Lima

Well, it was terrible bullshit and the final "shocking" surprise was rather funny. But that is not the what that matters here, it’s the how. I was very much entertained by the gratuitous cinematography, and the distorted optics and various effects make Vidocq a bizarre spectacle that is not to be missed. But one time was enough.

The creators confidently claimed that this film would be the hit of the summer season. And yet, it's a poor, dull B-movie that doesn't impress, doesn't entertain and you won't enjoy the digital dragons much either. The worst thing is that the film takes itself too seriously, it lacks insight, on the contrary, there is no lack of long glances, warm embraces and "profound" proclamations. Awfully boring and a big flop.

I wonder what Goscinny would say about this. On the one hand, the filmmakers stuck quite closely to the brilliant comic book, on the other hand, there are flukes like the final aerial fight, pirates on the Nile and Asterix's love story, which have nothing to do with the source material and degrade it a bit. On top of that, Chadat also added references to famous films like Star Wars and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and they are quite ridiculous. As for the Asterix adaptations: the animated ones aren't very good, the first live-action film is a weird hodgepodge of several books, and this one, though not a hodgepodge, it’s literally overstuffed and a lot of crazy fun. If you are a fan of the Asterix cartoons (which I count myself among), you won’t enjoy this much, but if you like silly nonsense, you’ll probably be satisfied. I chose to compromise :)

For the first half I enjoyed how briskly and insightfully it was filmed. But then I got bored with it and even the great Farrell couldn't save it. The fight scenes have pizzazz, Daredevil's perception was well presented, but the rest wasn't worth much. It needed more action and less posing and pathos. Bullseye had very little space and Affleck doesn’t fit in the role of a super-hero, although he wasn’t that bad.

I saw it in the darkness of an empty cinema, and I was scared. The last time something like this happened was two years ago with Raimi's The Gift. Zemeckis is a great director who plays with the viewer like a cat with a mouse and although I don't like ghost stories, I enjoyed this likeable horror film, including the final half hour, which blew me away. Just when you expected the climax, there was another and another, and surprisingly I didn't feel like I was being set up at all. Whether it's an homage to Hitchcock, or a rip-off of Hitchcock and all that blah blah blah, I don't care. PS: Years later I watched it a second time and it didn't have the same power. But still, very good job Mr Zemeckis!

I don't want to be too pathetic, but more films like this! So that people won’t forget the horrors that were committed, the horrors that the human race is capable of committing against itself, so that something like that doesn't happen again. And Adrien Brody, he blew me away! I completely lived his role with him, he was absolutely riveting and I'm so glad he got the Oscar. Just like Polanski, whose family was murdered by the Nazis and he knew very well what he was talking about – something clearly evident in this beautiful, haunting work.

I’ll start with the good things. I liked how Shyamalan used the girl's obsession with water and Merrill's baseball ability to "swing hard" at the end. Both, seemingly unrelated to the plot, resulted in a successful twist. It’s also true that some scenes are brilliantly shot and lethally tense, Shyamalan really knows how to “polish a turd”. And now the worse: Shyamalan tries to tackle a lot of issues, like the question of faith, parenthood and on so forth. It disrupts the coherence of the plot and often gets boring even. Some scenes (a wannabe emotionally tense scene with the prayer before a meal, the dialogue with the dying wife) seem terribly unnatural. Shyamalan, as a devout Catholic, solves his own problems, he is not very good at psychology and the result is a strange mess – something between a psychological film and a pure horror movie. Those two things don’t fit together and things end up falling apart.

An imaginatively rich fantasy. Some of the scenes are so breathtaking that seeing them on a wide screen in a cinema must be a blast. The story is weaker, the Pearl Harbor-style aerial combat mixed with Star Wars doesn't work very well. But if you like animated films, you’ll enjoy this because the creators didn’t spare the fantasy. Overall, a strong three stars.

A young man played by Furlong is arrested for selling marijuana and becomes emotionally close to the experienced convict Willem Dafoe, who takes him under his wing to prevent him from becoming someone's bitch, a threat that is is clear, because Furlong's youthful looks are like a magnet for the horny criminals and perverts that abound in prison. The story is by no means original, but the prison setting is absolutely perfect, the atmosphere properly dense and, most importantly, my favourite Willem Dafoe as the bald Earl has charisma to spare. The stifling mood of the film is supported by an interesting soundtrack.

Not only great animation, but, most importantly, a refreshing, funny story, which I liked more than the overrated Shrek. It's worth watching in the original, if only for Woody Allen and Sly Stallone. I also loved the many funny references to film classics.