gudaulin

This is how American studios imagine comedy for everyone. They cast a well-known actor and a charming actress as the main couple, use a few jokes, add some kind of plot, mix it all together, and create something hopelessly mediocre and interchangeable. Matthew Perry has basically had a template for his characters since the days of Friends and he still uses the same facial expressions, which, to be fair, are quite enjoyable if you don't watch him consistently, but they're not enough for a feature film. And Elizabeth, well, she may be attractive, but she's not a good enough actress to solely maintain the film at an acceptable level. Simply put, the film lacks a good script and quality jokes. Overall impression: 45%.

In comparison to Centurion, Kevin McDonald's direction is noticeably more sober, without the presence of wild women with a layer of make-up and without hectoliters of spraying digital blood and flying severed limbs and heads. I prefer his more realistic approach, and after 2/3 of the movie, I considered giving it four stars, because as a historical adventure film, The Eagle worked well up until then without any serious slips. However, in the last third, a large group of Roman veterans came along, who after 23 years remembered their military oath, and were apparently mobilized by the slave Esca through the internet, as they emerged from all corners of the Pictish Empire in the appropriate gorge in record time. Here, not only the internet could have played a role, but probably also helicopters. In addition, other screenplay motifs also faltered, such as when the Celts, who had endured a long and exhausting pursuit, demonstratively executed a "traitor" child whom they had apparently carried the entire time in a basket on their back. That final battle between young warriors and grandfathers in rusty Roman armor would also have turned out completely differently in reality, as the life expectancy back then was roughly half of what it is in our era... Despite all this, I appreciate The Eagle's more psychological style with its attempt at developed characters in contrast to the superficially efficient Centurion. Additionally, both main protagonists are appropriately likable, so the viewer can identify with them. Overall impression: 60%.

The Coen brothers are known for their maximum precision, with which they approach every tested genre and film being prepared. In True Grit, this can be seen in every aspect, whether it is the casting, prop selection, the well-crafted screenplay, and above all, traditionally high-quality directing. This film is a return to the traditional western, which experienced its golden age about 60 years ago and has been rather languishing in recent decades. Precisely because it is a return to the roots of the respective genre, there are no major surprises and it is not a modern genre variation like Dead Man or Dances with Wolves. This is a classic battle of good and evil, tough men and wilderness, where law and justice are far from what we imagine in today's courtrooms. However, it is rawer, less romantic, and somewhat more sober than the famous films of the golden era. Furthermore, the presence of a stubborn girl who stubbornly seeks to avenge her father's death and bosses around the gunmen brings important lightness to the film. It is unnecessary to highlight other film elements, such as the camera or music because in the case of the Coen brothers they always work perfectly. Overall impression: 80%. If I were a fan of the genre, I would not hesitate to give it 5 stars.

After watching this film for the first time years ago, I considered it a powerful experience with an effective ending. The problem is that Polanski sticks faithfully to Levin's book, and that is the stumbling block. Polanski's film is strong where the viewer doesn't know whether it's the paranoia of a woman with a risky pregnancy or a real conspiracy and the intervention of supernatural forces. Theoretically, it would work if the twist weren't notoriously known. Rosemary's Baby is one of Polanski's most successful films, and this title is usually the first that comes to mind for an average movie fan when Polanski is mentioned. At the time, the film fascinated audiences precisely because of the combination of motherhood and the then immensely popular theme of Satanism. Levin's book is about the strength of maternal love, not the psychosis of an unhappy mother. The film would simply work much better as a psychological drama than as a horror, and the literal ending is disruptive and ineffective. Moreover, it is more of a dark grotesque now than a horror. In retrospect, I appreciate Mia Farrow's performance and, above all, Polanski's traditionally meticulous direction, but the script and twist are quite off for me, so I can't rate it higher than 3 stars. Overall impression: 60%.

Woody Allen is a sharp observer of human relationships, and dissecting partner relationships is one of his favorite film motifs. Spouses can be considered a kind of textbook of married life, or rather, partnership. We find herein all the basic types of marital problems, crises, and possible solutions. This film is one of Woody Allen's commercially most successful works, because at the same time, his longstanding relationship with actress Mia Farrow fell apart, and it did so quite wildly, with the malicious assistance of the tabloid media. The audience and critics tended to perceive this film as Woody Allen's family reality. The film is traditionally carefully cast and brilliantly acted, but compared to Allen's early works, I find it less entertaining. It is really more of an excellently filmed manual than a film that would emotionally affect me, like for example Hannah and Her Sisters. Mia Farrow plays an interesting role here as a seemingly fragile submissive woman, but she can subtly manipulate her surroundings and comes off as the least sympathetic character among the group of six unhappy people that Allen looks down on. Overall impression: 65%.

Interestingly, the Polish TV production with an incomparably lower budget and ambitions impresses me much more strongly and fulfills the intellectual foundation of the book more, in my opinion, than this much larger and more spectacular Russian series. Maybe it's precisely because the Poles managed with a third of the runtime, so the plot was much denser than Bortko's work, which deals with the complicated Soviet past of the 1930s, and where, among other things, we can also meet Beria as the second most powerful figure of Stalin's era. This version of The Master and Margarita is simply too sprawling and sometimes meandering, in which the traditional Russian handicap is evident - the unwillingness to edit. Otherwise, Anna Kovalchuk is beautiful, and as the protagonist's fateful love, she performs excellently. On the other hand, the characters from The Devil's Suite seemed somewhat uncharismatic to me. Overall impression: 55%.

An interesting series that revolves around a family of nomads who, thanks to a series of coincidences and the incredible audacity of the father as the head of the clan, exchange identities and pretend to be a high-class family of snobbish lawyers. It's a good idea, with an attractive setting and motifs, but the potential was greater than this and the series lacks the polished screenplay that I appreciated in Breaking Bad. Otherwise, it is a series that offers the viewer black humor and criticism of the social layer into which outsiders cunningly penetrated. Overall impression: 65%.

This film is the complete opposite of what Aronofsky showed his viewers in his famous film Requiem for a Dream. Where Aronofsky is pretentious and tries to squeeze emotions from the audience, using cheap tricks of music video makers (yes, I have a deep-rooted aversion to his style :-)), The Panic in Needle Park is real, authentic, completely natural, almost documentary-like, and incredibly effective in its simplicity and sobriety. The gradual disintegration of personality, numbing of emotions, and reducing one's existence to seeking and consuming another dose are captured through precisely selected details, showing that the world of drug addicts is pathetic and trapped in a vicious circle with no way out. At the same time, it is a film about great love and artistic ambitions, which are drowned in a spoonful of cloudy fluid and a syringe. For me, this is one of the best and most impressive films set in the environment of drug addicts. Overall impression: 95%.

I will not give this film five stars, despite my great regret, because the form somewhat lags behind the content and the first half of the film drags a bit despite its reasonable length and needlessly dissects the unflattering mundane existence of the story's protagonists. However, the second half, which takes place on television during a live talk show, is great and, in my opinion, the most accurate portrayal of the reality of a generation that experienced the fall of the communist regime and the subsequent disillusionment with the post-revolutionary situation. It experienced it quite rightly, because the actions of the elites are merely a result of the overall state of society, and changes in thinking are much harder than formal changes of the regime. The elites are no better or worse than the rest of society and they only do what those below them allow them to do. The television debate addresses whether a revolution took place in a provincial town east of Bucharest or if the locals just passively waited for the fall of power in the capital. As is known, human memory operates selectively and people tend to adjust their biography to the point where they eventually believe it themselves. Confrontation with reality, or rather with the perception of their peers, can result in a geyser of tragicomic outbursts that reveal the opportunism and adaptability of our heroes. The humor style, which revels in the awkwardness and pettiness of the film's characters, is quite different than that seen elsewhere in countries that experienced something similar. Overall impression: 85%.

With all due respect to the crew, I very much prefer The Orphanage, but even though Ortiz's film does not reach the quality of the best Spanish horrors, it is still a decent above-average within the genre and is evidence that Spanish cinema currently sets the trend in this genre - similarly, as one could have said about Japan a decade ago. What diminishes the impression is the far-fetched motive of the "animal" girl and the fact that the creators reveal their cards too early for my taste. When they remain in the realm of mysterious tension from deep forests, solitude, and hints of movement in the undergrowth, it works perfectly. The cinematography and the performances, along with the dark music, can be appreciated for creating a functional atmosphere. It's a bit tacky because the flying clouds are cliché and are used almost everywhere nowadays. Otherwise, I appreciate that in this case, the screenwriter tried to avoid cheap supernatural crutches. Overall impression: 65%.