TheEvilTwin

Are they alright? Joker was the best film of the year in every way at the time, Joker: Folie à Deux is the biggest spit in the face of all audiences this year. Joaquin Phoenix is fine, but he just can't top his performance in the first film, Lady Gaga is so bland that if you don't count their ten musical numbers, it feels like she warmed up for all of 10 minutes on set and if anyone else, even a no-name aspiring actress, had been in her place, no one would know it. There’s zero build-up the trial is boring and about nothing, the whole first half is actually an incredibly infantile wait for "something" that for a while towards the second half looks like it's finally going to veer into murky waters, but then Todd Phillips throws another musical number. A disastrous experience, two hours of pure boredom and an ending pulled out of thin air. Anyone who loved the first movie should definitely give this one a miss, as they will not be be happy with how diametrically different this film is.

It’s amazing that when you look back at the "old Marvel movies", you can literally feel the drop in quality compared to the latest ones. Black Panther, unlike the newer additions, has fine characters with a proper background, a villain with believable motivations, top-notch fight choreography using CGI that you don’t have to be ashamed of, and, most importantly, a story that is simply enjoyable. A very fine return, and when I think back to the cinema screening of the sequel, I have to say that the Panther movies are good, and although it’s one of the more boring characters in the MCU, the lore around it far outweighs its colleagues.

I was expecting another one of her snappy, joke-laden, almost parodic comedies that I love so much from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but Paul is just a road trip with an alien that didn't deliver one single joke, funny scene or any humor that would make me laugh out loud in the entire 100 minutes. It's all terribly mundane, and that's a huge fault, as there was a hell of a lot to be made out of the idea of meeting a funny alien, but they perhaps missed out on one potentially funny premise, and thus the whole thing is terribly monotonous, predictable, and... boring? Incredible bollocks that didn't actually entertain me at all, but on the other hand I didn't really give a shit about anything, so I'm sorry to go even lower with the rating... Anyway, this one definitely deserves to be skipped.

It's a wonder that a not-so-experienced director would make a film with such striking skill in so many aspects of filmmaking. Not only has he managed to film a real and very crucial event in the world of the NFL and boxing that doesn't get talked about much, but he's also managed to cram so much directorial skill into it that it should be applauded. It's actually initially more of a glimpse into the life of pathologist Bennet Omalu, where you get all his background so that you know who you're dealing with, and then the whole research into chronic brain damage in American football players and another power play with one goal in mind: to cover up all the research, because otherwise the NFL management would lose billions from the nation's favourite sport. It has a tremendously powerful atmosphere and I wouldn't have believed that even a scene like looking into a microscope could be so intense, but thanks to the skilled camerawork, excellent musical build-up and most importantly Will Smith's great performance, I felt like I was in the scene with the actors. It was both uncomfortable and entertaining to see what he would encounter next in his research and how it would all actually turn out. A true story backed up by quality directorial craft and an A-lister in the lead role, this film has it all and I'm satisfied.

If you want to really experience a proper scary atmosphere of quality found footage that will raise your pulse, go straight to the 4th episode, Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor. It has everything mentioned in the biggest scale and compared to it, the 1st episode of Hell House LLC is a weak concoction that offers the same, only in a simpler, cheaper and not so scary version, until I actually think that compared to the 4th episode it is a total farce and actually pretty useless. To rate it on its own, it would probably deserve three stars, reluctantly, but when there is an option to watch a much better version, I rate the film rather below average.

A pretty good drama that benefits from a few things in particular. 1) Brad Pitt’s great performance, seconded by (at that time still small and chubby) Jonah Hill. 2) An excellent idea, where players are not chosen according to subjective opinions, but purely according to statistics, numbers and % of success. 3) An entertaining theme that, despite the long running time does not get boring. But I have to say that apart from these three aspects, in my eyes it's still just an ordinary drama that is not so striking and lacked something to make it better, but the fact that I didn't know about this method, which obviously happened in the history of baseball, excited me so much that I have to admit that I enjoyed it despite how ordinary it was. Fine average.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS: That was really painful. The beginning and build-up were fabulous, promising a great detective series where clues are gradually pieced together until the final reveal, but the last episode made the whole thing a completely ordinary affair and concluded it in such an ordinary way that it buried all the progression. At first I was cleverly hooked by a group of five strangers who are accidentally accused of the joint kidnapping of a tycoon's son, gradually unfolding a great detective where you don’t know who to believe. Did they do it? Is someone trying to frame them? Why was he kidnapped? What secrets is his mother hiding? All of this puzzled me throughout the 7 episodes that gradually built up the story. I was expecting a final treat in the form of some kind of "boom" ending, but alas, it didn't come (at least in my eyes) and I feel like someone spent 6 hours luring me into something grandiose and didn't really give me anything. It's a great pity, the central idea, which raises so many questions in the viewer's mind, like whether the suspects even know each other and it's all a brilliant plan or it's just someone trying to frame innocent people, was something I liked from the beginning, but the ending is just unsatisfying. And it also has to be said that there are definitely a bunch of lapses in logic, loose ends and nonsense. If anyone is interested in smart crime fiction, they should go for Proven Innocent, Defending Jacob, or Bad Sisters, total tops in their genre, and what's more, they're short and snappy series that you don't have to be stuck with for more than a week.

The first two seasons were a fabulous achievement, but in the third season it sank so drastically deep into boredom that I didn't even finish the whole thing, preferring instead to watch a five-minute recap. The Man in the High Castle is one of the most over-the-top and original series we could ask for. As an alternate reality where the Germans won WW2 along with the Japanese and took over America is amazing material to film, we watch a superbly constructed world from the start and devour episode after episode, even more so when you add in the perfectly constructed plot, which includes films of resistance members in which America won the war and defeated the Germans. So what is true and what is false? Which version of reality is the right one? These are questions the show throws at us from the very beginning and doesn't answer until the end of season 4, so I just watched hour after hour to finally learn the truth. The problem, however, was that the truth wouldn't and didn't come, and thus I gave up halfway through the season 3, because it was extremely drawn out and the time jump between the 2nd and 3rd seasons was so strange and so far away that I actually got completely lost in it and had no interest in watching any longer. That said, if I were to rate the first two seasons, I wouldn't be afraid to say that this was almost a work of art, from the script, to the visuals or all the sides (the resistance, the Nazis, the Japanese..) facing each other, it's full of intrigue, great characters and above all it's all shrouded in a mysterious atmosphere that makes you keep watching. I will not comment on the rest of the series and let everyone make their own picture. But it must also be said that this is definitely not a relaxing series, but a proper brain crusher, where you will not rest and will have to think, so whoever wants similar things, go ahead.

The film literally oozes an attempt to get closer to Jordan Peele's directorial style, with scene transitions, the musical score or even typical Peele shots, but the result is half-baked, unfinished and with many holes. I guess it's true that the less you know about the film the better, so I'd rather not spoil anything and just say that it's a clever combination of mystery and thriller that's both unremarkable and fun to watch, and although it's a pretty half-baked piece, it's definitely an interesting film that everyone should see. All that being said, this doesn't change the fact that for a director's debut, this is a damn fine, even excellent, piece of work in this regard.

For me, a rather below average drama/romance that benefits mainly from the unorthodox idea that the two leads are incorporated into, namely the NASA setting and filming of the moon landing. Unfortunately, I don't find any other good points in the film – the chemistry between the protagonists is too weak, there is very little romance, the humour is also zero and there is no originality, entertainment or anything "extra" to speak of. It's a skippable, pointless film with no added value, not to mention that the two A-list leads don’t have much to work with either.