Malarkey

It’s been quite a few years since the Americans found out that a good premise can be stretched into a series while still being expensive, spectacular and unforgettable. In the last fifteen years, America underwent a TV series revolution, which greatly increased the quantity of the series they made, as well as their quality; what is now considered standard was a spectacularexperience fifteen yearsago. So looking for something unique in this deluge of quality series is like looking for a needle in a haystack; possible but difficult. And one of the series that is able to rise above the current American series standard is The Sinner. Psychedelic, cold, depressing but effective, original and imaginative. Bill Pullman was a great fit for the role of the investigator, reminding the audience that he still has what it takes. He’s unorthodox and unique, and I think he’s the most important element in the entire conception. Other important elements are the premise and in season one also Jessica Biel. I felt like watching the first season of True Detective. I felt horrible but I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. However, I’m taking one star off for the overly contrived plot, which on one hand doesn’t say anything and on the other says enough to finish one entire case. I’m fascinated by this series and am looking forward to more seasons. Thanks go to the Czech Television for bringing this to my attention!

I bow down before the Germans! Even though the film contains some slightly b-rated moments, and the entire premise ignores the concept of law enforcement, doing what it wants with the story, the atmosphere is that of a solid mysterious thriller, the king among which will probably forever be Fincher’s Seven. This might be the first time I saw the Germans realize how to properly use the seaside locations in the north of Germany to make a film reminiscent of the best Scandinavian mysteries. It’s been a long time I enjoyed a thriller as much as this one.

Two families, one story, a billion intertwined moments on which the screenwriter obviously spent a lot of time and effort. As for the filmmaking side, however, one family presents a series of exaggerated emotions while the other family is worse than a soap opera. Too bad, because there are some good ideas in the film. 118 minutes is enough to properly milk the audience’s emotions, and use quite a large number of actors. The problem, however, lies in the individual episodes. Some are okay but others are extremely annoying. And that unfortunately sums up the whole movie. The premise is great, but the overall result doesn’t deserve more than three stars.

A strange dystopia that gets its basic idea from the Bible and then transforms it into a weird nonsense full of neon lights, disco music and sins. The erotic scenes seem to be added as an afterthought and look rather ridiculous, because the convoluted positions assumed by the participants in some scenes can’t be possibly enjoyed by anyone.

I think that on paper, it must have seemed as a huge risk to put Robert Rodriguez in charge of such a gigantic project with a gigantic budget. But taking risks sometimes pays off, and I must say that Rodriguez has done a really good job with Alita. A beautiful cyberpunk movie from the distant future, which is imaginative, beautifully animated and, above all, full of bizarre (almost b-rated) ideas, which no one else but Rodriguez would have come up with. I had a great time and I think this movie turned out really well. An exemplary blockbuster with all the goodies that a blockbuster can offer. This includes actors, where I was the most pleased with, albeit animated, the leading actress Rosa Salazar, as well as her dad played by Christoph Waltz. Rodriguez put a bit of everything he’s made so far into this film. Absurdity, emotions, animated beauty, but also some Spy Kids vibe which I can forgive him for. Alitais simply a success and I enjoyed it to the fullest.

So I’ve finished watching the most anticipated Czech series of 2019, and even though I’m not giving it all of five stars, I still enjoyed this series immensely. I’m aware that the HBO knew what it was doing here. The story features an elaborated spy plot, the problem of which, however, is that you must pay close attention to every second including the facial expressions of everyone who appear on the screen, otherwise you won’t be able to follow the story. That sometimes happened to me, when I missed why someone acted the way they did of why something happened. In terms of actors, however, it is the best-cast series of this year. I was very happy about David Nykl returning to the Czech Republic to play such an important character here. It’s hard to say which character is the most intriguing; they are almost all interesting and you always want to know what happened to them afterwards. However, as to me, I was impressed the most by the charisma of Jan Vlasák. I enjoyed The Sleepers from the beginning to the end, also thanks to the in places very inventive camera, which watches everything through the eye of an independent observer, but basically spies on everyone as only the State Security was capable of during the communist era. Thanks go to HBO for a great experience!

I was expecting a quiet, peaceful film dominated by picturesque scenery shots with a minimum amount of dialogues. However, when the German do-gooder pulled out of water the little black boy Bubu in a soccer dress with Ronaldo written on it, I started to feel rather vexed. A film for Angela Merkel.

It's not as harsh and gloomy as the famous psychedelic Phantom of Paris from 2001, where the title song was composed by Apocalyptica and it always starts to play in my head whenever I remember it. It’s still harsh and gloomy enough for today’s audience. This is mainly due to Vincent Cassel, who’ll probably play these tough, disheveled characters until the day he dies. But I like this. For many people here it is probably too old school to give it good rating; otherwise I can’t explain why a period-set mystery like this would be rated under 70%. If you know something about Vidocq’s historical importance, the ending of the film cannot fail to bring you joy.

Sergeant Pfeiffer is the main suspect in this episode. And that is more than suspicious, especially as the murder is investigated in Berlin, four hundred kilometers away from Bad Tölz. The basic story, however, is typical Der Bulle von Tölz – fun, full of delightful squabbles between the inhabitants of Tölz and Berlin experts. Plus we’ll meet the love of Benno’s life, there’s even a sex scene and Benno gets interrogated about being a part of Stasi. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion that’s quite a lot of absurdities for one episode. So I find it entertaining enough for four stars.

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith seem to be a pair of very interesting English creators. Who else would have found the courage to make a series composed of short stories, inviting a great number of both famous and lesser known British actors? For me, this series was a great viewing experience. Some episodes are almost ingenious and a real joy to watch. The fun thing about this is that you never know in advance what to expect. The only certainty is the house number nine. What kind of story the boys come up with is completely up to them. So once it is a nice satire, then almost a murder mystery, next time a brutal psychological thriller and yet other time a horror with a decent atmosphere. Every time, however, it features a healthy dose of sarcasm, which makes you at least smile, if not laugh. I won’t give it the full number of stars because some episodes were worse than others. As a whole, however, this series was a very nice surprise I never heard of before and I only chose it from the number of other series on HBO Go at random.