DaViD´82

How the poet enjoyed life and how the poet lost his illusions. Simply a poet that Dušan Klein wouldn’t have liked much. The poser Bondy might have liked the result (but he still would have expressed his liking in the way that Tetsuo suggests), but nobody will ever find out. But to hell with it, because what is most important is that I like it in the end. I really like it. However, it is held back from getting the full five stars by the middle passage where it is unnecessarily slow-moving and nothing much happens and Hádek, whose acting is fantastic, just isn’t convincing as a seventeen year old.

This is almost better than Gran Torino. The opening scene on the motorbike is the best filmed scene this year, Caine is more uncompromising than anybody I have seen recently and for seventy minutes this really is a five-star movie. But then it starts to go wrong and the finale in the pub totally wrecks it. If it had remained on the “modest level" of pensioner versus local youth in front of a tenement block, I would have been much more content in the end. P.S.: Comparison with Gran Torino is essential, like it or not. Although in the end they are completely different genres, Eastwood worked and relied on the premise that everybody expected precisely what they get here from Harry Brown.

If Mulder and Sculley had appeared in this, it would have been one of the best X-File conspiracy episode ever. But as it is, in all ways it is “at least" a fascinating documentary through and through, where the absolutely obvious bias doesn’t matter one bit. P.S.: f this had been about similarly intelligent, but less cute rats, nobody would have given this a look, but anything in the name of dolphins, isn’t that right? I am intrigued to find out just how many of the really incensed and agitated viewers will make the effort to visit the website and make a donation.

At first, it has the most Dickensian atmosphere I have ever encountered on screen. It is therefore a crying shame that ultimately the whole thing falls flat from lack of atmosphere. Because of all the running around, the atmosphere gradually disappears until it vanishes completely. Where the original leaves the right Christmas mood in the reader even long after reading, Zemeckis merely leaves excellent impressions of the almost unreal fidelity to the illustrations in the original edition and perhaps even better impressions as they are “pulled" into three dimensions. There’s just no trace of Christmas spirit. Unlike the original, this will not become a Christmas classic beloved by many generations, but hopefully it will make at least one Christmas more pleasant for you. Assuming you have a 3-D IMAX in your area.

There was a time when I didn't go anywhere without a book about "Little Nicholas" in my hand. Those days are long gone, but Little Nicolas still has a special place in my heart. And so I didn't expect much from the adaptation. But I was mistaken. The adaptation is both unusually successful and, at the same time, unique. A pure embodiment of non-infantile family entertainment, which will often get more laughs from adults than from kids. Moreover, Nicholas’ misadventures in both forms have the special power to return you to your childhood, which is something that very few books and even fewer movies are able to do. And the fact that the film doesn’t compare to the original is not so relevant in this case, because I didn't even realize it until loooooong after I left the movie theater and had wiped away the last tears of laughter.

Amelie on a date with Ocean’s Homeless Eleven in grotesque trappings. Or Jeunet different again in his own inimitable way. Sometimes he overdoes it a bit, but you can’t be mad at him when even the "useless and redundant" ideas are so original. Although it is true that in the end it doesn’t all fit (a prime example is the football field full of mines). The result, however, is not a mish-mash; on the contrary, it is a gala presentation of originality grafted on the classic scheme of a relaxing pissing contest movie.

The whole trilogy is more or less about a girl who makes no compromises. Never and nowhere. And about a journalist who also makes no compromises in his professional life, unlike in his personal life. Never and nowhere. The whole trilogy is a feet-up watch which won’t make you want to put your feet up even a long time after reading it. And it’s adapted in a movie that makes compromises everywhere and in everything and it’s no problem to take a quick nap during it. Although part one is certainly the most difficult to adapt of the entire trilogy, the number of storylines being murderous. Oplev fails in not being able to decide whether to cut back the wealth of material in the book, just leaving the thrilleroid element or not. It would have been a shame, but it’s nigh on impossible to transfer what’s “extra" onto the screen. Where it flounders is that it includes a little of everything, but everything is just touched upon and nothing is investigated in depth, so it all just fizzles out. Which is a shame because those “post-Lingren" characters are crying out for a quality adaptation. But what is almost unbelievable is the casting of Lisbeth; I couldn’t believe it would be possible to cast her so that she both looks the part and can act too. Too bad the same can’t be said of Blomkvist. P.S.: I saw the movie before reading the book and even after doing so the overall impression was basically identical in both cases.

Flashy, but not enough to be effective. Silly, but not enough to reach guilty pleasure status. A mish-mash of everything, where in the end there is nothing. Most of all, though, it is not fun. It’d be OK if it was dull and cheap, but at least if it was something.

I believe that if an un-loquacious version of this existed, it would work equally as well as the “silencing" of Blade Runner. However, this way it is an outstanding movie that is utterly wrecked by overuse of the narrator. Even though quite soon there is no longer any reason for his existence, he drivels gloomily on and on. This absolutely ruins the atmosphere which is given a chance to pervade only in a few rare moments when at last there’s silence. And at those moments I would willingly award both Mary and Max five stars. But then the narrator opens the flood gates again and lets flow his prattle about nothing and the atmosphere is gone. Oh dear.

A portrayal of what a very good summer feels like: it warms you up, entertains you, but before you know it, it's over and all that's left is the everyday grey. But those memories, nobody can take them away from you.