Isherwood

There was a loophole in Hollywood, and a guy who is no stranger to the word "compromise" slipped into the A-list mainstream. I’m glad Peter Jackson gave Neill Blomkamp the chance to make an incredibly engrossing and captivating sci-fi for a ridiculous thirty million. The film squeezes out the subject matter to the last drop, and then there are the special effects sequences. The feeling of "this is how it might actually happen..." beats the viewer over the head in every scene, and yet it doesn't falter in its pace. Objectively, I could ask several "why and how?" questions, but subjectively, I was ecstatic the whole time. If Blomkamp really does make a "Halo" movie, I want to see "Hal-Life" from him too, the guy’s got what it takes! I hope he succeeds.

The filmmakers wrung everything from Orwell's legendary chilling allegorical fable that made it good, and what remains is a smelly patchwork that doesn't even provide any of its own ideas in addition to the alarming ones. It's as if someone wrote the script by making marks in the book and blacking out what was essential. Comparing paper to celluloid is never really fair, but this is a barbaric rape that asks for the audience’s intolerance quite bluntly, and the ending definitely confirms it.

The old parts work and the seasoned drivers do a great job handling it, but a digital facelift and a bunch of nitro can't prevent it from being a loss if the director has the gears beat up enough to barely jam it into third.

The ultimate blast! Instead of the tired self-awareness stories, the creators of Shrek came up with an action-packed blockbuster that's bursting with references (I was screaming with laughter at the keyboard!), great humor, and a punishingly huge barrage of catchphrases. It’s ninety-four minutes of undiluted entertainment that will be appreciated especially by the older folks (those who enjoy the aesthetics of 1950s monster movies will snort with delight). Cartoon of the year, no question about it!

It's hard to be mad at a movie that's about racing flashy cars driven by the golden youth (unsympathetic dickhead included). The sports cars are shiny, the girls in miniskirts are hot, and everything is so endlessly demented that it's hard not to fall for it. There’s no doubt that someone here likes "Need for Speed." Prodigy - "You'll be Under My Wheels" is in my tracklist. For such superficial kitsch, the director should be either castrated or blessed.

The filmmakers transformed an excellent subject that pokes fun at the established practices (and clichés) of sports documentaries into what can be called "heavy comfort." The fact that they are traditionally aware of their own options and abilities doesn't matter here because the vocal charisma of the actors gives it incredible energy, with great animation to boot. A damn fine hour and a half.

Along with Fight Club, this is my most personal film. While Fight Club flows mainly in terms of thought-provoking ideas, American Beauty scores with its emotions. The first time I saw it in my freshman year of high school, it hit me hard for weeks, something that also happened every other time I watched it. It has a slightly different effect on me nowadays. It no longer attacks the basic feelings of excessive affiliation with the characters (which may change when I’m forty), but as a perfect portrait of people who decided to defy convention, it still entertains me and still stirs emotions within me. There’s no point in bringing up the well-known names (Spacey, Conrad L. Hall, Mendes), but I will add the neglected (Cooper, the great game with the light at night) and add that this is one of the absolute "best films" I have ever seen.

A riveting thrill ride that benefits from two things in particular: 1) Konchalovsky’s conception of the limited space of the train, where the tension is heightened by the cuts to the control center, which creates more obstacles and problems, 2) the excellently written and acted characters of the prisoners and guards, for whom it is quite an issue to feel any sympathy, given their nature. The result is an uncompromising flick whose appeal, even after more than twenty years, is mainly due to the irresistible boyish feeling of hard adventure, as is the case for the films made by Frankenheimer or Carpenter. In fact, the traditional synth music references the latter. A classic.

No, this film isn't really about soccer (the original depiction of the games themselves is a major bonus!) so much as it’s about one brilliant talented man who had to come to a personal epiphany. Michael Sheen is absolutely perfect as Brian Clough. He’s uncompromising and has undeniable charisma, but he is also selfish and ruthless, which are all qualities this English coaching legend manages with consummate ease. He’s the one who mainly passes the ball of this conceptually not-so-traditional biography to the final scoring position, with the goal being audience sympathy. I don't deny that the ending is a foul worthy of at least a yellow card, but why not turn a blind eye sometimes? 4 ½.

Judd Apatow proves why he is one of the revered filmmaker demi-gods despite the overly long runtime (for the genre). This is because of his incredible sense of creating parallels between the viewers’ own lives, wherein finding "one’s own thing" is not all that much of a problem. Despite the flurry of vulgarities and low humor, it works. This is especially thanks to Rogen's sympathetically civil charisma of a sweaty redneck and Heigl's ability to make even the most emotional moments believable. The ending is beautiful.