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Reviews (1,970)

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The Haunting (1999) 

English If I accept the strange idea of putting insomniacs in an abandoned mansion as part of research and turn a blind eye to it, this film still can't be considered either a good ghost story or a horror movie. It does have a nice soundtrack and EXTRAORDINARY sets, similar in impact and size to those you see in old Universal horror films, and the film is appropriately bathed in them for the first hour, but that's where the positives end. What happens in the last 40 minutes or so is something I've perhaps never seen in a high-budget studio film, which are usually thought over in dramaturgical detail. That sequence of bad creative decisions where everything that could go wrong did. The logic and common sense of all the characters went to hell, there's confused running hither and yon and screaming like little kids, and despite the already advanced CGI capabilities at the time, it has far worse visual effects than films a few decades older. Sure, the fault is already in the script, the central (poorly acted) character played by Lili Taylor and her backstory, but de Jan de Bont's shoddy craftsmanship doesn't add anything to it.

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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (2023) 

English It is missing some visual highlight, some memorable scene that would make you want to watch it again. But otherwise it is a pretty solid film, and I could easily see Guy Ritchie as the new Bond director, though he probably doesn't even aspire to that, he's comfortable in the company of those weird underworld folks. Hugh Grant is an excellent sleazeball, Jason Statham is just Jason Statham, the same kind of actor that makes us love him so much, and Aubrey Plaza is a sweetheart when she's not all made up and trying to look sexy (she's really bad at that), but the one that was pleasantly surprised me was Josh Hartnett. I don't understand what messed up the career of this fun and charismatic guy, but hopefully after this and Oppenheimer it will get better.

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Night Swim (2024) 

English The premise with the mysterious and dangerous swimming pool is quite original, but unfortunately it doesn't provide enough material to fill the entire running time in any interesting way. It's an hour and a half long, and it's still too long. After half an hour, the escalating situations start to get repetitive and just boil over (sic!!), and by the last tense twenty minutes it starts to get ridiculous too, there's a lot of black liquid spitting and tearing, and the bland and young Wyatt Russell tries in vain to convey any emotion. Most of the time it didn't offend me with its stupidity, but I still don't understand the cinema release, this only belongs on stream. In the case of Kurt Russell, as well as, say, Clint Eastwood, it's true that their sons don't have much charisma or acting talent.

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Ferrari (2023) 

English The omission of Penélope Cruz in the Oscar nominations is completely incomprehensible to me. Adam Driver is fine here, he doesn't try to overact with "Italian-style" expressionism, even in tense scenes his acting is nicely decent, and I even believed that grey hairpiece on his head, but the main star for me is Penélope. Not the cars, about which I know nothing, not the races, but this woman, tormented by emotions and doubts, fights an internal battle throughout the film, only to capitulate at the end, because the family business is above all. And related to this is Michael Mann's intention, he doesn’t try to approach Enzo Ferrari's life with some boring biographical description and ticking off the years, but to bring the marital discord of a prominent family to life in a short period of time. And the races are just a nice addition, though the production is nicely polished and the cinematography nicely dramatic. I'd have perhaps only two criticisms, I don’t think it’s necessary in a non-English speaking setting to adapt the English of the actors into some sort of accented pidgin, as happens here, and I would have preferred not to see those CGI cars flying through the air in such a nicely old-fashioned film.

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The Borrower (1991) 

English A schizophrenic straddle between properly gory horror and something of a comedy, and I have no idea where the mistake was, coming from the maker of a very critically acclaimed debut, that neither the horror nor the comedy works. Yes, I was amused by the clumsy movement of the space scumbag, with the movement varying depending on what kind of "borrowed" (read cut off) head he was wearing at the time, the ridiculous rat in the soup scene made me laugh, and the homeless scenes were as decadent as in the cult classic Street Trash, but otherwise it's a waste, an unfunny and chaotic waste. How the scenes are composed (for example the utterly woeful final deal with the alien), plus the dull dialogue, it's not worthy of John McNaughton's reputation.

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In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2023) 

English The trajectory of the quality of Liam Neeson's films in recent years has begun to dangerously replicate something that Nicolas Cage experienced some 10 to 15 years ago. Fortunately, here Liam remembers his better days. The genius loci of the Irish coast is unique, the film has a nice and catchy score, and even though the premise with the retired killer is a very stale, the presence of the IRA gives it all an interesting edge. And thanks to the dialogue, which isn't trite, you'll soon realise that this isn't your ordinary disposable consumer product. It's a serious drama of the old-school variety, just the way I like it. I'm not at all surprised at its inclusion in the Venice Film Festival. PS: Jack Gleeson, Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones was excellent here!

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Dune: Part Two (2024) 

English I found the first one better, it was more tightly plotted and somehow more engaging, more thoughtful in its introduction to the fantasy world of Arrakis, I understood more the motives of each of the characters. And yet, even there, Denis Villeneuve didn't forget the visual magic - the arrival of Leto Atreides and his long flight in an ornithopter was so visually sexy. Even the Hans Zimmer music was more interesting to me in the first part. The second part is actually quite different in that respect, especially plot-wise in the second half, BUT .... then Denis unloaded some iconic scenes, from the first worm ride, to the black and white arena, to the frontal attack of the worms, with the seated fremen and their flapping scarves, and he had me in the palm of his hand again. The first part was food for the senses and the brain, the second one only for the senses, but you know, I'm a simple person, even Villeneuve pulling excellent visual ideas on me like Houdini pulls rabbits out of a hat is enough to make me happy. Only that Zimmer has been feeling bit tired in the last years and instead of his typical rumbling it wouldn't hurt to reach for some compositional melodic ideas again.

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Dracula (1931) 

English The one that started the hugely successful Universal horror franchise. But it should be noted that Friedrich Murnau beat Tod Browning by knock-out, his expressionistic take from 1922 was much more suited to the lord of darkness and evil. Here, the plot rushes along like a stampede and all the potentially interesting stuff is reduced to a minimum. The scenes of Transylvania and Dracula's castle are done in 10 minutes, albeit with very nice sets (and armadillos instead of rats), the voyage to Demeter lasts 2 minutes, with only two shots alternating – on the deck of the ship, with the sea crashing over it, and a static view of Dracula – well, and the vast majority of the running time is set in the streets of London and boring interiors with enough atmosphere to fit under a mere fingernail. I also have a problem with Bela Lugosi himself. His demonic-ness here is created by the lighting of his eyes in the macro details, otherwise when he throws on his typical smirk I just expect him to utter his legendary "Beware. Beware of the big, green dragon that sits on your doorstep. He eats little boys, puppy dog tails and big, fat snails." Yes, Ed Wood just ruined the demonic aura of Bela for me :o)

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Hardware (1990) 

English My journey through this film - from utter boredom and confusion to great satisfaction. For the first half you don't understand what the film is trying to tell you, where it is going, you just notice at the very beginning a pretty nice production design, Iggy Pop's voice as a radio DJ and Lemmy Kilminster in a small role of a taxi driver playing his Mötorhead hit “Ace of Spades”. With an hour and a quarter to go, you know the plot won't leave one apartment for the rest of the film and you wonder what else they're going to fill it with, given the simple premise. And then, with the robot attack, a geyser of visual creativity, visual personality and some pretty snarky gore is unleashed. There's a bit of Terminator, a lot of Tetsuo, a bit of Blade Runner, and gut-busting gore that would put Fulci to shame. Very, very unexpected indeed, how the film radically switches gears and goes from being a moribund B-movie to a visually distinctive piece that mixes genres in an original way.

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The Zone of Interest (2023) 

English Such is the daily routine of a family of ordinary, decent citizens. They grow kohlrabi and carnations in the garden, keep the house in perfect order, pet the dog and frolic in the swimming pool, and all this is provided by the head of the family, who goes to work every day in an exemplary manner and who - by the way - is the director of the most monstrous concentration camp. He is, again by the way, at work dealing with, for example, the more efficient incineration of Jews in ovens, and does it with the same emotional involvement as when you and your wife are deciding what to buy for dinner at the supermarket. And behind the walls of this middle-class family's property, behind those ominous walls, is a human-scale Mordor where the most monstrous acts against humanity are taking place, and you feel an immense oppression thanks to the ingenious sound work and the ominous visual details in the distance, such as the smoke from the ovens, or from the locomotives bringing in more and more human fuel. The film doesn't shove down your throat horrific imagery about how monstrous the Holocaust is, it does it on a subliminal basis, working with your subconscious, and that actually makes it all the worse. It made me sick, but at the same time I bow down to Jonathan Glazer for this bold cinematic experiment that says more about us humans than you'd expect.