Kaka

Kong is big, King Kong 2005 was great. The words are very similar, but from a filmmaker's perspective they are completely distant. Peter Jackson made films for the love of the material, Jordan Vogt-Roberts makes what the current mainstream is most interested in – mainly drive, dynamics, imaginative monsters of all kinds and great fights. The script is unfortunately pulled out of thin air, and if it weren't for the incredibly polished visuals and the fine 70's atmosphere with old music, it wouldn't have been much fun. Brie Larson is only here for her looks, and the ensemble cast is saved by the impeccable John C. Reilly. The 10 percent better visual effects aren't enough to trump the 50 percent better approach to the material of its predecessor. It is also puzzling that the only emotion is evoked by the closing credits.

Lemonade with some solidly outlined life truths, but in a lighter vein and without pushing the envelope. Considering the ensemble cast, which is without exaggeration fabulous, it’s quite a wasted opportunity to make a stylish relationship drama like Closer, or a black-humoured social satire in the style of the late Woody Allen films. This one oscillates right in the middle, and looking for a distinctive signature would be a waste of time.

The golden age of up-and-coming R-rated relationship dramas that artfully oscillate between light comedy and a classy dramatic plot. They're spicier, get deeper under the skin and can be very direct, even improvisational. The cards are dealt quite clearly and the outcome is basically decided, but the most interesting thing is the journey from A to Z. The chemistry between Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal is remarkable. Edward Zwick surprised with his choice of genre and even more so with the agility and awareness of his execution.

A profound story that, in film form, reeks too much of the power of the book's adaptation and opens up too little as a cinematic medium. An overly literal film whose pacing is very uneven, with believable motivations and utterly unconvincing emotions. A riveting lead acting duo, most notably Anne Hathaway, who has opened the door to the elite.

If this was supposed to be a full-blooded layered drama, it fails mostly due to the unbalanced pacing, the appallingly long running time, and the fact that a number of scenes could have been cut into shorter segments because it's purgatory at times. However, if you take it as Denzel Washington's inner testimony of words, gestures and emotions that may or may not have been in his own life (or childhood), then the film takes on a slightly different weight and narrative value. In spite of all the verbal filler and the uselessness of some scenes, Washington deals at length, or at least in short cuts, with the post-war racial issue, the habits and functioning of a despot father, problems related to alcoholism, and very strongly delves into the topic of family integrity and the meaning of marriage as such, in a rather timeless scripted form. He does not judge, nor does he preach, he just shows and it is up to everyone what they take away from it – and there are quite a few of those ideas. If this was made for the Oscars, then it’s bad. If this was Denzel's film, and I don't mean that as in the actor or director column, then it's personally satisfying and OK.

A space romance where there is little space and a lot of romance, which is often quite forced and out of place, but it has to be there. Unfortunately, the plot around the spaceship is very simple and just a sort of binder in the concept of a story about a couple's relationship and life in a rocket. It's not bad, the production design is impressive, full of neon and cutting-edge gadgets, but underneath the polished shell, it's a generic, fairly uninteresting relationship drama.

The only X-Man to get what all the previous ones lacked, an overlay of raw reality and mortality. It is also the first film where the audience suspects quite vehemently from the beginning that not all the characters will live to see the end, but the primary question is whether or not they deserve a dignified ending. I would be sparing with further superlatives, though, the R-rating is fine, the action is clear and properly bloody, there is no shortage of great screenwriting ideas, or good lightweight filler in the style of the main protagonists' bickering. Logan offers a unflinching look at our favorite heroes, and this lethargic shock causes extremely high ratings. It is good, but for a ninety percent rating, it’s a film that is not layered enough, dealing with too few things. It's basically "just" a road movie about the search for oneself and the unrecognized warmth of home. The claws certainly don't make a net class difference.

The first one was fine, but Stahelski was too much of a stuntman and some elementary elements were missing. The sequel is better, masculine, palpably raw and hard, at the same time filmed for a relative pittance and yet stylish, like a TV commercial for a new model of Mercedes-Benz. The scenes in Italy or in the glass maze speak for themselves. It also works as a full-fledged action film whose mythology is a level up from the first installment, the plot is more layered and the shootouts even juicier, and the action itself is an element that is brought to perfection. Rarely will you see such combos, so much shooting, and most importantly, such incredibly clear, and manly powerfully filmed fight scenes, many of them without editing or camera movement. So it's clear that Keanu Reeves worked his ass off, but more importantly, he's living it and loving it. The cast is almost unquestionably evenly distributed, with great cameos by Franco Nero, Peter Stormare and Laurence Fishburn, and a brilliant Common in the role of a tough bodyguard. In general, the fights between Reeves and Common are some of the best ever filmed, only The Raid can compete. If it continues to build up like this, we have a lot to look forward to in the third chapter.

I guess I need a bit more than just an hour and a half of the nomadic life in the UK with all that entails, including theft, extortion, etc. It's superbly raw, and Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson are amazing, but there's hardly anything going on. It’s basically ninety minutes of the protagonist pondering wether he has to do “it” or not. And that’s also where it ends.

For a while it looks like an advanced version of Batman Begins, followed by a certain touch of Inception, and it ends very awkwardly, like every Marvel flick where the world is saved, at least until the sequel. Thumbs up that this time they are not destroying skyscrapers, or even entire cities, and are doing it smartly, through casual humour. One cannot but praise the casting and the dynamic music of Giacchino, who has done these fast-paced compositions quite successfully a few times before. The juiciest, however, is definitely Benedict Cumberbatch's character. I don't mean the slightly clichéd transformation into a saviour, but especially in the first half his arrogant and self-centred doctor is very entertaining and wholesome. An alternative, lighter, less bellicose addition to the comic universe, something similar to what Ant Man attempted.