DaViD´82

There is power in simplicity. And here it stems from, among other things, the fact that, despite the initial impression, the crime story is an afterthought.

The Hobbit does not lend itself to forced conversion into a regular fantasy saga. It is, and always has been, a fairy-tale with a moral, and has never had greater ambitions than to be “just" a good bedtime story. And it is precisely out of this conflict between a fairy tale and an epic fantasy, which is not supported in the narrative structure of the original (or in the appendices), that friction points arise which Jackson does not always manage to smooth over. One moment it's a lovely quest exploring natural beauty, a scene later a fetish fantasy à la Warhammer full of slow-motion shots of muscled dwarves cutting off limbs like on an assembly line, followed by a return to a non-conflict idyll about misadventures on the road. You could probably read the initial six chapters that the first Hobbit movie works with faster than the nearly three hours that Peter devotes to them on the screen. Moreover, PJ opted for an unfortunate stylization to an unacknowledged remake of the Fellowship of the Ring; as if he'd stretched out the Fellowship from one movie into three and interspersed it with great CGI action escapades like in his King Kong. But the best scenes here are the simple ones based purely on actors (led by riddles in the dark). You can clearly see here which of the scenes would end mercilessly on the cutting room floor in the original two-part concept. However, none of the above means that it is not a good movie anyway. Because it is good cinema, plain and simple. Nor is my satisfaction spoiled by the fact that someone else should have taken over from Jackson; perhaps Cuarón or del Torro, because this cut was created for fans and not for a regular audience. However, it is probably clear from the score I gave it which category I belong in, despite all these criticisms; I've been enjoying it since the second screening with a stupid smile on my face, no matter what reason says… The extended version performs a similar function as it did with The Fellowship; that is, an interesting and pleasant expansion. But you won't miss anything if you don't see it. With one exception (a completely reworked Rivendale; especially the night passage), it contains nothing fundamental. It's definitely not an editorial revision that changes one's experience like the longer version did with The Two Towers. A very technical P.S.: HFR 48 fps really is precisely as (r)evolutionary as claimed and is partly changing the way film media is perceived. However, due to its clarity, sharpness, fluency and detail, it is completely unforgiving of filmmaking mistakes/effects and is therefore not suited to films where props, sets and masks play first fiddle. It spoils the cinematic illusion because you can clearly see "where the glue for the dwarf's beard ends" and that "boulder is a painted prop". It also does not work with dubbing since in a normal picture, the dubbing artist can speak to the movement of the actor's mouth, but here every little lip movement of every word can be seen, and it will no longer pass unnoticed -- a rather bizarre impression arises when the visual of the mouth clearly says something different than what you hear. Of course, HFR as such is life-like, immediate, but a bit like being at theatre. However, in non-studio shots of (not only) landscapes or purely CGI moments, HFR is breathtaking, and, for example, for nature documentaries, sports broadcasts, or CGI spectacles, holds indisputable promise for the future. There are undeniable positives, but there are negatives as well, and The Hobbit allows you to feel both fully.

Rather less well-known and more toned down pieces. Which certainly isn’t a criticism. But the awful visuals that try to create the atmosphere using blurred tourist brochure-type shots (with texts!) of the beauties of Venice - a sure-fire way of destroying the effect - and this is criticism. And of course you can watch the concert with your eyes closed (and it’s quite pleasant really), but then you might as well be playing a cd.

A raw, uncompromising, unadorned condemnation of faith as a crutch. That is what the book is about. But not here in this illustrative adaptation which waters down the material into a suitable form for family viewing, turning it into an enchanting tale about faith. It’s simply a Persian pussy-cat kitten and not a full-grown Bengal tiger. All of the rawness (and so the chilling power that is the basis of this story) is gone; from the feeding to leaving out the part where he meets the blind sailor. The result of this is that the (stupidly put across) “Disney-like" adapted version of the lesson barely makes sense and provokes the wrong questions. Apart from this “detail", Lee handled this challenging material with flying colors. Especially once they get to the open sea, he excels, not only in terms of visuals. In terms of filmmaking, he is often impossible to beat; headed the best visual effect in cinema history - Richard Parker. Too bad for the nothing prolog and awful ending. P.S.: The dubbing is pure Hell on Earth. It’s the worst I have heard in a long time and the people responsible should be driven into the tiger enclosure at feeding time. On the other hand, the 3D was a pleasant surprise, used here unexpectedly ingeniously and sensibly, not just for effect.

A damsel in distress who always ends up in a seemingly irresolvable situation at the end of each episode, just to be miraculously saved at the beginning of the next (oops, spoiler). And this happens over and over, again and again... And again. Simply a nerve-racking series. Of course this relies on the fact that you watch it through the eyes of the viewer of that time; and unlike perhaps other things of this age, this has no chance of capturing the contemporary viewer’s attention. Also a series that brought cliff-hanger methods from literature to the movies. And in a way that remains unbeaten and so it is still used by everybody, everywhere; from Latin American telenovelas to HBO quality productions.

As excellent as he is a director, he is simply a little bland as an actor. He proves the first not just in the opening, most powerful scene of the year, but throughout the movie. He manages to demonstrate immense bravado as a director, building up stifling tension in a story where you know what happens, while poetically interleafing political thriller with satire on a burned-out "_llywo_d". He also proves his acting (non)skills throughout, tripping himself up by otherwise casting acting aces in the other roles, or at least actors who constantly out-act him. This said, most detrimental turned out to be the airport finale where he comes across like an unintentional parody of himself. Certainly cinematic exaggeration of reality is one thing, but dishing out so many clichés in ten minutes is just too much. It is all the more surprising because up until that point he has been avoiding them and going his own way. So, in the end no new Munich or Baader Meinhof Complex occurs, it’s just too naive and shallow for that, but ranking it amongst them is sufficient recognition of Argo’s qualities.

Good to the core, former Liverpool bobby, on the road to ruin... The saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions in practice. Psychological, realistic, uncompromising. And (unfortunately/thank god) wide open, without a hope for another series. Sam Miller proves again and anew that as for his works for the BBC, what he touches is gold. Look out Midas.

Riding the same wave (although this is more like a several-story high tsunami) as Carnage and countless others. Of course, this is “just" another in an endless row of interior, purely conversational (tragi)comedies that don’t treat the audience as idiots and are based on plays. No, they don’t come up with anything new. And yes, it doesn’t matter at all because this time it is simply the best conversation piece far and wide. Nothing more and nothing less.

The essence of Scandi crime series with all the essential trimmings. The pluses include the dark and dismal atmosphere, its focus on the characters, exceptional uncompromising nature and social crossover in the form of a (seemingly) socially aware culprit. The minuses include the character of the unerring murderer and the primary the bane of most Scandi crime series, it’s needlessly over-complicated. And over-complicated in spite of a certain transparency of plot; in this case often several episodes in advance. It doesn’t take away anything from the whole show, but it’s annoying. What in the end makes this more than a mere, darn good genre piece is the central duo, who deserve to be serenaded with odes and it’s hard to decide whether it’s better written or acted, and they alone could make much worse series than The Bridge work excellently. The same applies, word for word, for season two as for season one; both the pluses and the minuses. It’s just that here they follow the rules of a continuation “about more and on a bigger scale". It runs the same course, has the same style, theme and structure, just in the guise of a new case. Especially the backstories are almost one to one in terms of type. Whether or not this is a(n) (dis)advantage depends on what you expect from it. Even so, in the end it is sufficiently unique not to come across like some cowardly sticking to tried and tested formulae. Again and mainly thanks to the characters; and this time it isn’t just the central duo, although they are still peerless (not only) in this genre. | S1: 5/5 | S2: 4/5 |

A cinematically bold space-time meta kitsch epic which unnecessarily shows off by misusing a minimum of actors in a maximum number of roles; which, thanks to their latex faces when characters are cast regardless of the sex or color of the actor is more reminiscent of Inspector Clouseau than anything else (the influence of Lana Wachowski?). Not even the imbalance between the separate segments (Tykwer > Wachowskis) is something to jump for joy for. And it mainly lacks catharsis. The creators say want to say along the way and so there’s nothing left at the finale. Even despite these errors in the matrix, NASA could send a dvd with this picture to the stars without any qualms, and this might help potentially intelligent life forms to get a good idea “about us". And they might choose to give us a very wide berth.