Life of Pi (2012)

- Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith - but Ang Lee hesitates

"Life of Pi" tells an unbelievable story that you will want to believe. Ang Lee's artistic parabel about spirituality, life and truth offers moments of heavenly delight and visual wonders but occasionally reveals too much of itself and doesn't allow itself to fully drown in its magic. There was no final enlightment in "Life of Pi" for me but much of it is genuinly fascinating.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

- All too expected: a trip we've been through before

In the first round of their journey director Peter Jackson sends his sorcerer Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and a good dozen of dwarfs on a mission to recapture their former homeland inside of the "Lonely Mountain". But despite the running time of nearly three hours they are not getting too far in the first film of the trilogy and there are reasonable doubts about the trisection again which is more likely to be a commercial decision than an artistic one. A shorter, more compact approach with more concentration on the essentials would have been more advantageous for the saga's kick-off. While the Hobbit is not the disastrous counterpart to "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace", as some had feared in the forefront, it is also no "Lord of the Rings" ... or sometimes a little too much so actually ...

Ted (2012)

- Ted-ious!

Okay, now that I have drunken a couple of beers it may be the right time to review Ted, the box office smash hit-comedy written and directed by the man who gave us "Family Guy" and "American Dad", Seth MacFarlane. Political correctness is of course thrown over board in this crude, obscene and ultimately tedious film.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

- A screenwriter's therapy: insanely entertaining

Seven Psychopaths is Martin McDonagh's fusion of Charlie Kaufmann's "Adaptation" and Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". In his second movie after the acclaimed and brillant debut "In Bruges" the famous Irish playwright experiments with narrative, toys with genre clichés and creates some really weird, psychotic characters.