2021.
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- CreatorRichard CurtisStarsRowan AtkinsonBrian BlessedElspet GrayIn the Middle Ages, Prince Edmund the Black Adder constantly schemes and endeavors to seize the crown from his father and brother."Black Adder, Black Adder, with many a cunning plan"
I used the first of January to binge-watch the whole first season. I can't say it's not good, but it disappointed me a bit. It wasn't nearly as witty and funny as I expected based on the memories I have from a couple of decades ago. As far as my memory serves, it seems that they haven't caught the momentum in the first season, so it is significantly below the level of what followed.
The plot is set in the Middle Ages, and Atkinson is a younger prince who, like Iznogud, plots "to be Caliph in the place of the Caliph." I don't like that Edmund's character is like Mr. Bean thrown into the alternative history of England, unlike the following seasons in which Atkinson's character is much more complex and in a way the opposite of Mr. Bean, while the humor is too primitive and forced for my taste. Atkinson himself does not like this season, although it is the only one he wrote himself. Also, this is the only season without Hugh Laurie, and without him, that simply isn't it.
On the other hand, the season had a high budget and was largely filmed outside the studio, so the Middle Ages were superbly evoked. And there's also the addictive "Blackadder Theme" that makes the credits perhaps the most fun part of every episode.
The BBC almost canceled the series because it is too expensive and not fun enough. Fortunately, they agreed to give it another chance if the budget is cut and the series is reduced to a studio sitcom. Because of that, we waited for several years for the next season, and the series, despite the smaller budget and production reduction, justified the trust and in the following seasons entered the legend.
7/10 - CreatorCraig MazinStarsJessie BuckleyJared HarrisStellan SkarsgårdIn April 1986, the city of Chernobyl in the Soviet Union suffers one of the worst nuclear disasters in the history of mankind. Consequently, many heroes put their lives on the line in the following days, weeks and months.Great, but not as much as it was hyped
HBO is not capable of making a bad show. Historically accurate, as much as possible for a five-hour adaptation of one of the greatest catastrophes in history, with excellent photography and sound, good acting, and an atmosphere that the fact that it is a historical event makes even gloomier. And yet, I did not experience it as a cinematic experience, nor did I enjoy it. I was not bored, on the contrary, I was interested in what it had to say and show. But, to compare with literature, I experienced it in the way that a textbook or a scientific publication on a topic that interests you is experienced, and not as a good novel. Emotionally, It didn't touch me nearly as much as a tragedy like this should. Besides, the combination of Russian and English drove me crazy. It would be much more impressive and convincing if the whole thing was filmed in Russian, but even if it was entirely in English, it would be just fine. Combined like this, the series didn't confuse me and I was aware all the time that all the characters were Russians and Ukrainians, but it created a strange divided atmosphere which on some background level was giving the impression of watching Americans save Russians, and that got on my nerves and spoiled the experience.
8/10 - CreatorJack ThorneStarsDafne KeenKit ConnorRuth WilsonA young girl is destined to liberate her world from the grip of the Magisterium which represses people's ties to magic and their animal spirits known as daemons.What's this all about?
17 February 2020
When viewing an adaptation of something you read, especially if you are a fan of the source material and know it by heart, you subconsciously intertwine the book and the adaptation, and often do not notice the holes in the script because your foreknowledge fills them. I guess the high rating of this series comes right from Pullman's fans. To me, who have not read the book, the first season of "His Dark Materials" wasn't boring. I enjoyed the visual appeal of the series, though it doesn't come anywhere close to "Game of Thrones" I just finished a few days ago, the interesting characters and the action, but to ask me what it's about - honestly, I have no idea. The first season raises countless questions and gives little to no answers. Everything is vague, confusing and without much sense. If they wanted it to be a mystery that unfolds in the end, the end that is coming in a few seasons, they should have given us at least some hints and cliffhangers that would motivate us to wait for the next season. It may be just me, but even though the series is within my favorite genre, I'm not at all interested in waiting for the continuation. That may change if in the meantime I find the time and the will to read the book, but by itself, without foreknowledge of the story, the series left me completely indifferent.
6/10
05 January 2021
After the end of the second season, everything written above still stands, but still, it left a somewhat stronger impression, both visually and story-wise. Except for the nonsensical last episode ...
7/10 - DirectorFranco ZeffirelliStarsLeonard WhitingOlivia HusseyJohn McEneryWhen two young members of feuding families meet, forbidden love ensues."For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo"
While watching this movie, I was sixteen again and in love for the first time. During the scene on the balcony, I had a smile from ear to ear and a tear in my eye, and that feeling did not leave me until the end of the movie, which I was watching as hypnotized. When the film achieves such effect, all objective qualities are irrelevant, all flaws insignificant.
9/10 - DirectorEshom NelmsIan NelmsStarsMel GibsonWalton GogginsMarianne Jean-BaptisteA rowdy, unorthodox Santa Claus is fighting to save his declining business. Meanwhile, Billy, a neglected and precocious 12 year old, hires a hit man to kill Santa after receiving a lump of coal in his stocking.Wasted potential
The interesting premise, which could have been developed into a hilarious comedy, ended up as an indefinite nonsense, with only a few decent moments. The performances of Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins are really good, while everything else is totally lame.
4/10 - DirectorEric DarnellSimon J. SmithStarsTom McGrathChris MillerChristopher KnightsSkipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join forces with undercover organization The North Wind to stop the villainous Dr. Octavius Brine from destroying the world as we know it.Cute and cuddly
"Comic-relief" penguins of the "Madagascar" franchise got their own spin-off, which may not be as high quality as the franchise they came from, but it is no less fun.
The frustrated octopus envies the penguins for being cute and wants to destroy all the species that are cuter than his own. It is up to our hilarious four to save the world from this unimaginable loss. Modern technologies of the secret service of polar animals, resourcefulness, and courage of our heroes are not up to this task, but penguins have a secret weapon - cuteness and cuddliness.
This action-comedy may not feature superb animation, nor the special depth and complexity of the story, but the pace that does not slow down for a moment, crazy action scenes, the constant shooting of various jokes, word games, and references to many film classics and strong cast will not leave you time to pay attention to its shortcomings. After all, who could possibly resist the cuteness and cuddliness of penguins ...
7/10 - DirectorJames IvoryStarsMaggie SmithHelena Bonham CarterDenholm ElliottLucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) shares a brief romance with George Emerson in Florence. Yet as she tries to move on with her life and look for marriage elsewhere, can she truly forget the events of that summer?"A young girl, transfigured by Italy"
Helena Bonham Carter's feature film debut is an excellently filmed boring movie about boring Englishmen ... I wrote down somewhere during the first half of the film. And then in the second half, I was surprised to realize that it bought me with its beauty, simplicity, and charm. In addition to Helena, there are also Maggie Smith, Julian Sands, Judi Dench, Daniel Day-Lewis, and some other well-known faces that I can't connect with names without Google, which I'm too lazy to do at the moment. This adaptation of the eponymous novel by E.M. Forster, from 1908, combines a romantic drama with a comedy of manners which I didn't like, so I cannot support the Oscar for the Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, but the Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Costume Design, as well as the nomination for Best Cinematography, are more than deserved.
7/10 - DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production."People, they love blood. They love action. Not this talky, depressing, philosophical bullshit."
When I left the theater, I was quite confused and did not know what to think about this movie. It was visually mesmerizing, but at times boring, original in a strange way that left a strong impression, but I wasn't sure if that impression was positive or negative ... A the time, I haven't even heard of Iñárritu. Years later, after watching all his films, this one came up again and, familiar with Iñárritu's style, I had a much more powerful experience.
The film does not rely so much on the story, which has already been seen many times and is not particularly elaborated, as on the impressive study of characters and at the same time the dramatic and black-humored satire of the entertainment industry. The cast is strong and everyone got enough space to show off in full glory. It is interesting that all the characters are somewhat parodies of the actors who interpret them as well as their previous roles. And perhaps the strongest trump of the film are the extremely long shots that try to leave the impression that the entire film was made in one take.
9/10 - DirectorLowell ShermanStarsMae WestCary GrantOwen MooreIn the Gay Nineties, a seductive nightclub singer contends with several suitors, including a jealous escaped convict and a handsome temperance league member."Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"
The controversial "She Done Him Wrong" was scandalous at the time of its release and that is the only thing it can boast about. Today, when it is no longer scandalous, it has become pointless and lame. It is neither technically impressive, nor does it have any significant story, and femme fatale is totally unconvincing to me. I know that Mae West was a sex symbol in her time, and all men in the film are crazy about her, but to me, that whole craze was tragicomic, because then forty-year-old Mae leaves the impression of a middle-aged corpulent tomboy who I wouldn't touch with a two-meter stick. And I almost puked in my mouth on the last scene.
5/10 - DirectorLars HenriksStarsHubertus BrandtUlrich BähnkNika KushnirHans Wagner lives in a small apartment, taking pills and drinking whiskey to fight his anxiety disorders. When he runs out of both his drugs one day, he has no choice but travel to the supermarket sober. An unexpected adventure begins .Why Hans Wagner hates the starry sky
At the time 22-year-old, Lars Henriks made his first feature film in his own production, for only 1,500 euros. The young man wrote a screenplay inspired by Lovecraft and directed, and he also wrote and produced the score and original songs for the movie himself. All three aspects are at a fairly high level. The story is great, although a bit rushed towards the end, and combined with the interesting directing and sound that perfectly evokes the atmosphere, it held my undivided attention for all 75 minutes. The main role is played by Hubertus Brandt, who convincingly portrayed an anxious young man sinking into madness, and I find it hard to believe that this is his first and only role. I would be lying if I said that I have no objections, but I don't think this film deserves that I mention them. This is by far the best amateur film (if I can use the word amateur at all) that I have seen so far, and the idea, courage, and effort deserve all the praise.
7,5/10 (10/10 within the non-budget amateur movie frame) - DirectorCarlos SaldanhaStarsJesse EisenbergAnne HathawayGeorge LopezWhen Blu, a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota, meets the fiercely independent Jewel, he takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro with the bird of his dreams.Cute
The last living male of the blue macaw, who lives in Minnesota as a pet, goes to Brazil with the owner to try and save the species. Of course, things are not going according to plan, and a completely tame male, who has never learned to fly, embarks on an exciting and dangerous adventure.
Cheerful, fun, at times witty, set in the middle of a carnival in Rio and accompanied by music that will surely jig your foot, and most of all colorful, but not particularly original and quite forgettable. Worth a look, but I expected more from the creators of "Ice Age".
6/10 - DirectorWilliam A. SeiterStarsStan LaurelOliver HardyCharley ChaseWhen Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they're actually going to a convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way."Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into."
Laurel and Hardy, or Fatty and Skinny, as we called them as kids, were a comedy duo who conveyed slapstick comedy in the style of silent film to talkies and added character comedy to it, stringing successes during three decades of cooperation. They were an inexhaustible source of entertainment for me as a child and I understand that in the first half of the last century they could have been hilarious to adults too. But to me as a forty-year-old in the third decade of the 21st century, they are now worth only as a historical curiosity and a dear childhood memory.
6/10 - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordKate CapshawKe Huy QuanIn 1935, Indiana Jones is tasked by Indian villagers with reclaiming a rock stolen from them by a secret cult beneath the catacombs of an ancient palace."He no nuts. He's crazy"
The second film about Indiana Jones in the timeline of the story actually precedes the original. It retains the technical qualities and spirit of the first film, but this time the dramatic elements of the film fall into the background, and preference is given to an adrenaline action roller coaster that does not slow down almost throughout the film. Spielberg strings impossible situations at such speed that you get dizzy and, although this overdrive is quite fun, it builds a frivolous atmosphere which, in combination with the amount and type of humor in the film, leaves the impression of a parody. Maybe it's just me, but Harrison Ford in the lead role of a story obviously devised by George Lucas, accompanied by music by John Williams ... during all two hours, I couldn't get "Star Wars" out of my head.
7/10 - DirectorPete DocterKemp PowersStarsJamie FoxxTina FeyGraham NortonJoe is a middle-school band teacher whose life hasn't quite gone the way he expected. His true passion is jazz. But when he travels to another realm to help someone find their passion, he soon discovers what it means to have soul.Lost souls are obsessed by something that disconnects them from life. I'm going to live every minute of it.
Pixar proves its creativity once again. Attempt not so much to explain the essence of life, as to encourage us not to forget it. The story is deep enough not to be just cheap entertainment, but carefully balanced to not go in pretentiousness or in vain philosophizing. Funny just enough to be entertaining without making the point meaningless. Emotional as much as it needs to warm the heart without causing tears. Visually imaginative and sprinkled with jazz music, this cartoon is a feast for the senses for all generations. Its only drawback is that at times it seems a bit hasty. As if it had much more to say and show, but it lacked time. Although, maybe it's better that way, because otherwise it would risk getting too entangled and losing its meaning.
8/10 - DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonMarty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown.Timeless classic
Marty is a high school student who, by an unfortunate coincidence, travels thirty years into the past and prevents his parents from meeting each other. In order not to be erased from existence, he must now find a way to unite them and secure his own birth, as well as to return to his time.
This SF comedy is perhaps the greatest classic of its genre. If there are some who have not seen it, at least they have heard of it, and references from the film have long been implemented in pop culture. Fast-paced, fun, witty, with top effects for its time, a multi-layered story that stimulates thinking and awakens the imagination, and accompanied by great music, this film aged well and is as impressive today as it was at the time of its creation. Great choice either for watching with a partner, for drinking with friends, or for a family movie night.
9,5/10 - DirectorRobert WiseStarsJulie AndrewsChristopher PlummerEleanor ParkerA young novice is sent by her convent in 1930s Austria to become a governess to the seven children of a widowed naval officer.Mary Poppins II
In 1964, Julie Andrews played the role of the magical governess Mary in the cult musical "Mary Poppins", for which she won an Oscar. The following, 1965, she starred in "The Sound of Music", also a musical, and again in the role of a governess, Maria, but this time she remained on the nomination. Although "Mary Poppins" is a fairy tale, and "The Sound of Music" is realistic, the stories essentially have many similarities. The same goes for the characters, especially for the main role, which is why I decided on this title. Both films have excellent cinematography and directing and cheerful, upbeat music full of life. However, as much as they are similar, they won't bore you even if you watch them one after the other. The streets of London and the imaginary landscapes here have been replaced by the endless pastures of the Eastern Alps and the stone of old Salzburg, over which the threat of the Third Reich looms. But don't worry, this is still a feel-good musical and love conquers all, so if you embark on this adventure, expect three hours of positive emotions and pure children's joy captured on film just for your enjoyment.
9/10 - DirectorSean McNamaraStarsTim RedwineKenneth A. BrownPatrick RennaA group of misfit teens evade a corrupt scientist when they steal and attempt to return a suit that delivers supernatural strength to its wearer.C. R. A. P.
Crow Research And Production is the name of a company that has developed a device that stimulates the nervous system and muscles. While the creator of this device lives in the delusion that it will bring a revolution in the treatment of people in wheelchairs, his company actually plans to sell it on the black market for the purpose of creating super-soldiers. But his son and his son's friends from primary school are there to expose the villains and steal the device in order to protect nerds from school bullies.
Linear, naive, and even stupid script, Nickelodeon level of acting and production ... Honestly, it is crap, a nuance above the level of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" from the nineties. And again, I have to be honest, I had a good time and, as this is a film for children, I think it is more important than objective qualities. Plus Jessica Alba in her sweet sixteen ...
5/10 - DirectorElia KazanStarsNatalie WoodWarren BeattyPat HingleThe love of high school sweethearts Deanie and Bud is weighed down by the oppressive expectations of their parents and society in smalltown Kansas in 1928, threatening the future of their relationship.The eyes of Natalie Wood
"A woman doesn't enjoy those things the way a man does. She just lets her husband come near her in order to have children." A mantra that will effectively ruin your child, regardless of gender. The prejudices and narrow-mindedness of the Puritans from the beginning of the last century destroyed the love and passion of the two teenagers, to whom Natalie Wood (probably her best performance) and Warren Beatty (his film debut) breathed life on the big screen so impressively. A film about growing up, love, excessive dramatization so typical for teenagers, especially those in love, parenting and prejudice, set in America on the transition from the "roaring twenties" to the Great Depression. An excellent choice of actors for all, even the smallest roles, who, under the baton of the great Kazan, convincingly tell us a simple but very emotional story, whose main strength lies in the fact that most of the audience can easily identify with it. One of those movies you won't easily forget.
8,5/10 - StarsRowan AtkinsonTony RobinsonTim McInnernyIn the Tudor court of Elizabeth I, Lord Edmund Blackadder strives to win Her Majesty's favour while attempting to avoid a grisly fate should he offend her.Bastard son of a bitch
After the bad reviews of the first season, the series was almost canceled. They gave it a chance on the condition that it transforms into a standard studio sitcom with a much lower budget. Despite, or perhaps thanks to this, the series flourished and spawned a second season that secured its cult status.
Atkinson gave up writing and was replaced by Ben Elton, who did a fantastic job. While the first season had a unique story in which Blackadder tries to seize power, here each episode brings a separate story in which our anti-hero tries to get out of awkward and potentially deadly situations. The medieval malicious incompetent is inherited by an intelligent and cynical descendant, placed at the court of Elizabeth I. For the counterweight, there are Baldrick (Tony Robinson), who is transformed into a dirty and extremely stupid servant (To you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it?), and Lord Percy (Tim McInnerny), a simple but irreparably optimistic and loyal sidekick. On the other hand, we have Elizabeth, a childish and spoiled queen, who uses people as toys and cuts off heads if they are not to her liking. Miranda Richardson performed this role with unforgettable charm and stole every scene in which she appears. She also has two sidekicks, played by the excellent Stephen Fry and Patsy Byrne. In two episodes also appears Hugh Laurie, an indispensable part of the cast for the rest of the series. The characters are more complex and diverse than in the first season, and the humor is more natural, intelligent, and incomparably funnier.
9/10- Give the place a more family atmosphere.
- The family atmosphere? This is meant to be a place of pain and misery and sorrow.
- That's what I mean, Sir.
- DirectorKirk DeMiccoChris SandersStarsNicolas CageRyan ReynoldsEmma StoneAfter their cave is destroyed, a caveman family must trek through an unfamiliar fantastical world with the help of an inventive boy."For the most part it's Neanderthal compared to the Pixar stable." - James Mottram, Total Film
The Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and sound names such as DreamWorks, Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, and Ryan Reynolds, lead to expectations that this film does not meet. It is visually beautiful and quite entertaining, but the silly caricatured fairy-tale creatures and slapstick comedy cannot compensate for the unoriginality, simplicity, and linearity of the story and characters and the emotional clichés with which it tries to mask the essential shallowness. If you choose it for a movie night with a child, you will not regret it, and if you skip it, you will not miss anything special.
6/10 - DirectorPreston SturgesStarsJoel McCreaVeronica LakeRobert WarwickHollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie."There's always a girl in the picture. What's the matter, don't you go to the movies?"
After the phenomenal "The Lady Eve", Preston's next achievement slightly disappointed me. The adventures of a rich director who tries his hand at the life of a hobo, in order to be able to make a film about the hard life of the lowest class from his own experience, are undeniably fun. It is always interesting to watch a film that combines many genres in one story. A mix of screwball and slapstick comedy, social criticism, drama, prison film, thriller, and romance sounds like a fun idea, but it is very difficult to make it work. The atmosphere of the film changes radically several times, to the extent that it gives the impression that we are watching parts of different movies combined into one, and although Veronica Lake, always pleasing to the eye, performed her role well and has chemistry with Joel, to me, this romantic subplot was redundant. At one point, Preston's protagonist, director Sullivan, declares: "There's always a girl in the picture. What's the matter, don't you go to the movies?" As "Sullivan's Travels" is perhaps primarily a critique of the film industry, I believe that the entire romantic subplot was deliberately made that way, in order to parody this unwritten rule of Hollywood. Although the different genres are roughly blended and the whole thing seems hasty, the film is fun, satire, if not in the center, still hits the target to some extent, and the author must be commended for the courage to bite the hand that feeds him.
7/10 - DirectorKoen MortierStarsDries VanhegenNorman BaertGunter LamootThree handicapped losers who form a band ask famous writer Dries to be their drummer. He joins the band and starts manipulating them.Trainspotting, but unpolished
The controversial Belgian writer has been adapted into an even more controversial film. Extremely sick drama, full of black humor, explicit sexual violence, and scenes that a good horror film would not be ashamed of. But the story that this film brings is not fantasy, but the cruel reality of the lowest strata of society that we, who have better luck in life, choose not to see. "Ex Drummer" chooses to rub them on our noses, uncompromisingly and ruthlessly. The script cuts the political correctness at the root, fills us with vulgarity, and does not refrain from insulting everyone, the camera pounds us with scenes from which the stomach turns awry, and all this directed with the effect that can be compared to those of heavier drugs and accompanied by raw garage punk. The film brings a lot of freaky, eccentric, and in their own way handicapped characters, performed by mostly lesser-known actors (to most of us all completely unknown), which, along with good acting, makes them more believable and realistic. Although we consciously do not want to identify with them, I believe that deep down each of us could find ourselves in at least some of them, and, on a subconscious level, that adds to the strength of the overall impression. To bring you closer to the overall atmosphere and experience of this film, I will make a musical parallel. If we compare "Trainspotting" to a mainstream band that fills stadiums, "Ex Drummer" is a low-budget garage band, with an unpolished sound, playing the same genre much more brutal.
8/10 - DirectorJoel CrawfordStarsNicolas CageEmma StoneRyan ReynoldsThe prehistoric family the Croods are challenged by a rival family the Bettermans, who claim to be better and more evolved.Spiderwolfs, chickenseals, land-sharks...
A bit of "The Flinstones", a bit of the "Ice Age", hints at original ideas and a mountain of Hollywood clichés. Everything I said about the first applies to this one as well. However, the sequel is a bit more complex, diverse, faster, and more fun, and some intelligent humor has been added to the slapstick on which the first part was based.
7/10 - DirectorAlexander MackendrickStarsBurt LancasterTony CurtisSusan HarrisonPowerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician."Don't do anything I wouldn't do! That gives you a lot of leeway..."
Burt Lancaster is a New York columnist, whose word is heard far and wide, whose advertisement everyone wants, and whose criticism they fear. But so much power has caused him a god complex, which never works out for good. Tony Curtis plays a petty press agent who would stop at nothing to please the famous columnist and with his help feel the "sweet smell of success". When the columnist's younger sister falls in love with a club's jazz musician, the two start a series of plots and blackmail in order to separate them.
This late noir, from the late fifties, instead of murders and private detectives, shows us how journalists and PR agents, arrogant, unscrupulous, greedy and possessive, alter destinies as they see fit. Superb black-and-white cinematography and directing build a tense and dark atmosphere of noir, which with the fast pace of the film holds the attention from beginning to end. But the story itself is so melodramatically told and acted out, that the film eventually left a bland overall impression.
7/10 - CreatorMisha GreenStarsJonathan MajorsJurnee SmollettCourtney B. VanceA young African-American travels across the U.S. in the 1950s in search of his missing father."Monsters, ghosts, a magical treasure hunt, curses, the past, the future..."
The series is neither an adaptation of a Lovecraft work, nor is it based on his mythos or his life. "Lovecraft Country" is a combination of fantasy, horror, mystery, and Indiana Jones adventure, but the emphasis is not only on these aspects, but it significantly concentrates on racism in America in the 1950s. I have the impression that the authors used the "father of horror" to attract the audience to a famous name. We have "racist horror", and Lovecraft is a racist horror writer ... let's name the series after him and attract fans. At first, it may work, but those same fans will very quickly realize what is happening and will be disappointed with the series that they could have liked under some other name, which does not offer false promises.
The other thing that bothered me was the soundtrack. With good production, cinematography, and acting, they skillfully evoked the atmosphere of the fifties, and then spoiled it with inadequate music. I watch the South Side of Chicago in the fifties, but I listen to Rihanna, Manson, and hip-hop ... it doesn't work. It breaks the atmosphere and spoils the experience.
Third and most important, after a promising start, the script turned into a total mess. Had they stick to the great premises from the first couple of episodes until the end, the series could have been awesome. For some reason, they decided to overwhelm it with new subplots from episode to episode, until it turned into an overcomplicated and incomplete mishmash of everything and anything.
However, the series is technically indisputably well done, the visual aspect, atmosphere, and characters are very likable, and the story is, if you don't mind the confusing and chaotic storytelling, basically quite interesting. If you don't expect too much, it's worth a look.
7/10 - DirectorW.S. Van DykeStarsWilliam PowellMyrna LoyMaureen O'SullivanFormer detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.Screwball murder mystery
William Powell is a former detective who married richly and has been enjoying a comfortable life for years, until by chance he finds himself involved in mysterious murders. Myrna Loy plays his rich wife who sees the situation as an opportunity for adventure and persuades him to get involved in the investigation. The plot is nothing special, a classic detective murder mystery, but in this film it is just the basis for a romantic screwball comedy. Unusual as this combination may sound, "The Thin Man" used it quite effectively. This is one of fourteen films starring Powell and Loy, and the first of six in the series about Nick and Nora Charles. Their mutual chemistry is magical and, aided by smart and classy humor, elevates in other respects a mediocre film into a classic not to be missed.
7,5/10 - DirectorCarlos SaldanhaStarsJesse EisenbergAnne HathawayJemaine ClementIt's a jungle out there for Blu, Jewel, and their three kids after they're hurtled from Rio de Janeiro to the wilds of the Amazon. As Blu tries to fit in, he goes beak-to-beak with the vengeful Nigel and meets his father-in-law."Happy wife - happy life"
Like "Avatar", only instead of blue humanoids, we have blue parrots. It may be visually fascinating in 3D, but at home, on the computer, it did not leave a special impression. If you liked the first one, you will like this one too. If not, skip it.
6/10 - CreatorDaniel BrocklehurstJoe GilgunStarsJoe GilgunMichelle KeeganRyan SampsonComedy series about Vinnie and Dylan, who have grown up together and are inseparable. When Dylan's girlfriend wants to move in search of a better life for her and her son, he must face the hardest decision of his life.Joseph Gilgun
I first saw him in "Misfits" and I loved him. In "Preacher", he stole the spotlight from Dominic Cooper. And now he stars in the series he created. I couldn't miss it.
"Brassic" currently has two seasons of six forty-minute episodes each. The story follows a group of young "white trash" people in an English country and deals with their life problems and petty crime in a way reminiscent of a mix of "Trainspotting", "Shameless" and "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels". The characters are diverse and mostly hilarious, and the acting is great. The first season did not leave a particularly strong impression, but in the second, the fast pace, crazy action, and British humor will not allow you to catch your breath.
8/10 - DirectorErnst LubitschStarsCarole LombardJack BennyRobert StackDuring the German occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy."What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland"
Just before the occupation of Poland, the censors forbade the theater in Warsaw to hold the premiere of a satirical play about the Third Reich. However, the theater troupe was soon given the opportunity to apply their costumes and acting skills in reality, in order to save the resistance movement from the Gestapo.
Carol Lombard's last film, before her untimely death, was released in the midst of World War II, in 1942. This mockery of Nazi Germany shows a very tense story, which can be characterized as a spy thriller, through a combination of slapstick, screwball, romantic and black comedy. Marital jealousy, identity swaps, well-written and very witty dialogues, and a few really hilarious scenes will hold your undivided attention, and the title of the film, which alludes to both the theater and the reality of the heroes of this story, and which runs through some of the strongest scenes, make this movie even more striking.
8,5/10 - DirectorHoward HawksStarsHumphrey BogartLauren BacallWalter BrennanDuring World War II, American expatriate Harry Morgan helps transport a French Resistance leader and his beautiful wife to Martinique while romancing a sensuous lounge singer."I'm hard to get, Steve. All you have to do is ask me."
During the filming of her film debut, Lauren Bacall started a relationship with Bogart, married him a year later, and remained with him until his untimely death. Lauren had quite a stage fright, and Bogart was in most of his films more or less the same, but the chemistry between them is obvious. For those who are not sensitive to romance, this film has nothing to offer. Although Nobel laureate Faulkner took part in the writing of the screenplay based on the work of Hemingway, also Nobel laureate, "To Have and Have Not" is nothing but a pale copy of two years older "Casablanca". And no, I don't want to say that it reminds or is inspired by "Casablanca", but that it is a school example for the term "rip-off".
5,5/10 - DirectorSydney PollackStarsDustin HoffmanJessica LangeTeri GarrMichael Dorsey, an unsuccessful actor, disguises himself as a woman in order to get a role on a trashy hospital soap."I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man"
The theater actor and acting professor, who has not been able to get a role for a long time due to his difficult temperament, disguises himself as a woman and gets a role in a popular TV show. But as the popularity of his alter ego grows, so does his life turn into an increasingly intricate soap opera.
"Tootsie" is a modern screwball and romantic comedy, and at the same time a satire of sexism and the world of the entertainment industry. It is based largely on excellent dialogue and intelligent humor, but it has its moments of slapstick and a few scenes that made me laugh to tears. If ten Oscar nominations and names like Jessica Lange, Bill Murray, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, and Geena Davis don't tell you enough, I'll also say that Dustin Hoffman's Dorothy Michaels stands side by side with Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire.
9/10 - CreatorSam LevinsonStarsZendayaHunter SchaferJacob ElordiA look at life for a group of high school students as they grapple with issues of drugs, sex, and violence.Dysphoria
Technically, the series is very well done. Great camera and directing, good acting, and the music fits in great, although it's not to my taste. The thick atmosphere draws you in from the start and further raises expectations, which were already high due to the praise I heard. And then the first episode ended and I thought - ok, it needs time to catch the momentum.
It did, but not in a good way. It runs around like a headless chicken. The series deals with real and very serious topics in a way so exaggerated that they have turned serious into frivolous, deep into superficial, real into unreal, and shocking into boring. They started too much, they didn't finish anything. Everything is exaggerated, unbelievable, and incomplete, and the whole project is painfully pretentious. And the biggest flaw is the characters. Almost all of them are incredibly pathetic and irritating, so unconvincingly written that no good acting can save them. I had no one to sympathize with and no one to cheer for, no one to hate. I couldn't care less for any of them, and even if I cared how they would end, I certainly wouldn't have found out. And two additional quasi-philosophical life-coach episodes caused me embarrassment transfers and I even vomited in my mouth a little.
5/10 - DirectorJustin BensonAaron MoorheadStarsLou Taylor PucciNadia HilkerFrancesco CarneluttiA young man in a personal tailspin flees from US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a woman harboring a dark, primordial secret."A zombie was doing heroin"
After the death of his parents and problems with the law, the young American randomly chooses Italy as a destination for a temporary escape from a gloomy life. There, he falls in love with a mysterious girl, who hides a primordial secret.
Labeling this film as a horror will lead you to the wrong expectations. It is a romantic drama with a Lovecraftian premise and atmosphere. The movie follows the development of the relationship between a young man and a young woman and the essential life decisions they have to make. The main feature of it is the spontaneity of their relationship and realistic dialogues, spiced with casual humor. The movie overall looks and develops naturally, as if we were watching footage from last year's summer vacation. The culmination brings more dramatic and quite creepy moments, but it doesn't make this movie even remotely horror, it only adds strength to a love story.
"Spring" is not for gentle sweethearts crying to romantic melodramas, nor for hardened horror fans. But if you have a little of both, and especially if you are a fan of Lovecraft's style, I warmly recommend this hidden gem.
8/10
"Sometimes the most thrilling thing a film can do is shake the shackles of its own preordained genre as you're watching it. The result might turn out to be a deal-breaking tonal trainwreck, but when such a hybrid works - and Spring, the second feature from directing team Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, does work - it can make for an improbably lovely experience." - Austin Chronicle - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordSean ConneryAlison DoodyIn 1938, after his father goes missing while pursuing the Holy Grail, Indiana Jones finds himself up against the Nazis again to stop them from obtaining its powers.X marks the spot
The third film about the adventures of Indiana Jones brings us everything we expected based on the previous two. Plus the outstanding Connery in the role of Indiana's father. The quest for the Holy Grail brings us a two-hour adventure full of action and humor, medieval knights, a fatal blonde, Hitler, camels, and a tank. Perhaps the best in the trilogy.
8,5/10 - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodGene HackmanMorgan FreemanRetired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner Ned Logan and a young man, The "Schofield Kid.""Dedicated to Sergio and Don"
Eastwood's homage to his roots in Leone's trilogy is the third western ever to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Eastwood's directing, for which he also won an Oscar, is impeccable, and as far as his character and acting are concerned, I had the impression that I was watching the fourth sequel to the trilogy. Apart from playing practically the same character, improved by age and experience, this is also a revisionist or anti-western, even more serious and darker than Leone's. The film tells the story of a middle-aged widower and father of two small children, once an unscrupulous gunslinger with a scary reputation, who, after more than a decade of peaceful farming, embarks on another, last bounty hunt, questioning his own life and personality while karma collects old debts. Eastwood was also nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role, but this Oscar deservedly went into the hands of Al Pacino for "The Scent of a Woman". Morgan Freeman played his partner expectedly well, and Gene Hackman took the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, the role of a local sheriff trying to stop them. The film is distinguished by excellent characterization, even of the supporting characters, powerful and believable life drama, and beautiful cinematography, where almost every frame is a perfect art photograph, accompanied by a great sound.
10/10 - DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyAndrea EckertA young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together."Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?"
Two young people, an American boy and a French girl, accidentally meet on a Budapest-Vienna train, and spontaneously decide to postpone their final destinations for a while and spend the night in Vienna together.
"Before Sunrise" is a film with almost no events and the whole movie comes down to an all-night conversation between the two protagonists, during which they get closer and fall in love, although they are painfully aware that after sunrise they will probably never see each other again. The chemistry between Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke is wonderful, and their relationship and conversations are so natural and spontaneous that they seem like improvisation. The film is so believable and life-like that I felt like a voyeur following two real lovers, spying from the sidelines. It is incredibly easy to identify with these characters, to recognize some of our own conversations in theirs, and the combination of the movie atmosphere and the memories it aroused left me with an impression that, as time goes on, only intensifies.
8,5/10 - DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpyVernon DobtcheffNine years after Jesse and Celine first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour."I'm designed to feel slightly dissatisfied!"
Nine years after "Before Sunrise", Celine and Jesse meet again, this time in Paris, at the promotion of his book based on a night they spent in Vienna. Although they moved on with their lives, the magic of that night never left them. Even after nine years, Julie and Ethan still have the same chemistry that made us fall in love with them in the first film, and "Before Sunset" has all the qualities of its predecessor, raising it to a slightly higher level. My wife tells me that my problem with the first movie is that I didn't watch it as a teenager and she's probably right. Maybe that's why it was easier for me to connect with a decade older characters from the sequel and thus experience it deeper.
9/10 - DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEthan HawkeJulie DelpySeamus Davey-FitzpatrickWe meet Jesse and Celine nine years on in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting on that train bound for Vienna."If you want love, then this is it. This is real life. It's not perfect but it's real."
Nine more years have passed and our couple is now married with children and in a midlife crisis. While the first two are feel-good movies, this is a depressingly and painfully realistic film that bursts the bubble of romantic ideals and depicts life as it really is. But it still does not give up on optimism, because where there is a will, there is hope.
Now that I have seen all three, it is difficult for me to observe and evaluate them individually. Although I liked "Before Midnight" the least in the trilogy, and immediately after watching it I was somewhat disappointed, when my impressions settled, I realized that any other end would be inappropriate and that the trilogy would lose as a whole.
9/10 (for a trilogy as a whole) - DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJeremy IronsLiv TylerCarlo CecchiAfter her mother commits suicide, a young woman travels to Italy in search of love, truth and a deeper connection with herself."I didn't say the movie was good, but it's so beautiful"
Liv Tyler's first leading role was in a movie about a girl who, after mother's death, travels to Italy, to the property of mother's friends, in search of father and her own identity. After great movies such as "Ultimo tango a Parigi" and "The Last Emperor", not to mention the later masterpiece "The Dreamers", I expected much more from Bertolucci than the coming-of-age drama about a nineteen-year-old virgin, which brings nothing in terms of storytelling and plot, nor does it stand out as a study of personalities. However, "Stealing Beauty" has one indisputable quality. The film is visually excellent, and a perfect choice if you want to relax, rest your mind and feast your eyes on the beautiful landscapes of Tuscany.
6,5/10 - DirectorQuentin DupieuxStarsStephen SpinellaRoxane MesquidaWings HauserA homicidal car tire, discovering it has destructive psionic power, sets its sights on a desert town once a mysterious woman becomes its obsession."I just saw a live tire"
"In the Steven Spielberg movie "E. T.," why is the alien brown? No reason. In "Love Story," why do the two characters fall madly in love with each other? No reason. In Oliver Stone's "JFK," why is the President suddenly assassinated by some stranger? No reason. In the excellent "Chain Saw Massacre" by Tobe Hooper, why don't we ever see the characters go to the bathroom or wash their hands like people do in real life? Absolutely no reason. Worse, in "The Pianist" by Polanski, how come this guy has to hide and live like a bum when he plays the piano so well? Once again the answer is, no reason. I could go on for hours with more examples. The list is endless. You probably never gave it a thought, but all great films, without exception, contain an important element of no reason. And you know why? Because life itself is filled with no reason. Why can't we see the air all around us? No reason. Why are we always thinking? No reason. Why do some people love sausages and other people hate sausages? No fuckin' reason.
Ladies, gentlemen, the film you are about to see today is an homage to the "no reason" - that most powerful element of style."
The film is set in some California wasteland. We see a road and on both sides of it a vast desert, dry land, low seared vegetation and, of course, garbage. On a hill, not far from the road, a group of people with binoculars are waiting for the "movie" to begin. At first, nothing happens, until at one point they notice a worn car tire that looks like it is waking up. The focus shifts from the observers to the tire and we soon realize that we have found our main character. The tire straightens, shakes off the dust, and starts rolling. It is insecure, confused, scared maybe. It moves, stops, falls, gets up again, like a child learning to walk. Then it begins to curiously explore its surroundings and test its possibilities. With the ability to run over and crush a plastic bottle and a small scorpion along the way, it soon discovers special powers, the ability to, whether by willpower or rubber vibration, make things explode. It is more and more confident in itself and happily embarks on a killing spree, through an innocent bunny and a careless bird, to a real genocide of people. Soon, the police have to be involved in the story. But is it the real police or just the actors, because all this is just a show for observers on the hill. Or maybe it's not ...
"Rubber", an experimental, surreal, black-humor horror parody, is almost entirely the work of French director and DJ Quentin Dupieux, who signed screenplay, directing, cinematography, editing, and music, and it is undoubtedly one of the strangest movies I've ever seen, and I saw thousands of them.
Even if we don't take into account the budget of only half a million dollars, this film was superbly shot. The first half of the film, before the slasher action starts, is a real work of art. The camera, directing, and editing, accompanied by perfectly blended music, completely mesmerized me. Some frames are so beautiful, I would like to frame them on the wall. The supporting characters, which basically refer to all the people in the film, are very diverse and, although they were given a ridiculously little space, I have the impression that I met them personally.
And the main character is a car tire. The main character in the true sense of the word. It is not only the protagonist of the plot, it has a soul. It is amazing how Dupieux brought the tire to life, gave it personality and character, and allowed us to see its feelings and moods. He made us bond and sympathize with it. Throughout the film, we watch as the tire wakes, becomes self-aware, aware of the surroundings, and how its psyche evolves and changes according to developments. It is fascinating that they avoided CGI and that the film was almost entirely done using practical effects, which adds a lot of strength and credibility.
The second part of the film accelerates the pace and the art-film gives way to a slasher-horror parody. The tire has completely transformed into an anti-hero, and as the surreal scenes, full of completely wacky dialogues and monologues, follow one another, the corpses pile up. If you are film-savvy, you will have the opportunity to notice tributes to some film classics, among which stands out the homage to the scene in the bathroom from Hitchcock's "Psycho".
"Rubber" can be seen as a deconstruction of a B slasher, an art film that mocks art films, a study of the relationship between the audience and the film, or an environmental satire about how irresponsible use of petroleum products and littering will soon catch up to us. I don't know what Dupieux wanted to achieve. Maybe all this, and maybe I completely missed his idea. Maybe, as it states in the monologue that opens the film, he really just threw a bunch of surreal scenes as a homage to "no reason". In any case, this is a movie that can be viewed from many angles and experienced in many ways. It is up to you to discover your own.
9/10 - DirectorNeil JordanStarsStephen ReaJaye DavidsonForest WhitakerA British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world."Definitely unusual"
Nominated in all major categories, this "romantic" crime drama won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. I watched the film mostly because of Forest Whitaker, but it turned out that his role, although important, is not particularly impressive. Nominee Stephen Rea did not leave a special impression either, but Jaye Davidson really deserved his nomination for a best supporting role, despite this being his film debut. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune to race for the Oscars with veterans, Pacino in "The Scent of a Woman" and Eastwood in "Unforgiven." Honestly, I was most impressed by Jim Broadbent, although he only appears in a few short scenes.
The film is about a member of the IRA, whose unit kidnaps a soldier in order to exchange prisoners. While guarding the abducted soldier, he becomes close to him and after his death goes to find his love and convey the deceased's message to her. He finds her and, of course, romance follows. But the soldier's girlfriend is not what she pretends to be, so our hero and the audience are in for a shock.
I believe that in 1992, the twist of this film might have been a surprise, breaking taboos and shocking the audience. But from today's perspective, when the things that this film shows have long since become part of everyday life, that factor of shock and surprise is lost, and what remains is a very nicely shot and acted, but totally obvious and predictable film. When the agony of boredom of the first forty minutes is added to that, my subjective impression does not reach even six. However, if I take into account the technical quality and the perspective of the time when it was created, I have to give it some slack.
7/10 - CreatorEric KripkeStarsKarl UrbanJack QuaidAntony StarrA group of vigilantes set out to take down corrupt superheroes who abuse their superpowers."See, people love that cozy feeling that Supes (superheroes) give them. Some golden cunt to swoop out of the sky and save the day so you don't get to do it yourself."
There are several hundred people in America with supernatural powers, led by The Seven, a team of the seven most famous, who operate under the powerful and all-pervading corporation Vought. The official purpose of this corporation is to take care of superheroes and perform logistical work related to their heroic deeds, but the corporation as a corporation is concerned primarily with profit, and the lives of their Supes are reduced primarily to PR and marketing, commercials, and superhero movies. And when, here and there, they set aside some time to fight crime and terrorism, "Vought" is there to cover up the collateral damage. However, some people refuse to accept that they are collateral damage, so they organize into a guerrilla unit, a kind of resistance movement, with the goal of exposing the true faces of selfish and arrogant superheroes and overthrowing the all-powerful corporation that has risen above of the law.
In essence, "The Boys" is a satire of the corporate system and society in which the individual is nothing and the flow of money is everything, presented in the form of a parody of the superhero genre and its rising popularity. Genre-wise, the series is a black-humored action thriller, explicitly vulgar, violent, and bloody. Over-the-top gorefest, spiced with just enough drama and romance to give it an emotional note and allow us to connect with the characters. Superheroes are diverse and I think there is a counterpart in the DC and Marvel universes for each of them. The parallels are obvious enough for an effective parody, and they differ just enough that the series does not risk a copyright lawsuit. Consistent with this, the other, non-superhero characters are clichéd, but they have a good enough characterization to be convincing and enough originality and variety not to be boring.
Karl Urban plays Billy Butcher, a seemingly intimidating, ruthless, cold-blooded vigilante who will not rest until the last superhero is dead. But when you get to know him a little better, his hard face, with a combination of macho attitude and British accent, will quickly charm you. Jack Quaid plays a nerd who does not know what hit him. Here we have someone to identify with, and to show us that each of us, no matter how we feel insignificant, can make a difference if his heart is in the right place. There's also Frenchie, my favorite character in the series. Israeli actor Tomer Capon, with a perfect fake French accent, plays a charming expert in weapons, drugs, and improvisation and, as he says himself, "the troubled teenager of the group".
The series is full of various characters, and I didn't list even the leading ones. I stayed on these three because they left the strongest impression on me. It's up to you to see the show and maybe get attached to some completely different ones. I believe that there is something for everyone. It's not a masterpiece of television and may not even enter the top 100 TV series in terms of quality, but for those who, like me, have long been tired of movies that cover up shallowness with special effects and visual spectacle, "The Boys" brings more than a touch of freshness to the superhero genre.
8/10 - DirectorRaoul WalshStarsJames CagneyVirginia MayoEdmond O'BrienA psychopathic criminal with a mother complex makes a daring break from prison and leads his old gang in a chemical plant payroll heist."Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"
Cody Jarrett is the leader of a notorious gang, which leaves a trail of corpses in its robberies. After a job that went south, he confesses to a smaller crime at the other end of the country, in order to be convicted for it and thus gain an alibi for a crime that would bring him the death penalty. A detective who has been trying to get on his tail for years sends an "undercover" agent to be his cellmate, hoping to get hold of evidence that would throw Cody out of the game once and for all.
Essentially a combination of a heist movie and prison drama, this classic also contains elements of noir (dark black and white photography and the inevitable femme fatale), a train robbery that irresistibly resembles those from westerns, car chases, brutal violence, and a certain dose of raw humor. "White Heat" is fast-paced, with numerous subplots and twists. The performance of the gangster film's veteran, James Cagney, is a character study of a psychotic leader, whose criminal mastermind the police did not live up to, but whose Oedipus complex and excessive self-confidence, through epileptic seizures, will eventually lead him to madness and death.
8,5/10 - DirectorPeter WeirStarsRobin WilliamsRobert Sean LeonardEthan HawkeMaverick teacher John Keating returns in 1959 to the prestigious New England boys' boarding school where he was once a star student, using poetry to embolden his pupils to new heights of self-expression."O, Captain! My Captain!"
In the middle of the twentieth century, a group of teenagers in an elite boarding school got a new professor of English language and literature. While the school strictly adheres to the motto: "Tradition. Honor. Discipline. Excellence.", reminiscent more of a military than an educational institution, Professor Keating, played in his recognizable manner by the legendary Robin Williams, through poetry and his unusual, somewhat eccentric methods, tries to teach young men to use their heads, find their true natures and stand up for themselves.
"Dead Poets Society" won an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, while the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role remained only in the nominations. My impressions are quite the opposite. The script is generally good, especially the selection of poetry, monologues and dialogues, but it is not particularly original and there are exaggerated and unconvincing moments. Moreover, one of the main subplots, on which the film essentially relies, seemed totally unbelievable and over-the-top to me, and I consider it an emotional manipulation. On the other hand, the camera and direction create a beautiful atmosphere, the acting of all the important characters is at a high level, and the message and emotions the movie leaves behind (the last scene always brings tears to my eyes) have made it a timeless classic.
8/10 - DirectorMike FiggisStarsNicolas CageElisabeth ShueJulian SandsBen Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter who lost everything because of his alcoholism, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.Counterweight to feel-good romances
An extreme alcoholic, who no longer remembers whether he started drinking because his wife left him or his wife left him because of alcoholism, sinks deeper into delirium, loses his job, sells all property, and goes to Vegas to drink himself to death. There he meets a prostitute and an unusual love story is born.
The two enter into a relationship and start living together, fully accepting each other and their partner's life choices. He is not trying to get her out of prostitution, she is not asking him to give up drinking. They love each other as they are and live life from day to day, using that little time they have the best they can.
As sad, depressing, and sick as it is, this love drama is at the same time very tender and warm, even romantic. Elisabeth Shue's quiet suffering only intensifies her sensuality, while balancing between a mentally unstable pimp (standardly good and a bit creepy Julian Sands) and perseverance to stay with Cage until the very end, without sinking with him.
The opinions are very divided around Nicolas Cage. People either love him or find him very irritating. Some consider him a bad actor, while others see his qualities and attribute his bad reputation to a clumsy (or perhaps brave) choice of roles. Personally, I liked his performances even in his worst movies. But, no matter what you think of him, it is indisputable that Cage presented his life role here and, with his masterful performance, fully deserved his only Oscar.
It is interesting that during the entire movie, our heroes do not have sex. Their relationship is almost platonic, which further intensifies one of, at the same time, the most morbid and the most emotionally powerful endings in the history of cinema.
9/10 - DirectorAnthony MannStarsJames StewartShelley WintersDan DuryeaA cowboy's obsession with a stolen rifle leads to a bullet-ridden odyssey through the American West.This is the story of the Winchester Rifle Model 1873, "The gun that won the West." To cowman, outlaw, peace officer or soldier, the Winchester '73 was a treasured possession. An Indian would sell his soul to own one.
Although without any awards, "Winchester '73" is considered a film that revived the western genre and restored its popularity. It is the first of five westerns that James Stewart shot with director Anthony Mann. Stewart wanted to change the direction of his career and try his hand at a macho role. This initiative provoked ridicule, but Stewart's performance allegedly proved that he is capable of such roles. I say "allegedly" because he was totally unconvincing to me and I think he's quite a miscast for this role. Maybe some of the remaining four make me change my mind, if I find will to watch them at all. The film itself is a classic western cliché, with perhaps a couple of interesting moments and, although I was not bored, it did not leave a particular impression. It was originally supposed to be directed by Fritz Lang and I'm sincerely sorry it wasn't. I would love to see that version.
6/10 - DirectorMarc WebbStarsAndrew GarfieldEmma StoneJamie FoxxWhen New York is put under siege by Oscorp, it is up to Spider-Man to save the city he swore to protect as well as his loved ones."An overlong, at times almost plot-free soap opera that introduces a wealth of characters and dips into a wide variety of subplots but never comes together as a story." - Tom Huddleston
Although it lasts two and a half hours, the story is lost in a multitude of undeveloped and unfinished subplots and seems rushed. There are unnecessary illogicalities and, to me, the drama was more pathetic than upsetting. I didn't feel the chemistry between the leading couple and most of the main actors were irritating to me, except for Sally Field, who was the only one that left a positive impression. The film does not stand out in any way, not even in the visual aspect and CGI, which are usually Marvel's strongest trump card. It's not boring, but it didn't hold my attention and it left me completely indifferent. After the very good first movie, the sequel is quite a disappointment.
5/10 - DirectorDouglas SirkStarsRock HudsonLauren BacallRobert StackAlcoholic playboy Kyle Hadley marries the woman secretly loved by his poor but hard-working best friend, who in turn is pursued by Kyle's nymphomaniac sister."You're a filthy liar. - I'm filthy, period!"
Kyle is the son of an oil magnate, an insecure, spoiled, alcoholic playboy, who marries a girl his best friend, Mitch, is in love with. Meanwhile, his promiscuous sister, Marylee, tries in every way to seduce Mitch. As he struggles to suppress his feelings for his best friend's wife and to defend himself from his aggressive childhood girlfriend, Mitch simultaneously takes care of all of them and prevents their family from falling apart. But Kyle's complexes and alcoholism ultimately prevail over Mitch's efforts, and tragedy is inevitable.
Although the film is in Technicolor and quite colorful, the camera, direction, and general atmosphere are somewhat noir-ish. Dorothy Malone's performance is really impressive, but I think that winning the Oscar is a bit too much. And that's all I can say in favor of this film.
I don’t know if it was conceived as irony and critique of the “American Dream” and the family of the time or as just another melodrama, but I experienced it as an overly melodramatic and pathetic soap opera in the style of “Dallas” and “Dynasty” - very well shot, but still just a soap opera.
6/10 - CreatorGrant MorrisonBrian TaylorStarsChristopher MeloniRitchie CosterLili MirojnickAn injured hitman befriends his kidnapped daughter's imaginary friend; a perky blue flying unicorn.An absolutely delightful little ball of funshine
A decorated policeman, dishonorably fired from the service, indulged in alcohol, divorced, and became a hitman, which, at first glance, leaves the impression of a bum from Hell. After a decade, his ex-wife asks his ex-partner (with whom he cheated on her) to find her kidnapped daughter. Meanwhile, the captive daughter sends her imaginary friend in search of her father, whom she believes is the only one who can save her.
When, in the first episode, a middle-aged drunk ex-cop hitman sees a miniature bluish unicorn Happy fluttering around his head, trying to convince him he doesn't hallucinate, and that he has a daughter he doesn't know about and who urgently needs rescuing from the evil Santa Claus psychopath, the series turns into complete madness, which does not subside until the end of the second season. There begins a parade of exotic, eccentric, and sick characters (and creatures), excellently characterized in all their unlikeliness, and a festivity of completely wacky, morbidly hilarious situations, perversions, profanity, and spilled intestines, accompanied by appropriate music.
The story in the first season relies mostly on originality and the surprise factor and, combined with the insane pace and inevitable bouts of laughter, will leave you breathless. The second season is more complex, but is losing steam because we are already accustomed to the style of this series and its ruthlessness is not so shocking anymore, although it will still occasionally surprise you (the scene with Happy and Bo Peep is a textbook example of "what is seen cannot be unseen"). It is difficult to weigh whether the scenes and dialogues are sicker or funnier, but they are indisputably imaginative and skillfully balancing on the verge of bad taste (some will surely say that they quite crossed it). I have often rewound in disbelief and replayed them several times, and I must admit that it is quite hard when your jaw is trying to simultaneously drop to the floor and scream with laughter.
All the actors have done a great job, but I especially want to commend Christopher Meloni in the lead role, Bryce Lorenzo in the role of little Hailey, Patton Oswalt who lends a voice to Happy, as well as the unforgettable villains, the genius sociopath Patrick Fischler, the demonic semi-god Ritchie Coster and, of course, the star of the show, Christopher Fitzgerald.
I have a lot more to say about this series, but I want to avoid spoilers as much as possible, because the surprise factor is one of its strongest assets. For those who have not watched the series, I am very sorry for this little spoiler in the text so far, but if I were to write completely without spoilers, it would be just a few sentences, so general that writing this review would no longer make any sense.
Excellently written, filmed, directed, produced, and acted story, with super effects and music, powerful drama presented through the prism of unscrupulous black humor, and scenes that will disgust you to the point of vomiting. DO NOT MISS IT!
10/10 - DirectorTerence YoungStarsSean ConneryUrsula AndressBernard LeeA resourceful British government agent seeks answers in a case involving the disappearance of a colleague and the disruption of the American space program."Bond. James Bond."
The first film of one of the longest-running franchises in history. James Bond, Agent 007, is a British secret agent with a license to kill, known for more than half a century for resourcefulness, various gadgets, and seduction of women.
The story is quite naive, somehow comic-book-like "tongue-in-cheek" unreal. While investigating the disappearance of a colleague, Bond finds himself on a forbidden island, ruled by a criminal mastermind, a crazy scientist who, with the help of advanced technology, strives for world domination. Dr. No and his island somewhat reminded me of the legendary Captain Nemo and his Nautilus.
While the interior of the villain's underground lair is retro-futuristic, the island itself is a tropical paradise, from which emerges the future sex symbol, Ursula Andress. Before he will save and seduce this puberty dream of the sixties, we see Bond in the arms of two more enchanting ladies, Eunice Gayson and Zena Marshall. Still, although he seduces three beauties in two hours of film, Sean Connery is much more realistic and believable than his successors. Bond's self-confidence hasn't yet grown into arrogance, and Connery's charm is more natural. Besides, he still doesn't have his "Sport Billy" gadget for every, even the most unpredictable situation, but he relies exclusively on experience and intellect.
I believe that this film was spectacular in its time, but it has aged quite badly, especially in the technical sense. Not serious enough, unconvincing, and almost completely linear, today it can hardly be considered a thriller, and the action is not particularly impressive either. However, the imaginative set design, Bond girls, and incredible charisma of Sean Connery make it worthy of attention, as well as, of course, the fact that it has launched the iconic franchise that lasts for almost sixty years now.
6,5/10 - DirectorRobert RossenStarsBroderick CrawfordJohn IrelandJoanne DruThe rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.The road to hell is paved with good intentions
The winner of the Oscar for the Best Picture at the 1950 award ceremony is the story of Willie Stark, an honest man from the people, who fights for the rights of the working class and rises in the world of politics to the position of governor, which he then wholeheartedly abuses.
Whether a person has to be corrupt to be successful in politics or politics corrupts people ... this is one of those "Which came first, the chicken or the egg" questions. Whatever it is, it doesn't change the fact that politics is a dirty game in which regular folks suffer the most. What separates this political drama from most political films is that it does not propagate or satirize any specific political option, but is a satire of politics in itself and presents it as a brutal and ruthless game, as it, for the most part, really is.
At a time when people still believed in the illusion of the "American Dream", this film was much more shocking than today, when the real face of politics has been revealed countless times and when theories of political conspiracies have become part of everyday life. But although in that respect, as well as, of course, technical aspects and production, the film is somewhat outdated, as time passes, its essence is becoming more and more relevant. I believe that the novel, the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is much better than its adaptation and that the fans of the book are somewhat justifiably disappointed and, true, the film seemed to me, who did not read the book, at times hasty and incomplete, but the impact it had at the time of its origin, the Oscar-winning performances of Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge and the satire applicable to politics of all eras, make it a classic worthy of attention.
7/10 - DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsLeonardo DiCaprioTom HardyWill PoulterA frontiersman on a fur trading expedition in the 1820s fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team."As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe... keep breathing."
I saw all of Iñárritu's feature films. This is one of the few directors where I have not encountered variations in quality. In all of his films, Iñárritu's determined directing keeps things firmly under control and he knows exactly what he wants, from beginning to end. There is also brutal realism, without embellishment, as well as seismic human drama, which excellent actors convincingly bring to life for us. His films are great in all aspects, but they lack "that something" to be timeless masterpieces.
The plot is set in the Wild West from the beginning of the nineteenth century. A group of fur hunters deep in Indian territory is forced to leave the fruits of hard work and flee. Surrounded by bloodthirsty natives, they retreat across an inhospitable mountain, where their guide is butchered to the brink of death by a bear. The terrain is such that they cannot carry him, and if they wait for him to recover or die, they could all die. Therefore, they leave three volunteers behind to escort the wounded man on his last journey and bury him with dignity. The man on the verge of death refuses to die much longer than they expected, so one of the volunteers, in fear for his own life, kills the other and tricks the third to leave the wounded and hurry home. However, the wounded man, in spite of all probability, overcomes death (then and on several other occasions during the film) and, although in agony, manages to travel a long way, returns to home fortification, and even goes in pursuit of the man who betrayed him.
The story itself is way over the top and there is no chance that anyone, except perhaps Superman, could survive everything that happened to Leonardo DiCaprio in this movie, and in the end, even go back to the wilderness in pursuit of revenge. Despite that, Leonardo presented this fight for survival incredibly convincingly and deservedly won the Oscar, which had eluded him for so long, even though he deserved it at least a few times before. For the role of the main villain, Tom Hardy was nominated for an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. When we add to that the more than deserved Oscars for cinematography and directing, we get two and a half hours of mesmerizing adventure (although the word adventure sounds a bit inappropriate to me), which, despite the very slow pace, will keep you pinned to the screen.
8,5/10 - DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him."That was Mozart. That! That giggling dirty-minded creature I had just seen, crawling on the floor!"
"Unprincipled, spoiled, conceited brat" and at the same time one of the greatest composers in history - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Milos Forman's film "Amadeus" on IMDb is classified as a historical biographical drama. It is debatable whether we can consider this film a historical biography, considering that it is mostly fiction. The characters are historical, but their lives and relationships are mostly the fruit of imagination and artistic freedoms. Drama it is, and yet, I don't remember the last time I laughed so much watching a drama. Although essentially tragic, this story was conceived and realized in an incredibly entertaining way, full of humor and gags.
Mozart's fictional biography is presented from the point of view of Antonio Salieri, the court composer of the Austrian emperor. Salieri, one of the key figures of the late eighteenth-century opera, is presented here as a musical mediocrity. He longs to touch the divine through his music, lives in celibacy (in reality he had a pack of children), and is completely dedicated to his work, but he lacks talent. On the other hand, Mozart is a spoiled, vulgar, irresponsible, and self-absorbed brat, who lives a bohemian life, and is adorned with an unprecedented talent for music. He composes divine masterpieces as if he were writing them at the dictation of God himself. Salieri perceives this as God's injustice. Consumed by complexes and jealousy, he renounces God and decides to take revenge on him in the only way that seems available - by sabotaging and destroying Mozart. As he plays a devoted friend and benefactor to him, he intrigues behind his back until he drives him to premature death.
This idea originated during his lifetime. A short time before Salieri's death, it was rumored in Vienna that he had poisoned Mozart, which Pushkin used in 1830 as the basis for the play "Mozart and Salieri". Later, Rimsky-Korsakov turned this play by Pushkin into a short opera, and in 1979, this story took its present form in the play "Amadeus", by Peter Shaffer. Five years later, he adapted it into a screenplay, for which he won an Oscar, one of the eight that this film got.
I can't comment on the Oscar for the best picture, because I haven't seen any of the remaining nominees. Forman's Oscar-winning direction is flawless, and if you've seen the film, the Oscars for set design, costumes, and makeup go without saying. There are two more left.
The music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in itself guarantees the nomination. And when it is so skillfully incorporated into the film, the Oscar is guaranteed. It is interesting that the performers in the film really play what we hear. When Tom Hulce, who plays Mozart, performs his compositions on the piano, his fingers accurately hit exactly those tones we hear in the film, even in the scene when he plays lying on his back, with arms crossed over his head. This actor spent half a year rehearsing Mozart's compositions on the piano, in order to perform them flawlessly on film. However, he only remained in the nominees for the best actor in a leading role, and I must admit that I didn't particularly like him with his Jim Carrey-ish performance.
Although Tom Hulce plays Mozart, he essentially isn't the main character in this film. The main character is the character of Salieri, who was magnificently portrayed by F. Murray Abraham. Salieri is a man who drowns in complexes, jealousy, and injured ego, completely dedicated to his "revenge", but at the same time he is the biggest and most sincere admirer of Mozart, in whom he sees the greatest musical genius and whose compositions he sees as the embodiment of divine beauty. Torn between these two impulses, he slowly sinks into madness and, after Mozart's death and own failed suicide attempt, ends up in a madhouse. Decades later, a priest comes to the sanatorium and the whole movie is actually the confession of a dying man, torn between remorse for the injustice he did to Mozart and the feeling that he himself was a victim of God's injustice. Although Tom Hulce bounces before the eyes of the audience, trying to keep the spotlight on himself, the way Abraham presented his, essentially tragic character, is the most powerful of all the impressions that this film has left on me.
9/10 - CreatorBruno HellerStarsBen McKenzieJada Pinkett SmithDonal LogueThe story behind Detective James Gordon's rise to prominence in Gotham City in the years before Batman's arrival.G. C. P. D.
A crime drama about the rise (and falls) of Detective James Gordon in the years while Bruce Wayne grows into Batman, told in parallel from the angle of Gordon himself, from the angle of young Wayne, as well as from the angles of important players of the Gotham underworld.
Initially a combination of gangster and buddy-cop genres, as convincing and realistic as possible for the DC universe, the series later grows into an SF superhero (or supervillain, as they are in majority and much more fun) madness with countless plots and subplots. However, although it may be a bit over-the-top, the series does not lose its direction and not a single ark remains incomplete.
The complex multi-layered story, which does not get lost in its complexity, brings us the origins stories of Penguin, Riddler, Joker, Catwoman, and many other well-known characters of the Batman universe, and introduces some new, equally good ones. The strongest asset of the series is the great variety of compelling characters with excellent characterization (no black-and-white division between good and evil) and the evolution of their relationships. The cast is top-notch, and I especially have to single out the wicked and sexy Jada Pinkett Smith, the best Penguin ever played by Robin Lord Taylor, Cory Michael Smith as Riddler, and Cameron Monaghan as the Joker whose creepiness is unlikely to ever be matched, let alone exceeded.
8/10 - DirectorShawn LevyStarsHugh JackmanEvangeline LillyDakota GoyoIn the near future, robot boxing is a top sport. A struggling ex-boxer feels he's found a champion in a discarded robot.A hybrid of Rocky and Terminator
In the near future, boxing bored the audience with its limitations. Brutal martial arts are becoming increasingly popular, culminating in the advent of robot fighters, which will satisfy the human urge for destruction from a safe distance.
Hugh Jackman is Charlie Kenton, a former boxer who is desperately trying to survive in this new sport. In deep debt, he learns that his ex-girlfriend is dead and that he "inherited" his eleven-year-old son. Kid's aunt, married to a rich man, demands custody, and Charlie decides to grant her wish in exchange for $ 100,000, which would give him a fresh start. But the rich husband has plans for the summer that do not include children, so he agrees to an agreement with Charlie on the condition that Charlie keeps his son until they return from the summer vacation.
Little Max, played by Dakota Goyo, finds an outdated robot in the junkyard, fixes it, programs it, and trains it for fights, in order to go on tour with his father, from small illegal matches, all the way to the chance to win the world title.
The film is essentially a drama about a growing relationship between estranged father and son, wrapped in a story almost copied from the "Rocky" franchise, only with robots as fighters. Apart from the idea of combining "Rocky" and "Terminator", nothing in this story is original, but all these outworn elements are so skillfully combined and charged with emotions that the non-originality did not bother me for a moment. Moreover, the fact that many scenes irresistibly reminded me of scenes from other, well-known and beloved films from the past, only aroused nostalgia and strengthened the emotional power of "Real Steel".
This was especially contributed by an eleven-year-old boy with disarming eyes. Hugh Jackman is good by default, and his partner is Evangeline Lilly, best known for the role of Kate in the TV series "Lost", as well as The Wasp from Marvel movies. There's also Hope Davis, whom I really liked in "Wayward Pines".
When I say that the film combined "Rocky" with "Terminator", I mean the boy's attitude towards the robot, while visually the robots in are more reminiscent of those from "Transformers". The fights of the robots are excellently filmed and directed, and "Real Steel" was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. But that year the competition was really strong in that field. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2", "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" also lost to five-time Oscar-winner, Scorsese's masterpiece "Hugo".
"Real Steel" may be a cliché, it may be Hollywood pathetic, but the fights kept me on the edge of a chair, and the rest of the story on the edge of tears. I really loved it.
9/10 - DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsHarrison FordCate BlanchettShia LaBeoufIndiana Jones becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls."We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away."
But this did not stop veterans Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford to make another film about Indiana Jones after twenty years. The film was quite spat on and ridiculed at the time. I especially remember the episode of the animated series "South Park" dedicated to this "rape" of the cult adventurer. But now that I've finally watched it, I really don't see why so much negativity.
The fact is that Ford is fairly old, but his performance is not far behind the one that made him famous in the eighties. Instead of Sean Connery as Indiana's father, he is now accompanied by his son, played by Shia LeBeouf. And there is Cate Blanchett in the role of a Russian agent, who leads a team of villains.
The plot is set in the 1950s during the Cold War, and the Nazis are replaced by communists. This time, they are looking for crystal skulls that would enable the East to have parapsychological supremacy over the West. Again we have an adventure that takes us through the jungle, caves, and hidden cities, and the film is, although with modern production, in the same manner as the original trilogy when it comes to story and a general atmosphere.
If I didn't know that it was made two decades after the original three, I might not have noticed. Only the Sci-Fi ending differs significantly from its predecessors. It's not a masterpiece, but neither are the previous three, and if you ignore the negative hype that followed it, I think that if you enjoyed the movies from the eighties, you will enjoy this one as well.
7/10 - DirectorSam MendesStarsKevin SpaceyAnnette BeningThora BirchA sexually frustrated suburban father has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter's best friend."My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already."
"American Beauty" is placed in an indefinite suburb somewhere in America (there are indications that it is Chicago), where a seemingly harmonious and quite ordinary family is going through the turbulence caused by the middle age crisis of both parents, as well as the puberty of their teenage daughter.
A patriarchal family, ruled by a conservative father, a military man, moves next door to them. While the daughter of our antihero Lester starts a relationship with the neighbor's weird son, and his wife has an affair at work, he, not so secretly, obsessively falls for his daughter's girlfriend.
This black humor drama is only seemingly extreme and eccentric, while in fact, it shows quite realistically what many of us go through at various moments in our lives. Admittedly, most only in their heads, and those who dare to take drastic steps usually hide it better. But the fact that most of us would never admit such thoughts and actions does not prevent, but perhaps only makes it easier for us to better connect with the characters and feel their drama more deeply.
A strong, well-written story needs actors capable of bringing it to life before our eyes. "American Beauty" did not fail in that field either. The excellent character study on paper makes the job much easier, but you can always rely on Kevin Spacey for a really impressive role. A man who somehow manages to be at the same time a nerd and a macho, slimy and sexy, a villain and a victim. Sexual and emotional frustration and the middle age crisis are by no means an excuse for Lester's actions, and yet, Spacey awakens sympathy and compassion in the viewer, rather than repulsion and disgust.
Annette Bening skillfully keeps pace with Spacey in the role of a frustrated woman, trapped in a long-extinguished marriage. A woman who, with the last twitches of common sense, tries to balance between a family in disarray and a career that she can never raise to a level that would satisfy her.
There is also Thora Birch, an unpopular teen, escaping from the collapse of her family home in a relationship with the eccentric Wes Bentley, as well as the insecure Mena Suvari, who is hiding under the mask of a confident and popular cheerleader. Her transformation from "Lolita" that seduces Lester to one of the most impressive scenes in the film, where she is half-naked, trembling under Spacey, does not deserve to remain unmentioned. Although her character is secondary to the others I mentioned and only serves as a support for Spacey's, Mena's performance is unfairly underrated. And last but not least, Chris Cooper who convincingly played a homophobic colonel and stole every scene in which he appears.
For me, the two most striking things in this film are the use of red and the unusual disturbing sounds that accompany Lester's fantasies, in contrast to the mainstream rock music that fills the rest of the movie. And of course, the ending is a bit over-the-top, but it perfectly rounds off the story and adds to its strength.
The film won five Oscars for best picture, directing, screenplay, cinematography, and Spacey's performance, and was also nominated for editing, music, and leading female role. Each well deserved.
10/10 - DirectorBryan SingerStarsPatrick StewartIan McKellenHugh JackmanThe X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.Nothing new with Marvel ...
With a strong cast, high-budget production, great effects, and non-stop action imbued with humor, Marvel usually manages quite well to mask the lack of a quality story. Maybe the story has no meaning, nor much sense, but you just do not have time to notice that, especially in theater.
But by now we have got used to this cast and characters, who bring us nothing new from film to film. These days visual effects pop out from every corner, so even that is no longer fascinating, except when a major shift is made, which is not the case here. They gave us just a spoonful of humor, and the strongest action scene is at the very beginning of the film. Everything after is just one confusing SF story that reminds me too much of "Terminator" and didn't hold my attention at all.
I can't say that the film is technically bad, or that it's boring, but I have nothing to praise. I watched it last night and I'm already not sure I could retell it anymore. If you're a Marvel fan, take a look. If you skip it, you won't miss much.
6/10 - DirectorFrank CapraStarsCary GrantPriscilla LaneRaymond MasseyA Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers."Look I probably should have told you this before but you see... well... insanity runs in my family... It practically gallops."
Insanity gallops through Capra's black-humored screwball thriller-comedy and barely stops to catch a breath. I can't say that I was rolling and screaming with laughter. I wasn't. But the plot, gags, and dialogues are so well designed, written, and put into action, that a smile will spread on your face at the very beginning of the film and will last until the ending credits.
Cary Grant, with his over-the-top over-acting, carries much of the film on his shoulders. He plays a journalist who became famous for his anti-marriage bestseller, and then he himself tied the knot. As if this in itself does not complicate his life enough, on the wedding day and just before leaving for the honeymoon, he learns that his aunts, who raised him, are secretly serial killers who, out of pity, put lonely old gentleman out of their misery. And that's not nearly the end of complications. His benevolent but completely crazy brother, who lives in the belief that he is Roosevelt, helps them bury the victims, and soon, in the family house where the entire film takes place, joins them maniacal third brother who has just escaped from life imprisonment.
While Grant is trying to resolve the situation (at the same time hiding it from his wife, who persistently sneaks around in anticipation of the departure on the honeymoon), potential new victims, police officers who seemed to have dropped out of cop-joke, and the head of the sanatorium parade through the house, creating utter chaos, which seems more and more hopeless.
"Arsenic and Old Lace" had no Oscar nominations, and perhaps it does injustice only to the script. Then again, I have nothing to complain about, because everything is at a high level and perfectly balanced. I wouldn't rank it among the best films of all time, but it doesn't lag far behind. Quality entertainment, very fun and can be watched countless times without losing effectiveness.
9/10 - CreatorMax LandisStarsSamuel BarnettElijah WoodHannah MarksHolistic detective Dirk Gently investigates cases involving the supernatural.Everything's connected
I did not expect much from this show, considering the fact that it is a BBC America production, not BBC UK, and because of tons of negative reviews on the web.
When I start a show, I usually watch one or sometimes two episodes a day. The first season of this one I watched in one breath. I didn't even pause it for the bathroom or making coffee. Eight episodes of 40 minutes each felt like one bit longer movie.
The second season, of ten episodes, is done differently and is not as original and hypnotically addictive as the first, but its witty fairytale style quickly won me over.
Ignore fans of Douglas Adams who bash this show for not being faithful to original novels. It is not faithful, that's a fact, but it does not make it a bad show. On the contrary. Adams is tricky for screen adaptation. I don't think anyone has succeeded yet. He's too impossible and abstract. "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" is just roughly Adams, but it's great in every way.
Any attempt of concise retelling is pointless, because this show is one big puzzle, a labyrinth that perplexes more and more and twists happen every few minutes. "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is much more specific and linear, but I dare you to explain what it is about briefly and that it makes any sense.
If you liked "Misfits," "Happy," "Preacher," "Good Omens," or the new "Doctor Who", and if you like Douglas Adams, but you're not an obsessed fanatic, this is a perfect show for you. But if you expect a verbatim adaptation of the books or if you like linear stories, better skip it.
9/10 - DirectorWalter HillStarsMichael ParéDiane LaneRick MoranisA mercenary is hired to rescue his ex-girlfriend, a singer who has been kidnapped by a motorcycle gang.A dystopian neo-noir that compensates for a bad script with a great atmosphere and music
The place and time of this story are undefined. It is an alternative dimension that combines cars from the fifties, with the image and music of the eighties, the ambience of "Dark City" and the atmosphere that resembles the movies "The Warriors" and "West Side Story".
During the concert, a motorcycle gang, led by Raven (Willem Dafoe), kidnaps rock singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) directly from the stage. Her boyfriend and manager (Rick Moranis) hires her ex-boyfriend, a mercenary soldier (Michael Paré), to rescue her.
The story is a linear cliché - good guys, bad guys, femme fatale, he still loves his ex, she still loves him, but they are not destined, he is a one-man-army antihero, blah-blah. The good guys smash the bad guys, save the damsel in distress and our hero rides out into the night. A romance that doesn't touch you emotionally, predictable action, and two-dimensional characters that throw out shabby phrases.
And yet, the film has everything I wanted to experience as a teenager, even in front of a movie screen. Awesome cars with the pedal to the metal, wicked motorcyclists, rock music, macho guys in leather, which I dreamed to be, and the nightlife I wanted to live. As kids, we were very fond of this film, so even now, when I am able to see it objectively, I cannot resist the rush of nostalgia.
And of course, I have to mention the main trump card of "Streets of Fire" - the music. The whole soundtrack is great, but the only two songs by the studio band Fire Inc, formed especially for this occasion, "Nowhere Fast" and "Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young" became hit classics of the genre.
7/10 - DirectorLouis MalleStarsBurt LancasterSusan SarandonKate ReidIn a corrupt city, a small-time gangster and the estranged wife of a pot dealer find themselves thrown together in an escapade of love, money, drugs and danger."Yes, it used to be beautiful - what with the rackets, whoring, guns."
An elderly wanna-be gangster, who spends his days caring for the widow of his somewhat more successful friend, secretly watches through the window a half-naked waitress, who is trying to become a croupier. At one point, in an unfortunate set of circumstances, their paths cross and both are given the opportunity to get at least a hint of the realization of their dreams.
This drama, with a touch of crime genre and romance, is set in Atlantic City from the end of the seventies, when the life that Lou knew was almost extinct, and the city was just catching momentum in transforming into the gambling capital of the East Coast.
The film was nominated for five major Oscars, but did not win any. Honestly, the nominations for the best film, director, and screenplay are not clear to me, but the performances of Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon, as well as the overall atmosphere of the film, are reason enough to give it a chance.
7/10 - CreatorGreg BerlantiGeoff JohnsAndrew KreisbergStarsGrant GustinCandice PattonDanielle PanabakerAfter being struck by lightning, Barry Allen wakes up from his coma to discover he's been given the power of super speed, becoming the Flash, and fighting crime in Central City.The fastest man alive
"My name is Barry Allen and I'm the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. To the outside world, I'm just an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly I use my speed to fight crime and find others like me, and one day I'll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father. I am The Flash."
Season one opening is quite a sufficient presentation of what this series is about. The story is completely different from that of the eponymous 1990 series. The only thing they have in common is the premise - the supernaturally fast protagonist. The way Barry gained his powers is different, what those powers include, the team that helps him, practically everything. I don't know which of the series is closer to comics, if any, but I like the old one much more, even though it only has one season.
"The Flash" started in 2014 and was initially quite interesting and original (as much as possible in this genre), but too frivolous. I understand that this silly atmosphere was done on purpose, in order to establish a counterbalance to the dark series "Arrow", but for my taste they overdid it.
The second season is better written and realized, so it is much more fun and addictive than the first. But they also began to complicate the story in a way that threatens to turn the whole thing into nonsense.
A few days ago, I finished the third season in which that is exactly what happened. The story complicates to the point of total unconvincingness, action and effects do not bring anything new for three seasons, but only pour sand in the desert, once likable characters are slowly becoming more irritating, and in this they are wholeheartedly helped by the increasing element of melodrama, which in a few episodes has seriously entered the yuck pathetics.
Although the production is on a pretty solid level, and it's acceptably fun and well written, flaws still outweigh and I don't believe I'll continue to watch. I can not say it's bad, but definitely not worth watching another hundred forty-minutes episodes, or probably more, given that the series has not been completed yet.
An additional deal-breaker is a completely cretinous cross-over system, which intertwines the stories of all DC series and forces you to follow them all at once, in chronological order. Some arcs run through several series, so you have a situation where, for example, in the fifth episode of the second season of a series the first part of the plot takes place, then that plot continues in the tenth episode of the first season of the second series, which started a year later. The unfolding is in the sixth episode of the fourth season of the third series, which started a few years earlier. If you watch one series at a time, you will encounter inexplicable holes in the story and a lot of things will be vague and incomplete, plus the series you are currently watching will repeatedly spoil those you have not watched yet.
It is clear to me that this is a marketing move aimed at getting fans to watch all the series regularly, but, at least in my case, it is absolutely counterproductive and only irritates me and makes me want to completely abandon the complete DC TV Universe.
5/10 - DirectorRobert ZemeckisStarsMichael J. FoxChristopher LloydLea ThompsonAfter visiting 2015, Marty McFly must repeat his visit to 1955 to prevent disastrous changes to 1985...without interfering with his first trip."Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything."
After returning from 1955, where he secured his existence by reuniting his parents, Marty now travels from 1985 to 2015, to save his future son from prison. But in the future, he accidentally allows his father's elderly rival to return to 1955 and change history. Now he has to go back to 1955 again to prevent Biff from changing the present. But, as he returns to the same evening from two different points in time, he must be careful not to meet himself and not to interfere with the uniting of his parents. Potential paradoxes follow one another until you get dizzy.
"Back to the Future 2" continues directly to its predecessor, begins at the moment the first one ends, continues the same story, intertwines it with itself, and complicates it so much that, even if they made logical mistakes, I could not notice it.
The script, the acting, the directing, the effects, the overall atmosphere, everything is on the same level as the original film, except that it may be even more entertaining. Although technically two films, in essence, they can be viewed as one, and ingenious.
9,5/10 - CreatorCharlie BrookerStarsWunmi MosakuMonica DolanDaniel LapaineFeaturing stand-alone dramas -- sharp, suspenseful, satirical tales that explore techno-paranoia -- "Black Mirror" is a contemporary reworking of "The Twilight Zone" with stories that tap into the collective unease about the modern world.Makes you contemplate
"Black Mirror" is an anthological series that, for now, consists of 22 episodes, unequally divided into five irregular seasons. The episodes vary in length, genre, and style and are completely separate short films by different authors. What they have in common is only a general theme - the position in which modern technology puts us and not very optimistic forecasts of its further progress.
The "black mirror" is in fact the effect that the screens of our monitors, telephones, and TV have when turned off, and symbolically also a dark reflection of our reality and potentially darker future. - DirectorOtto BathurstStarsRory KinnearLindsay DuncanDonald SumpterPrime Minister Michael Callow faces a shocking dilemma when Princess Susannah, a much-loved member of the Royal Family, is kidnapped.What would you do?
The princess was kidnapped. Via a YouTube video, the kidnapper demands that the Prime Minister fuck a pig in a live television broadcast, in exchange for the Princess' life. While police are trying to track him down, and the crisis staff monitors the reactions of the public, we observe the horrific dilemma of the Prime Minister who is slowly giving in to the pressure, until a complete breakdown.
While the series is largely based on SF and futuristic premises, this episode is a purebred drama, quite possible at this very moment. The episode deals with the terrifying power that the Internet already possesses, the psychology of the masses, and the influence of the media on public opinion, questioning the policy of non-negotiation with terrorists, all through the prism of an individual in a hopeless situation.
Although the script has some obvious flaws, and the episode somewhat flirts with black humor, the overall impression it leaves is deeply shocking, quite frightening, and thought-provoking.
8/10 - DirectorEuros LynStarsDaniel KaluuyaJessica Brown FindlayRupert EverettIn a world where people's lives consist of riding exercise bikes to gain credits, Bing tries to help a woman get on to a singing competition show.The Matrix vs The X Factor
Today, more than ever, man is a slave - a slave to capitalism, consumerism, modern economy, and media brainwashing. We are trapped in a vicious circle of cash flow and our lives are spent paying bills, repaying loans, and constantly striving to stay afloat. The powerful manipulate our needs and satisfy them, probably largely unaware that, although on a different level, they themselves are trapped in the same game.
With this satirical futuristic episode, "Black Mirror" brings this hopeless situation to an extreme, making the life of an individual completely meaningless. But the satire here is not achieved through humor, but through the depressing and uneasy atmosphere of the story of a society in which brainwashed individuals spend their lives producing electricity by endlessly turning the pedals, while virtual reality diverts their attention from general absurdity. And when a whiff of individuality and the will to change accidentally appears in one of them, they are effectively suffocated by skillful manipulation and the screw is freshly oiled and returned to the machinery.
8/10 - DirectorBrian WelshStarsToby KebbellJodie WhittakerTom CullenIn the near future, everyone has access to a memory implant that records everything they do, see and hear. You need never forget a face again - but is that always a good thing?"Not everything that isn't true is a lie"
In the undefined but near future, people have memory implants that record everything we see and hear, so we can access a detailed reproduction of every previous experience at any time, or share it with others on any screen available.
One can no longer forget anything, but neither to hide. However useful and fun certain applications of this implant are for the individual, as well as for society as a whole, because, for example, they greatly facilitate police investigations, possibilities of abuse are endless. Sticking to the most beautiful memories becomes a modern form of addiction, missing the present because of living in the past, invading other people's privacy and intimacy, those are just some of them.
Whether the positive aspects are worth the negative ones and how ethical and cost-effective this violation of privacy is, viewers have the opportunity to judge for themselves on the example of a couple whose marriage is falling apart, because the past no longer remains in the past, nothing falls into oblivion and time does not heal all wounds anymore.
The premise is interesting, quite intimidating, and definitely calls for self-reflection. But, despite the good acting, the episode, compared to the previous ones, left a pale impression, because a strong premise was used for a relatively weak or maybe just insufficiently elaborated story. The potential of this idea could have been much better exploited.
7/10 - DirectorOwen HarrisStarsHayley AtwellDomhnall GleesonClaire KeelanAfter learning about a new service that lets people stay in touch with the deceased, a lonely, grieving Martha reconnects with her late lover."Imagine if it would have ended with the second-to-last scene."
In a car accident, a young woman loses her fiancé, a heavy addict to the Internet and social networks. This loss leaves her broken, especially when she realizes that she is pregnant. At the funeral, she learns about the software which, if it is given access to the deceased's internet accounts, can quite convincingly imitate him and thus enable the illusion of a conversation with a loved one. Although the idea was initially repulsive, when she tried the software, she quickly got hooked and distanced herself from the outside world. And then, after a while, she went one step further ...
Although the episode eventually enters a serious SF, the initial premise is not far from our current reality, so it is easy to identify with this story. Additional strength is given by the excellent performance of Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter from Marvel movies and series). Her partner Domhnall Gleeson is also good, although this role does not give him too much space to show off.
The story and atmosphere at first irresistibly reminded me of the movie "Her" (which, admittedly, was made later), which is definitely a plus for me, but later the episode loses its persuasiveness, which culminates in a completely mishit last scene that unnecessarily spoils the overall impression.
7/10 - DirectorCarl TibbettsStarsLenora CrichlowMichael SmileyTuppence MiddletonVictoria wakes up and cannot remember anything about her life. Everyone she encounters refuses to communicate with her, and they all seem to know something she doesn't. But what?Satire of hypocrisy
A young woman wakes up from unconsciousness with complete amnesia. Not knowing who she is or where she is, she begins to wander around and it becomes increasingly clear to her that something is seriously wrong. All the people she encounters stare at her in complete silence and record her with mobile phones, keeping a safe distance at all times. And then masked lunatics begin to appear, trying in every way to get to her, completely ignoring the silent observers.
Almost everything I want to comment on this episode would spoil it to those who have not seen it yet. The series has gone a step further and sci-fi drama, that characterized the previous episodes, here is brought to the brink of horror. A mysterious story, good acting and even better directing build a creepy and tense atmosphere, which culminates in a completely unexpected twist. All sorts of theories went through my head, but at no point was I even close to grasping what it was all about. Original and very effective.
8/10 - DirectorDean ParisotStarsKeanu ReevesAlex WinterKristen SchaalOnce told they'd save the universe during a time-traveling adventure, two would-be rockers from San Dimas, California find themselves as middle-aged dads still trying to crank out a hit song and fulfill their destiny.Bill & Ted Face the Humiliation
Mother of God, where to start. The first film is a cult classic, the second one passed on account of the old glory, but two decades later it no longer counts.
The script is a poorly written bunch of randomly thrown events, without much logic and point, which ignores the settings from the original. The movie does not continue on its predecessors, but is their reboot mix, without originality, without spirit, without charm.
Keanu Reeves looks stuffed, and so does his acting. Alex Winter managed to revive his character from twenty years ago, but shouldn't that character grow up a bit in the meantime ... The princesses are just right and the scenes when Bill and Ted are with them are rare bright spots of this movie.
Other roles have succumbed to the modern trend of political correctness and demographic diversity, which simply have no place in the Bill and Ted franchise. I have nothing against strong female roles and racial and sexual diversity, but stop desecrating literary adaptations and film remakes, trying to fit into this trend at any cost. Write new original scripts that will bring them to the forefront and leave cult classics alone.
Bill and Ted are not politically correct characters and they should not be. Their sons magically turned into daughters, whose imitation of their fathers is not funny and whose appearance and behavior cause painful transfers of shame, and because of Rufus' daughter, George Carlin is probably turning in his grave.
In a clumsy attempt to pick up a successful recipe from the first film, these daughters travel through time and gather legendary musicians to form a band. While the historical figures from the first part were an extremely interesting spice to the film, the choice of musicians here is obviously subordinated to the aforementioned Hollywood trend. Caveman behind the drums - original, but at what price ... Chinese female flutist?!!! A rapper that no one has heard of?!!! And if they are already copying previous films, why didn't they reprised Beethoven from the first film (it would be a nice comeback) instead of throwing in Mozart ... Also, these characters have no depth and serve no purpose other than to walk around the screen a bit. Other supporting characters are not even worth mentioning.
And the biggest disappointment is, without competition, the music. Garage rockers, in a desperate attempt to write a song that will save the world, "evolved" into an experimental ambient cacophony, while the world was saved by something I won't even try to define.
The end of the film is one of the most pathetic nonsenses I have seen so far. A predictable twist, with a shabby moral, which left a bland taste in my mouth and an urge to wear black in mourning for Bill and Ted, who were ruthlessly buried by this film. It remains for us to cleanse the brain by watching the original film and hope they will not resurrect them again.
A star for each Bill's versions from the future, a session with a marriage therapist, and a whiff of nostalgia, raises the score to
4/10 - DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsHugh GriffithLaura BettiNinetto DavoliPasolini's artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer's most erotic tales."Hey, Satan! Lift up your tail and show us where you keep the friars in hell!"
"Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma", the last film by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, inspired by Marquis de Sade, intrigued me to explore the rest of his filmography. For some time now, I have been planning to watch his "Trilogy of Life", which consists of medieval literature adaptations - Giovanni Boccaccio's "Decameron", Geoffrey Chaucer's book of short stories "The Canterbury Tales" and "A Thousand and One Nights". I intended to watch them in order, but a few days ago the opportunity appeared for me to see "The Canterbury Tales" on the big screen, so I suppressed my OCD and went to the theater.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) is one of the most important medieval English poets, who contributed to the introduction of Middle English in literature, when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. His most famous work are 24 stories, mostly in verse, inspired by "Decameron", but, unlike Boccaccio's, Chaucer's characters are not nobles, but people from different layers of society. In "The Canterbury Tales", a group of pilgrims travel from London to Cathedral in Canterbury and, in order to pass the time, tell erotic stories along the way.
It is impossible to pack Chaucer's entire work into a two-hour film, so Pasolini threw out the pilgrims and concentrated on their stories, of which he showed a selected eight. The stories are quite true to Chaucer (although there are some original scenes by Pasolini), but presented in a recognizable Pasolini's style.
Explicit nudity and sex are combined with the resourcefulness of the common folk and slapstick humor. Satire of church dogma, human lusts, greed and hypocrisy, a little drama, and much more of erotic and black humor, accompanied by the music of the legendary Ennio Morricone, will keep your attention with occasional bursts of laughter. But even though the film is quite entertaining, the flaws left a far stronger impression on me.
A hand-held camera takes us to medieval Italian-style England. This unusual mix, mostly amateur cast and sexual explicitness, which goes well beyond good taste, builds a specific atmosphere that will etch in your memory, whether you like it or not. I did not. I read somewhere that Pasolini used amateurs in his films to make the characters look more natural, but from my perspective, the effect varied from comic to irritating.
What drove me crazy throughout the film was the disastrous editing. The uneven transitions between shots, jumping from one segment to another in a way so abrupt and confusing that you're never sure if it's a transition between two scenes of the same story or between two stories. A couple of times I was confused by unrelated scenes only to realize after a while that the film moved on to the next story, without any hint or pause between them.
The film opens with "The Merchant's Tale", which shows the influence of "Decameron". It is followed by "The Friar's Tale" about corruption, hypocrisy, and a deal with the Devil, and then "The Cook's Tale", which is an obvious homage to Charlie Chaplin. It is interesting to mention that Chaplin's daughter Josephine plays the main role in the first story. I liked the vulgarly comic "The Miller's Tale" and "The Reeve's Tale" the most. The remaining three stories did not leave a special impression, but I must mention the scene with which the last story ends. This surreal, at the same time hilariously wacky and sickly disturbing scene, is one of the most impressive depictions of Hell in the history of film.
The film won the Golden Bear in Berlin and is considered a classic, but although it shares the producer, director of photography, and composer with the genius "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", to me it seemed amateurish and was irritating in many respects. I'm not sure whether this film for me is a positive or negative experience. I do not regret watching it, but I certainly wouldn't watch it again.
5/10 - DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.Imagine listening to a cheap philosophical audio-book while walking through an exhibition of art photography with depressive motifs ...
This cult achievement of Andrei Tarkovsky is generally accepted as one of the masterpieces of Russian cinematography. When I had the opportunity to see it on the big screen, I couldn't miss it. Fortunately, the ticket was extremely cheap.
"Stalker" is based on the SF novel "Roadside Picnic" by the Strugatskiy brothers, who adapted it into the script themselves. Although its genre classification is the same as that of the novel, "Stalker" is a philosophical and psychological drama, whose SF premise is only mentioned, and I believe that it is no more than a mere illusion in the minds of the protagonists, so the SF determinant leads to completely wrong expectations.
The film opens with a very slow but mesmerizingly atmospheric and superbly shot scene, each frame of which is an art photograph. Already in those first moments, I saw myself rating it a ten, but from there on the film only goes downhill.
To be clear, the rest of the film doesn't visually lag behind that first scene, but too long shots that show totally uninteresting people who do more or less nothing, no matter how beautifully shot, are not enough to hold my attention for almost three hours. If I wanted to enjoy top photography, I would go to an exhibition and not to the cinema. Of those three hours, perhaps a third is filled with plot, which again is largely reduced to monologues, while nothing really happens. Essentially, this looks more like a monodrama than a movie.
In the center of events is an area called the Zone, in which there is a room that, for those who get it alive, fulfills the greatest wish. The basic message of the film is: "Be careful what you wish for it might come true", because the Room does not fulfill the wish that we consciously ask for, but the essential one, hidden in the depths of man.
This is an interesting premise from which you will not see anything in the film. We don't know for sure whether the Zone is special in any way at all, nor do any of the protagonists use the Room. The premise is only there to give us the background to study the personalities of the people who headed to the zone and their guide, Stalker.
The plot itself can be told in a few sentences, while the whole story is reduced to a philosophical monologue by the author through the mouths of three protagonists. There are no original philosophical ideas or interesting views on life. Just a bunch of true, but long-worn philosophical and psychological phrases, pretentiously packaged so that they seem more profound and significant than they really are.
General impression - beautifully filmed but pretentious and hard to watch, without the essential strength to justify the effort. Just because of the technical qualities and the atmosphere, I can't go below
7/10
"The photography, in this case, is like the wrapping of an empty present box." - trans_mauro. - CreatorPaul AbbottJohn WellsStarsEmmy RossumWilliam H. MacyEthan CutkoskyA scrappy, feisty, fiercely loyal Chicago family makes no apologies.The perfect title
I just finished the first season of the American version of "Shameless". I never saw the British original, nor do I intend to, because the majority says that "remake" is better. Is it really better I can not say, but it is awesome.
How to describe this show in just one word? Shameless! I've never seen anything with a name that fits so perfectly and I can not decide if this show is more sick or ingenious. The story is boldly lifelike and, with a combination of heavy drama and hilarious comedy, it will hit you like a hammer. Whether you like it or not, there's no chance you'll be bored. Directing and music are great and the cast is more than excellent. From episode to episode it leaves me speechless. Complete nuthouse.
****
After 11 seasons, the series that I experienced as a parallel life ended. For something that lasts so long, the quality necessarily varies, but despite all the downs, the series has always managed to recover and maintain average quality at a fairly high level. I may have become too attached to it to be objective, but overall, I think it deserves
8,5/10 - DirectorBryn HigginsStarsDaniel RigbyChloe PirrieJason FlemyngA failed comedian who voices a popular cartoon bear named Waldo finds himself mixing in politics when TV executives want Waldo to run for office.The weakest link
Jamie is a mediocre comedian who lends his voice to the blue animated bear Waldo. Waldo is in the style of the "South Park" series, only at a much lower and more primitive level. During the election, the producers use Waldo to ridicule the candidates. The unexpectedly good reaction of the public leads them to put Waldo in the race. But Jamie is not material for a politician and snaps under pressure. In an attempt to destroy the campaign, he destroys his private life, while politics goes on, as if nothing had happened.
The idea is good, especially because it is not far from reality, but the realization is poor, or perhaps, a better word is lazy. Political satire is lukewarm, and human drama does not arouse any emotions, both because of the weak script and because of the unimpressive acting.
5/10 - DirectorCarl TibbettsStarsJon HammRafe SpallOona ChaplinThree interconnected tales of technology run amok during the Christmas season are told by two men at a remote outpost in a frozen wilderness."It wasn't really real, so it wasn't really barbaric."
Imagine having a block function from social networks available in real life. In the unspecified future, people have chips in their temples, similar to those in The Entire History of You, which, among many other functions (such as taking photos by eyes), allow them to block other people, so that they can no longer see or hear each other.
In addition, the extracted chip automatically becomes your mental clone, a self-conscious copy of your mind that functions independently of you.
Both of these chip functions are very useful in this futuristic society, but, as in previous episodes, the question arises again as to how ethical and humane modern technology is, and whether it is worth the risk of countless possibilities of abuse.
The script consists of three intertwined stories, incredibly well worked out in just over an hour. The story is complex just enough to maintain attention and tension without getting lost in the perplexity. Great actors bring us well-written characters with whom it is easy to identify, so, in addition to an interesting premise, which makes us introspect, we also have a strong emotional drama. And like the icing on the cake, the episode ends with a pretty effective twist.
An additional plus for me is the presence of a large number of "easter egg" references to almost all previous episodes, which indicate the possibility that all previous "Black Mirror" stories are placed in the same time frame. Perhaps the best episode so far.
8,5/10 - DirectorJoe WrightStarsBryce Dallas HowardAlice EveCherry JonesA woman desperate to boost her social media score hits the jackpot when she's invited to a swanky wedding, but the trip doesn't go as planned."There's sugary and then there's fucking diabetes!"
Another futuristic episode in which life comes down to popularity on social networks. Your every action, every word, is rewarded or punished by people from your environment by adding or subtracting points on your profile. From your position on a one to five stars scale directly depends your social position and your opportunities in life, from where you will live and what work you will do, to the most banal little things such as which car you will be able to get in the rent-a-car agency.
We already have an extremely large number of mostly young people addicted to social networks, whose lives are reduced to Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. It is a common sight that groups of young people, instead of hanging out, stare at their phones. But social networks also have an impact on those who have not so obviously succumbed to them, because they greatly influence public opinion and all spheres of public life.
This episode is not really SF, but a satirical exaggeration of the reality in which we live, and that is exactly what makes it more convincing and scarier than all that precede it. While in the beginning this caricature is hilarious, as the story progresses, the surreal comedy grows into a real drama with a quite tense atmosphere.
Technically well done, with interesting solutions, a surreal atmosphere, and great acting and music, and most of all a topic that is extremely close to us, the episode had the potential for the highest rating. Unfortunately, the ending, although it makes sense, pretty much disappointed me. I think they could have finished it much more powerful and impressive.
8,5/10 - DirectorAlejandro JodorowskyStarsAlejandro JodorowskyBrontis JodorowskyJosé LegarretaA mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do
The film that made Jodorowsky famous deserves a serious review. I am not capable of writing it, because this is my first encounter with Jodorowsky, and this completely crazy western left me speechless for quite a while.
Jodorowsky is a poet, writer, screenwriter, actor, director, musician, painter, comic book artist, sculptor, and even a clown, still active at the age of 92. You can imagine what we can expect from a person like this. In fact, you can't. I don't think anyone expected a movie like "El Topo".
The story is set somewhere on Weird West and follows a lone gunslinger, who is a combination of Leone's Man with No Name and Jesus from "The Last Temptation of Christ", played by Jodorowsky himself.
In the first part of the film, he returns to the village with his seven-year-old son (played by Jodorowsky's son) and finds a massacre. He sets out in pursuit of the perpetrators and finds them in a Franciscan monastery, terrorizing monks. He kills them all and keeps for himself the wife of their leader, leaving his son to the monks.
At the urging of a new woman, he sets out in search of the four best desert revolvers, in order to defeat them, prove that he is the best, and win the woman's favor. He cheats and succeeds, but his woman betrays him and leaves with another, leaving him wounded in the desert.
In my opinion, here is one of the best scenes in the film. The woman's lover shoots him four times, one bullet in both palms and both feet, which symbolizes Jesus' wounds from the nails, and then his woman betrays him, finishing him with a bullet in the side.
In the second part of the film, he is found by a group of deformed dwarves, who live in a deep cave below the mountain. When they nurtured him to full strength, he decides to repay them by digging a tunnel that will connect them with the nearby town. His now-grown son returns to the story. He wants to kill the father, but allows him to complete the tunnel first. But, it turns out that the city is a decadent and in every way perverted place, which will not welcome newcomers with open arms.
The timeline of the story is totally vague and abstract, and the story itself, taken literally, does not make much sense, but is more symbolic. I have no problem with the symbols in the film, when they fit well into the story, but there are only symbols here, and the whole film is one big allegory about sin and redemption.
Apart from El Topo, the characters are not particularly developed and their stories do not intertwine, but our anti-hero meets them one by one or in small groups and their screen-time is rather short. However, that doesn't make them any less impressive, because they are all quite original and extremely bizarre.
Visually, "El Topo" is excellently shot and has a mesmerizing surreal atmosphere, but the scenes captured in these art photographs are not for everyone's stomach. "El Topo" is extremely explicit in depicting nudity, perversions, mental and physical abuse, killing and massacre, which definitely do not lack imagination in the ways they try to turn your stomach upside down. There are freaks, both physical and mental, rapes, incest, and even scenes that would be condemned today as child pornography. And yet, all those situations and the general atmosphere are so surreal that it makes them silly, at times even funny, in a Monty Python way.
General impression - wtf I just watched?!!! "El Topo" kept my undivided attention, I laughed a little, at times it was a little tense, and mostly my jaw dragged on the floor in disbelief. There is a message and a moral, those who are more sensitive may find some human warmth, it is well shot, but you will not find a coherent story here. A warm recommendation to fans of acid western and bizarre art film in general, but the mainstream audience should better skip it.
7/10 - DirectorDan TrachtenbergStarsWyatt RussellHannah John-KamenWunmi MosakuAn American traveler short on cash signs up to test a revolutionary new gaming system, but soon can't tell where the hot game ends and reality begins.Virtually real
Imagine a VR (virtual reality) horror game that reads your subconsciousness and personalizes itself by adapting to your deepest fears, so real (because everything takes place in your head) that your mind is not capable of distinguishing it from reality.
"Playtest" is a psychological horror mindfuck, set in the environment of a retro "haunted house". The futuristic but potentially realistic premise, charismatic characters, great acting and directing, and an atmosphere similar to Poe or Lovecraft, make it my favorite episode so far. And the plot twists, although unoriginal, are only seemingly predictable and managed to surprise me and leave me under a strong impression.
8,5/10 - DirectorJames AlgarSamuel ArmstrongDavid HandStarsHardie AlbrightStan AlexanderBobette AudreyThe story of a young deer growing up in the forest."What happened, Mother? Why did we all run? - Man was in the forest."
(there are spoilers, but I guess everyone watched this ...)
The first half of the film is a romanticized depiction of playful animals in the forest, accompanied by classical music and almost ballet choreography, similar to the two years older "Fantasy". Of course, there are also original songs, a trademark of every Disney cartoon. For today's generations, this long introduction, during which almost nothing happens, can be overly stretched and boring, and the animation from this perspective does not leave a special impression, although the main characters are unbelievably cute. But that is the style of that time and, when you take into account that Disney movies were then drawn by hand, frame by frame, from that perspective, the result leaves you breathless.
What follows is an extremely dark, depressing part of the film, which briefly leaves the cheerful colorfulness we have enjoyed so far, to show us the other side of the coin. Winter is coming, a cruel period of struggle for survival. As if food shortages are not a sufficient problem for our forest friends, there are also hunters who take away Bambi's mom. "Man was in the forest." This one sentence should be enough to embarrass us because of all our arrogance towards nature. However, nature is much bigger than us, and life goes on.
The father, the prince of the forest, comes for Bambi and soon the film returns to the songful colorful spring. Nature is waking up and love is in the air. To some, their favorite scene is Bambi on the ice, for others, it is when he plays with a little doe, but for me, Owl's interpretation of love is without competition. We still have a scene of two young deer dancing in the fight for a female, as well as another, rather tense rush of human destructiveness, but this is still a Disney movie and a happy ending is inevitable. Bambi saves Feline and the cycle of nature continues.
See this classic animated film, and you will enjoy a little more than an hour of real Disney, still uncorrupted by CGI and political trends that newer releases obey. (Although racial diversity can be found here as well, since the main characters are a deer, a rabbit, and a skunk; the beginnings of feminism, because all three females took the first step in relationships; and I think that the skunk is a latent homosexual.) Personally, I will do my best for my child to grow up on this and similar works of art, instead of ... (not to express myself) ... presented by today's children's TV programs.
8/10 - DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsNatalya BondarchukDonatas BanionisJüri JärvetA psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane."When a man is happy, the meaning of life and other eternal themes rarely interest him."
The film "Solaris", by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, is based on the eponymous SF novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. I did not read the novel, but its author criticized this adaptation, and Tarkovski himself considered it his weakest achievement.
Humans have set up a space station in the orbit of a planet with an indication of extraterrestrial intelligence. However, many years of research do not give any concrete results and the mission is on the verge of shutdown. The station was reduced to only three scientists and, when one of them commits suicide, our protagonist is sent to investigate the case and submit a report on which will depend the further fate of the mission Solaris. It turns out that this mysterious intelligence has the ability to read human minds while they sleep and materialize their "dreams".
As with the film "Stalker", the SF premise is here in the service of the basis for the study of character and strong psychological drama, with the SF element being much more prominent. The premise is very interesting, characters are well developed, both through their actions and through excellently written dialogues, the acting is on a level, and the overall atmosphere is mesmerizing, which is greatly contributed by visual and especially sound effects. Although Tarkovsky did not have a high opinion of Kubrick's masterpiece, the atmosphere of "Solaris" reminded me quite a bit of "2001: A Space Odyssey".
As expected from Tarkovsky, the camera, directing, and editing make "Solaris" visually beautiful. But the film contains scenes that last an eternity and, although they look really nice and have a good atmosphere, do not serve any obvious purpose. Neither they contribute to the story, nor to the overall atmosphere or emotion. They are here to be beautiful and to last until exhaustion.
The film opens with the scene of our main character strolling, a beautiful scene in which every frame is an art photograph, and without which the film would lose nothing but four minutes of idling. It is soon followed by a scene of Burton driving in the car. For a full five minutes, we watch him in the car and then road through his eyes and then him again and then road from above... So, in the first half-hour, a third is in the same function as Tolstoy's descriptions on five pages. The film could be easily shortened from almost three to under two hours, without losing a bit of story and atmosphere. We would be deprived only of idling, although very nicely shot, but still only idling, which is only there to be beautiful, and along the way to distract everyone from watching except those most patient artistic souls. I'm not saying that all those scenes should be thrown out, but they could be cut in half and the film should still be beautiful and artistic, without risk of suffocating the audience.
I'm not able to explain what is in question, but I almost unmistakably recognize movies from the seventies. They have that specific taste that I never particularly liked. Also, after the movie "Stalker", I was not optimistic about Tarkovsky's other films. But this one made a really strong impression on me. So much so that, just a few days after watching it in the cinema, I watched it again at home. Except for, in my opinion unnecessary, long idle scenes, "Solaris" is in all other respects a beautiful and enriching film experience.
9/10 - DirectorGreg MottolaStarsMichael CeraJonah HillChristopher Mintz-PlasseTwo co-dependent high school seniors are forced to deal with separation anxiety after their plan to stage a booze-soaked party goes awry."You know when you hear girls say 'Ah man, I was so shit-faced last night, I shouldn't have fucked that guy?' We could be that mistake!"
Eminem's favorite movie and Emma Stone's film debut. A somewhat vulgar teenage comedy about two high school friends who try to provide alcohol for a party and get some girls drunk, hoping that way they'll score some sex.
The story originated from the pens of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who started the script when they were thirteen years old. The latest information gives you a pretty clear idea of what to expect from this film. Just remember the stories you told with your friends during puberty and you will have a rough concept of the plot.
A whole range of puberty-driven teens, led by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera, in pretty imaginative and fun tongue-in-cheek situations and conversations will probably keep your attention for a full two hours and, if you don't expect too much, you'll have a good time. Within the genre, I really have no objections, but "Superbad" doesn't bring anything worth mentioning, neither technically nor essentially, so I can't go over
6/10 - DirectorHal AshbyStarsPeter SellersShirley MacLaineMelvyn DouglasAfter the death of his employer forces him out of the only home he's ever known, a simpleminded, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful tycoon and an insider in Washington politics."I like to watch"
The slightly mentally disabled gardener, who has never left the property he worked on in his life, gets into an awkward situation when his employer and protector dies and he is left without a roof over his head. However, a chance brings him to the house of the rich man with a great influence on the government. His childish simplicity, unburdened mind, literalism, and directness in address, combined with a calm appearance and complete absence of complexes and shame, are somehow misinterpreted as the manners of a wise and intuitive man who is at peace with himself and the world around him, and he is inadvertently involved in politics, to the extent that the president himself quotes him in his speeches.
"Being There", directed by Hal Ashby, is a political satire, as well as a satire of the influence of the media on political and public life, achieved through the comedy of the situation. Humor is intelligent and subtle, mostly verbal, although there are some almost Chaplin moments. It is based primarily on the simple and literal boyish observations of a gardener, which people in his environment, unprovoked, interpret as profound metaphors, so he becomes the object of admiration and respect, and even romantic love. This is not a comedy that will make you scream with laughter, while tears well up in your eyes, but you will smile pleasantly all the time.
The cast presented all the characters very naturally and convincingly. Peter Sellers was nominated for an Oscar for the leading role (many believe that this is his life achievement), while Melvyn Douglas won it for a supporting role. In my opinion, the rest of the cast does not lag behind the leading duo, and I would especially like to single out Shirley MacLaine, who deserved at least a nomination. The same goes for Jerzy Kosinski, who, for this occasion, adapted his own novel of the same name into a film script.
Although the story takes place slowly, the film does not stifle, but maintains a well-balanced pace, which allows us to fully experience what we see and hear, and excellent photography, directing and editing make each frame pleasing to the eye.
Finally, I just want to go back to Sellers for a moment. It is interesting, and perhaps it has a deeper meaning, that he spent almost a decade trying to find a studio to produce "Being There", in the meantime filming the "Pink Panther" series in order to raise money to finance it himself. In 1979, he finally made it and died the following year ...
9/10 - DirectorJames WatkinsStarsAlex LawtherJerome FlynnSusannah DoyleWhen withdrawn Kenny stumbles headlong into an online trap, he is quickly forced into an uneasy alliance with shifty Hector, both at the mercy of persons unknown.Uncomfortably powerful
Unlike most, the episode "Shut Up and Dance" is not futuristic, but is based on existing technologies and their current abuses.
An unknown person or group hacks computer cameras and catches people in compromising situations. Then uses these recordings to blackmail them. Several of these seemingly random victims have received obscure instructions on what, when, and where to do if they do not want their footage to leak to the public.
The blackmailers' demands to the victims seem quite harmless in relation to the consequences if they do not fulfill them, but we see that only based on their reactions, while we do not really know what exactly they were blackmailed with. They depart each to his task, driven by panic fear of the publication of the images, which may seem irrationally excessive to us.
The characters are ordinary people, totally inconspicuous and uninteresting, and the tasks themselves are quite banal and did not arouse my particular interest in the outcome, so I wondered why "Shut Up and Dance" has such a high rating on IMDb. A good idea of a perfect crime, where the actors are unknown and unrelated people, who don't even know what they're doing, so it's almost impossible to track them down, is spoiled by unimpressive characters and a pace that doesn't hold attention, but then these pieces of the puzzle begin to assemble into a broader picture and the tension begins to rise.
When I finally figured out what it was about and my disappointment with the episode subsided, there was a final plot twist, which showed me that I hadn't figured anything out and that the real picture of this puzzle was much darker than I could have imagined. When the ending credits started, my wife and I sat for a while, silently glancing at each other with wtf expressions on our faces. The episode left us completely speechless. In the end, nothing was as it seemed and a day later I still don't know what to think.
In technical terms, and even in acting, "Shut Up and Dance" is nothing spectacular, although Jerome Flynn, in one of the main roles, was a pleasant surprise to me. For the most part, the episode is not particularly atmospheric, and the tension is at a fairly low level for a thriller. But the impression that the final outcome left on me makes it perhaps the strongest episode so far. I can't recall the last time something has caused me this level of discomfort, which crawled into my bones and did not wane even later when the impressions settled.
8,5/10 - StarsGeorge ReevesNoel NeillJack LarsonThe Man of Steel fights crime with help from his friends at the "Daily Planet."It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!
"Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Yes, it's Superman, a strange visitor from another planet, who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way."
"Adventures of Superman" is a TV show that aired in the fifties and was obviously very popular, considering that it lasted for six seasons, until the death of the lead actor, George Reeves. It consists of 104 half-hour episodes, mostly with separate stories. The first two seasons were in black and white, and in 1955 they started filming it in color, although until the 1970s, TV sets were mostly monochromatic.
I only watched the first few episodes because, although the series is quite solid, it did not age well and I don't want to invest over fifty hours in it. Essentially, it is in the same style as two Batman series from the forties, but it is far better made in every aspect. It reminds me somewhat of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" with maybe a bit of "Twilight Zone", but with much simpler and more banal plots and a more relaxed and even somewhat comical atmosphere.
Being aware of when it aired, I have to give it some slack and, if I were younger and with an excess free time, curiosity would probably pull me to continue, but from today's perspective, it is too cheesy for me to dedicate to it more seriously.
6/10 - DirectorOwen HarrisStarsGugu Mbatha-RawMackenzie DavisDenise BurseWhen Yorkie and Kelly visit San Junipero, a fun-loving beach town full of surf, sun and sex, their lives are changed."Uploaded to the cloud, sounds like Heaven."
The coastal town of San Junipero, in the eighties of the last century. Saturday night, the streets are full of young people visiting nightclubs. Sexually charged atmosphere, cult music hits, but there is also some discomfort in the air, which reminded me of "The Streets of Fire".
The story of two women, two worlds, who, with turbulence, find themselves in each other. This, one might say, typical romantic drama does not seem to fit into the "Black Mirror" series at all. Any further delving into the story would lead to unforgivable spoilers, so I will have to let you discover for yourself why "San Junipero" is not only a worthy representative of this top series, but also one of its best episodes.
In every aspect, the authors made an effort to conjure up the production style of the eighties, my favorite decade in film and music, so the nostalgia may have clouded my objectivity a bit. Camera, directing, acting, music, I loved it all. The plot twist is great and, although I predicted it, I don't think it's too predictable in itself, it's just on my wavelength. It certainly did not spoil my impression, because I experienced it as a fulfillment of a wish, and not as a spoiled surprise.
Spoiler alert!
Only the very ending was quite over-the-top. As much as I am glad for the happy ending, because I was really attached to the main characters, this same happy ending is unnaturally imposed here and it seems forced. Also, it is not in the spirit of the series. If they had finished the episode a bit earlier, it would have been much better.
9/10 - DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsDavid HemmingsVanessa RedgraveSarah MilesA fashion photographer unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park.Is it just pretentious film-making or serious cinematic art...
I honestly don't know how to answer. I just watched two hours of a movie in which nothing special happens, and it kept my undivided attention all the time. The story could be told in two sentences and it is not particularly interesting, I did not like the cast, I was not attached to the main character (and practically the only important one), it did not fascinate me with photography or directing ... It is not at all clear to me why I liked this film, but I did.
"Blow-Up" is Michelangelo Antonioni's second color film and the first in English. It was filmed in London with English actors and reportedly represents a critique of the fashion world, as well as a study of voyeurism and subjective perception. It was nominated for two Oscars (for directing and screenwriting) and won Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Also, it met with a good response from the audience, and it earned twenty on the two million dollars invested.
I guess "Blow-Up" requires a certain social and cultural foreknowledge of the 1960s for us to fully understand and experience it in the right way, and mine is probably not enough. However, the film left a trace even without that, because it has that something, some vibe to which I reacted without complete understanding. And there is the surreal last scene that perfectly rounds it up and which in itself is reason enough to watch this movie.
8/10 - DirectorJakob VerbruggenStarsMalachi KirbyMadeline BrewerAriane LabedFuture soldiers Stripe and Raiman must protect frightened villagers from an infestation of vicious feral mutants.The weakest in the season, or more precisely, the least good
Another futuristic episode, judging by the language, is located in Denmark, in a military base that trains super-soldiers with brain implants, to hunt for mutants that threaten the survival of the human race. But when one of the soldiers' implant breaks down, he begins to realize that he is living a lie and that things are not as they seemed.
The fact is that this episode does not bring the original story, but is a fairly faithful copy of the 1998 episode "Hearts and Minds" of the series "The Outer Limits". But we certainly live in an era of remakes and reboots, accustomed to a serious shortage of original ideas, and personally, I have never had a problem with loans of this type, if the result is quality.
"Men Against Fire" sticks to the basic idea of the "Black Mirror" series and brings us another possible abuse of modern technologies in the near future. It criticizes war propaganda and brainwashing, as well as the tendency of an individual to, although enlightened, side with the majority and opt for a line of least resistance.
The episode is an SF drama, with horror influences and the inevitable plot twist. It is well filmed and acted, and the horror moments are effective. However, previous episodes have raised my criteria to a fairly high level, with which "Men Against Fire" fails to keep up. Even if I hadn't watched "The Outer Limits", the story didn't bring me anything new and it didn't manage to interest me in the characters and their destinies, and the general atmosphere, compared to the rest of the series, was lukewarm.
7/10 - DirectorJames HawesStarsKelly MacdonaldFaye MarsayBenedict WongIn near-future London, police detective Karin Parke, and her tech-savvy sidekick Blue, investigate a string of mysterious deaths with a sinister link to social media."Let's just shut it down all social media the whole bloody internet. Pull the plug."
The whole series can be seen as an anthology of separate short films. "Hated in the Nation" is not even short, but has the duration of a classic feature film of an hour and a half. As much as, in most cases, the duration of the episode under an hour is too short a good idea to really develop, this time an hour and a half was too much.
A classic SF thriller, whose premise might be realistic for the present, if we replaced the bee-drones from this film with something that fits into today's technology, and there are certainly some that would approximately serve the purpose. However, bees here are not only a tool for abuse, but also a warning of an ecological catastrophe that awaits us, because there are fewer and fewer bees, and they are absolutely necessary and irreplaceable for maintaining the ecosystem in which we live. And only from that side, I liked "Hated in the Nation".
As for the psychology of the masses on social networks and their manipulation, this topic is becoming more and more boring, and "Hated in the Nation" did not approach it in a way fresh and original enough to attract my attention. The plot twist was obvious to me almost from the beginning, so there was no effect of a surprise either. I don't like the cast, although I have no major objections to how they carried out the story. All in all, a mediocre SF thriller, good enough to hold attention, but really nothing special and quite forgettable.
6/10 - DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist."That's probably how it was meant to be. Each of us has his own destiny."
I don't know if this is one of the best films of all time, but it certainly is one of the most beautiful. From the camera, the direction, the sound, the acting, through the story it tells and the overall atmosphere, to the emotions it arouses, "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" is simply mesmerizing. There is not too much drama, or humor, or mystery here, no tension, no brainstorming. But there is magic, magic of life, and magic of cinema, which intertwine in the heart of a boy. "Nuovo Cinema Paradiso" is a relaxing feast for the senses, which fills the heart and soul. It is full of symbolism, but it is so lovely that I do not want to analyze it in any way. Just turn off the lights, sit back comfortably and enjoy your own experience of this timeless masterpiece.
10/10 - DirectorRon SheltonStarsKevin CostnerSusan SarandonTim RobbinsA fan who has an affair with one minor-league baseball player each season meets an up-and-coming pitcher and the experienced catcher assigned to him.A major league love story in a minor league town.
I'm not interested in sports at all, so I'm not a fan of that film genre either. Also, baseball is almost exclusively an American game, which is rarely followed in Europe. Still, I enjoyed watching "Bull Durham," one of the few sports films that left a strong impression on me.
"Of course, a guy will listen to anything if he thinks it's foreplay." - Annie Savoy.
"Bull Durham" follows a small minor-league losing baseball team, which is trying to get back on its feet, receiving in its ranks a promising young pitcher, played by Tim Robbins. His momentum leaves you breathless, but precision and maturity are not his strong points. To get him in order, the manager brings a minor-league veteran (Kevin Costner) to be his catcher and tutor. These two are so different in character, that it is seemingly impossible for them to ever function as a team, and things get even more complicated when a local baseball groupie (Susan Sarandon) gets involved.
"Bull Durham" is sports and romantic drama, imbued with a life philosophy and a healthy dose of humor, and it works great in all these fields. If you are a sports fan, "Bull Durham" will easily interest you in baseball, and for romantics, a love story will hold your attention from beginning to end.
Although Tim Robbins is the main character in the part of the film that follows his sports career and appears in most of the scenes, he is also comic relief, while the focus is more on Kevin and Susan, whose outstanding acting skills and experience are further enhanced by strong chemistry. The expectedly good performances of the leading trio are supported by well-written dialogues, which range from witty remarks to life's wisdom, balanced so that they do not lose their strength for a moment, nor do they go into cheesy exaggeration.
"Honey, would you rather I'd be making love to him using your name or making love to you using his name..." - Annie Savoy.
The overall atmosphere of the eighties, my favorite decade in film and music, brings "Bull Durham" at least one additional star on my scale. The camera and directing are outstanding, and accompanied by a top soundtrack without any weak points. John Fogerty, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, Edith Piaf, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Dominoes, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Tina Turner, are just some of the names that make this film even better.
8/10 - DirectorToby HaynesStarsJesse PlemonsCristin MiliotiJimmi SimpsonCapt. Robert Daly presides over his crew with wisdom and courage. But a new recruit will soon discover nothing on this spaceship is what it seems.Cogito, ergo sum / Asshole god
"USS Callister", the episode that opens the fourth season of the "Black Mirror" series, came from a good idea for a premise, but the premise is poorly set and realized even worse.
I like spoofs on the Star Trek franchise and its fanatics. I like the set design and the overall retro approach to the aesthetics of this episode. I also like the futuristic technology of virtual reality, although practically the same thing has already been seen in the episode "San Junipero".
"USS Callister" raises moral issues related to artificial intelligence and (mis)use of modern technologies, typically for "Black Mirror". It also brings us a study of the character of a macho bully, behind whose self-confident machoism and misogyny hides a difficult form of a lower value complex of a Trekkie nerd, a frightened and immature, but successful programmer and owner of a VR company.
On the other hand, it is all very badly packaged in a story that had the potential for a serious and tense mindfuck drama, and it turned out to be linear and unconvincing, like a children's picture book. Even the victory of good over evil in this story does not work well, because almost all the characters are more or less "villains", and our "heroes" are in fact villains overly punished for their "crimes" by a mentally ill person, who also does not deserves an end like this.
Although promising at the start, the episode "USS Callister" has developed into a story full of completely incredible logical and technological holes and omissions, which we might be able to ignore for the sake of convincing characters with whom we can connect, cheer for them and fear for their destinies, or for the sake of strong moral. But when the "heroes" of the story are two-dimensional and just as repulsive as the "villain", and the moral message shit itself, then the only thing that can pull out a film is a powerful and well-written story, which this one certainly isn't.
Technically well done, with an interesting aesthetics, but hollow in both the plot and the essence, this "Black Mirror" episode left me with a bland taste in my mouth.
6/10 - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsMatthew McConaugheyAnne HathawayJessica ChastainWhen Earth becomes uninhabitable in the future, a farmer and ex-NASA pilot, Joseph Cooper, is tasked to pilot a spacecraft, along with a team of researchers, to find a new planet for humans."Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here."
With his filmography, and especially the Batman trilogy and the film "Inception", Nolan earned the reputation of one of the greatest directors of today, as well as complete freedom in shooting his next projects. I fully understand the trust placed in him by the studio, but, unlike most, I don't think he really justified it.
"Interstellar" is considered one of the best SF films of all time, and many perceive it as one of the best movies overall. From my perspective, it's not even Nolan's best. "Dunkirk", "Inception", all three Batmans, "The Prestige", ... all of his movies I've seen so far are at least a class better than this.
Its aesthetics and atmosphere reminded me a lot of Kubrick's "Odyssey", but even with half a century more modern technology, it is not nearly as fascinating and impressive. While "Odyssey" is mostly breathtaking, even regardless of the time of its creation, "Interstellar" is visually beautiful, at times even fascinating to the eye, but it did not touch me emotionally, nor did I have that gooseflesh feel along the spine that does not let you sit still while watching Kubrick's masterpiece.
Speaking of the comparison with "Odyssey", I noticed that many complain about the excessive duration of Nolan's film. No, the problem doesn't lie in the three hours duration, or even in the pace at which the story unfolds. "Odyssey" is also a long film and at a much slower pace than "Interstellar", but it has a mesmerizing atmosphere that nails you to the screen, which "Interstellar" unfortunately does not have.
While I'm still at the visual aspect of the film, I must also mention the great opportunity that this film missed. Visits to the planets in another galaxy were the perfect moment to let your imagination run wild and to engrave this movie in the memory of viewers with striking scenes of distant worlds. Instead, we've got two completely uninspiring and unoriginal scenes of the spacecraft's immediate surroundings, so there's no exploration of the new worlds and enjoying never-before-seen scenery. I don't even know why they used CGI, they could easily shot those scenes somewhere in the Arctic and get the same effect.
As for the scientific aspect of the story, I understand physics and astronomy so poorly that I am not in the least competent to judge how much the film respects known physical laws, let alone those that go into theoretical assumptions. Still, as the film progressed, this aspect too seemed more and more unconvincing, until the very end and the scene in the multiverse of the daughter's room, which, at least for me, drove the last nail into the coffin of the scientific foundation of this film.
The very end of the film is the biggest minus to me, because I think that the "happy" end (if it can be called happy at all ...) is inappropriate and breaks the atmosphere that the film had built until then. In addition, it remained unexplained how such an end came about and how it is possible at all, which is also the biggest hole in this story.
The dramatic aspect is something I can discuss and it is one of the strengths of this film, although the characters were not particularly convincing to me, and many of their actions seemed unnatural. As if they are not in line with the characters, but there only to push the story in the desired direction.
The only truly convincing character, perfectly written and acted, a character who shows the true human nature of an individual faced with the dilemma between self-preservation and the well-being of humanity, is a character masterfully played by Matt Damon. Some of us will find ourselves in his fear and submission to completely natural human instincts, others will strongly condemn him (many of them very hypocritically), but it is indisputable that he stands out among the other characters in this film as Jordan in "Space Jam".
If you want an atmosphere of space that freezes the blood in your veins or unsurpassed metaphysical depth, you can always go back to "Odyssey", for space action there is "Star Wars", and there are plenty of post-apocalyptic dramas with a stronger emotion. To be clear, "Interstellar" is far from being a bad film, it's an above-average pastime to watch, but I think its reputation and cult status are more a consequence of the name Christopher Nolan than the quality of the film itself.
7/10 - DirectorJoshua LoganStarsMarilyn MonroeDon MurrayArthur O'ConnellA naive but stubborn cowboy falls in love with a saloon singer and tries to take her away against her will to get married and live on his ranch in Montana."Bo, you have a terrible habit of overdoin' everything!"
"Bus Stop" is the story of a twenty-one-year-old young man who spent his entire life on a ranch where there are no women. Now, with his friend/guardian, a man who is a kind of replacement for his father (the nature of their relationship is not explained in the film), he goes to Phoenix for a rodeo. Bo is naive and childish, without real life experience, but at the same time a capable, strong man, used to adapting things to himself, even by force. When he sees a pub singer in Phoenix, he recognizes the woman who is destined for him and decides to marry her, without stopping for a moment to ask himself if that desire is mutual.
Chérie is a girl who decided to escape from the nowhere where she grew up, and set out for Hollywood in search of a career and happiness. On the long journey to Los Angeles, she had several stops along the way, where she did side jobs that she is not really proud of. But Chérie is determined in her intention and ready to do anything to reach her goal.
Phoenix is a place where the paths of these two intersect into an unusual romantic comedy.
Opinions about this achievement of Joshua Logan are divided. While some believe that Marilyn Monroe's performance, with a forced southern accent, would have been tragic if it had not been overshadowed by Don Murray's catastrophic overacting, others consider this film one of her better achievements, and Don was even nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
I could agree with the former if this were a serious drama, but this film doesn't take itself seriously, so why should I. This is a comedy and it is more than obvious that the acting is as it is intentionally and purposefully. And, at least in my case, that goal has been achieved. I had a lot of fun, and at times I burst out laughing.
I can't judge Marilyn Monroe's performance with confidence, because apart from "Some Like It Hot", I haven't seen any of her films so far. But Don Murray's performance is so over-the-top that it is literally impossible that it is not intentional, and then, by analogy, it follows that the same is true for Marilyn. Their mutual chemistry is fantastic, and their overacting and insane behavior are hilarious.
However, it is not clear to me how an actor who plays the main character, around whom the entire film revolves, and whose performance is his strongest asset, can be nominated for a supporting role. It would be logical for Marilyn to play the main female role and Don the main male role. And if I had to choose, I'd rather say that Marilyn plays support for Don, than the other way around.
I found "Bus Stop" on Filmsite's list of 300 Greatest films. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a masterpiece, because this film is not top-notch in any of its technical or essential aspects, but the mass bashing in reviews on film sites is really unfair. Rating a film one or two out of ten just because you don't like a certain style or its sense of humor doesn't match yours is pretty lame.
If you embark on this adventure without excessive expectations and prejudices, a solid and, on top of that, very unusual and original film awaits you, a real refreshment in a sea of similar romantic comedies of its era.
7/10 - DirectorJodie FosterStarsRosemarie DeWittBrenna HardingOwen TeagueAfter nearly losing her daughter, a mother invests in a new technology that allows her to keep track of her.I expected much more from Jodie Foster and Charlie Brooker than the unimpressive "homage" to King's "Carrie"
A single mother is overly protective of her daughter. After the girl is briefly lost in a local park, the mother includes them in an experimental program, where a chip is implanted in the child's head. It sends the child's current location and vital functions to the parent 24/7, as well as live transmission of everything the child sees and hears, with the additional option of scrambling everything that could be stressful for the child.
From the start, it is clear that this approach to parenting can not only go wrong, but inevitably have to go wrong, which makes this "Black Mirror" episode a story about bad, even disturbed parenting, more than the (mis)use of futuristic technology.
A child who is unable to see and hear anything ugly, scary, violent, sexual, vulgar, is a child who cannot grow up and become able to face the everyday reality in which she lives. And when this practice continues into adolescence, counterproductiveness grows into a disaster.
The premise could have evolved in multiple directions, with much potential for a powerful episode. Unfortunately, they developed it into a predictable melodrama, with a boring slow-paced story and a twist that is both predictable and so over-the-top to the point of nullifying even the little credibility that the episode had.
Instead of a futuristic mindfuck drama or thriller with a strong message that makes you think, we got a lukewarm teenage melodrama, with an ending that seems to have escaped from some B horror of the eighties and a chewed-up lesson. The whole episode leaves an outdated impression, and that does not fit in with "Black Mirror".
6/10 - DirectorJohn HillcoatStarsAndrea RiseboroughKiran Sonia SawarAndrew GowerAn insurance agent investigates a minor traffic incident using a device that manifests peoples' memories, but one of her witnesses has something to hide.Mercilessly over the edge
An insurance agent is investigating a minor car accident, using a device that reads the witness's memory. But one of the witnesses inadvertently reveals to her a dark secret from the past, which she must now cover up at all costs.
I have a lot to say about this "Black Mirror" episode, but a deeper analysis requires specific details that would spoil the story, and for a full experience, it is best to enter this adventure with as little prior knowledge as possible. For the most part, it is predictable enough that the additional information I would present here would completely ruin it.
Many resent its unconvincingness, in the sense that it is not in human nature to choose the path that the protagonist took, and that on that path she could not physically perform everything she does in the episode, and on top of all that she does it so nonchalantly and still no one caught her in the act.
True, the story has holes and illogicalities, but it is not so naive, because this is not about the average person, but about someone driven into psychopathy by fifteen years of guilty conscience combined with the urge to protect the family. The drama of a mentally unstable mother, who struggles with a guilty conscience and tries to keep the family together, sinking deeper into madness and eventually turning into a monster, is shown strong and impressively enough to distract you from the holes and illogicalities.
Many also blame it for not being in the spirit of the "Black Mirror" series. And I agree with this too. While "Black Mirror" deals with the positive and negative impacts of technology on the individual and humanity as a whole, basing plots on specific examples of (mis)use of technological advances, this episode is based on the characterization of the protagonist, while the Sci-Fi element is there just to push the story in the desired direction and provide the final plot twist.
If not a particularly representative episode for "Black Mirror", viewed outside the context of the series, "Crocodile" is a great psychological drama-thriller. With a well-balanced pace and duration, a great choice of scenography, a tense atmosphere, and a story that gradually transforms from a drama into a thriller and pushes further to the edge of horror, it held my undivided attention until the final twist, which serves as both a shocker and a comic relief.
All this, along with the fact that the protagonist is so skillfully brought close to the audience that I sympathized with her all the way, and even at times cheered for the monster to get away with her crimes, is reason enough for me to disregard all the clichés, holes and illogicalities in the story.
8,5/10 - DirectorLars HenriksStarsElena MeißnerDavid AdamsAnna BergA look into the lives of a dysfunctional family after the father dies.Imagination over budget
After the excellent romantic horror comedy "Warum Hans Wagner den Sternenhimmel hasst" (Why Hans Wagner hates the starry sky) from the previous year, Lars Henriks returns with the surreal thriller "Cordelias Kinder" (Cordelia's children).
Cordelia is the mother of two teenagers and since recently a widow, who runs a successful "intermediation" agency. We observe Cordelia trying to run a business and normal daily life, while the ghost of her late husband hangs around the house and interferes in everything. Meanwhile, the older daughter, who works for her, suspects the mother of killing the father, while the younger son starts a relationship with one of the mother's employees. There is also a secret door that leads to a surreal dimension, whose role in the story remains unclear to me.
The film looks pretty cheap, because it is, but for its budget, it was surprisingly well shot. What he lacks in production, Henriks makes up for with his versatile talent. He wrote the script himself, directed and wrote the original music for the film, and he did well in all those fields.
"Cordelias Kinder" is a family drama that develops into a thriller, with a touch of horror. But it's not the drama, thriller, and horror we're used to. The film is full of surreal moments, both in the plot and visually, and the most surreal is the atmosphere, which flirts with Lynch and Lovecraft. The story is not overly complex or complicated, but it is unusual, unexpected, and quite morbid.
The psychology of the characters is very interesting and quite successfully presented by the cast. Cordelia, played by Elena Meißner, is a seemingly strong, determined, unwavering woman, more focused on work and herself than family. Inside, she breaks down, and I think the husband's spirit is actually a reflection of her conscience. The daughter, played by Anna Berg, is cold to mother because she suspects her of killing the father. This seemingly typical capricious teenager will later show her true face, which is one of the strongest assets of the film. The son is, in my opinion, the weakest written role, and also the weakest played. There are also several supporting characters, and they are all written and played at least decently.
Until the end, I failed to grasp the significance of Lovecraftian elements. Honestly, those scenes seem to me to have strayed from some other movie and in no way contribute to the development of the story. However, I have to admit that they significantly contribute to the overall atmosphere, so even if that is their only purpose, I take my hat off to the original director's trick.
Although the film is very low-budget, the technical aspects of "Cordelias Kinder" are good enough not to spoil the enjoyment of a well-written story and an even better atmosphere. Recommendation.
7/10 - DirectorVincente MinnelliBusby BerkeleyStarsEthel WatersEddie 'Rochester' AndersonLena HorneA compulsive gambler dies during a shooting, but he'll receive a second chance to reform himself and to make up with his worried wife."How am I gonna reform if I don't remember what a mess I was in when I was dead?"
The compulsive gambler was caught cheating and took a bullet. Because of his wife's strong faith, big heart, and sincere prayer, he was given a chance to return to the living and redeem his soul within six months, so that he would not go to Hell. Of course, when he returns to life, he does not remember death and encounters with angels and devils, who now follow him and fight for his soul with various tricks.
From today's perspective, the story is quite unoriginal, but as "Cabin in the Sky" is from 1943, this cannot be taken into account. It is simple and a bit naive, but captivates with its fairytale atmosphere and a good balance of drama and comedy.
It is based on a theatrical musical, so the film, although not a musical in the strict sense, is full of song and dance. I was, honestly, a bit bored by the amount of singing in "Cabin in the Sky", but his musical quality cannot be disputed. Ethel Waters, as the leading actress, sang most of the songs, of which "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe" was nominated for an Oscar. There are also Lena Horne, Duke Ellington, and in a smaller role, Louis Armstrong, whose music was unfortunately dropped from the film.
Out of the context of the time in which it was created, "Cabin in the Sky" is a mediocre romantic humorous musical with a shabby moral-religious message that money leads to vices, and vices to Hell, while fidelity to women, devotion to family and God, hard work and sacrifice provide a ticket to Heaven. Only Ethel Waters' warmth and emotion and good music would stand out.
But in the context of 1943, it is important to note that this is one of the first films with an all-black cast. You won't even see a white man accidentally walking down the street. At the time, it was a very bold and controversial move by the MGM studio.
But as positive as the popularization of black culture is, so much the complete absence of white people in the film is, in my opinion, counterproductive, because it supports segregation as much as strictly white movies. I have the impression that it is sending a message like: "Okay, we can no longer pretend that black people don't exist, and as a sign of good will we will give you media space, but we will still not mix with you." Confirmation of that is the fact that blacks and whites had separate restaurants on the set.
Also, this is a film about black people, but it is also a film about black people and with an all-black cast, written and shot by white people. Much of the humor is based on racial stereotypes and prejudices, which also diminishes the value of initial good intentions.
Of course, I do not believe that all this was done with bad intent. Perhaps it was spontaneous racism of well-meaning filmmakers who were not even aware of all the implications of the film they are making. Simply, those were other times, segregation was in full swing, so it is unrealistic to expect MGM to prevent the above-mentioned objections. It is fairer to give them credit for the step they have taken in the right direction.
7/10. - DirectorTimothy Van PattenStarsGeorgina CampbellJoe ColeGina BramhillPaired up by a dating program that puts an expiration date on all relationships, Frank and Amy soon begin to question the system's logic.Future of dating
The old-fashioned dating, flirting, and relationships that eat up a lot of our time and nerves, and too often end in unhappy marriages, quarrels, adultery, and divorces, in this "Black Mirror" episode are a thing of the past. Here, people are placed in pairing software.
The system pairs you a seemingly random number of times with seemingly randomly selected people, for a time that varies from a few minutes to a few years per "relationship". You cannot refuse an assigned partner, nor end a relationship before the time allotted by the system has expired, but what you will do in that relationship is up to you. The system monitors and records all events and your reactions to all situations you go through, and when the data collected about you matches the information of one of the other participants, the system pairs you in a perfect pair, with a success rate of 99.8%.
But what if the system sentences you to years with a person you can't stand or you fall madly in love with a person assigned to you only for a short time ... Does everything you go through happen for a good reason or is the system not as perfect as it claims to be ...
"Hang the DJ" is another futuristic episode of the "Black Mirror" series, which deals with the positive aspects of modern technologies and the negative consequences of over-reliance on them. As usual, it takes some modern trends as a basis and takes them to the extreme. Whether today's dating applications will grow into the system brought to us by this "Black Mirror" episode remains to be seen, but we can certainly recognize ourselves in some aspects of this story today.
One of the most interesting premises so far, a well-written story, great tempo, and actors who perfectly evoke their characters, with a very charismatic leading couple, and a totally unexpected final twist, make "Hang the DJ" one of the best episodes of the "Black Mirror" series, and my personal favorite.
And no, I'm not going to tell you what the name of the episode has to do with a story like this. For that, you will have to see it through. WTF reaction is guaranteed.
9/10 - DirectorDavid SladeStarsMaxine PeakeJake DaviesClint DyerIn the post-apocalyptic landscape of the Scottish Moors, a woman attempts to survive the land full of "dogs."Nowhere Fast
A group of people moves through a post-apocalyptic landscape in search of something. They are cautious and frightened, all the while waiting for something to attack them. They soon find what they were looking for, but at that very moment they are attacked and from that moment this "Black Mirror" episode is in survival mode.
Well-directed action scenes alternate with tense moments of calm, keeping you in anticipation. The post-apocalyptic atmosphere is further enhanced by the fact that the episode is in black and white. We don't know who our heroes are, what actually hunts them and why, or what kind of apocalypse has befallen humanity. Along with the tension, curiosity grows. And then the episode ends without revealing almost anything.
With a duration of just over half an hour, this is the shortest episode of the "Black Mirror" series. Half an hour is not enough to thoroughly work out a story, but that doesn't matter in this case because they didn't even try. While that little we got is acted out, filmed, and directed great, the overall impression is disappointing.
The story has no introduction, but throws us directly into action. I had the feeling as if I turned on the TV and bumped into the middle of some tense SF. Technically great and very tense, but I had no idea what it's about. I hoped to understand it by the end, but when it was over I still had no idea what I watched. Protagonists without characterization with whom we have no time or reason to connect and a story that comes from nowhere and leads nowhere.
I suppose we all saw "Terminator 2". Imagine that you did not and someone shows you the scene in which Edward Furlong on a motorcycle is chased by Terminator. Just that scene, nothing before, nothing after. And that's the whole movie. Although in the context of the film, that scene is one of the best in the history of the genre, standing alone, it is meaningless and cannot represent an independent whole. Well, that's the impression "Metalhead" leaves.
Besides, I didn't accidentally take the Terminator as an example. "Metalhead" can seem original only to those who have not watched even the greatest classics of the genre. The only original thing in this episode is the final twist.
"Black Mirror" is known for unexpected closing twists with a strong message. This episode also has a twist, and it is one of the most unexpected so far, but not because it carries a strong message, but because it is totally insane and unconvincing, and although I can guess which message it wanted to convey, it failed terribly.
After watching the "Black Mirror" episode "Metalhead", I don't have the impression that I saw a short movie, but a long trailer or an insert from some good movie. Unfortunately, we didn't get any context, and all the qualities of this episode are overshadowed by this shortcoming.
If the story was on a level with the camera, directing, acting, atmosphere, this would be a strong eight, but because of the story (or lack of it) that does not deserve more than four, my rating is
6/10