Ivi06

Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix are names that will always automatically raise expectations. I definitely can't say I was bored because the production design, the battlefield scenes are very engaging. But less is sometimes more, and Ridley, to his detriment, tried harder. Napoleon is such a bloated montage of Bonaparte's most pivotal battles and campaigns, interspersed with a "romantic" line with Josephine. I would have appreciated a lot more focus on one or two specific periods and battles, and I would have especially packed in a lot more psychology and politics to go much more in depth in the characters, because honestly I found Napoleon presented this way to be terribly flat and soulless, despite Joaquin's standard good acting. I would have delved more into his motives and complexes. The relationship with Josephine feels terribly underdeveloped, because on the one hand we have mutual love letters full of respect, and on the other, in front of the camera, we see a kind of cold relationship where love and respect are not visible even from a distant express train. It's a shame, I think the audience would have been much more interested in a deeper analysis of the character of Napoleon himself, to take something we've seen hundreds of times and present it in a slightly different way as we saw in, for example, Todd Phillips' Joker. I just don't see any added value here. But I'm also quite interested in the Director's Cut, because I only just realised that I saw French actress Ludivine Sagnier in the opening credits, who is not in this cinema version at all So what is the Director's Cut hiding?

The biggest problem with Maestro is that it has all the ingredients for success: we see precise and solid filmmaking and great, award-worthy performances, but it absolutely lacks soul. For me, that means I'm unable to form a connection to any of the characters, and there's a lack of emotional involvement. You finish watching it and then you can immediately go on to the next one, which to me is not the mark of a good film. So I totally understand the low rating. I'm not able to give more than 3 stars myself, and the third one is for Bradley Cooper's performance.

Normally, I don’t review Czech productions, but I promised this to a friend. I honestly haven't seen anything so terribly pathetic and embarrassing in a long time. It’s one disgusting cliché after another. It seems that it doesn't matter if women are capable, self-sufficient and successful at work, as soon as a man with a capital M appears in our lives, we fall in love after only 20 minutes spent together, and mysteriously become helpless and miserable cows. We don't take being dumped well, so we devise an ingenious revenge plan: we go to the hairdresser to look even better than before and let him know we can live without him, and what happens? He realises we're the one, we love each other so much after 3 dates? WTF? And I’d rather not say anything about the friends. I may sleep with my best friend's boyfriend, but she will basically forgives me after a slap and one drink and is still happy to go to my wedding. This film is neither romantic nor funny, I mean I laughed, or rather I chuckled at how utterly stupid and rubbish it is. The cast? I understand actors have to pay the bills, but my God! If it was at least some kind of satire, but it's meant to be serious, and that makes me really upset.