3DD!3

A brief trip through the Napoleonic Wars set against a backdrop of a conflict between two fencers. The part of hot-headed provocateur Feraud is just right for Keitel, even though he doesn’t do much with the character because he lacks space to do so. The less famous of the Carradine brothers has a slightly fuller character, but the important thing here are the duels. Polished, varied and perfectly filmed duels. Scott handles the atmosphere at different periods in time (the most powerful is the part with the invasion of Russia) and the direction is hard to fault in any respect. This picture is over forty years old and it hasn’t aged a bit.

Unpleasant. After leaving the theater I had a weird feeling of changed perspective. The screen offers the viewpoint in the first person on a limited scale, then enlarging it disproportionately. When I returned to two-eye vision I seem to have experienced a sort of inner shrinkage. Like if I had crawled out of a sick brain back into my (less sick) brain while not losing the ability to discern reality. It was a relief, despite the headache that set in. Khalfoun exploits the concept to the full. The dime-a-dozen, slasher plot receives the stamp of reality and ideas abound. The stay in the disintegrating mind of a serial killer isn’t very pleasant, but even some really romantic moments occur too. Anna is the only one to keep the movie from toppling over the brink of normality, the other characters are unpleasant or behave stupidly. Elijah Wood acts with his voice, just occasionally we see him in the mirror or in a special sequence when his “soul leaves his body". The music by a certain Rob affords Maniac anger and volatility, creating much of the chilling atmosphere that seeps from the screen. We haven’t seen anything like this for a long time.

A cute mosaic connecting up stories, either already told or those that take place right in front of us. Each is cloaked in smoke, but still they are heartwarming and you get to like them. It’s a joy to watch the great acting performances and clever outcomes in a movie that makes you think and reflects the period as exactly as Auggie’s camera captures time. The last, Christmas story warms the cockles of your heart. I must go visit grandma at the weekend. If you can't share your secrets with your friends then what kind of friend are you?

And it’s behind me. Goodbye, I won’t miss you. In any case, I was looking forward to the rest of Twilight, because it was the last episode, but even so it managed to annoy me. And it was with the same trick that irritated me in Cage’s Next. If you saw that, you know. I admit that in that (badly filmed, but that didn’t matter so much) fight I really had a good time, heads being ripped off the popular heroes was enjoyable, no blood, but ok, it’s a kids movie... but what on earth did they do with it at the end?! Why?! After the fight, it’s stringy like cheese fondue from the pot to the fork. I had goosebumps from Michael Sheen (and not in a good way). And everybody talks slowly, walk to the fight slowly, even though they can run really fast and their clothes don’t get torn, for god’s sake, didn’t they see Flash? For some reason, the kid has a CGI mouth for half of the movie. The vampires drive a Volvo because it’s the safest car under the sun. The vampires make a fire because... they’re cold. Probably. Pattinson is Lautner’s father. Everybody lived happily ever after... until the earth’s core disintegrates. Because vampires cannot die and are here forever. That’s the long and the short of it. Burwell’s music is nice and as always is on a completely different level from the rest of it. We have the same temperature now.

A kickass R-rated movie based on the fairytales of the Brothers Grimm. Wirkola, who last directed the undead army of the Wehrmacht in Dead Snow is in his element. Witch blood by the gallon, kids dying (a lot) and the “friendly" troll squashes heads like flies. Hansel Renner is a nice guy as always, just that they gave the poor guy diabetes and Gretel Arterton looks great. And they really like beating up on people with the audience in the theater egging them on. The head witch, Famke Janssen is also a fox. And the weapons mmm... every kid’s dream. Blessing a Gatling gun? Hell yeah! Mainly, don’t go into the gingerbread house.

A picture from the days when Petersen wasn’t so flabby, a time when it was fashionable to wear light blue jeans and money was printed at home. From the beginning, Friedkin presents a traditional thriller and not much happens until the ingenious chase through the concrete jungle of L.A. But he puts his foot on the gas in the second half of the movie turning it into an unpredictable genre masterpiece. The finale is a raised middle finger to all crime movie clichés. Really good.

A delicacy. Daniel Day-Lewis steals the whole picture. He is the type of heavenly actor who would be capable of ripping down and retracing in all of David Plainview’s character contours. A struggle for money and faith, where money always wins. A demolition of the American dream, a dream that doesn’t just sit and wait for you, but you have to wade through mud, oil and blood to get to achieve it. Paul Thomas Anderson knows this. A masterpiece.

Schumacher in form again. Another slant on Vietnam, a little different this time and maybe more universally applicable. Bullying at a training camp is confronted cleverly by one cunning, but kind-hearted solider. Farrell excels as Bozz.

Here the rules of the genre were rewritten. Friedkin films action much more dynamically than was generally the rule in the 70s. The legendary “Popeye" Gene Hackman is precisely the type of stubborn cop who lives for his job and pursues his target like a bulldog. The ingenious chase on the subway is one of the best ever made, but the raw finale with the subtitles was literally murder.

In my opinion, Branagh goes a little overboard with this dramatization, and supposedly it often strays from the book, which I own and have intended to read for many years now. De Niro is revolting and his acting brilliant, but I expected a little more of a monster.