D.Moore

A classic tale about a reformed gangster who one day finds his past breathing down his neck, but it is also a classic (and this is important) French tale. All the reasons I love movies with Ventura, Gabin and others can be found here. A chilly, unpredictable atmosphere, great main character, family values vs. criminal values... I really liked Jean Reno in the lead role. Charly Matteï is actually his first proper character since 2004's Hotel Rwanda and he really needed him. The director, Richard Berry, is completely unknown to me, but the opening twenty minutes, in which "it all" happens, won me over to the max - the shootout is spectacularly bloody and the transfer to the hospital and the passage in which everyone gradually learns of Mattei's shooting is again extremely imaginatively shot. As I suggested, if this film had been made thirty-five years earlier and starred Alain Delon or Lino Ventura, it would undoubtedly be a classic today. Four and a half for Badelt's music.

I liked it. The shaky opening five minutes were soon trumped by a great western three-quarter hour with everything a fan of the disingenuously pulp branch of this genre could wish for. With a likable positive hero, an absolutely, but utterly excellent villain played by Christopher Lloyd, a successful stagecoach ambush action scene and an even more successful fatal shootout in a canyon. I was surprised that the filmmakers spared no blood and the fights are quite naturalistic (like the murder of the Lone Ranger's parents at the beginning) and have such a great swing. After this part, the film logically slows down and the atmosphere is enchanted mainly by John Barry's beautiful music. When Reid puts on his mask for the first time and springs into action, perhaps the film's most awkward passage comes next, but thankfully it's soon gone, and the train hijacking of President Grant (Jason Robards), the final explosive finale and Lloyd's diabolical "Do it!" come into play. I give it three and a half sheriff's stars.

More like two and a half stars. On the one hand, there will be swearing at Van Helsing and The Brothers Grimm, and on the other hand, people will marvel at this gem that is considerably less imaginative and funny. And never-mind the actors. Could it be that the cheap, bloody special effects that many people gush about helped add to the great fun I'm reading about here? Or perhaps the forced coolness of the main characters, especially the once again unprecedentedly wooden Jeremy Renner? Or the parade of awkward vulgarities? It's possible... Anyway, I did smile occasionally and the action scenes had quite good swing, but the best character of the whole film was simply Edward the troll, who topped even the lovely Gemma Arterton in second place. Peter Stormare played almost the same man in the aforementioned The Brothers Grimm, and he did it better.

In Stranger Than Paradise I enjoyed his legendary song, and in Mystery Train I was entertained by Screamin' Jay Hawkins in the irresistible role of a hotelier who one night discovers that he likes Japanese plums. Jim Jarmusch once again earns points, and it is impossible to decide which of the stories is better or, heaven forbid, the best. In the end, to be fair, the film itself, Memphis, the music and the legends at every turn win out. You know, when the ghost of Elvis himself is (presumably) involved in something, then it's hard to find a rating lower than five stars.

A very good, but certainly not pleasant, war spectacle, which must therefore impress the French even more than it impresses us, but this does not mean that it is not suggestive enough. I guess that's how they perceive the Czech film Tobruk abroad. Yes, Intimate Enemies is a fairly traditional story, but that's part of the genre, and it's more about the delivery, which is second to none, and the actors, of whom Albert Dupontel in particular is an exemplary badass and actually a likable guy - as he should be. The budget is evident, many scenes are really strong (napalm), and Desplat's music is great. I think I liked Special Forces better, but not by much.

There is not a great amount of directorial ideas, but Crimes and Misdemeanors is wonderfully intimate and human, it’s believable, and you can feel exactly what they are trying to say. Life just isn't always fun, and quite often it's a pretty mean bitch that makes you do things you never thought you would do. This film mainly shows this fact in two very different men in different situations, one of them brilliantly portrayed by Martin Landau, the other by the writer/director. Alan Alda was also excellent, playing a completely opposite character to the one he played in Sweet Liberty, three years earlier, where he was deposed by director Michael Caine as the author of the film's draft. And he obviously played it with gusto.

Mega Beasts cannot be compared to the BBC's relaxed Walking with Dinosaurs 3D. What annoyed me probably the most was the commentary that the narrator made in an incredibly harsh way, and when he said "Acrocanthosaurus" for the first time in the fourth episode, I almost passed out laughing. Likewise, paleontologists speak with exaggerated exuberance and fascination; you can see how they want to impress at all costs. As for the animation, the aforementioned Walking with Dinosaurs 3D, which is ten years older, looks much better. The whole thing is simply done in an overly popular way, it’s clamorous, and so on. Take the very first episode, The Terror Bird. In the first few seconds I thought - we are not starting with dinosaurs, but with the Tertiary. Great. Then Titanis walleri came running in, ate something... And then a glimpse into the present, lots of dramatic cuts... And what did they show? Paleontologists and God knows who else are building a steel replica of the bird's neck and beak, testing how strong it was, and shouting "Wow!" and being "cool". And this isn’t the last time. I was equally disappointed with the Spinosaurus episode, which was popularized by Jurassic Park 3 (I still don't get it), and the final overgrown monitor lizard. With some reservations, I quite liked the second part of T-Rex of the Deep, and Bear Dog wasn't the worst either - for the misery. But the processing... Very American.__P.S. Available on YouTube.

On the one hand, we get the excellent Karel Höger and scenes like the amazing montage before the laying of the foundation stone of the National Theatre, Smetana's stay outside Prague, and the playing of motifs from the Vltava River and a very dramatic deafening. On the other hand, we get Kršek's directorial gluttony, which makes the film stretch out long scenes from Smetana's operas at the expense of the plot, which - filmed, God knows why, in exteriors - look more like they were made by Otakar Vávra. I would have given it three stars, but From My Life is something other than a celebration of Bedřich Smetana and his beautiful music. During the filming, names like Talich, Blachut, Podvalová, Žídek, Bednář were brought together, thus creating something like a documentary for the contemporary viewer and listener... And for that, I'll give it a fourth star. It is a pity that today we probably won't be able to see such pictures, which would radiate justified Czech pride.

Some people are fooled by the distributor's text and expect epic battles, they get bored, they don't understand why the director intersperses the final battle with a birth scene, and since they don't know much about the North-South war, they inevitably don't learn much either. I saw Class of '61 definitely as strong film by TV standards, and while it deals with the old familiar idea of the pointlessness of war, with friends and relatives shooting at each other, it deals with it perfectly. The screenplay surprised me by how balanced it is and doesn't favor either side (although for a while it seemed to me that it preferred the Southerners), Janusz Kaminski's excellent cinematography was a delight for the eyes as always, and John Debney's soundtrack, unheard to this day, played in my ears. The aforementioned battle had everything it was supposed to have, and as for the excellent slave storyline, I wouldn't put much stock in Steven Spielberg having a hand in how engaging it was.

A truly magical contribution to escape films. I already liked the classic Jarmusch-esque taciturn atmosphere, but as soon as Roberto Benigni began to disrupt it in his inimitable Italian-English babbling way, it was clear who would be the main star of the evening. The black and white Louisiana swamps, the three fugitives lost in them, the darkness... And maybe a light somewhere up ahead. "Most of all, I'm afraid of water and dogs. The water is in front of me, the dogs behind me." Excellent.