Movies we watched in January (Liv)

This month I didn't watch a lot of movies. At least not as much as I wanted to. This has a lot of reasons, but the main reasons are that I watched a lot of series this month and that I just could not find the time (I do have a social life, haha). But I did watch some great movies and documentaries, so let's get to my list of movies I watched in January!

Most of you may know the story of Pompeii. Pompeii was an ancient Roman town near the city of Napoli at the base of Mount Vesuvius (a still active volcano). In 79 AD there was a massive eruption that affected Pompeii and neighbor villages. Pompeii was completely destroyed and covered with volcanic ash and pumice. Today Pompeii is a touristic site and UNESCO World Heritage. It was covered by a layer of ash for centuries, the town wasn't effected by moist or air. Because of this it's one of the best preserved ancient Roman towns in the world. It's also known for its human figures. When the city was covered by the pyroclastic flow, a lot of people were killed by it. During excavations in the middle of the 19th century, they found voids in the stone layers where the bodies once lay. Through filling up these layers with plaster, we can get a good view on what they looked like and what they were doing when the volcano erupted. Well so far for the history lesson. I hope you enjoyed it, because I didn't think the movie was very good. It's a story of a forbidden love against background of the eruption. I always wanted to see it, because Kit Harrington (Jon Snow in GOT) is in it, but I think it's kind of a missed chance.

Duration: 105 minutes

Being born in The Netherlands, I grew up with cycling and watching the sport cycling. The biggest event on the cycling calendar is: Le Tour de France. Between 1999 and 2005 Lance Armstrong won this race a record breaking 7 times in a row. This was extra special because this American superhuman had been diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996, just three years before his first victory in the Tour de France. Because of his supremacy over the years that followed, there were a lot of doping related rumors around him. Armstrong always denied the accusations and his popularity kept on growing, while he founded the "Livestrong Foundation" (to assist other cancer victims). When Armstrong retired the rumors of him using doping (like EPO and testosteron) kept following him and the accusations kept on coming, after some of his former teammates started to give testimonies about the extensive use of performance enhancing drugs within the US Postal Team. Armstrong kept on denying the allegations and started lashing out to everyone who "wronged" him. He was immensly popular and seemed to get away with all the things he did. In 2013 in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Armstrong confessed he had been lying for all this years and it came to light that he was the centre of the whole thing and teh man behind one of the biggest frauds in sporting history.

In this BBC4 documentary the story is told by the former friends and colleagues, whose lives he destroyed .It's mostly based on the story of former team mate and former best friend Frankie Andreu (and his wife). The documentary shows how extensive the whole operation was and I thought it was very interesting. I knew a lot about Armstrong's story, before I started watching, but after it I was shocked even more. I mean if all of this is true, the guy is kind of a psychopath. I guess we will never know the whole truth, but as a cycling fanatic I loved this one,

Duration: 104 minutes

I love Tom Hanks, I think he is one of the best actors out there! Somehow I just never got to watching this 2002 movie, where Hanks plays the hit-man Mike Sullivan (it's based on the graphic novel with the same name). The movie is set in 1931, in the America of the Great Depression. Mike Sullivan is happily married to his wife Annie (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and a father of two beautiful sons, Michael Junior (Tyler Hoechlin) and Peter (Liam Aiken). Besides this he is also is an enforcer for Irish mob boss John Rooney (Paul Newman). Rooney raised Mike when he was orphaned and he loves him as if he were his son (he actually seems to love Mike more than his own son Connor, played by Daniel Craig). One day when Mike and Connor are on a mission, the 12 year old Michael Jr. hides in the car to see what his father does for a job. He witnesses Connor and his father killing some men and that makes him a liability in the eyes of Connor. Because of this Connor murders Annie and Peter (thinking it was Michael Jr.) and he tries to have Mike killed. Fortunately Mike realizes it's a set up. He and Michael Jr. leave for Chicago to seek help from Al Capone, but he soon discovers that Conner went into hiding. Mike wants to revenge his wife and son and he takes his other son on a bank robbing road trip. Together they try to rob all of Capone's hidden money, so they can bargain with him to give up Connor.

I think this is a great movie and it really shows how versatile Hanks is. No matter what kind of role he plays, he nails it. It was nice to see a young Tyler Hoechlin ( he plays Derek Hale in Teen Wolf). A must-see!

Duration: 117 minutes

On to another absolute must-see. 13th is a 2016 documentary about the American history of racial inequality and how this has influenced the prison system. The name 13th is based on the 13th amendment to the US Constitution. This amendment abolished slavery and the involuntary servitude, unless as a punishment for a crime. The documentary focuses on  the last part of this amendment and it states that slavery was never fully abolished, it just turned into a mass incarceration of African Americans.

I think the discrimination of African American is a very big problem in the US and this documentary shows painfully that it has always been there and I think the problem is bigger than ever. 13th has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and that's more than right! Duration: 100 minutes