DaViD´82

The opening half is, sadly, too slow, which is caused by the fact that it almost the first contact of the Western audience with Japan since the war, so there is a need to explain the concepts and the Japanese personality. That is something that everyone knows in today´s world. So, the academic explanations of bushido, yakuza, katana, emotion and duty to honor and commitment is time-consuming. Sometime it looks like filmed Wikipedia articles. On the other hand, unlike many similar Western movies, it is not being disrespectful to Japanese traditions, and on the contrary, it follows the rules and specifics. However, once everything is explained and the bloodshed of getting even and paying back for old commitments, it does the job very well. Except that from the point of view of history, customs, and obligations within the yakuza it was better depicted by Japanese themselves; especially in the movies by Hideo Gosha.

The spirit of the God-forgotten 70s (however it was not created until the early 1980s) Bronx, whose very distinctive genius loci is plays the main role. It is depicted through the unadorned daily routine of true patrolmen who just want to do their job without being annoyed by they superiors or the street rabble. Even after several decades have already passed, this movie still inspires many films and series that work with the harsh and dirty poetics of work and depict personal life of ordinary police officers. And that is why (but not only because of it) it is a genre classic movie that fully deserves its status and which, with its qualities, fully lives up to the good name it has built.

A (non)noir (non)Christian (non)fairy tale that captivates with its peculiar atmosphere and charismatic villain, but trips over its own feet with shoddy sets, appalling theatrical overacting by the entire cast, and an annoying duo of kids in the lead roles.

A priceless idea that is reprehensibly unimaginative. With a few exceptions that prove the rule (looking into other people's heads, filming dreams), this is a banally straightforward adventure in which Pixar "un-Pixarishly" often stoops to cheap character goofing off.

The first part of John Woo's Pearl Harbor about the fates of three couples on the verge of the Chinese Civil War. You certainly won't miss nor overlook that Woo has gotten a huge budget at his disposal. There is no problem with that. The problem is how he used it. The scenes of everyday life of the central trio are naive and so sweet that they would easily fit into romance movie, but despite all of this, you will get over it. Surprisingly the problem is, (don't forget it is John Woo!) over-the-top epic war scenes (they look like those from the Navajo Code; just bigger, bigger and even bigger), when Woo doesn't know what to do and so he shows one explosion after another, the all this slows the pace significantly. And yes, on both of these levels, it's simply 100% Pearl Harbor. It's just not that fun (or ridiculous) and it's just boring. And also thanks to the fact that it is a prologue, which could have easily been captured during the first fifteen minutes of the second part. However, it will not make you want to watch the second part, not even remotely, because the fates and the characters are not interesting and, to their own detriment and the over-the-top style of action will soon annoy you even in this movie.

(over) An over-the-top stylized, undemanding spy retro one-time movie, which is not purely comedic, but it make you smile throughout the footage. Unsurprisingly, it is entirely dependent (even thanks to the unnecessary bad guys) on the squabble of the central trio, which usually works. Most of the time. And if not, "sixties" Ritchie, "Morricone-like" Pemberton or Uncle Rudi with his fairy tale carry it.

I cannot deny that I really enjoyed Rebecca Ferguson and all that neatly shot, imaginative and various actions scenes without overt-the-top CGI (especially the motorcycle scene is simply perfect), but what is the best thing about it (apart from Rebecca Ferguson, of course) is the final minimalist personal London third, when it definitely turns into a classic British-style spy film, where the well-written characters (not only in terms of action blockbuster) mess with each other using dialogs "I know that you know and you know that I know" at the airport, in the room or on the restaurant terrace, and it completely does without any action. And it works, because it's not silly at all, while respecting the principles of the genre, and McQuarrie makes you forget that twenty years ago, in terms of script, he was able to do with one room and unfortunate narrator. As you can clearly see from this, he was mainly concerned about the characters and the plot and the action and tinsel were sidelined; which is an unprecedented thing for a summer popcorn movie, which in fact it is not.

Terrence Malick's style farewell to his daughter. The concept is quite nice, but the way it is eventually put into practice is rather a letdown. The melancholic atmosphere works quite well, but in terms of acting it is not typical. What is telling is that pensive Arnie whose acting seems to be desperate and inappropriate is the better part of the central duo.

Simply said, when the actor and director are on completely different level in terms of quality. While Gyllenhaal’s performance is brilliant and he is even "aiming for Oscar", Fuqua only makes just another everyday consumer version of the thousand-times-seen boxing B-movie melodrama, in which perhaps all genre clichés are present; just often in a non-functional style. It also strangely tends to fade away, because it starts with by far the best scene and then it only gets worse especially after falling to the bottom, when the true values are revealed and the after getting at its height again. It's kind of sad when the opening match has a driving force, energy and charge and the final one has nothing. It holds together only thanks to Gyllenhaal’s performance, but as I mentioned, his excellent performance seems almost inappropriate in this movie.

This is surprisingly the better, more beneficial and timeless part of the community-funded project, which in many ways revolutionized gaming history. In the spring of 2012, Tim Schafer (author of most classic adventure games of LucasArt) launched the community funding on Kickstarter promising “I'll make an old-fashioned adventure game, I just do not know what". He collected a lot of money, showed the way to others, and thus started the subsequent nostalgic tsunami of the return of experienced creators and the good old gaming school along with them, which no longer were wanted by big studios. And he changed the whole industry to some extent. And this twenty-episode documentary series, depicts the entire long-term production journey, even before the funding was launched. It is an interesting show, as it shows in depth the complete creative process in all areas, including all compromises and sofia's business choices. The best thing about it, however, is that Schafer's entire project was built on shaky ground from the beginning, and the higher it got the bigger was the fall, no specific plan, financial resources were terribly overestimated, all the finances were spent long before completion, controversial communication about many unpopular decisions, unfulfilled promises, disproportionately long development and questionable quality of the final product. This show captures all this and much more in an objective way, uncompromisingly and in the raw, so it is a unique insight that is very interesting (especially if you are starting a project), regardless of whether you are into playing video games or not (especially old school point and click adventure games).