DaViD´82

A redneck comedy that is not funny except for two or three moments. Apart from some very decent car chases, it doesn't have much to offer, and even the chases in the "racist" car aren't enough to pull this dragging B-movie at least into the waters of average.

A slightly different kind of western by Sam Peckinpah. About friendship, with a soundtrack of songs by Bob Dylan. The role of a lifetime for Kris Kristofferson, one of James Coburn's best, and a great acting opportunity for Dylan. It is a slow-flowing contemplation set in a classic western reality. As I said at the beginning - a slightly different kind of western.

It’s rather sad when a comedy for teenagers about sex-craved males contains just one single storyline; how the parents, played by Šteindler and Freimanová, try to rekindle their relationship. The rest is sort of... Absolutely identical to Snowboarders. Kotek and Mádl continue to try to act ultra-macho and speak “real cool", but this time it don’t manage either. The humor falls flat again. It’s not that it’s lame. It just that there isn’t any somehow. There are a lot of places where it had the potential to work, but Janák reliably kills them with his catastrophic timing, so almost everything just seems to fizzle out. However, compared to Virginity Sucks, Rafters is still a good example of work well done on the movie-craft side.

Yeah, I can’t hold a candle to the book, but it’s still a very good adaptation that relies on a minimalist Edward Fox and, above all, on the atmosphere of a professional preparation for an assassination.

Somewhat paradoxically, the whole thing is taken down by what was supposed to be its biggest asset - Helen Mirren. Unlike her minimalist "gala performance" in the role of Elizabeth II, she doesn’t handle this role as her predecessor quite as well (she handles it well, but only reasonably well). Queen Elizabeth has been “over-played" on screens lately, and this isn't one of the best examples.

An arrogant intellectual, a benevolent idiot, one dinner, and an incredible amount of intelligent conversational entertainment that won't let up for a second. This is partly due to the perfect cast, the perfect duration, and, above all, the brilliant comedic timing of the French comic mainstay, Francis Veber. P.S.: And needless to say, Vladimir Cosma has an unbeatable talent for simple and catchy theme songs, right?

The traditional festival theme about the difficult bonding between father and son. Their encounters may grind a little at first, but this type of film has always been more about the actors, who here are brilliant. So it doesn't really matter that it's all predictable, because it still works perfectly.

This movie is a rather “out there" affair about an unemployed and naïve guy who sets out from the woods across Argentina to give the ailing Diego Maradona a root that from a certain angle perhaps remotely resembles him... Or perhaps not... It starts as a pseudo-documentary and gradually turns into a pleasant road-movie with a view to finding and providing hope.

Anyone out there want to give this a try in the flesh? If so, February 29, Střelecky Island, it’s a date. If you take some good speakers with you, you’ll be able to play the genius soundtrack. Kitano won't be there, but finding a charismatic bum to play the victim for a box of wine shouldn’t be a big problem. The next opportunity will be February twenty-ninth, the year of our lord 2012. I'm looking forward to it, happy hunting!

It’s no easy feat to bring Stephen King to the silver screen in a respectable form. While some have managed to successfully adapt several of his non-horror pieces, as for his scary stories, only one has been good. So it rather surprising that in the end it was a routineer like Håfström who managed to do something to even up this sorry imbalance. Because of limited space, 1408 relies solely on the central character. Luckily Cusak turned out to be an outstanding choice. His charisma supported by a good measure of cynicism, together with his unmistakable croaky voice holds the picture’s head above water even during the weaker moments. The fundamental problem here is that after the wonderful opening hour, the creators didn’t head straight for the finishing line, but needlessly and even unbecomingly drag it out. It begins with a wonderfully created atmosphere, lots of ideas and several borrowings from other stories by King (e.g. “The Ledge"). But in the second part, the tempo drops sharply, the story starts to get out of its depth and the atmosphere almost completely disappears. And there aren’t even any ideas anymore, just over and over variations of the same thing we have seen earlier on in the movie. As a result, 1408 ends up being the same as its literary counterpart is in comparison to other works by King. In other words, an example of above average filmmaking craft, but it definitely won’t stay lodged in your memory. P.S.: Of the three existing endings, by far the best is the not so happy one.