Category: Movies

Movie Review: The Dog Stars (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two StarsLeave a comment

I recently read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and then watched the four-episode 1989 miniseries based on the book. That miniseries followed the book closely.  Of course, the book has 864 pages with amazing detail, and the combined series was “only” six hours long, so the movies had to leave some plot details out and simplify the story. However, what was there followed the plot of the book to a level of accuracy and authenticity I have never seen before.

I watched The Dog Stars in the theater as soon as it came out, because I had just read the book in June 2026. Here is my review: The Dog Stars. It was a good book, and if you are interested in the post-apocalyptic genre, you should definitely read it.

It’s approximately 2035. A pandemic virus has wiped out humanity approximately 15 years earlier (think COVID in 2020). What remains are small pockets of survivors who all fight for the same limited resources left from before the world ended. Some gangs have dozens of people, some only a few. Hig and Bangley are holded up in a small airport in Erie, Colorado. Bangley is an ex-special forces operative and has learned to shoot first and ask questions later. He is the “armed forces” of the team. Hig is a pilot and mechanic. His best friend left is his dog Jasper. Through his skills the two have been able maintain some solar power, keep simple engines running, and most importantly, keep his Cessna flying. This helps them with reconnaissance. Regular flights around their stronghold alerts them to marauders before they can creep up on them. Hig also flies into Denver to find medical supplies, groceries like soft drinks that survived looting, and general gear they need.

But Hig has a vision of more. When he hears a faint transmission on the radio from Grand Junction, a city far west in the Rockies, he packs up the plane and leaves to explore. Just as Bangley had warned him, things turn bad very quickly.

The movie changes the plot line significantly from the book with respect to the Grand Junction excursion, and the result is perhaps better movie action, but I found it just inappropriate and distracting. I think this would have been a better movie had it followed the book more closely, at least in the second half of the story.

The epic flying scenes in the mountains were spectacular. Most of all, the depiction of our world if all the people just suddenly disappeared was very worthwhile watching. Denver skyscrapers crumbling, overgrown with vines and trees, the roads taken over by weeds with just sections of asphalt remaining, wrecks of cars and trucks everywhere, and residential neighborhoods dilapidated and overgrown.

Most people won’t read the book, so they will watch The Dog Stars movie as a thoughtful reminder of what might happen if a pandemic actually did wipe out humanity. From that point of view, this movie is a valuable reminder that maybe we should not buy into the idea that we can let a pandemic burn itself out without vaccination.

Good luck with that!

Movie Review: The Rivals of Amziah King (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Four Stars, MoviesLeave a comment

Some of the best movies I have seen were as a result of my wife taking me on a “blind movie date.” I went to see The Rivals of Amziah King yesterday without knowing anything about the movie or even its title. She walked me into the theater with my eyes closed. And I am glad, because if I had read the description, I would likely have passed. But then, here I am giving it 4 out of 4 stars. It was one of the best movie experiences I have had in a long time.

My choice of words is purposeful. I didn’t call it “one of the best movies,” I called it “one of the best movie experiences”  because this movie is not something you watch, but you feel!

Before I go and explain my thinking (or feeling for that matter), let me talk about  the substance of the movie, as always, without any spoilers. Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) is a bee farmer and bee expert somewhere in Oklahoma. He cultivates hives and sells honey. There are bad actors who steal and resell bees and honey, making life difficult for Amziah and all other honest people. It’s a crime thriller. But Amziah is not just a bee man, he is a former foster parent who always wants to the the right and good thing. And he is a bluegrass musician. That’s all I will tell you about the content of the movie.

The music is absolutely captivating, and stunning cinematography and storytelling accompanies the soundtrack, or so it feels. The images don’t always just flow like in a movie, sometimes they stay still, sometimes time rolls in parallel between two scenes playing at the same time behind the same song. It’s a comedy, with sometimes shocking surprises. It’s a masterpiece of a painting of a nostalgic yet rough and tumble southern life. Sometimes it feels like a long music video, like you are at a concert and you see images of the musicians doing stuff, like in the old days of MTV, although you didn’t usually see the musicians get overed by bees.

I think there’ll be some Oscars coming from this. Matthew McConaughey delivers a phenomenal performance. Watching The Rivals of Amziah King is a truly amazing cinematic experience.

Movie Review: Odyssey (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Three and a Half Stars2 Comments

Odyssey is almost three hours long and I was riveted from start to finish. It was a little bit like watching Titanic, where we all know the ending, but we still sit at the edge of our seats, hands balled to fists, feet fidgeting.

But then, it was the Odyssey, after all, based on one of the oldest works of literature in human culture. Attributed to Homer and first written and composed around the 8th or 7th century BC, the Odyssey is actually a series of 24 books of poetry. Yes, ancient Greek poetry in the dactylic hexameter, which is a form of meter commonly used in both ancient Greek and Latin poetry. Unfortunately, I have never studied Greek and therefore can’t appreciate Greek poetry, but I have read Latin poetry, particularly Ovid, and it’s also in the same meter, the dactylic hexameter. Trust me, reading Latin poems in the original is one of the most beautiful experiences in literature, and one of the most difficult ones – after all, who can read Latin?

Back then, most people were illiterate, and in order to tell a story, and repeat a story, it was best to have it be a poem, so it flowed smoothly, somewhat like modern songs, where we remember the lyrics because they are associated with music and a rhythm.

Per Wikipedia, here is a picture of the oldest-known manuscript fragment of the Odyssey, produced in Ptolemaic Egypt during the 3rd century BC and unearthed in Medinet Ghoram:

By Zunkir – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=152028761

Christopher Nolan started with the poems of Homer in the Odyssey, left out much detail but focused on the most memorable and iconic imagery and drama that we all know even today, almost 3,000 years after it was first written.

It’s amazing how much information from the Odyssey made it into our current culture. We all know the names of Odysseus, Achilles, Athena and Penelope. We know locations like Sparta and Ithaca, which is even today a modern city in upstate New York. Odysseus was the king of Ithaca, a state in ancient Greece. There is Calypso, the nymph who rescues Odysseus from the sea and nurses him to health but then holds him prisoner as her lover for many years. We know of the gods Zeus, Poseidon and Helios, all of which play central roles in this story. We know the Scylla, a multi-headed monster who eats sailors that pass by its den. We know of Sirens, mythical half-bird, half-woman creatures whose song is so seductive, sailors jump into the ocean and to their deaths because they have to get nearer to the Sirens. The English word “siren” came from that. We know of the cyclops Polyphemus, a giant one-eyed goat-herder who will eat humans like sushi. But he is also the son of the god Poseidon and he directs his father to take revenge. There is the goddess Circe who turns Odysseus’ men into pigs. In the poems, Circe and Odysseus become lovers and he stays with her for a year. And of course, the most iconic reference of the Odyssey is the Trojan Horse, which takes a leading role in this drama. Everyone knows what a Trojan Horse is.

All of this makes it into the movie Odyssey. Matt Damon plays a very credible Odysseus. The fighting scenes are numerous and intense, almost like our modern superhero movies. But that, too, is consistent with battle scenes in other epic movies that we have all seen, with themes like Napoleon, World War II, the Civil War or the Vietnam War. Be ready for lots of blood and gore, not always visible, but in your imagination.

In summary, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a monumental cinematic achievement. It is breathtaking with outsized cinematography and an intense soundtrack. I think there was some Oscar material in Odyssey. I am glad I watched it and I recommend you do too, and perhaps then study up on the classic origins of it all. This Wikipedia link will help.

Movie Review: Disclosure Day (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, One and a Half StarsLeave a comment

In this Steven Spielberg film, a faction of government operatives breaks away and “goes rogue” because they believe that the world and the public has a right to know that there are aliens on earth and that the government has been hiding this fact and hoarding the amazing alien technology for themselves. The movie is a cat and mouse game of bad guys (the government) trying to stop the good guys (the rogue faction) from disclosing the information to the world. This goes on for 2 hours and 25 minutes. And that’s the action.

The whole thing is a collection of trite clichés associated with aliens. Naked little grey men with big heads, but then there are also naked very tall men with big heads. Crop circles form for no reason in the middle of a wheat field. Alien technology allows humans to teleport to other locations and be in two places at once, forcing their will on other humans. Humans abducted by aliens as children suddenly display supernatural powers, like speaking foreign languages, being able to look into their thoughts and read their pasts. It’s like Spielberg tried to pack every alien cliché into this film, seemingly without plot reason or context.

Yes, the acting was pretty good, but overall this film just ingrained the superstitions about aliens and our U.S. government’s role in hiding them.

Overall, there is nothing here. This is a one-star movie, but I upgraded it to 1.5 stars because it’s Spielberg and the acting is good.

 

Movie Review: Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

I read the book Remarkably Bright Creatures a couple of years ago and here was my review. As it often is with movies based on successful books, the story becomes more shallow and big sections of plot are bypassed. However, the visuals sometimes enhance the experience. So it is with this movie.

The story is told from the viewpoint of an octopus named Marcellus, who was rescued after an injury some 4 years earlier and has lived most of his life in a tank in an aquarium in the Pacific Northwest. Marcellus observes the humans who visit him, and he befriends the cleaning lady Tuva (Sally Field).  While he philosophizes about his own life, he also observes the humans in his orbit, recognizes their misery, and plots to help them. That’s a pretty challenging task for an octopus that is about as close to humans as a space alien would be.

In the end, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a feel-good movie that draws out a few tears at the end and makes us feel good about the simple things in life, like a picnic in the yard, surrounded by good friends, neighbors and family.

And as I am wont to do, I will put in my English language lesson: The English plural of octopus is octopodes, often also octopuses, not “octopi” which we often read. The word comes from Greek, and the original plural form is actually “octopodes.” The Latin word for “octopus” is actually “polypus.” There is no “i” in any form of octopus.

I have written a lot about octopodes in this blog. Put the word “octopus” into the Seach box and see for yourself.

2.5

Movie Review: Pressure (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Three StarsLeave a comment

One of the most important and most consequential days in the history of the 20th century was D-Day, the day the Allied forces invaded France by landing on the beaches of Normandy. Pressure tells the true and mostly untold story of one of the contributing elements to the decision to invade on that day: The British weather.

In the last 72 hours before the invasion, Britain’s chief meteorological officer, Dr. James Stagg (Andrew Scott), is called in to evaluate the weather and advise the Allied Commander, Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Frazer) on the weather and if it was suitable for the mission. As it turned out, there was a huge weather front coming in and Stagg could simply not allow the mission to proceed, even though the entire high command, and most of his own subordinates, were pressuring him to go along. Too much was at stake.

You can’t watch too many war movies. After I walked out of the theater, I had to tell myself that I had just witnessed one crucial aspect of one of the most consequential battles in history. Yet, all I could think of was: Here was another example of our leaders sending other people’s sons and daughters into harm’s way. Eisenhower surely learned, but our president today plays with this awesome responsibility like it’s a reality show – you “get killed” and it means you’re voted off the island. Well – no – you get killed and you’re dead!

Dead!

Pressure is a movie I definitely recommend you watch. It made me think I should pick up a biography of Eisenhower so I could learn what stuff real presidents are made of.

Movie Review: Nuremberg (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Atrocities, Four Stars, Movies1 Comment

The final last quote on a black screen at the end of this movie was:

The only clue to what man can do is what man has done.

— R. G. Collingwood

(Robin George Collingwood, 1889–1943) was an English philosopher, historian, and archaeologist best known for his work on the philosophy of history.

I decided to lead my review with this powerful statement. Of course, the movie refers to the man Hermann Göring, the Reichsmarschall of the Third Reich and Hitler’s second in command. But the message of the film reaches far beyond what happened in Germany during World War II. We often say that what happened in Germany in those years could not happen again. Yet, all over the world we are seeing men seek totalitarian powers right in front of us, in broad daylight. That, my friends, is what I believe Nuremberg is about.

The movie tells the story of the Nuremberg trials largely from the point of view of Dr. Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), a US Army psychiatrist assigned to assess the mental state and trial-worthiness of the prisoners and also to keep them from committing suicide. His main objective is to get through to Göring (Russell Crowe), who is the obvious leader. If he is convicted, they all will be. A lot is at stake. In the course of his assessment, he crosses the line and perhaps gets too involved in the life of his patient, to the point where he carries letters between him and his family.

Nuremberg shows the intense preparations and illustrates the extremely high stakes of the trial. Rami Malek does a masterful job portraying Dr. Kelley, and Russell Crowe is superb as Göring. I would not be surprised if one or both of them were to win awards for these roles.

IMDb has good background information about this movie, which I recommend. Here is the link. It points out many goofs, factual errors, and historical inaccuracies. I will not list them here separately. Just a couple of key ones are in the spoiler section below:

Mild Spoiler – will not destroy the experience.

  • Douglas Kelley was not fired, discharged from the army and sent home in disgrace. He never spoke to a journalist, or publicly denounced Robert Jackson’s ability ahead of Göring’s examination.
  • Both prison psychiatrists Douglas Kelley and Gustave Gilbert arrived at different conclusions regarding the mental states of the prisoners, there was no antagonism between them. They never had a physical fight.

Overall, Nuremberg is a powerful movie with a running time of 2 hours and 28 minutes. It goes into depth and it puts a spotlight on the atrocities by the Nazis and makes us think about whether we today are better, given what is currently going on in the world.

Could it happen again?

Hell, yeah, it could!

Movie Review: The Town (2010)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Three StarsLeave a comment

There is a neighborhood in Boston named Charlestown, which is famous for having an unusual high number of armed robberies. For generations, crime families have arisen and their children stay in town, live lives of crime and robbery.

A group of friends are particularly good at it. They wear masks, enter banks, rob them at gunpoint, and hope nothing goes wrong before they can escape with the loot. Due to an unexpected twist, they end up kidnapping a young female bank manager, and they have to let her go later, hoping she didn’t recognize any of them and pick up any clues.

The gang leader Doug (Ben Affleck) ends up falling for her. They develop a relationship that is based on some massive lies. She cannot ever find out he was her kidnapper, and his gang friends cannot know he is dating her.

As you might suspect, things don’t go well.

This movie is well-done, fast-paced and full of tense moments. A great crime story.

Movie Review: The Christophers (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Art, Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Julian Sklar (Ian Kellen) is a once famous and somewhat notorious (and obnoxious) artist whom his children expect to die soon. They do not have a loving or even respectful relationship with their father, and as one would expect in that situation, he thinks of them as losers and grifters.

Julian has a number of famous works in his portfolio. “The Christophers” are a series of paintings he did more than thirty years ago when he had a love-affair with a Christopher. There was a series of nine more drafts of Christophers in the works when they had a bad falling out. It appears that Julian never got over that, and he never finished the 9 remaining paintings. They were sitting somewhere in his attic.

His children thought of hiring a forger to finish the paintings in Julian’s style without his knowledge, hoping they would be worth millions once he died and there would be something valuable they could cash in as an inheritance. They find Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who is an artist, an art restoration specialist and also an expert forger. Lori reluctantly accepts the gig and goes to meet the artist. She expected to meet a senile and ill old man, but that’s not quite what she encounters.

The Christophers is a quiet movie that I, as an artist myself, enjoyed tremendously. There really are only two actors, Lori and Julian, with the two children being supporting actors. This whole movie felt like a play. It could be performed on a single set stage.

Michaela Coel has very striking features. From the beginning of the movie on I saw her as one of the female aliens in Avatar, and I could not shake that sentiment. She was born in 1987 as Michaela Boakye-Collinson to Ghanaian parents and brought up in England. Both she and Ian Kellen did an excellent job acting in this movie, and I would not be surprised to see either of them nominated for awards.

The Christophers is a movie about the inner and outer world of an artist, the artistic community and their lifestyle, and the lasting effects our youth and its loves and passions have on the rest of our lives. There are some things in life we just don’t get over, and sometimes it may take until the very last days for us to realize what really mattered.

Movie Review: Train Dreams (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Three StarsLeave a comment

 

Robert Grainier (Joel Edgerton) is born in the early 20th century somewhere in the woods of northern Washington State, not far from Spokane. In those years, before World War 1, Washington was frontier country. Robert does not know who his parents were, whether he is an orphan, or an abandoned child. He grows up to be a reflective boy, trying to understand the world around him from observing it.

As a young man, his life changes and becomes happier when he meets Gladys (Felicity Jones) in church. Soon they are inseparable, get married and have a child. They build a cabin on an acre of land in the woods, near a creek and they have a daughter.

Being a logger and a railroad builder are the only jobs Robert can find, and unfortunately the seasonal work separates him from his young family for months at a time. It makes for a stressful life for both of them. They dream of saving some money, starting a sawmill and grow vegetables for the market, which would enable the family to live together year-round.

But tragedy overwhelms the family when a wildfire sweeps through their area while Robert is not home.

Train Dreams is based on a Novella by Denis Johnson. Joel Edgerton delivers an Oscar-worthy performance and the cinematography is incredible. It is a quiet and very slow movie. There is little action, just lots of contemplation and observation. Once I realized this was a pensive film, I settled in and let it take me with it. A few tears rolled down my cheeks when I was overwhelmed by the hardness of life those frontier people had to endure, and the brutal realities that literally struck people dead in the middle of the day, completely unexpectedly. They were helpless. Somehow they had to survive. Somehow they had to live their lives, even if there was no joy other than knowing they were one with the world.

And thus Train Dreams follows the life of Robert Grainier from beginning to end. When the credits rolled, I just sat there, listening to the music, while my mind sorted out why life is beautiful even when it is sometimes really, really hard.

 

Movie Review: Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Time Travel, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Aliens have attacked the earth. Their military superiority is unmatched by anything humanity can come up with.

Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is a public relations officer who is, against his own will, thrown into front-line combat in a suicide mission. Once in battle, he dies within minutes. But without explanation, he wakes up a day before the battle, and has to relive that day. He dies again, the wakes up again. He is basically a time traveler, reliving the same day, sort of like Groundhog Day, the famous 1993 movie with Bill Murray. Each time he learns from the previous death experience and lives a little longer, adjusting his strategy as he goes. He teams up with another fellow time traveler and warrior, Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) and the two team up, looping in time, for their and mankind’s survival.

As the plot develops, we learn that it’s the aliens who actually are able to control time, causing the time loops Cage and Vrataski have to grapple with.

The application of time travel concepts in this movie is definitely unique, except for the fact that it’s basically the same concept as applied in Groundhog Day, where the protagonist, without explanation, has to relive the same day over and over again.

Edge of Tomorrow is definitely a time travel movie worth watching.

Movie Review: Breakdown: 1975 (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Four Stars, MoviesLeave a comment

Breakdown: 1975 is a documentary about 1975 based on the movies that came out that year.

The year 1975 is dear to my heart. It was my coming of age year. I was 18. I had just arrived in the United States and I was a senior in high school. I was new to this country, so I didn’t know it was a year of turmoil. It was just – well – America. It was the America I came to love and make my home for the rest of my life.

The movie is a visual essay on the year 1975, looking at the classic movies all released in that year. It shows 1975 as a pivotal year in American society. The country was going through intense political and cultural turmoil, especially coming out of the dark times of Watergate and the Vietnam War. The unrest that followed is chronicled in movies like these:

  • Jaws – The first modern blockbuster; changed how movies were marketed and released
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Anti-authority drama; swept the Oscars
  • Dog Day Afternoon – Crime story rooted in real events, reflecting social tension
  • Nashville – A sprawling portrait of American culture and politics
  • Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick’s visually meticulous period film
  • Shampoo – Satirical look at sex, politics, and the elite
  • The Day of the Locust – Dark take on Hollywood dreams and disillusionment
  • The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Became a midnight-movie phenomenon
  • Rollerball – Dystopian sci-fi about corporate control
  • Death Race 2000 – Violent, satirical cult favorite
  • Race with the Devil – Horror-road thriller mixing paranoia and Americana
  • Picnic at Hanging Rock – Haunting Australian mystery
  • Dersu Uzala – Akira Kurosawa’s Oscar-winning Soviet co-production
  • Seven Beauties – Italian film blending dark comedy and tragedy

The movie shows archival clips and interviews with filmmakers and cultural figures. The films often dealt with distrust of institutions and hints of a national nervous breakdown.

I didn’t know any of this myself in the America of 1975, but watching Breakdown: 1975, that year came to life again for me, and it was an experience of intense nostalgia.

Movie Review – The Rip (2026)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

A drug enforcement unit of the Miami police conducts a raid on what they expect to be a routine drug stash house. The two leaders are Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Bryne (Ben Affleck). The two are good friends and have relied on each other for many years in the force. During the raid, they discover not just a stash of drugs and some cash, they uncover a hidden cache of millions of dollars of cartel money.

With so much money in play, greed, paranoia and conflicting loyalties quickly permeate the team, and spill over to other units. Everyone start mistrusting everyone else and the group quickly fractures. Even the two friends start losing trust in each other.

The Rip is a movie about cops, all kinds of cops. Local Miami police, drug enforcement cops, FBI, the federal DEA, you name it, they are in this movie. The cops are the good guys, and the bad guys, all at the same time. This is a gritty crime thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The story has holes in it, the script is somewhat confusing at times, but the action is riveting and Matt Damon and Ben Affleck definitely carry the movie – from the first minute to the last.

Movie Review: Sarah’s Oil

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, Two and a Half StarsLeave a comment

Sarah Rector is an 11-year-old black girl born in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in the early 1900, when the oil barons ruled. Due to her heritage, she gets a land grant. While most such land grants are useless to the recipients, Sarah has a hunch that there is oil on her land.

She is smart, educated and courageous. First she has to convince her parents that she wants to find oil. Then she has to find partners who help her drill for it. It’s not an easy undertaking for a young girl, and many wolves and sharks try to swindle her out of her property. Eventually, when they are not successful, they start to threaten crimes. But she prevails, and at age 11 she becomes a millionaire and gets fame as “the richest colored girl in the world.”

Supposedly this movie is based on a true story. Much of the way her life is portrayed in the movie is dramatization, but the core elements are true. The real Sarah did move to Kansas City and lived a wealthy life. But this is not told in the movie: she lost much of her wealth again in the Great Depression.

This is a feel-good movie where we see the underdog prevail, and deservedly so.

 

Movie Review: Sinners (2025)

On By Norbert HauptIn Movies, One StarLeave a comment

It’s 1932 in Mississippi. The black twin brothers Smoke and Stack come back to their home town in Mississippi from Chicago, where they worked for the mafia and made some money. They want to start a blues bar. In one day, they buy an old sawmill, hire musicians, cooks, bartenders, bouncers, advertise the event, and start the party.

At night, as things get rolling with the music, vampires start showing up, taking out one after the other partiers.

With a running time of 137 minutes, I think it was 137 minutes too long. I was mostly bored and grossed out.

Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, won a shocking four Oscars and a record-breaking 16 nominations. Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor for playing both twins, Smoke and Stack. The movie also won Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.

The cinematography and soundtrack were good, the acting ok, but that’s where it stops for me. It tried to deal with historical trauma and the issue of racism in the south, including the KKK.

They could have made a movie out of that without the vampires.

Why were there vampires?

I do not recommend.