Malarkey

If a B-list movie is good, it’s a great pleasure to watch it, or at least in my experience. For instance, this film starts out as a pretty decent B-list action quickie full of American rednecks, their stupid bullshit and wacky editing akin to that in Grindhouse. The only nice thing about this film is the kidnapped chick, whose eyes are the same color as her T-shirt, which you can’t fail to notice. However, in terms of the plot, get ready for two pretty big twists that would definitely kill a horse and for a single scene involving Machete, who if he wasn’t in this movie, nothing much would have happened, and on top of that it would have saved the budget of an already cheap film.

While watching this film, I didn’t really feel that I was watching a literally average film. For instance, the characters of the grandpa and of that guy that was supposed to help him seemed really wacky to me and it was actually thanks to them that I managed to stay awake during the movie. The plot might be a mixture of various situations and conditions that affect today’s society, but despite the screenwriting craziness, I realized at the end that I actually felt like watching the movie to the end and not for a moment did it ever occur to me that it should be any other way.

What’s great about No Escape is that it absolutely realistically portrays a situation that could occur at any time now in any shaky country, and it wouldn’t even have to be in Asia. You simply go there once in good will and all of the sudden you are public enemy number one without really knowing why. And what’s really cool about this film is that it’s trying to suggest why such a coup had occurred and how USA-led globalization affects the rest of the world. Obviously, nothing will change through a movie like this, but sometimes it’s good to watch a movie like this and think about the world for a while. On top of that, I was really surprised by Owen Wilson, who after a pretty long while made another appearance in a serious movie and convinced me once again of what a good actor he is.

Madame Bovary messed up her life through and through and we watch that today. A romantic book adaptationfilmed a thousand times and always the same. But I actually saw a few movies proving that it can be done in an original manner. Unfortunately, that is not the case here. And Mia Wasikowska can’t save the movie either.

If I had watched this movie when I was ten years old when I admired Belushi with the German shepherd dog Jerry Lee and Grodin for a change with the St. Bernard Beethoven, I would probably have been excited. Today, the movie is still nice thanks to these actors, but it will not knock my socks off and I won’t be watching it on repeat on a VHS tape, as was the case with other movies.

A sort of a more realistic description of the story told by the movie The Conjuring 2. I was worried that it would be treated in a boring manner, which is something the English sometimes manage to do with their dry attitude. But eventually, I was pleasantly surprised by the characters, as well as by the manner of storytelling with which you can really feel that it is much more genuine that whatever I had seen before. These were definitely two hours that weren’t boring at all. On the contrary, I really liked the civil attitude of all those connected to the story.

This is probably the only movie that would be banned in Alcatraz, if Alcatraz had still been in operation at that time.

Tim Burton decided to handle another horror fairy tale, the story of which really fits with his style. And you can really see how much he was enjoying himself making this movie. For instance, the final scene in the theme park is probably the craziest scene that Tim Burton ever created in image and sound. On the other hand, I had a bit of a problem with the way they explained the world. To be honest, I was getting lost in all those pasts and presents and even several days after I watched the film, I couldn’t really process how exactly Eva Green manipulated time. On the other hand, I got exactly what I wanted. Tim Burton had a blast once again with the story and all of that and I had the opportunity to enjoy all that with the works. The beginning of the movie in America is exactly like from the world of Edward Scissorhands; actually, that film will be alluded to several times. Old England is exactly the way you would imagine it would be in a movie by Tim. Difficult, mysterious, terrifying. All in one. What else can I say? In this respect, I was really satisfied. What I don’t understand however are the opinions of people who seem to be specialist assistants to that clown of a spokesperson of the Czech president who feel that Tim’s recent movies have been stale. I definitely disagree with that. The contrary. When he’s making movies in his name and not in the name of large studios, it’s still a pleasure to watch his flicks.

One Wednesday morning, Al Pacino woke up as a bank clerk whose world had crumbled apart. He said to himself “screw it” and he decided to rob his place of work and to exchange the money for cigars, rum and a hut made of straw to sleep in in Cuba. He got himself two accomplices: one flees before the action starts and you feel sad about the other one – even more than you feel sad about the movie. After a botched robbery, the two criminals remain closed in the bank along with several employees, the bank is surrounded by about five dozen cops and the social survey of year 1975 starts. And since the movie stars Al Pacino in the leading role, you can bet that you won’t be bored.

I must admit that I had expected a loose but very similar sequel to the first two parts of Insidious. But it never occurred to me that I might be getting a film that knowingly pokes fun of all those monsters, demons and nightmares. It’s as if the movie took the Insidious name only to make fun of it and it got away with it without any problems. On the other hand, I was saying to myself whether I should cry about those illogical plot holes or whether I should simply enjoy scene after scene. You see once two guys with the punk image of ghostbusters burst into the teen horror halfway through, the movie gains a whole new unique dimension. On top of that, the technical side of the film isn’t actually too bad. All in all, this is a film that you can’t take seriously and that’s how you have to approach it.