Tag: Christoph Waltz

Frankenstein

2025   Netflix

Rated:  R

Length:  2 hr  29min

Epic ~ Gothic Drama ~ Fantasy ~ Gothic Horror ~ Sci-Fi

Directed by:  Guillermo del Toro

Starring:  Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz.

Life sparked. Death unleashed.

Only Monsters Play God.

In 1857, the Arctic ice traps a Danish expedition vessel whose crew discovers Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) badly wounded on the frozen wasteland. Victor warns them of a powerful Creature (Jacob Elordi) hunting him relentlessly. Inside the warmth of the Captain’s cabin, Victor begins to tell his harrowing story, a tale of ambition and loss that led to this desperate moment.

Victor grew up under the stern hand of his father, Baron Frankenstein (Charles Dance), and the death of his beloved mother (Mia Goth) left deep scars. Encouraged by grief and driven by an obsessive desire to conquer death, Victor pursues radical medical experiments. With funding from an arms dealer, Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz), Victor creates a gruesome but brilliant new life form, hoping it will change humanity forever.

Victor’s creation, part man, part monster, is awakened amid a storm and darkness, but the being’s emergence unleashes consequences Victor had never imagined. The Creature struggles to understand its own existence while Victor wrestles with guilt and fear. Around them, loyalties and betrayals form, as Elizabeth (Mia Goth), Victor’s love interest, and William (Felix Kammerer), his brother, navigate the tangled web Victor’s ambition has spun.

As Victor’s world spirals into chaos, the bond between creator and creation becomes more complicated and threatening. The story explores themes of family pain, societal rejection, and the dangerous thirst for power, all set amid the haunting grandeur of Victorian-era landscapes. This is not just a monster story, it is a deeply emotional and dark journey of both man and what he dares to create. Del Toro’s Frankenstein stands as a towering epic in monster cinema, a visually stunning and emotionally resonant reimagining of Mary Shelley’s classic tale. Del Toro’s signature style shines through in every frame, blending dark gothic horror with profound humanity and complex character dynamics.

Oscar Isaac delivers a commanding and layered performance as Victor Frankenstein, capturing the scientist’s obsessive brilliance and profound torment. Jacob Elordi’s Creature is both terrifying and tragically sympathetic, bringing depth to the monstrous figure beyond mere horror iconography. Mia Goth impressively anchors dual roles with nuance and intensity, embodying pivotal influences on Frankenstein’s psyche. Christoph Waltz’s portrayal of the calculating Henrich Harlander adds a sinister sophistication to the narrative. Overall, the ensemble cast elevates Del Toro’s monstrous creation, making this Frankenstein an unforgettable cinematic journey that balances spectacle with deeply felt performances.

Turn off the lights and devices,

Make some popcorn,

Grab a beverage,

and Stream This Movie

on Netflix!

Old Guy

2025   The Avenue

Rated:  R

Length:  1 hr  34min

Action ~ Comedy

Directed by: Simon West

Starring:  Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu, and Cooper Hoffman.

Competition Is Always A Killer

Christoph Waltz as Danny Dolinski is the heart and headache of “Old Guy,” a hitman whose career high points are undermined by a creaky body and creeping obsolescence. The movie opens with Danny partying like a man half his age, only to quickly remind us, with a wicked hangover and arthritic hesitation, that time is no friend to aging assassins. When Danny’s ready to rejoin the world of contract killing after a hand surgery sideline, his handler Opal instead hands him insult with assignment: train Wihlborg (Cooper Hoffman), a Gen Z whiz kid with the fashion sense of a festival-goer and the emotional warmth of an iced latte.

Any hope for a revitalized, James Bond-style comeback fizzles as Danny and Wihlborg collide in the field—Wihlborg doesn’t drink, barely socializes, and takes killing as seriously as an avant-garde art project, all to our curmudgeonly anti-hero’s dismay. Sent to Belfast on a job that quickly unravels, Danny botches the hit thanks to his unreliable hand, forcing Wihlborg to save the day with ruthless professionalism. Despite their mutual suspicions, the two realize the gig is bigger than their personal beefs—someone inside their own organization is playing both sides, and both hitmen are rapidly moving up next on the target list themselves.

Enter Anata, played by Lucy Liu, whose nightclub serves more as a weapons depot than a party venue and whose presence complicates Danny’s feelings and loyalties. She’s no damsel, she’s the object of Danny’s unspoken affection and a wild card in the unfolding conspiracy. When the trio finds themselves caught between mob bosses and double-crossing handlers, they’re forced to rethink what loyalty, legacy, and survival really mean in the killing business.

Old Guy assembles an enviable cast; Christoph Waltz, Lucy Liu, and Cooper Hoffman, promising a genre-busting assassin caper with a splash of biting wit. The foundations are laid for a generational clash that should have been electric, but the set-up, brimming with potential for comedic and dramatic fireworks, instead sputters as the film drifts into predictability. The old pro and his green apprentice trade barbs and botched jobs through Belfast’s rain-slicked streets, but the banter rarely crackles, and the action beats stumble into well-worn “geezer assassin” territory. Even a mob war conspiracy and the reliable presence of Lucy Liu’s Anata, a fixer with more sense than most, can’t generate enough fresh energy to distinguish this outing from countless other streaming titles.

What’s most disappointing is how little the film does with its heavyweight cast. Waltz is clearly having fun with Danny’s self-deprecating swagger, but Lucy Liu and Cooper Hoffman are left orbiting his performance rather than building dynamic chemistry of their own. Instead of the odd-couple fireworks promised by the premise, we get tired tropes—grumpy mentor, sullen prodigy, double-crossing bosses—sketched out with dialogue that never quite sparkles and action sequences that feel recycled from more memorable films.

“Old Guy” isn’t unwatchable, thanks mostly to the professionalism of its stars and a handful of sly, self-aware moments, but at only 94 minutes it started to feel a lot longer. It’s a bland, overly familiar ride that fails to capitalize on the unique talents assembled. Given the collective charisma and experience of Waltz, Liu, and Hoffman, the finished product feels like a missed opportunity, a reminder that even the best casts can’t transcend a flat script and uninspired direction.

 

Watch at your own peril,

there are better choices out there.

FRANKENSTEIN COMES TO LIFE ON NETFLIX!

Netflix is producing a re-make of The Mary Shelley classic Novel Frankenstein. Filming wrapped up September 2024 after shooting in Toronto, Canada and Edinburgh, Scotland. The movie is directed by Guillermo Del Toro and the cast includes Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth (Pearl), Oscar Isaac and Christoph Waltz. The new Frankenstein movie is slated for release November later this year. I love Mia Goth, she is the new Horror Queen in my opinion, and I can’t wait to see her in this.

FROM NETFLIX TUDUM:

By John Dilillo Jan. 30,2025

Guillermo del Toro is building a monster. Fresh off of his third Oscar win for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the writer-director is fulfilling a lifelong dream: making his own adaptation of Mary Shelley’s beloved Gothic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

Del Toro has been working on a Frankenstein film for more than a decade. “My favorite novel in the world is Frankenstein,” he told Collider in 2010. “I’m going to misquote it horribly, but the monster says, ‘I have such love in me, more than you can imagine. But, if I cannot provoke it, I will provoke fear.’ ” It’s an idea that inspired del Toro’s career-spanning love for the monsters inside and outside all of us. Now he’s finally returning to the source.

Del Toro’s Frankenstein is adapted from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, which she completed at the age of 19, and which he’s cited for years as an inspiration for his work. In his 2018 acceptance speech after winning the BAFTA Award for Best Director for The Shape of Water, del Toro even made time to thank the British Gothic novelist.

“The most important figure from English legacy is, incredibly, for me, a teenager by the name of Mary Shelley, and she has remained a figure as important in my life as if she were family,” del Toro said. “And so many times when I want to give up, when I think about giving up, when people tell me that dreaming of the movies and the stories I dream are impossible, I think of her.”

Frankenstein coming to Netflix

FRANKENSTEIN COMES TO NETFLIX NOVEMBER 2025

 

Big Eyes

2014   The Weinstein Company

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  46min

True Story ~ Drama

Directed by: Tim Burton

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston and Terence Stamp.

Big Eyes, big Lies…..She created it….. He sold it….. And everyone bought it.

Big Eyes tells the true life story of Margaret and Walter Keane as seen through the eyes of Reporter Dick Nolan(Danny Huston). The film begins with Dick Nolan narrating, “It’s the strangest goddamn story I ever covered. It started the day that Margaret Ulbrich walked out on her suffocating husband and went to San Francisco, long before it became the fashionable thing to do. Back then, women didn’t leave. Not without a job or prospects. All she had was her daughter and her paintings with the big-eyes in the back seat.”

Margaret Ulbrich(Amy Adams) is drawing portraits at an art fair and meets artist Walter Keane(Christoph Waltz). Recently separated a romance quickly blossoms between the two. And when Margaret’s ex-husband threatens to take away her daughter with court action Walter quickly proposes and she becomes Mrs. Margaret Keane.

Walter starts selling her big-eyed portraits alongside his Paris street scene paintings. Soon her big-eyed portraits start selling and gain popularity. Walter jumps on the opportunity for all it’s worth and for two years keeps Margret at home painting while he is out promoting and selling the paintings as his own. When she finds out she is obviously upset at the scam he has placed her in. But under his domineering ways and fear of retribution, she plays along continuously painting the big-eyed portraits.

As time goes by Walter gets more abusive and the lie gets deeper. She gets more and more frustrated until she finally leaves with her daughter. Eventually she gets the courage to expose the scam and Walter’s big lie. “I am Margaret Keane and I painted the Big Eyes Paintings, every single one. Walter is a fraud.” They end up in court and finally after much hoopla the judge proclaims, “Enough is enough. The only way to determine which one of you painted those pictures is to place an easel and supplies in front of both of you and see which one can paint the Big Eyes paintings. Walter complains of an old shoulder injury while Margaret paints another of her Big Eyes paintings. The judge promptly rules in Margaret’s favor and she wins a 17 million dollar lawsuit against Walter.

I love true story movies and Amy Adams is one of my favorites. I am always surprised at how badly we as a species treat each other with little to no regard for another’s well being. How Walter manipulated Margaret into a prison sentence of painting her own portraits, locked up in a secret room while claiming all the credit as an artist, was despicable. In the end she came out on top and exposed the lie Walter had forced her to live. I love it when the underdog wins!

Margaret Keane has a cameo in the movie about the 13:39 second mark, sitting on the bench behind Amy Adams as they are painting by the lake in the park.

Excellent job by Tim Burton, Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz in bringing this crazy incredibly true story to life on the big screen. Well Done.

Highly  recommended.

Two Thumbs up!