DaViD´82

Everyone is guilty. The best (mini)series come to us across the big pond from HBO studios. Everybody knows that. But this time it isn’t from the US of A, but from the Argentinian branch of HBO, which is a pleasant surprise. And they do it with such style that I wouldn’t have believed it was possible. All the positive superlatives that might occur to you are here, nothing is missing. And I thought that the psycho thriller genre about a murderer who likes playing games with the police has nothing to offer since its boom in the nineties. But I was mistaken. It’s hard to imagine something so raw, marvelously acted, every sentence full of functional essence, suspenseful (true, sometimes at the expense of ignoring logical investigation procedure, but somehow that fits here) and full of atmosphere. Plus, these are the smokiest moving pictures that I have ever seen. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the vast majority of the budget went on cigarettes. All those cartons used in each episode must have had Buenas Aires smog watch very worried. But I understand the characters. I was also sitting on the edge of my seat for most of each episode, shaking so much that even I (as a strict non-smoker) felt like lighting up. The only minus of the whole series is the noticeable drop in quality in the second half (drop in quality = what was the best thing for miles around becomes “just" a darn quality movie). The characters’ behavior becomes really rather unbelievable, police logic sometimes takes a long vacation and they don’t even smoke as much. However, the last two episodes return sure-footed to the original five-star path thanks to coherence and being highly-charged (you won’t see anything like this anywhere else).

I really wasn’t asking too much from “I’ve even got a long way to go to become a routineer". All I wanted was a disposable harmless summer nonsense movie. But Cohen couldn’t even manage that. Instead, through his approach of “sort of humor, sort of screenplay, sort of blockbuster" he spreads an epidemic. The signs start to show somewhere around the tenth minute. First just in a few individuals. Then it spread quickly to the rest of the audience. Not even kids are immune. The first sign is massive yawning, the second nodding, the third is sleeping on the escalator when leaving the movie theater and the fourth is a disservice to Hollywood. After this, nobody can be surprised that so many people are allergic to it. I believe that if they organized a mass simultaneous projection of this movie around the planet, it would get into the Guinness Book of Records. For the largest number of people sleeping at one moment. There’s only one cure for this. Indy treatment.

Morals, morals, morals... The best celluloid existential detective movie that skillfully combines the best of Dürrenmatt, Eco, Stoppard and Shakespeare. All in a wonderfully grim, snowy atmosphere in the dark Middle Ages. I simply must get my hands on the book by Unsworth. And that’s about all that need be said about this gem.

A movie of short stories drawing on a golden (and surprisingly almost unsourced) goldmine of Prague tales. A movie that's more interesting than being actually good. But all of the stories are linked by a sure-fire bet. Traditionally flawless work by the best Czech movie soundtrack composer, Zdeněk Liška.

Far too obviously, a remake of Heat, in a dark comic book-type vein with numerous freaks in latex suit like in a cheap sex shop. Not that I want to dampen the mania about Ledger’s performance, but he doesn’t outshine Bale, Oldman, and especially not Eckhart. In fact they work like spotlights that make it possible for him to cast a shadow. Proof of this can be seen in all scenes where they appear on screen together. That said, after seeing Heath’s Joker, Nicholson’s would hang his head in shame, going home in tears to take off his makeup knowing that he isn’t anything more than a ridiculous clown. The changes as against the last movie are for the better. Maggie is just wonderful, the action easier to follow, stylization (of the city and the secret monastery in the mountains) has gone and even the duo of composers no longer seem as if they are pulling from opposite ends of the same saw. But while certain aspects of the first Joker have been overcome, this does not apply to the movie as a whole. It just doesn’t come near Nolan’s best ever movie because the departure from the psychological and a full focus on characters toward “eye-candy" action (of course, I mean in terms of Nolan’s movies) is rather a disappointment. Why sideline the central character of The Dark Knight? The born-again Batman stood and still stands on intimate scenes like the one in the interrogation room. And not how delightfully he eliminates dozens of gangsters using sonar. Almost as if the authors were rejecting everything that set them apart from similar genre movies. ♫ OST score: 5/5

As much as I love Delon, here he was not the best choice. This is a role for someone from the Ventura or Gabin class, and not for such a “dandy". Alain would be more suited to the role of the tough guy cop. Still, he's good, just not as good as he could have been and should have been. And this is actually the only complaint, because otherwise Flic Story is a classic 70s French crime story with all the strengths that implies. And there are plenty of them -- no doubt about it.

Not as good as Palin's previous expedition to the Sahara - and that applies both to the television series and (above all) to the book. After all, a house of pillars supporting the celestial vault does not offer as many themes, political idiosyncrasies, customs, or interesting life stories as the countries of the sand ocean. And Palin himself isn't that funny this time. Compared to himself, not ordinary mortals, of course. Compared to them, he is still a guru of intelligent bon mots, life, and everything else.

Michele Placido. If it weren’t for the reissue of “The Octopus" on the shelves, I wouldn't have thought of him for years to come. But, for the second time this year, he really impressed me. First by performing in The Unknown Woman, and now with this criminal saga, based on real events about the rise and fall of several expendable small street criminals who are fed up with doing as they’re told and with waiting to fall out of favor, so they start their own outfit. It's nice and raw, without embellishments, and possibly even realistic. Too long, excellently acted, and almost fantastic. Still, it doesn’t receive top marks. One reason is that it’s overpopulated with characters, and the other is that it’s completely cold and de-personified. All I cared about was the fate of the "family" as a whole. Which may have been Placido's intention, but I believe emotions are simply part of these mafia opuses. But it did give me the impulse to read the original, that is true. P.S.: I'd appreciate the obligatory round up during the final credits on the fate of the survivors. I had to look them up online, which isn't exactly audience-friendly.

Can you possibly avoid succumbing to a movie where the opening scene shows a teenager in a movie theater, greatly enjoying a cigarette while recording the first Rambo with his video-camera? And when a little later he meets a boy from an orthodox Christian family, so together they decide to Swede (hi there, Be Kind Rewind which this movie has a lot in common with, as well as with Bridge to Terabithia) a sequel to the original movie about saving Rambo’s dad. All this in a perfectly recreated atmosphere of the eighties. A wonderful celebration of friendship, and the hardships and joys of growing up. If I were the same age as those two nice kids here, this movie would have become cult for me like Rambo for these two little guys or like Patrick Swayze for Didier. I not only understand them, but in fact I openly envy them. I stand firmly behind the full set of stars (and why on earth not, since I awarded them) if only for that dumb, delighted smile that this picture engraved into my face for a long time after. And when I think that I didn’t go to see it at the movie theater when I was visiting Edinburgh, for fear that this promising theme might turn into something too childish... I still feel like giving myself a good spanking for that. P.S.: The explanation of the original name of the movie in the dialog after the credits is better than the dry, although true, official one. I’m curious how they deal with that in the dubbed version.

The most critical of society (the author's favorite discipline), the most current, the funniest, the most cynical, the most character-driven, the most acute, but at the same time, because of the second half, the most unraveling Romero. Referring to the director’s cut.