Uudet arvostelut - Parhaat käyttäjät

Proof that 4DX technology can work and be immersive... But only as a tailor-made short intended purely as a rollercoaster. Otherwise, this is a standard outlandish escapist short, where one is constantly falling or flying somewhere (let's not forget that it is an attraction) in an attempt to deliver a present to Gru.

It feels like a feature-length cut of a five-star miniseries. Fortunately, a very successful cut that flies the world through the rise and fall of the BlackBerry and the people around it. Lately, there's been a rash of these types of dramas, but this is among the best.

Short. Scott's a stud, but he might as well have made Napoleon a trilogy instead of skipping through his life like a rushed history lesson. Phoenix is great, his Napoleon oscillates between aspiring strategist and lovelorn naif. But Kirby doesn't have enough space, so she comes across as weird. The leap from infatuation to divorce is very rushed. The battles, Toulon, Austerlitz and Waterloo, are exquisite, though. There's black humour, poking fun at politicians and their lies. Also, that brute force and tactics are above all, but are useless when it rains. P.S.: Almost on the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz.

The prequel to The Hunger Games isn't a bad movie, it has its bright moments, but the actual Hunger Games, which should have been the main highlight are unfortunately not as engrossing as I expected. The 10th Hunger Games begins. Each of the students becomes a mentor and gets one assigned from each region and their job is to win the Hunger Games together. The main character is the likeable Coriolanus Snow, who gets a girl, and underdog, who can only sing. I liked the chemistry between them, Rachel Zegler is a very beautiful woman (and sings very nice), the emotions and romance work and these two pull the film up nicely. Of the characters, Peter Dinklage is also a great. Visually, of course, the film is on par, and even though it doesn't have a very thrilling pace, it certainly doesn't get boring, and the Hunger Games are quite thrilling, it's just a pity that there aren’t more traps, challenges and pitfalls. It's kind of Battle Royale style but without the gore, so I didn't get much excitement. There's not much action outside of the game itself, but it's quite imaginative and clever (the decisions Snow makes are pretty cool), it's just a shame that the main character doesn't fight at all. The second half surprisingly turns into a completely different movie and we watch Snow's interesting character development undergoing a really interesting and unexpected transformation. There are more songs than action for my taste, but they were at least enjoyable to listen to. All in all, an enjoyable film that I don't regret watching, but nothing that would make me sit on my ass. I have it between 3 and 4 stars, but I'll be more strict this time. I don't need to see it again. 65%.

Heaps of creative ideas and social commentary that after half an hour feels like out of a machine-gun, and the rest of the running time is just recycled. Moreover, Barbie is too shrill and dramatically inconsistent. After an hour, I wished it would end. The acting is unsurprisingly good, at times funnily accurate in reflecting the problems of contemporary society, but I don't quite get the commercial success and worldwide hype around Barbie.

A very pleasant surprise that does not put The Boys to shame. Solid performances and a great story that uses a classic college campus setting to unleash a carnage of unbelievable proportions.

The John Wick universe, where cool gunslingers shoot headshots and perform gun-fu, just like John Wick, in a dark visual stylization like John Wick. The production design is properly neo-noir and the soundtrack is full of bangers. The only problem is that John Wick himself isn't even there for a minute, and the characters that are "in his place" are either completely generic with no appeal or have too little space. The only reliably workable link is Mel Gibson as the alpha bad guy. There is no need for another spin-off like this and an attempt to create a Wick world.

For how short it is and how relatively little they talk in it, Ghost in the Shell has a surprising amount to say. A good idea in a good presentation is something always welcome, and this is one of those few select sci-fi films that have somehow managed not to get old (like Blade Runner, Alien, Akira, The Matrix, Back to the Future II...), even though reality has overtaken or almost caught up with them in terms of years. If I had to single out one thing, it would be a completely amazing five-minute long scene in the middle, in which nothing substantial happens at all, it’s "just" the haunting atmospheric music and alternating shots of a neon futuristic city. It draws you in perfectly.

The sequel to the Korean remake of Believer (the original is from China, Drug War) has arrived on Netflix, and so far it's been getting people talking. It's not too bad, but it's a bit weak by Korean standards. We have a detective looking for a big drug gang who distribute the drug Laika, but the plot is so weirdly put together that it doesn't always make complete sense. There's no real twist, in short the plot is secondary (it's definitely not a typical Korean film through and through), but on the one hand I like the drug mafia setting, there are some pretty interesting and memorable characters (an interesting female villain), and the erotic action is also nice. There are no fights, but the shootouts are pretty bloody and have a nice edge, they are nice and uncompromising and raw, which counts. At times it looks unintentionally cheap (the jungle chase), but otherwise I have no problem with the film. It goes by fairly quickly (although the last half hour was already unnecessarily lengthy and the big finale comes half an hour early). As a simple action B-movie with nice bloody action, it's better than any other American-made B-movie, but it's not a quality Korean standard. 6/10.

A heavy downer, exactly in the style of Fassbender's classic film work. There is no celebration of success, jut toil, frustration and unsatisfactory results despite all the energy, focus and sacrifice put into it. The harsh realities and realization that top racing really isn't for everyone and and amazing advice – just turn off the emotions – that can save a lot of lives in the finale. The nightmare of making the racing you look forward to seem like the hardest job in the world to enjoy. And when it almost looks like a happy ending and Fassbender is running his best times, comes a hard blow and a lesson, just not the one the viewer originally expected.

The filmmakers’ ambitions were apparently limited to trying to combine children’s adventure stories with a mountain-set action thriller in the style of Cliffhanger, without concerning themselves with the idea that it should hold together or fulfil some smart-ass grown-up requirements. Because who would bother with the logic of time, space and the laws of physics when you can just come up with some cool shots. It’s a pity that they didn’t have the resources to go all out with those shots, so the result is kind of half-baked. And that is a terrible shame, because the film has real heart, but it’s buried under a heap of dead weight. I’m not surprised that film nerds are howling, because this is exactly what they hate – a movie with a bombastic promo that twists its potential for sullenly cool arrogance into gleefully childish nonsense.

Michael Fassbender moves, walks and uses his voice in an interesting way. And that's all. His soliloquys are as empty as his character’s craft, and we’ve already seen the naturalistic physical conflict of two cold-blooded professionals elsewhere long ago in more intense performances. The simplicity of the story wouldn’t bother me at all if it were dressed up with imaginative moments, an original psychological profile of the main character and some playing around with the formalistic aspect. However, The Killer offers none of that. The form is pure and precise, but not bold. The encounter with the perfectly cast Tilda Swinton at the table arouses the viewer’s curiosity and interest almost like the face-to-face encounter between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Heat, but it remains the only scene that I remember from the movie. And that’s just not enough for a David Fincher flick. I unequivocally prefer The American with George Clooney, a similarly minimalistic and creatively distinctive, yet more emotionally engaging profile of an unknown killer.

A teenage Funny Games, with a portion of unpredictability in the well-crafted screenplay, but the directing doesn’t do a good enough job of depicting the growing seriousness of the situation. When the main victim is supposed to be in the greatest shock in the climax, she looks like she did in the first third of the film, when she still had no idea that this wasn’t just child’s play. The villainous brat is both well cast and well acted, and the filmmakers’ goal of spicing up the Christmas family atmosphere with a bit of morbidity is praiseworthy.

David Harbour is half of the film. He was made to play the role of a kind-hearted Santa Claus with the roots of a bad-ass Viking. The mixing of motifs from Die Hard and Home Alone, which are Christmas cult classics in America, is the right way to join their ranks in different genre garb. Wirkola almost succeeded – he combines Christmas clichés with new ideas, the endangered family members are not cliches and the narrative flows nicely. It’s just a shame that Harbour doesn’t face any correspondingly interesting bad guys for whom we would have more respect.

An even bigger cracker than I was hoping for. Eli Roth has made his best horror film and his best slasher in quite possibly a decade. A vicious carnage that puts all the Screams, Halloweens, Fridays the 13th, all the PG-13 slashers and all the wannabe meta slashers to shame. The film doesn't try to bring anything new to the genre, it just works with what's proven, but it's so fan-friendly that everything is done with a love for the genre, and I enjoyed the whole thing immensely. Just the setting alone in the famous American holiday of Thanksgiving is very cool and more enjoyable than Halloween or Christmas. Anyway, here's to a great slasher franchise, which I hope this will be. The very opening opening sequence, which I'd call the Black Friday opening gory madness, will a legendary scene in the horror archive that will earn the film a cult status. Let's move on to the individual elements, where I won't spare any praise. The Killer is perfect, with amazing design and costume, an iconic character who has skill and the set-ups are amazing. To my surprise the reveal of the killer and his motive works, which I also applaud. It's packed with hyperbole and a nice dark humor. It also works well as a whodunit about the hunt for a serial killer, where we follow a little investigative work. It's nice that the target is not just the central group of teenagers, but a host of other supporting characters. The city is consumed by terror and no one is safe. The body-count is decently high. I must also praise the well dosed jump-scares, one of them almost gave me a heart attack, and is one of the best this year (shame on all the ghost movies, when a slasher is doing a better jump-scare job). I also liked the retro 80's feel and the characters are cool too (the main character is really cute and hot). I must also highlight the fact that it's not completely silly. The behaviour of the characters is definitely more natural than in other slasher horror movies. And now the main thing , the gore and the execution of the murders is top notch. Here Eli Roth is really unleashed and all the murders have a twist, they are properly brutal, very creative, literally unpleasant and very nasty sometimes. He uses a variety of weapons and fatalities and I really enjoyed all the kills. There were guts, hammering, frying alive, scalps, decapitations, severed fingers, in short something from everyone and it's great. The finale with the dinner is also interesting, though I think the potential could have been used a bit better, it pointed to the ultimate torture mayhem, but stayed halfway, too bad, there could have been two legendary scenes in one movie, you just don't see that. Of course, there's plenty of tension and the whole thing is so much fun that when it's over you want to watch it all over again. 8.5/10.

A surprisingly enjoyable horror thriller working with a familiar template, and even if it doesn't try to bring anything new, it works fine. I like these movies where a stranger shows up outside a house in the middle of nowhere at night looking for help and you don’t quite know who to trust at first, who's evil and who has what plans. A mother, a daughter and a sick father are disturbed by two guys during the night. One of them is injured and looking for help and I won't tell you more. Filmed decently, the acting is fine, and there are a few surprises (some expected, some unexpected). It really holds the attention and and keeps the viewer suspenseful as to how it all turns out, which counts. The ending is sharp too, so that's fine. Add some proper gore and I wouldn't hesitate to rate it higher, but it's worth a watch for those who like films like this. 6/10.

I was expecting another new world adventure and instead got a wildly edited, plodding three-hour procedural with elements of an inside job at the end. All to the sound of monstrously thumping music and artsy black and white flashbacks. I'm not disputing the dense premise, or the decent performances, but the film only has two sparks in 180 minutes. One when the bomb goes off and the other when the camera is trained on Florence Pugh – with or without clothes on, it doesn't matter, both work.

Brilliant. To capture the current social state of the world so perfectly. Apt one-liners the hold the truth lying dormant, and the decline of civilization hidden in the inability to fix the hinges of an electric oven. A frighteningly funny vision where Cartman is transported to a parallel universe populated exclusively by black lesbians and Kathleen Kennedy instead of patriarchal white men. The point about laziness is not without merit. Disney is now thinking.

I would never cast young Washington in a leading role again, his acting bad (and I'm taking off one star for that). Otherwise I found this film terribly rich, both visually and emotionally. Gareth Edwards takes us through several locations with a succession of gorgeous images, whether it's a city with dozens of glowing neon signs like in Blade Runner, an Asian landscape where ancient Buddhist culture clashes interestingly with modern sci-fi elements, or the Nomad super spacecraft that Kosinski seems to have invented for Oblivion. I was especially impressed with Asia and how thoughtfully and seamlessly the modern architecture builds on the old buildings, creating such an interesting contrast, and the viewer immersion is incredible. I'm not a fan of AI, but I still didn't mind that Edwards relativizes it and actually puts it in the position of a positive element, just like Blade Runner did 40 years ago, the story thus gets a charge that kept my attention throughout and the few logical lapses didn't ruin it for me. Unfortunately, Edwards is a misunderstood filmmaker. Whether it is with Godzilla, which was a clever homage to the TOHO's films, or here, with the heavy-duty sci-fi that isn't being made much these days. I can only be comforted by the fact that Blade Runner was also critically panned and rejected by audiences in its day, so .... maybe it'll come out in a few decades too, Gareth.

I don't like show business, which might have something to do with me having worked backstage for some time. While at university, I worked as a stagehand, which gave me the opportunity to be involved in various TV contests. It allowed me to get a pretty accurate idea of many of the celebrities as well as the whole entertainment industry, and the masks that are put on when the camera lights up or when someone truly important is watching. Just like anywhere else, it depends on the person. You get to meet amazing people who appreciate your hard work and never forget to personally thank you after their show. Or, when their show gets canceled, they buy you sandwiches and something to drink. However, there are many of those who look down on you, egomaniacs who use their influence to heal their own insecurities and feel entitled to judge everyone. The nice old lady on the screen turns out to be a greedy old woman, stuffing her handbag with things from the buffet when she thinks no one is looking. I don't like idol anime either because almost all the ones I’ve watched portrayed show business as an amazing sunlit path that always rewards those who try the hardest. Finding an idol-themed anime that even slightly touches on more serious issues or attempts to portray characters as real people rather than cheerful Duracell bunnies making their dreams come true is nearly impossible. Sure, there's Perfect Blue, which turns a potential problem into a horrifying experience. However, Oshi no Ko is the first show I’ve seen which offers a more comprehensive look at various issues, explaining that it's all about people who are each different, and even the idols, actors, and other celebrities are just people with their own problems. It shows everything from a broader perspective, while also presenting it in a way that is understandable, dramatic, and memorable. Of course, the way show business is portrayed here may not be exactly true to life. This perspective clearly caters to those who dislike show business and are prejudiced against it based on a few news stories. But if you want to tell the whole story, you have to show the dark side too. Just showing the good parts isn’t enough. If you do that, it'll be just another silly show about idols that nobody takes seriously. If you dare to show everything, the series might not be as cheerful and full of hope but show business isn't like that, life isn't like that! Things need to be shown from multiple angles. What is enchanting about the series is that it doesn't only deal with the issues of show business but also its consumers and the mutual synergy between them. Idiots and crazies are everywhere, not just among celebrities but also among their fans – we already know that from Perfect Blue, but even herd mentality or just one random "hero behind a keyboard" can be dangerous. This series hits home, you'll fall for it hook, line, and sinker, and it might even make you reflect on yourself for a moment. That’s how good it is! The characters are wonderfully fleshed out, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, sometimes struggling with insecurity, at other times knowing exactly what they need to do. Aqua is sometimes Jekyll, sometimes Hyde, and the way he’s portrayed is incredibly intense, enhanced by the color of the sparkle in his eye. It works so well that you're sometimes even afraid of the main character – it's like a theater in a series about an actor. The atmosphere and overall mood switch between extremes. One minute you're on the edge of your seat, next you’re laughing out loud, or intently listening to one of the characters' explanations about a certain aspect of show business. Everything works as it should. The show is enjoyable, and the characters are likable in all the right moments. The animation is also great. It may not be the best I've seen this season, but it's still an amazing sight. I wasn’t that impressed with the final concert, and, in terms of choreography, what Aqua did in the audience outshined the girls' entire performance. What to say about the music? The opening is making its way up the global charts, which is not typical for anime, and the rest of the music is also very good, including the concert. There isn't much to criticize here, at least not for me. Maybe it's because I don't like show business and idol anime, and this is nothing like your typical idol anime; it's a complex insight into the background of show business, which is also a psychological drama, and sometimes even a romantic comedy. My only quibble is that the series hasn't fully sold me on Ruby. Her backstory helps to create a good impression, but, given the fact that she is the second most important character, she is somewhat overshadowed by Kana. The same goes for Akane, although it's clear that her strong moments will come, probably in the announced second season. Nevertheless, such a minor issue couldn't possibly spoil the whole impression, which is almost perfect (I’m saying "almost" because I want to leave a little room in case the second season is even better). 9.5/10.