After a vicious attack leaves him with severe brain damage, Mark Hogancamp (Steve Carell) has to rebuild his entire life. In order to deal with the trauma he builds Marwen, a fictional World War 2 era Belgian town. Marwen is populated with dolls that represent his close friends and family, and it's a place Mark can retreat to and feel safe. But with the sentencing hearing for his attackers looming, things start to get a bit overwhelming. Mark Hogancamp's story is a sad one, and yet, it's also inspiring. An artist robbed of his ability to draw, Mark would take pictures of the dolls who live in Marwen, in order to play out the stories he came up with. Many of these stories mirrored what Mark was dealing with in the real world. Having seen the 2010 documentary about Mark's life; "Marwencol", Robert Zemeckis decided it was a story he wanted to tell. But instead of simply telling Mark's story, Zemeckis wanted to bring the world Mark created to life as w

This month on Movierob's Genre Grandeur the topic is our favourite 80's fantasy movies. Well when I heard this, the choice was obvious...Back To The Future! The story of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a teenager who after accidentally being transported 30 years into the past inadvertently prevents his own parents from meeting. Now with his mother infatuated with him instead of his father and is own existence in jeopardy, he has just one week to set things straight and get back to the future. And the adventure didn't stop there, Back To The Future spawned two sequels, an animated TV show, rides at Universal Studios theme parks in California, Florida and Osaka and a multitude of video games.  Click here to check out all the other reviews in this month's Genre Grandeur. Back To The Future (BTTF) is an important movie for me. Not only is it the first movie I remember watching as a kid, I was born in 1985, two weeks after that fateful weekend in October in which t

Robert Zemeckis takes us back to one of the golden ages of espionage in this World War 2 drama. Allied tells the story of Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard), a Canadian spy - working for British Intelligence - and a French Resistance member who fall in love during a mission in Casablanca. After the mission they head to London, where they marry and have a child. Their happiness is soon threatened when Max's superiors inform him that Marianne may be a German spy and is the subject of a "Blue Dye" operation. Now, defying orders, Max must fight to prove his wife's innocence or face executing her himself. Zemeckis has done a great job of recreating the war era, everything looks very authentic. Allied was nominated for the Oscar for Best Costume Design. Filming took place in Grand Canaria and London, both locations look incredible. It's easy to see that Ian Fleming's work was a source of inspiration, which in turn was insp

Think of the most insane thing you’ve ever done. Now multiply it by 1000, fire it out of a cannon, load it on to a space ship and send it to Mars. You still haven’t come close to walking a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre! Robert Zemeckis brings to life the story of Philippe Petit and his journey to become the only man to ever walk the gap between the Twin Towers, quarter of a mile up. The journey begins in France, revealing how Petit became interested in the high wire and his days as a street performer. The movie feels like a heist movie, Petit assembles his team of "accomplices" and develops his skills to pull off his "artistic coup", all to a jazz soundtrack similar to heist movies of old. Anyone who is aware of history knows Petit achieved his goal, but watching the movie, you can’t help wondering if he’ll succeed. The film was made using as many practical effects as possible. If George Lucas had taken a leaf ou