Malarkey

The poster is excellent. It sets the ground for an uncompromising crime story with a relentless policeman on one side and a criminal who has to cooperate whether he wants to or not, on the other side. The result? The Asians have already showed us similar crime movies, for example with the film Internal Affairs, so they should have some experience. However, for me, the relationship of the two was just not believable. The drug dealer snitched something, then there was some fuck up, he admitted to not saying everything, the police threatened him with death, he started crying and started talking. There were countless moments like this in the film. The scene with drug overdosing is quite good, but the final shoot off looks like it was happening on a playground. In a Chinese film I wouldn’t expect to see such differences in quality.

The giants of this era Ingrid Bergman and Anna Magnani have not left their mark on me yet, even though I’ve been familiar with them. So now I was curious about what this documentary would come up with. And it didn’t come up with anything at all. A random assortment of footages and movie clips is complemented by a dull narrative, which most certainly doesn’t provide me with any reason to start being interested in these actresses.

War of the Buttons is like the Czech TV series Bylo nás pět (“We Were a Handful”). I’d love to know who copied from whom, but my guess is it was the French copying from the Czechs. That’s pretty clear. Other than that, the movie is nice, but as I say, Bajza from the Czech series is better and a lot easier for me to identify with.

Until I saw this movie, I’d thought the French must be the best authors of cynical war comedies. But I haven’t seen a movie this botched in a long time. Hitler looks like his cousin three times removed and the only thing he has in common with real Hitler is the moustache. The worst part were the wannabe jokes that were trying to look really international like in ‘Allo, ‘Allo, which is probably the closest thing to this movie, but they were incredibly lame. I give this movie a one-star review for the fact that it managed to convince me to watch it and also for the fact that I managed to watch it to the end. You see, several scenes were quite alright. But the rest was as bad as it gets.

A really rough story that couldn’t have gotten a better movie adaptation. The best scene comes in about half of the movie. I was just staring, completely speechless. Not only is it great how this movie tackled the difficult premise, but also that it includes the consequences and I really liked that. What’s more, the previously unimpressive Brie Larson has shown how great her acting can be in the end. The 8-year-old Jacob Trembley was also outright amazing. Overall, not an easy movie to watch, but the more it makes you think.

David Fincher knows how to dose the tension in his thrillers. It is always based on a great idea and when it starts unfolding, it is clear he really enjoys his work, scene after the scene. When I was watching Panic Room, I was quite surprised why he is currently stuck with movies which quite contradict the things he is best at. However, I enjoyed this movie. I wish they would make more harsh and exciting thrillers like this in Hollywood. But I have a feeling that movies like this one are slowly becoming rare in the States.

La Femme Musketeer – a complete nonsense that tries to further develop the Three Musketeers’ story – or “what if”. Well, the authors completely half-assed it, but they also didn’t. For example, Sophie Marceau is gorgeous and the scenes she’s in are definitely worth it. The same goes for Philippe Noiret whose performance was more than solid. If I were in a bad mental state (after downing five beers,for example), I would let him rob me just like that guy who lends him money. But that’s where the praise ends. Everything else feels unfinished. It’s fun, but not always. The musketeer scenes are there, but not always – and it might have even been better if they weren’t there. Just like that history focus which can get awfully boring. To sum it all up – good actors, bad filmmaking. A shame, because the movie does contain a few good scenes.

This is what the movie’s atmosphere felt like: my girlfriend and me played the movie. I shouted: “Aw, Dr. House” and she shouted: “Aw, Blair Waldorf” or whoever and then we both fell asleep. This movie didn’t even manage to be interesting after half an hour. One gets excited about the actors, but the story is the worst case of boredom I’ve seen in a very long time. What can you do… until next time.

To shoot a story about a deaf-mute and at the same time blind heroine is quite a feat, which requires certain personal beliefs. Moreover, when someone manages to turn his story into a real film, it deserves recognition and respect. Marie’s Story is a great film. A beautiful story full of humanity and life adversities, which proves that it is possible to accept and live with even the worst obstacles.

When you know that every scene and every shot is of such importance to you as the last one and it’s accompanied by the resonant melodies played by the king of synthesizers Giorgio Moroder, you are unable to rate it any other way than with 5 stars. The quality of this movie is so good that it is beyond the line of reality. As is the story itself.