Isherwood

Anti-advertising for iProducts. The message is convoluted - that's how everybody feels about social networks and we all share ourselves there anyway - but it is beautifully filmed. It’s definitely no home video. It features professional cinematography with excellent filters and a great lighting environment. It’s very well done for someone my younger sister's age. It just needs to be a bit more grown up or be a little smarter. The white mask is just too much kitsch. ;-)

The Green Zone of bureaucracy. After the jump tragedy, Liman has returned to effective direction that fully serves the story, with this one earning points especially in the moments when both spouses are under maximum pressure from everywhere. Watts and Penn are great. Nowadays, not many movies are made that are smart, resolutely commenting on recent political decisions. Thumbs up.

The Rock, the silent god of vengeance, wreaks vengeance for his brother's death without blinking an eye. That phrase excites every fan of proper action films, which turned into massive horniness after the trailers. Yet the result is the biggest fucking-over of the audience since cinema began. Where is the anger, the lack of compromise, the roughness, the stylishness,... everything?! Something so desperately boring, despite the minimum of words, and overall incredibly "I don't know what to do" style hasn't been made here for years. The Rock doesn't fit the role (he looks like an idiot!), O. J. Cohen is a terrible killer (I want Ian Somerhalder!) and... it’s all bad. My heart has never bled with disappointment like it did after watching Faster.

This film has a ton of pathos but at the same time a fantastically filmed whirlwind of fire and stunts, supported by a plethora of excellent actors and a spectacular heroic score. Hollywood has perhaps never spoken more reverently of a profession than it has deservedly done to firefighters.

The chewed-up first film, costing less than three million more, has been given a prequel that doesn't offend because there’s no way it can. The rules are still the same, with the actors being more in character and more likable for it. Yet Williams' tedious stretching of every shot, which inevitably has to end with the slamming of a door (admittedly, at one point it's absolutely grandiose!) is quite annoying. And did the filmmakers really have to think of Balaguer and Plaza when creating the ending?

This is a typical macho action film, with the traditionally stony Charles Bronson, in particular, being good. It has been gnawed a bit by the ravages of time, which leaves the plot dragging a bit, but it makes up for it with perfect action (even the "stealth" stuff) and a great anti-feminist joke, where the female characters are portrayed as total idiots during their two minutes on screen; still, scissors should have been used both on Bronson's head and to cut the film's runtime. 3 ½.

The Unbearable Lightness of Royal Being, or the first film that allowed me to understand the power and meaning of the monarchy. Tom Hooper may be accused of "academic coldness" by some sensitive folk, but in my opinion, he directs in an economical style that allows the actors' charisma to shine through, placing The King's Speech amongst the ranks of engagingly chatty films like Howard's Frost/Nixon or Fincher's The Social Network.

Every second sentence is a catchphrase and every first shot scores a hit. The change in director is both noticeable and not noticeable, and it depends mainly on whether you are willing to accept the last one after the elegant genre breaks when the heroes ride out toward the obligatory action finale in an armored jeep. Until then, everything works without the slightest flaw, although you don't know whether to admire Končalovskij's wild action or to fall out of your chair laughing at the verbal skirmishes. Either way, Stallone and Russell are having the time of their lives.

In the context of superficially polished heist styles, it's actually the absolute peak, and you can't ask for more. Sure, you may want a plot that doesn't borrow from everywhere and characters who are more than just uncompromising muscle heads, but every once in a while, it is possible to survive one of these. This is especially true if you assemble a high-quality group of proper actors off the bench. [PS: If the quality of the director's films maintains a continuous rise over the same time span, we can look forward to a top-five hit in 2020. :-)]

Yup, the hillbilly rhetoric and horny teenager humor are more or less Rogen's trademark, which is certainly not a complaint by me. However, the script full of infantile humor is tamed by Gondry in the end. He put the perfect stamp of exaggeration on it and turned all that instantaneous crap into a perfect hit, which pleases especially during the action, when playfulness, original ideas, and wit are combined. No, this wasn't supposed to be the second Kick-Ass, but it definitely is the third Iron Man.