Tagarchief: The Verdict

The Verdict: Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

In my childhood, I was obsessed with skateboarding. As often as possible, me and my friends would go to a halfpipe in a town nearby and practice all day there. We would also visit the skateshop every so often and buy all the skateboarding magazines available. In those magazines was always this absolute legend: Tony Hawk, the best skateboarder in the world. He was like a God to us. The documentary about him, that is now streaming on HBO Max, showed me that he is just a man who, despite all his physical injuries, won’t stop skating until his wheels fall off (Hawk is now 54). Tony Hawk’s life story is not just interesting for skate fans, but for everybody. This is already one of the great sports documentaries. At the age of nine, Tony discovered skateboarding and since then has done nothing else. Pretty soon, he joined the famous Bones Brigade (a team of pro’s with a.o. Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill and leader Stacy Peralta). A few years later, he turned pro and started winning every competition in the country. In the early nineties, skateboarding went out of fashion and Hawk could no longer make any money doing what he loved. He even had to sell his house and break down his personal halfpipe. He never stopped skating though and in the late nineties/early zeroes, it came back and Hawk made millions on huge shows in Las Vegas and the well known video game franchise. We follow him on his path through those years as he tirelessly works towards his greatest career achievement: the impossible 900. His perseverance is amazing and inspired me to think of new things to try that I think are impossible. Apart from being a moving life story, it also gives the viewer a gigantic amount of the most insane skateboarding footage ever collected. Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is a great flashback to my childhood, but Hawk’s amazing aerial acrobatics are a thrill for everybody to behold.

Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is now available on HBO Max

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To obsessively stream

The Verdict: The Matrix Resurrections

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

I was very much looking forward to this The Matrix sequel as I am a devoted fan of the first movie and I, as opposed to many others, also appreciate the sequels (especially Reloaded). So I was ready for it. HBO Max, which has just launched its streaming service in the Netherlands, offered The Matrix Resurrections as one of their main big blockbusters to stream. Bring it on, I thought, but man: what a total disaster this was!! Neo and Trinity are somehow still plugged in the Matrix and Neo works as a game programmer who made the successful Matrix game series and he falls in love with Trinity once again. How very meta. I hated this storyline and thought it didn’t work at all, but I continued to watch this turd hoping that somehow it would redeem itself. This never happened. Even the action looked much worse than in the original movies. How is that even possible? As much as I tried to like it, I cannot think of a single thing to recommend this for. It falls apart from the start and is best considered as a glitch in the Matrix that should never have happened.

The Matrix Resurrections is now available on HBO Max.

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? Definitely NOT to stream

The Verdict: Nightmare Alley

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Guillermo del Toro is a terrific filmmaker, but Nightmare Alley is ultimately disappointing. It starts off well with a grifter (Bradley Cooper) who joins a traveling carnival in the 1940s. Here, he learns a mentalist act that he uses to independently become a successful psychic. Then he meets a psychiatrist (Cate Blanchet) who is out to expose him as a fraud. The atmosphere is a mix between a dreamlike David Lynch movie and a film noir. The cinematography and production design are obviously top notch and so is the cast. Where it goes wrong is the screenplay that Del Toro wrote with Kim Morgan based on a novel by William Lindsay. All the time (150 minutes!), you are waiting for a big reveal, but it never comes. This type of noir storytelling has programmed our brains to already know for certain that the main character is doomed, but how it eventually comes to pass in this movie is predictable and unsatisfying. Alas, Nightmare Alley may be a visual treat, but in terms of storytelling it fails to move the viewer.

Nightmare Alley is now available on Disney Plus

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? Not to stream

The Verdict: Palm Springs

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“It is one of those infinite time loop things.” This familiar premise (“It’s Groundhog Day!”) is unapologetically used for Palm Springs. Nyles (Andy Samberg) is eternally stuck at a wedding in the desert resort city in California. He entered this time loop by walking into a cave that was opened by an earthquake. The major difference with the Bill Murray classic is that Niles can draw others into his comical hell. He did so with Roy (J.K. Simmons) during a drug trip and it pissed Roy off so much that he occasionally comes to Palm Springs to torture and kill Nyles (after which off course Nyles wakes up in his hotel room again with his cheating girlfriend). Things start to change when he meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti), the maid of honor and sister of the bride, and she accidently gets stuck inside the loop as well. After spending a slice of eternity together, she wants out, but is there a way? Spoiler: Improving your karma like in Groundhog Day won’t work. Despite the lack of originality, the time loop gimmick is used to maximum effect in Palm Springs and the result is genuinely enjoyable.

Palm Springs is now available on Amazon Prime

The verdict: to stream or not to stream? To stream more than once