictable and felt like a breath of fresh air. The cast feels realistic with good acting and sprinkles of humour and there are many 'Christmas elements' in it: the superficial ones like the Christmas atmosphere with lots of lights and decorations, but also the psychological ones like helping the homeless, becoming a better person and not forgetting the Christmas magic. I love how in this film you get a better understanding of why the characters in the film behave in a certain way as the film progresses and where at the end everything falls into place. You can find a few minor flaws in the storyline if you really want to find them, but overall this film stands out firmly compared to the bulk of Christmas films we sometimes get to endure during Christmas. I wish there were more films like this that can capture your heart.

Donnie Darko (2001)

music, story and acting are all great

[9/10 · 25 August 2021]

Mystery is perhaps the best word to summarize. It is a film that gets under your skin. It has complexity and beauty in it. And yet it is simple. It shows that there is more to life than meets the eye and that people called "weirdos" can be more interesting people than you might suspect.

Jessica Jones (2015–2019)

only season one - acting good, but badly written

[5/10 · 21 August 2021]

Contains a small spoiler.

The whole first season I kept wondering why nobody thought about wearing ear plugs (or ear phones as in the very last episode) and use some elementary sign language when approaching him for capture. There exists als dart guns so you can keep a distance.

Additionally, I found it storywise unbelievable how she allowed to get a mass-murderous psychopath get away with it numerous times.

Nevertheless, I found the acting good.

Sum of Histories (2015)

some nice plot twists

[8/10 · 21 August 2021]

You expect that if you mess with the past, you may not get what you want. Some changes from messing with the timeline may be for the better or worse so you expect twists.

However, they are nicely found as you can find at the end more than just one kind of closing loop.