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Da 5 Bloods (2020)
painful to watch
I am 11 minutes in to this movie... don't get me wrong I can watch dumb movies, like say American vets return to Vietnam, they are welcomed with open arms and they defecate on everything they did there. But when American veterans referred to north Vietnam invasion as "the american war" I stopped watching.
Prospect (2018)
Cute girl running around in a space suit
To all phedophiles this is not an invitation!
Beyond cute actress, there are some nice budget costumes and and it's very nice implemented in the movie universe (don't know quite where or when the story is going place). Something of a fallout/mad max/ wasteland thing going on, which is great, and allows crafty costumes and props not to look cheap as they portray universe unknown to us. Unfortunately main character also portrays a person that is unknown/unfamiliar to us normal people. She responds not according to her situation in the movie, and what is interesting, weird and intriguing, just becomes weird and seems unplaced.
Worth a watch, not worth a second watch.
Svjedoci (2003)
thug gets killed, why would we care
Nobody really cares that a low life gets killed, he isn't even shown in the movie, we are not supposed to care about him. Although we don't care about the witness as well, not supposed to by the director. And we continue with the same blunt tone set in the very beginning of the movie. The coldness towards the witness is surprising and unrealistic, no emotions shown throughout the movie.
Let's talk about the retrospective jumps. The story is one short happening over a couple of days timeline viewed from a few people's perspectives, which are overlapping as people are usually at the same place at the same time . Movie is kind of slow paced so this raises the movie dynamic greatly, unfortunately it gets a little bit confusing towards the end, and scenes are repeated too many times that it gets irritating.
Except the main story line we get to see some pretty cool but unfortunately short retrospective, they don't add much to the story just to introduce characters and show us how they got here, (victim's and witness's unfortunately aren't shown).
The message? I don't think there is one, every character is a horrible human being except one that is just passive. You wait for something and get very empty ending. Like some politically correct story that still intended (by showing a few Croatian soldiers, while defending against Serbian invasion, as not so diabolic but cold and heartless people), and managed, to get people angry.
To be absolutely fair the reason to watch this movie is to see debut of a promising star Melody, her "out of this world" stunning performance alone is worth the watch. She was a baby then, but she is a babe now.
Roar (1981)
playing with tigers
What did I just watch? Adventure, horror, thriller? Well, it's all true. First they thought to make an adventure, but the script wasn't really working, most of the lion scenes were pure improvisation, and after it turned out to be a horror-thriller, not because you are afraid for the characters but for the actors themselves. I have never seen a movie where actors were so afraid but had to act as if they aren't. But you have to give them credit for the courage.
Considering that the movie was mostly improvised mess, editing was done OK, still pretty bad by normal standards. They probably did a tone of b-tape, and it worked, seems a bit clunky, lots of added voices and sounds, lots of cutting in the middle of action, but still a decent job with material they had. Script is almost non existent, story is as simple as it gets: family came to visit their father, who lives with ferocious animals. And there is a side story, I don't know why they put that in the movie, it makes no sense and leads to nowhere, I guess it was because they wanted to involve characters from the beginning that had an awesome fight with the lions which was probably not even supposed to happen, but they kept on rolling (bandages on them throughout the movie are probably real). The most amazing scene was when the main actor comes running towards 4-5 lions and starts fighting them, they filmed that scene first, probably because if he got killed they could just say screw it we are canceling the production. You can tell that because even in the scenes before the fight the main character has a bandage on his hand that he hurt when fighting the lions.
Most of the movie is characters running scared from the lions and lions run around in the surroundings lions normally aren't in. It is portrayed as something normal to live with a bunch of animals, but it's hard for audience to believe that because in just one day that tigers and lions lived in the house, they wrecked the bloody house to shreds.
4/10 just because the actors survived. What is next? "Hissss" an adventure in a beautiful eden with cobras.
Wanted (2008)
Pretty pathetic
As much as I hate Angie, I hate it even more when she plays a bad- ass, 30 kilogram tiny woman playing a bad- ass assassin?!But OK, let's get to the point: this movie is childish pathetic peace of crap.
Everything is so stupid, but not funny stupid, jest plain ol' stupid. Apparently if your heart beats 400 times in a minute you can slow the time and that helps you maneuver the bullets, and of course, that makes you a great killer. We all know that reflexes don't have anything to do with heart rate, and you can't fire bullets that don't fly straight unless you have hands faster then the bullet itself, and hearth can't pump blood 400 times a minute. There is so much stupid things happening that it's hard to keep track, lets just say that action sequences are more pathetic and gay than in fast and furious, at least there you can laugh at the over the top crap, here it's just sad.Couple of times they put the obligatory 3D crap "in your face" scenes that don't help this movie look like a real movie instead of crap. This much stupid should make a comedy, but this travesty tries to be serious movie at some points, what nerve! What nerve!?
I wouldn't recommend it, it isn't fun even for a first time viewers. Stay away. I used the word "stupid" five times in this review, but it's still far away from enough to describe this movie. Maybe even worse and overrated than Now You See Me!
Broj 55 (2014)
Outnumbered and outgunned
Don't expect much psychological depth, over analyzing about the war, certainly none of the liberal aspect that filmmakers tend to take when they want to question the reasons behind the war, or at least show the "bad guys" state of mind justifying in some way their actions, if you want that, there is a great movie about war in Bosnia: Ničija zemlja. This is something different, one heroic battle.
It is based on actual heroic battle in small village in Croatia, crew did an excellent job of bringing that event to life, rifles, uniforms, acting, village... all is of unquestionable quality. There are as well few nice details, that add to authenticity, like rosemary around the soldiers neck etc. Unfortunately some of it will just Croatians appreciate to full extent. Director is keeping it simple while still in few lines explaining everything you need to know about this war. Most of the attention is on the battle, anxiety, comradery and war tactics (or the lack of it, most of those Croatians were rookies, as were Četniks, who were on top of that mostly drunks), there is just a little interaction between characters before the battle, it is simple and just enough, while we learn basic stuff about characters throughout the battle. There is a lot of slow motion explosions and gunshot wounds that look amazing, there is even first person perspective in some scenes, it all adds to very high paced and dramatic atmosphere, while remaining amazingly realistic. There is no dumb action movie scenes where the guy is shooting, and then we see thousands of bad guys running around like idiots and dying. Most of the rounds are shot completely blind, some even without aiming, nevertheless in real war there is much more suppressing fire that doesn't hit anything, even in close range. Dialogue is fantastic, minimalistic but still enough realistic that you actually believe that they are real people in real war.
It is a real hard core war movie, with all the drama that follows, that we Croatians have been longing for. Not to say that previous have failed, but none has shown the fierce action and/or have failed short dragging you into the hell of firefight in the Croatian War of Independence. At times it will make you laugh, at times it is grim and ruthless as it comes (followed by excellent gloomy music), and I don't want to sound overly pathetic, but it will make you feel proud.
Overall great action, great drama, authentic... Stop reading this and go watch it!
Deu tae-ro ra-i-beu (2013)
Unfortunately some things can't be overlooked
The movie has some serious potential, it is shot in one room (radio station) and I like those kinds of movies (Buried, Man from earth, Phone booth, even Pontypool ) because they are focused on the story rather than showing giant CGI robots fighting each other while the audience doesn't care about any of them, this one is prime example of how it is done.
This one starts with a bang, it quickly sucks you in and it doesn't get boring even for a minute. Through interesting story it critiques media and government showing what happens behind the curtains in one media house, and displays other side of the story that public is usually deprived of. There are only a few characters but they seem awfully real, throughout the movie you learn more about the anti-hero protagonist, who is really the highlight of the movie and of course he should be, might I add that Jung-woo Ha rose to the occasion. Though there are couple of cameras (in-movie cameras) in the room they are rarely used especially when the things get dramatic, thus creating more drama with the shaky cameras, good thing they didn't go for the trendy "found footage" nuisance. Sound editing, which is naturally important in movie based in radio station is good, music isn't over used, isn't cheesy and is it's great, gave me goose bumps.
Unfortunately after one moment it becomes comically ridiculous, I really wish I could have just shut my brain and enjoy the rest. Movie goes overboard and all I could think is that it would never happen in real life, it is like the script writer just didn't have time to work out the realistic aspect. I get that it is difficult to put a good idea in real life situation but that is what separates great movies from average ones.
It starts good, ends good, but messes up somewhere in the middle.
Melancholia (2011)
Melancholia delivers
If you make movie named boring crap, and it also happens to be a boring crap, you could say that it delivered, but it's still a boring crap.
It starts with the crappiest wedding ever, it gives you good insight of how the rest of the movie looks like. In fact you could even go so far as to compare the two; characters spent a lot of money and energy on that awful wedding just like filmmakers did on this movie and they are both leave you sad and bored. If I had that kind of a wedding, with only old farts and people that I really hate invited, I would be out of my mind miserable, and would probably screw some random guy in the garden (and I am not even gay).
There are the two most annoying female characters ever, with their slow, silent line delivery, although it's usually just a couple of words, and vain attempts at conversation which usually end up at "I want to speak with you". From "conversations" you learn as little as possible about the characters, not that it would be better to blatantly explain everything in one sentence, but in one hour you only learn a little something something about the main character, reasons for everyone else's behavior is left to your imagination. It is so slow paced that sometimes it was literally painful to watch. It felt like an frustrating dream in which you are late for an appointment and you keep forgetting stuff and other obstacles keep getting in your way, fortunately dreams last only 15 minutes. I kept on watching only because something had to happen, and it did, but too little and to late.
Scientific value is low, though I am no scientist. Science Fiction is usually more about the latter, so it didn't surprise me. Greater focus is on the mystical aspect rather than the real science behind it.
It could be a decent short movie of some 30 minutes, to make this an 120+ minutes movie is borderline criminal. It has some pretty nice scenery, even some tense and disturbing scenes, atmospheric environment, for the most of the movie it's dark and gives you the depressing feel, unfortunately it was all overshadowed by lengthy non developing story. If you really must watch it, watch the so called part two, which is the second half of the movie, believe me you won't miss anything.
I understand Hitler.
Fine mrtve djevojke (2002)
Captain obvious
Spoon feeding the audience fest. Can characters be more obvious and "through the roof"? There is no gray in this movie, and the director is making it crystal clear what who he wants you to hate or love, and that is not the problem, the problem is that he shows it in an obvious childish way. You can find more colorful characters in Predator than in this movie, and this is not an action pact sci-fi flick, it is supposed to be a drama, than dramatize! Don't show one dimensional characters and predictable plot! Other than that, it has it's moments, it is fairly funny and the acting is good, thus showing Croatia has some good talent.
Svecenikova djeca (2013)
Doesn't live up to the hype
You could get a few good laughs at few witty situations and that's it, other jokes are just too simplistic, just swears and contrasts with no buildup, e.g. priest is doing something you wouldn't expect him doing and so on, which for some reason works for Croatian audience, especially if the swears are in Croatian language. Although it starts fairly promising, of all the crazy funny possibilities that could have happened, nothing very complex or clever actually happens, character acts gets annoying as they continue to do ridiculous things which you would expect only in Aaron Seltzer movies. All characters are stereotypes, PTSD racist war veteran, mad woman, stupid cop and so on, to make cheesy short simplistic gigs all the more easier to put in the movie, most of them only funny to people that are familiar with the situation in the country.
Movie with all its goofy characters, tries to send a serious critique to church, that just doesn't work in a silly comedy such as this one. Biggest mistake is that the movie, although it makes fun on the expense of everyone that a common man in Croatia talks bad about on daily basis (also a thing that is closely related to Croatian mentality) politicians, nationalists, priests, cops etc., revolves around church while trying to make it look as bad as it can. It mocks church in a way that is funny only to those who mock and dislike church (and there are many of those here, thus making such success in the theaters).
If you like simple jokes on the expense of people you highly dislike, and you find profanity hilarious, than go for it, but if you expect anything more than that, or you do not enjoy making fun of people mostly in a mean and not clever way, this movie isn't for you.
We just have to wait for another movie that will bring Croatian cinematography from the dead, this is just mindless fun for a common Joe, to relax and get his mind of everyday troubles. I can't say that I expected much from a movie made by taxpayers money (HRT, Croatian National Television, production).