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Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Visually stunning but not quite magical
I have to hand it down to David Yates - he sure knows how to stage a wizard battle.
Only thing that's a letdown: the movie has far too few of those.
Great cinematography, great orchestral score, exotic locations, almost top notch acting but the movie has just too much exposition... and needlessly because much was already established before.
First movie still remains the best (of Fantastic installments) in my opinion, with focus on Newt Scamander's adventures and all the fascinating magical beasts, even though it didn't have memorable characters or general tone Harry Potter fans were expecting.
Second movie felt too much like a bridge, building up towards something better ahead and positioning pieces on the board without real payoff.
And third movie is decent and well-made but too slow for average cinema goer.
I dislike that Newt is pushed aside to be supporting character while in-depth story about Dumbledore/Grindelwald dynamic is explored to such lengths it begins to weigh movie down.
To be honest, even though I simply LOVE Mads Mikkelsen I think he was miscast to be stand in for Depp, with bit reserved, even wooden performance whereas Depp was doing such great things with his character and was far more menacing than Mikkelson's version, sad we won't see where it could have gone...
Best part of the movie are supporting characters, especially Ezra Miller who is fantastic in conveying the sadness and inner rage just from face expression and steely gaze, he deserves some high-profile drama to flex his acting muscles ever more. Such a different character than Flash which he is most famous for, but he plays it masterfully. Second movie was hinting Ezra's character would play a major role in further story, but, alas, the third installment went a different route.
Dan Fogler as our favorite muggle is equally awesome as Ezra, and ever reliable Eddie Redmayne has some best emotional scenes in the movie. Some important characters that were integral for first two movies like Tina Goldstein barely make appearance, also some new villains aren't very memorable, mostly just filling the space.
Movie has 2-3 really well done fighting sequence, but they don't have such weight since Dumbledore is involved in almost all of them and we know he doesn't die really, and not only that - he keeps almost total control and upper hand at all times so what you're missing is emotional investment and real sense of danger.
All in all - movie is exceptionally well made, bar prolonged exposition and less action than desired, and if indeed all movies out of planned 5 get made I'd suggest Yates and producers - pick up the pace. We need to be wowed again in Wizarding world!
Sunset from a Rooftop (2009)
Propaganda piece
Aside the fact there have been too many movies about war on Balkan, it's never too easy to give an objective review of something you might be emotionally involved in. However in my point of view I have to say this short movie is a propaganda piece. Question remains - intentional or not. The story is simple - two friends meet up in the apartment and then go to a party together where they observe NATO bombing on Belgrade from rooftop of a building. There is a deeper meaning hidden behind few scenes with how people conduct themselves in situation like this and how they try to go on with their lives dealing with something so "outside the norms".
There are some jarring mistakes giving this short film connotations of "political garbage" or simply put propaganda. Specifically scenes where two friends are driving through apparently deserted city where you can see graffiti directed to NATO which is in Latin alphabet and not Cyrillic (as it should be since it's Belgrade, Serbia) - making this direct stab at Croatians as the reason why NATO is performing bombing on Belgrade. Also the commentator on TV in the beginning makes it sound like NATO are the bad guys here who are actually here to kill civilians as well which is preposterous. It's too obvious political fingering that can't be overlooked...
On the good side - the movie is competently done with some very atmospheric shots and appropriate music and mood but coming from someone who spend 5 years of his life in shelters in Croatia actually escaping the bombings - the last scene and it's lyrical calmness seems much too false. Seems director is off to make a full feature film based on this premise and I sincerely hope he will ditch all the unnecessary propaganda and make a film about characters and their experiences which is what it should all be about...
The Bling Ring (2013)
As shallow as the wasted youth it's trying to depict...
Right off the bat, I have to admit I'm pretty much a Sofia Coppola fan, especially for her earlier films, I believe she's a talented filmmaker that has much flare for unusual, difficult and altogether marginal themes you wouldn't expect to appear in mainstream Hollywood flicks that can be story-wise and visually quite unique in their own way.
Having said that - I believe 'The Bling Ring' is quite a misfire for Coppola, no matter the "love it or hate it" label most people seem to be putting on this feature. It simply takes a bunch of uninteresting, vain, shallow and most often times even annoying characters and builds around a fairly thin real-life-heist-story to mirror a society that's obsessed with celebrities, fame, earthly possessions... and themselves. Well... it's been done before. A lot. And then some.
Main problem is the deliberate detachment of the movie, like it's a sort of looking glass where you have a pseudo-documentary view of events where the audience is left to pass their own judgment; but much like Michael Moore's documentaries we are actually manipulated into obvious loathing of the "lost and wasted internet youth" to the point of banality. Coppola did the opposite thing she'd done in 'The Virgin Suicides' : in her 1999 fantastic drama nothing was really resolved, and there was a wonderful aura of mystery surrounding the fate of the girls where the audience had to pull their own conclusions and even then - we are left with little or no answers. Just a slice of what happened and the eternal question why. In 'The Bling Ring' everything is laid out for you. And so painfully apparent that you might ask yourself was this necessary?
As a social commentary the movie might, and I repeat MIGHT be passable but as piece of fun movie entertainment it's downright boring, bleak and far too obvious for it's own good. No I wouldn't call it a bad movie - just a fairly unnecessary one since you can pretty much read it summed up in 5 minutes worth of time far better from the original Vanity Fair article "The Suspect Wore Louboutins" that actually inspired the film.
The saddest part of all this is - yes it's a part of our culture, and yes some misguided teenagers might even look up to shallow kids who pulled off these heists - but no, it's not chill, and no it's not cool, and no it's definitively not a step in the right direction for miss Coppola. Viewers beware.
Vampire (2011)
Bizarrely hypnotic
Well I have to admit this is one of the strangest movies I had the opportunity to see in last few years. It's obviously not a horror or supernatural flick as title might have suggested - but it's a full pledged slow burning drama that almost has the 'art movie experience' feel to it. First and foremost - this is NOT a movie for average film-goer. It's slow paced, disturbing, unnerving, a true psychological drama with after burn effect that's not even particularly fun to watch but has that kind of hypnotic quality that holds you throughout the movie.
The way the movie is shot is sort of semi-documentary style and while some shots do look relatively cheap (it was probably filmed on shoe-string budget), the way the camera moves and shots are placed - there's almost a voyeurish characteristic to it, like the director Shunji Iwai is forcing us to observe what happens to these women and to our main character, and although we might be repulsed by it - we can't look away. It's also a novel way to dive into the world of suicide and strange obsessions and even though we can't feel much empathy for Simon and the way he's using suicidal girls for his own 'vampiric' urges - it all has a deep, profound sense of tragedy that it's not just black and white or right or wrong. The question of morals is left as a gray area here; we are merely observing what is happening and drawing our own conclusions. Acting is minimalistic, but it does serve the movie well - the scarce, empty locations and deeply melancholic orchestral soundtrack only enlarge the feelings of sadness, nihilism and the impossibility of belonging or fitting in.
In short - this is a really special kind of movie, one that will stick with you for a long time as you dwell on the fate of it's protagonists and also leave you to fight with your own feelings of insecurities, sense of abandonment and questions whether life is worth living that sometimes creep on us in our darkest moments through life...
Well-worth seeing but a duly warning: not meant for the faint of heart.
Flying Lessons (2010)
A quality indie drama.
I believe Hal Holbrook is genuinely a fantastic actor that should have won an Oscar by now, and the older he gets - the better he is, just like a glass of fine wine. Here you have intriguing drama with a delicate portrait of a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease, but that's just the underlying theme of how fractioned our lives are when relying only on our memories. But no - it's not another of those movies dealing with 'terminal illness', it's much more than that.
The main story revolves around Sophie Conway as played by Maggie Grace who is really a capable actress which most of you will remember from now cult TV show 'Lost'. And no - she's definitively not just a pretty face on the screen but does a great job portraying a torn, broken girl haunted by her past and yet emanating a sort of hidden, quiet strength at the same time. All of the supporting cast is excellent, notably Jonathan Tucker and Christine Lahti and I'd hate to spoil details of plot for you. If there is any issues, I'd have to mention that pace of the movie suffers a bit in some parts but then again the director Derek Magyar is taking his time developing the characters to the fullest and resolving the story in, albeit expected, satisfying manner.
With accompanying melancholic and absorbing soundtrack, this might not be a perfect movie or breaking any new grounds - but I'd recommend this to anyone that has a small degree of patience and likes slow-burning character driven dramas. Especially when you have such fine actors in leading roles like Hal Holbrook and Maggie Grace.
Lost: Ab Aeterno (2010)
A masterpiece of storytelling lore
So finally here it is ladies and gentleman... the enigma of Richard Alpert resolved in all the jaw-dropping-suspenseful glory. From me this is the best episode of Lost final season so far, and the writers really went head on to reveal much of the connecting story in the Lost universe.
Richard's fate is really heartbreaking, and his tragic love story will make you connect to his character like never before. We finally get the background, how he came to the island, how he met Jacob and our nemesis currently in Locke form. We also find out little details of shipwreck, how the colossal statue was broken and, of course - why Richard stays forever young.
This episode adds so much background lore to the world of Lost, you almost crave for more answers like how Jacob got to the island or was he always there and what's the true story behind "Man in Black" and how did he become evil incarnate. Perhaps all questions won't be answered but for now - we can enjoy this fantastic mystery slowly resolve... Lets hope they deliver more episodes like this!
Nikita: A Time for Every Purpose (2001)
All things come to an end...
La Femme Nikita is a great show. Despite it's flaws and despite the fact that screenwriters kept pushing the envelope too many times with twists and turns, it still kept being thrilling and interesting until the end. And yes, finally, the lack of creativity in the end of season four has been redeemed here, in final episodes of last season.
It's kind of sad the show had to end at season five, but there wasn't room to push it forward storytelling-wise, and a lot of the main protagonists we learned to love (or hate) have already been gone. So we come to conclusion that most of us wanted... well in a way so to say. It's always been about Nikita and Michael and it's fitting it ended that way, two of them together making difficult choices that will end in sacrificing not their love, but their future. For me, the love between Michael and Nikita has always been the show's greatest strength, pushing forward the story, and even though we knew it's impossible for them to have their freedom, we still hoped somehow it would happen.
The ending leaves you with mixed feeling but it's actually great to see both Michael and Nikita's father - both sacrificing themselves for their children in their own way. And in the end, the love of Michael and Nikita remains... a love that survives despite all odds... but a love they will carry with them even though the choices they are forced to make keep them separate.
A bittersweet, emotional and touching finale of a great show.
Within (2005)
Descent into bad example of horror genre
I'm not that much of an avid fan of horrors to have watched so many of them, but this one falls so easy into category of one of the worst three horrors I've seen in my whole life.
Last few years with blooming of different horror types and genres, especially in department of "japanese horror remakes", a new small sub genre also appeared, so called "cave shriekers" so to speak. Caves are naturally a dark, claustrophobic and eerie places and if you take that and put it into premise of something unknown, dangerous, malicious lurking in the darkness - this usually means a basis for a good horror.
Recent movies that exploited this idea were "The Descent" and "The Cave" and now (quite originally named) "The Cavern" follows same footprint. While "The Descent" was one hell of a edge-of-the-seat scary masterpiece, and also "The Cave" wasn't so bad after all - the latter of the three is not even a shadow of what a good horror should be.
The Cavern is so predictable and utterly poorly directed you really can't get any chills or goosebumps even in bloodiest of scenes. Director and the crew tried (and failed) to cover it's low-budget origin with some hand-held shots a la Blair Witch Project and general poorly lit scenes often devoured by darkness. In the end it amounts to bunch of people running and screaming most of the film through corridors of cave you can't see, while occasional light from the lamp flickers in a way to cause you epilepsy and hand held camera tries it's best to strengthen the feeling of nausea.
It's one thing to try to be minimalistic and experimental developing the scariness factor but here we have no substance nor surprises waiting around the corner, you just know every time when someone is about to die. The end would be disappointing (where cannibalism part isn't horrific in any way, just plain repulsive) if the whole movie wasn't already abundantly disappointing.
To keep it short, try to watch chilling and memorable "The Descent" instead of "The Cavern", this is just the type of badly written and executed movie that causes flatline and annoyance at best, instead of adrenaline type of fear all true horrors should evoke.
One to avoid.
When Will I Be Loved (2004)
Intriguing premise lost in pretentious boredom
From description I was reading on the sleeve of DVD edition of "When Will I Be Loved" it sounded like one could expect thriller with hot scenes of Neve Campbell but what you basically get is pseudo-psychological drama. Like I mentioned, the premise of narcissistic girl who controls and deceives men sounds intriguing, but it is eventually lost in (too) long shots, over forced dialogs and some pretty bad camera and sound work. Only thing worth seeing in this movie is Neve Campbell that only rarely gets a chance in some scenes to show a hint of her talent as actress. Not her fault though, script was poorly written and even more poorly executed, something that was thought of a indie experiment and filmed in 11 days turned out to be failure. You won't find anything thrilling or enjoyable in this movie, and even though it lasts pretty short, you will feel your boredom lasts forever watching it. Really - one to avoid.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Skin of Evil (1988)
"All that rage..."
You can easily say this is crucial turning point in first season of TNG, where we have death of one of the main characters of the series. I know many people will refer to this episode as the "one where Tasha left" and the subplot won't matter that much. Though many will argue this episode is here just to justify Denise Crosby leaving the series, somehow I found that without it, the "Skin of Evil" wouldn't have the impact it carries now.
First and foremost - this is a great portrait of evil in it's core, a result of what happens when all of the sadness, rage, anger, disappointment have been suppressed long enough to kill all the goodness inside. Armus is the essence of a "scorned castaway" who turns to pure evil after being eaten away by desire for revenge in probably eons that he was left behind. And even though he is nothing but evil entity that toys with Enterprise crew just as he was toyed with by those who left him behind, and even though he kills a someone of the crew that became so dear to us, we cannot but feel sorry for what he's gone through and what has made him what he is now. By the time Enterprise leaves you wish they somehow found the way to kill him just to release him from this dreadful state. This is exactly the dramatical and emotional climax this episode delivers.
The end sequence in holodeck of memorial for Tasha, with almost heavenly feel in image of green grassy slope and clear blue skies with fluffy clouds is simply breathtaking. That image was stuck in my head ever since I watched this episode as kid, and reflecting on it now - I'm sorry they didn't make more emotional highpoints in the series as this. Yes, Tasha may have died, but you feel she didn't die in vain, and all the time they spent together won't be forgotten.