NinadeL

A charming teen series in the style of many of the feature series that SuperMax used to feed to us. It’s not a very original variation on all the Buffy-style series (these days Twilight, The Vampire Diaries...), but in retrospect I enjoy it just for the fact that it’s not complicated, for its nostalgia, and for the blonde Karen Cliche.

What did the old Beverly Hills 90210 mean to you? The famous series originally ran for 10 seasons, but it was the misunderstanding of its genre in the Czech Republic that was the funniest part of the phenomenon. The stories of Brenda, Kelly and co. were trends for years at all levels of compulsory schooling, and although I've seen a lot in my lifetime, I never got past Season 9, which is why I so wholeheartedly embraced the regular 90210 spin-off that ran from 2008 to 2013. I'll probably never forget the catchphrases along the lines of: "I'm Dylan, and I'm an alcoholic.", as well as the endless love polygons and problems that the eternal virgin Donna had. Those first three years of high school were totally nuts. All the moralistic parents were within reach, all those parties, dances, and plots in style of "Let Donna graduate!" suddenly broke because neither Dylan nor Brenda went to college right away... By the fourth season, everyone was suddenly very grown up, and by the fifth, Brenda was replaced by Valerie. The entire cast started to change a lot, and so by the sixth season, audiences wouldn't even recognize the original series anymore. The other seasons were just a shallow bit of nothing like the nightly intrigues in the episode The Peach Pit After Dark. But guess what? In the end, Donna married David anyway, so I was actually relieved.

The original spin-off of the classic Beverly Hills 90210, followed by Models Inc. The era of intrigue in 1990s TV shows at its best (worst). Hudson Leick was unforgettable in Season 4, and Courtney Thorne-Smith (Ally McBeal, According to Jim and Two and a Half Men) stayed with me for more TV entertainment. Marcia Cross has always been a chapter unto herself. I'm not sure if I've ever seen all the episodes, but I've definitely seen the vast majority of them, and I still have a very good feeling about the finale, in which Heather Locklear kicked it up a notch (as if it were a completely different genre).

What you can appreciate about the Blade trilogy is that it's one of the pioneering Marvel films, with the first episode being made before the first big X-Men movies. However, the film itself is essentially just material for Wesley Snipes and is no better than Barb Wire with Pamela Anderson. I never planned to finish watching the other films, let alone any series.

I'm flirting with the idea of watching the complete series. The guest stars are all interesting people, including Vicky Pratt, and the stories are often gripping little TV dramas. Kathryn Morris is, of course, supremely likable and completely different than she was in Xena.

Once upon a time, Season 1 was still remotely reminiscent of classic boring American sitcoms, but every now and then something suggested that if the basic family plot could be absorbed, it could actually start to be very funny. So for the time being it was possible to get used to Rose and Berta and enjoy the guest beauties Kristin Bauer van Straten, Denise Richards, Megan Fox, Jenna Elfman, Teri Hatcher, and Heather Locklear. Season 2 escalated into absolutely crazy humor mostly thanks to Charlie and Alan's mother. Jake became the craziest kid in TV history, and the female stars to watch were Camryn Manheim, Lucy Lawless, and Jeri Ryan. Season 3, for a change, is an increasingly wacky probe into the Oedipus complex. I find myself enjoying it more and more. With the guest appearance by Kevin Sorbo, the most perfect episode ever, or Kandi, Mandi, and Andy. Everyone's having sex with everyone. Don't talk to me about marrying Mia. That was disgusting.

The final double episode of the Xena series, which was also released in a single cut as a standalone film. As a Xena purist, I still haven’t accepted it and I still consider When Fates Collide to be the final episode, with Alti and the alternate plot resolution of Xena and Caesar conquering the entire known world at the time, to be the real finale. The positive rating I gave to the standalone A Friend in Need takes into account that it works well as a standalone film.

A documentary about the colorful but uncertain lives of Wonder Woman stunt woman Jeannie Epper and Xena’s Zoë Bell. It was great to visit the legendary Vicky Pratt, who is both good at physical activity and acting. Claire Stansfield, however, only left her mark in a cut scene from Xena Con 2001.

Although this is not a very bombastic production, there are a lot of facts that make me willing to go all out. In terms of the film itself, the music here is excellent, and the soundtrack is very listenable even without the visual perception. The set design is very decent and Til Schweiger is perfect. And of course, the most important Czech actress and producer whose fame resonated throughout Europe, Anny Ondra, is remembered here. True, Peta Wilson wasn't really up to the task of playing her, and it's unforgivable that she's taller than Til. ;) But on the other hand, Jenn Sky was not available, and when her role had to be narrowed down to that of a wife, Peta gave it her best. In the areas wherein people had no idea that Max had a partner, the situation in terms of information improved a lot, and that is important. Now it is time to bring Anny out of the shadow of the battle for everything - the battle between Germany and America. The damage done by the first sloppy Max and Joe movie, Ring of Passion with Britt Ekland, was partially repaired. Let's see if the third film, Max Schmeling - Fist of the Reich with Susanne Wuest, goes any further.

At first glance, this is a small German film suitable for HBO. At second glance and upon closer study, it’s the best that contemporary Europe could have gotten out of Maria Riva's book. She wrote a controversial book about her mother, which I personally accepted as a modern Bible for the 20th century and film history. The life of Marie Magdalene Dietrich was in many ways symptomatic of all the great upheavals that the past century has offered its elite. However, the film transcript used the dramaturgical abbreviation for the 1975 retrospective narrative for the key period of 1929 to 1945. Logically, with emphasis on the legendary course of the filming of The Blue Angel and Marlene's work during the war. Dietrich's almost endless line of men and lovers is replaced by "only" the trio of husband, director, and one universal fictional lover. Who is a German, naturally. And how could he not be, since her daughter is played in all three forms from the age of 6 to 13 by the Vilsmaier sisters, the daughters of director Joseph Vilsmaier and Dana Vávrová, who exceptionally did not participate in her husband's film. Thus, knowing the nature of the nationality and the family creative team, I have no real objection. The set design is magnificent, although the use of various details is sloppy (for example, the photo from the film Kismet as a promotion for Morocco is not that great), but this is balanced by the perfect soundtrack combined with Marlene’s actual hits, songs sung by Katja Flint, and instrumental work by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker. In the end, this is neither the first nor the last film on the subject, and it will be interesting to see if the Americans finally decide to make their own modern version, where The Blue Angel will logically be suppressed and things like Marlene's American citizenship, the filming of westerns, and the concert tour coming out of her Las Vegas debut will be highlighted. In addition to the endless linking of Marlene to Hitler or Piaf, it will be refreshing to finally associate her with Garbo in 2010.