Reviews

This remake of the original Cape Fear from few decades before is not about system failing a well deserving lawyer, but about lawyer failing a client who is given draconian sentence. De Niro, who is well placed playing characters from Hell, here is a heavily tattooed, self made, determined agent of, in character's view at least, real justice that speaks in God tongues. He exposes the lawyer for what he is, and leaves the sorry cheating boomer and his family alive, a punishment worse than death, after his intervention. His victorious face staring, as he descends to the other-world, at the corrupt boomers is a face from the ninth circle of Inferno, where he quite deservedly sent his lawying cheating tormentor for the rest of his days, for eternity. Quite a condemning picture of boomers and lawyers by Scorsese, as they get some justice served by a determined, intelligent and unjustly imprisoned client.

The original Agatha Christie short story, which this follows, is far superior in terms of internal logic to its moralistic and illogical-extra-twist later version of forced serving of the justice which does not ring true. This is much more realistic. Done during the WWI 100 year obsession hysteria of the 2010s, it forces some subplot with questionable narrative about survivor's guilt and youth dying and ageism to the point of euthanasia, as well as some off-putting elderly lovemaking scenes. The acting is mixed, can't compare to ms Dietrich but the Romaine role is well done here too, with its own nuances. Vole character is much better played here than in the overrated 1957 film, whose main advantage is the incomparable, brilliant Charles Laughton, in role played here in completely different tone quite depressingly by fittingly off-putting, both inside and out, actor. This mini-series has however a very convincing lesbomaid cat-killer played by Monica Dolan, cat killers do indeed deserve a noose even if they did not kill a rich lady, as cats are infinitely more worthy than rich English gigolo-users. Overall, a gloomy but different take on the piece, whose weakest link is inferior Toby Jones (as ugly as old Laughton, if not much, much worse, but with zero redeeming charm and sickeningly boring gloominess), and the strongest point is getting rid of an extra contrived twist that Agatha put into her story so for "justice" to prevail. As for the WWI subplot, it is not bad, some say it adds to the story, other notice that it in fact takes a bit from it. The letter-twist part was also a bit weaker here but otherwise plot and acting wrt twist and repeated viewings are much better than in the 1957 movie, that is otherwise more entertaining, if a bit overrated - here we have gloomy nauseating realism vs flashy twisty captivating but illogical movie-making of 60 years before.

The movie is captivating to watch, with little amusing bits about nurse and barrister and cigars and drinks, but its manipulation falls a bit short of being as brilliant as it might seem at first glance. As soon as the barrister smells something fishy, it is clear what game wife was playing, however, it still comes with an extra surprise about the murderer's girlfriend. But on closer inspection the movie is unrealistically manipulative, as even actors were manipulated and hence the murderer plays it in an unconvincing - or rather false - way given the twist ending. The barrister encourages murder, the murder is also not convincing, people do not just drop dead like that. But that can be forgiven, misleading acting - obtained by holding actor in the dark, falls however a bit short of masterpieces like Usual suspects and is more like the Sixth sense. But given the old age of the piece, it is still a compelling work, a few details short of perfection. Also, the whole young lover embrace ending is contrived and illogical if you think about it, given what had happened one might expect the murderer to be more cautious.

Bob Dylan famously said "If you have sla ve running through your blood or are a descent of the K-uK-luxKl an, black people can sense that. It remains to this day. Just as Jews can sense Na-zi blood, or as Serbs can sense Croat blood." He knew what he was talking about.

Croatian Ustase, who committed the most vici ous part of the Holocaust - they were authors of the first death camp in WWII, and their cruel methods inspired Na-zis to both make death cam ps and make them less bar baric, because even for the most hardened Na-zi, what Croats did was appalling. Croats had a goal to exter minate one third of Serbs, convert one third to Catholicism, and expel the rest, an ongoing policy that also includes Croatian statewide holo caust denial and minimization, that puts Iran to shame. The only regime that had dea th camps specifically made for children, Usta she are sadly celebrated by some like no other neo-naz-is.

There is another famous poet, Jovan Ducic, who during his exile in US during WWII made a comment about Croats and the vici ous genoc ide they were all to merry to perpert rate. He said "Croats are the bravest people in the world, not because they have no fear, but because they have no shame!" The campaign against this movie, sponsored by the Croatian state, confirms that he, too, like Bob Dylan, knew what he was talking about.

How do you manage to have a femi-nazentric slasher in which girls humiliate and off guys, as in a sweet and wild liberal pipe dream, yet at the same time condemn the conservatives as preachy religious monsters? Watch this movie to find out! With three killer girls somewhat dim north of the eyebrows, and one conservative caricature stepmom loving her some coke and comfy riches of the televangelist caste. The movie is entertaining if a bit cheap and predictable, with each character portrayed in light manipulative strokes, so that we know who to root for, black and white good vs evil, in a simple, American way. While not too serious, it easily digestible fun, with a few points of gaping incredulous plot holes, but who cares. With televangelists abounding in the former superpower, sentiments are easy to steer. Violence and invented horrors are always dear in the realm that exports the real ones worldwide, soldiers of all genders being proficient in delivering demoncracy and wrath of God, at their side and in their mind always siding with the Empire. At that last point, mainstream of all persuasions agrees at least, modern American liberals even having outdone homegrown neocons.

While the 4 hour cut of the movie is nowadays celebrated as one of the greatest movies ever, it falls far short of masterpieces like Godfather, or other Leone's work. Sure, it has some nice childhood growing-of-gangster-age story, has a few memorable scenes, but the whole 60s section of the movie, which might be a pipe dream, is not so great, and the story, however you interpret it, is not as remarkable. It also all but celebrates rapes done by De Niro character (well cast as rapey gangsters fit his overblown persona nicely, and especially delusional self-absolving and lets forget about my misdeeds and stupidity attitude whilst judging others, in a self-righteous, with zero basis in reality, way). The gratuitous rape sequences and plenty of nudity fit somewhat better into Felliniesque European film tradition, Leone is not Fellini and thus the whole narrative seems to glorify mobster immoralities in a way more subtle works, like Godfather, never do. Subversive element is all but lost and all that is left is not so great, but still solid, ponderings of the older Leone. If you expect a masterpiece on par with Godfather or the best of Leone's own work, you might be quite disappointed. If you expect an overlong movie with some amusing growing of age story that celebrates rape and speaks of rationalizations of the corrupt peoples, with great film music and nice shots, it might be quite OK.

This movie was a big commercial hit in Serbia, aggressively pushed (including unprecedented fear-mongering campaign and police backlash against piracy) by a smug and immensely powerful Serbian film mogul, Bjelogrlic, producer of this movie who also signed it as co-director (he was originally a popular actor but his directing powers are quite limited). While Bjelogrlic, Serbian Harvey Weinstein of sorts, also known for his violent drunken outbursts and sucker punch-beatings of fellow filmmakers, is epitome of gate-keeping abuse and corruption of the small Serbian film industry (he has a very specific issue with the cult rebellious movie of independent production, "Serbian film", that was really inspired by modus operandi he and his kind earnestly follow), is not the most pleasant of power-brokers with a self-serving agenda, the movie itself objectively has a lot going for it. It is a somewhat fictionalized story of a tragic life of legendary Toma Zdravkovic, widely considered the greatest and most profound Serbian singer-songwriter of soulful folk-style music, who is much loved through the Balkan region. The acting is earnest and convincing, music recreations are well done (credit to Zeljko Joksimovic, who should also be credited for the noble initiative for this project), and movie elicits powerful emotions. It follows a successful formula for such biopics, and artistically it is not at all original, but as a commercial manipulative melodrama, it works. The movie skips, somewhat incoherently (that part certainly could have been done better in more competent hands), between essentially two timelines, one following Toma's life, and another following his dying days. A parallel to the dying days of Yugoslavia (the dates do coincide) is crammed in for artistic pretension purposes, but luckily, this is not overdone.

The real crime of this movie is its in-authenticity of some key plot elements and biased, if not outright insulting, portrayal of a few legendary artists from the era (conveniently, dead and/or of different national backgrounds). The whole dying timeline of Toma, which is half of the movie, relies on a completely invented story of doctor and his dying wife, who Toma supposedly wrote one of his famous songs for, and who almost steals the show with her tragic scenes. Giving such weight to an invented personality really cheapens the story, one really feels cheated with disrespect that boggles the mind. While the rest of the movie mostly follows Toma's life story with the level of artistic liberties taken on par with other such biopics (including another key and fabricated character, music manager, which does not ruin the movie so much), a couple of portrayals of the famous artists from the era are also pretty outrageous. Mika Antic, famous bohemian poet of profound philosophical depth and elegant perfection, who was slandered in passing, comes off as a flimsy charlatan. The worst offence was perhaps done against Silvana Armenulic, famous Muslim singer who died young in a car crash, who had a hit song written by Toma and also helped him early on (and also her tennis player husband who was skillfully vilified as a shallow snob). A major character in the movie, Silvana is portrayed as calculating, if good-hearted, person, who manipulates love-struck Toma into giving her the famous hit-song, and is only too eager to fit into Belgrade jet-set, betraying her roots. While dramatically this works to an extent, the whole love story, supposedly a key one in the protagonist life, is unfortunately quite fake.

While the movie does capture some of the essence of Toma's emotional and tragic life, one can only regret some artistic decisions that lessen the quality of the movie and make it feel somewhat of a fraud, perhaps in accordance with the key producer of this movie, but failing quite a bit short of a biopic Toma Zdravkovic deserves. Bjelogrlic may get away, pockets full, with this movie just like he gets away with beatings of his colleagues unpunished, but the movie, despite of some strong points and commendable work by much of the crew, does leave a somewhat mixed aftertaste.

This movie, directed by Rotsch ield smugg director, has as much respect for the truth or the great director as filt hy rich have for the downtrodden. The fake narrative portrays Hitchcock as some vio lent monster, affair of his wife is invented and according to this film, she is to be credited with all ideas Hitchcock had. Terrible, dish onest hit job of a movie.

As far as story about Herve goes, it has been nicely portrayed by Dinklage and is very touching. However, the script invents events about the journalist, in order to shift empathy to him, who is in fact a real person and actually a director and writer of this movie. The part of the story about the journalist and his struggles is completely invented, he was not about to be fired - even less so proudly resigned, no Vidal meeting in reality (who he obviously sland ers for ideollogical reasons, the old pe-do-Vi-do fart despite of his failings is much more substantial than any of the Rotten schields and London jets set imperi alist arese wholes). He wrote the movie only 25 years later. In that part that it more than embellishes reporter's aka sreenwriter/director's story it is completely despic able. The director, who is member of the emtyheaded imperia list elite and shallow London jet set, had a very easy life of privi lege, was involved with a Spice Girl and latter married into Rot schild family, and is in reality as smug as they get, but tries to sell himself as some noble character. He is indeed not worthy of the tragic French actor of prodigious artistic talents, who is, nevertheless, brilliantly portrayed by another famous dw arf, who, unlike the despic kable producer/self pushing maker of this movie, understood what the story is supposed to be about, and hence turned, as much as possible, despite of the lowly movie maker's self promoting intentions, this exploi tative piece into something that was supposed to be in the first place - a tragic story of human pain that rich emptyh eaded elite is completely oblivious to.

This show is as stale as pool of 6 year old sewage. It tries to portray Lucifer as some sort of LA dweller, no doubt a metaphor about well off white collar empty headed criminals who live thereabout. It stinks of banality any self respecting person would want to puke. Do not waste your time on this Netflix excrement.

This movie is not only about two popes talking, but also shows some flashback from Argentina, has a lot of humor and a lot of it is said between the lines. A nice, if slightly fictional, character study, one can learn a lot from it about the two Popes. It is also slightly biased against the German pope, and German sense of humor (in a typical British condescending way), but ultimately is compassionate to him a bit too. Not a religious film but an interesting foray into the Vatican but also some weighty issues that burden the ole Catholic Church. It is a surprisingly entertaining watch, with some good acting, gentle examination with some light distortions and artistic liberties taken, but informative and even touching from time to time. Well worth a watch.

This Israeli piece is a low budget melodrama, cleverly scripted and convincingly acted, it keeps your attention from start to the end. It speaks of abuse of strict upbringing, that generates some sick attitudes and teenage rebellion, and movie casts light on army attitudes. It also tries to say something about guilt, a morality tale of sorts. When one Israeli soldier dies, it is a great tragedy, which leads to guilt ridden lives and is one deep thing indeed. But when Pales tinians die in thousands, there is no guilt and no shame. Israelis lofty only in fiction...

Colorful scenery, luxurious shots, epic action sequences, all check. Restrained humor, inspirational and fun watch, double check. Plus modern Criag Bond continuity, with some vulnerabilities of the main agent. The villain (terrible Rami Malek) and a healthy dose of British anti-Russian sentiment are on the side of nonsensical, but Bond movies should not be taken too seriously anyway. The death of Bond is akin to Moriarty vs Sherlock, sans charismatic villain (Malek is by far the weakest link), but viewers are warned, Bond will be back in another moneymaking reincarnation. Mindless fun with plenty of cool elements to keep you entertained, that you will get. Expect more (movie making sense), and you might be disappointed. The plot is actually based on a real British bio-weapons research DNA selective agent concept, and that is a bit scary, especially due to ongoing pandemic that filming pre-dates. Still, the high budget shows and this is one solidly entertaining piece of escapism.

This movie was panned by critics and cen nsors hate it, and the sheer quality of the film is in stark contrast to that. As always, when elite critics and not so elite cen nsors take issue with a movie, there is something going on. The movie is very well done, a revenge story about a mother going after corrupt system and some bad hombres that killed her family. It is very watchable, especially efficient is the first part, not every kill is shown. But the judge, the DA, the privileged all get their well deserved karma. The second part of the movie is more run of the mill action, but the point of fighting the corrupt system is powerfully laid out, and that was a thorn that doomed privileged elite critic fakke reviews. In the end, in the corrupt system, even the good cops, like the Latino police chief, have to go beyond system to help the likable heroine. Privileged annoying rich mother of daughter school-friend was especially cruelly portrayed, she survives but has to live with herself, a punishment worse than death, and obviously too many a cens sor/elite crittic identified with the wrong gal. This is a movie pins the "depl lorable" majority of the good people who are dealt rough cards in life, against the privilleged elite and cruel thuggies who, together with the corrupt critics, own the once free country, and the thing they are mostly afraid of are the people taking justice into their own hands, including some high powered guns, being necessary to the security of a free State, and a well trained one woman militia squad takes care of that. Very enjoyable movie inspiring true justice and rising of the underdog against the bloodsucker criminals of white collar, cartel and all other sorts. The country that is run by cartel of fakkers can be overtaken by the justice of the oppressed, just like the homeless can unite under the leadership of the just one.

Two warr crime ridden vets live off being contract killers. Their boring lives are shown in boring English meetup, where chubby one freaks out. He is married with nice small kid and a Swedish wife who tolerates his outbursts with love, while his army buddy has some witchybi tchy gf, who acts sus and marks back of a mirror with some cult sign. As they go to get the targets they get three kills to do. First one, a priest, is offed clean, but thanks the chubby one before the shot clean into his head. The second is pe-do filmmaking involved, so they smash him to pulp, and proceed to kill beyond the call of duty others involved. The chubby one is thanked again, and it is implied he is the chosen one. The third task is killing of some politician, living in a nice imperial mansion amidst of woods. As they prepare their snipers some wicker like festival is going on. Cult hangs a blonde who merrily waves before doing some nice dance as she is hung. The not-so-professional killers who tried to bail out but were threatened into the third act start shooting the crowd and are chased into some narrow channel. The crazy cult people running in hordes is somewhat scary. They gut the other guy and chubby one offs his friend who again thanks him cuz he helped him die not from guts, shown graphically being held by his hand, popping out but by merciful angel of imperialist fellow soldier with similar Iraq experiences. He returns to home but is chased, his wife gets gun but then he exits and is caught. In the end he is forced to fight with sword some hunchback in front of cultists, who turn out to be the his wife and son who both he kills unknowingly, wife creepily giggling in disbelief before dying .The cultist turn out to contain the employers and the witchybi tchy gf, all that being some cult practice, they even put doctor to be a cult member when the chubby one tries to treat his infected cut on his palm, cut in some strange ritual by the employer. The cult has thus accepted a new member of significance, the chubby one, the chosen one, all was just "reconstruction", the plot actually has another meaning like in Wicker Man, who is also imitated by some strawy head masks. Loads of pretentious nonsense, so called folk horror, pretty boring movie that imitates several other movies but ultimately fails in its cheap pretensions.

Korean cinema is great, this is a solid work, packed with action and melodrama, but not the best of the best. It is a Korean version of movies such as Taken or Leon the Professional, a tad sentimental, but there is not much original other than routine film making of high quality. Not really a revenge flick, it follows a story of some Korean guy, ex agent of a particular set of skills which include some Asian marital arts, used in moderation, who wants to save some girl of a junkie neighbor mother. The baddies sell organs and drugs, the police is incompetent mostly, the story is a bit cheesy and nonsensical, not that such things do not happen (say, Albanian thugs did that in Yellow house, no surprises that Taken had chosen them), but it is all filmed in nice, clean cut way like clean cut are the muscles of the Asian middle aged lead, supposedly, eye candy for some parts of the society that once could not vote. Shallow and stylish, but not as shallow nor as stylish as John Wick. Do not expect much more than some nicely shot mindless fun.

Based on a real story, this Kubrick early work is as condemning of the French mentality as Le Corbeau, but at the same time universalist in its depiction of the corruption of powerful and haplessness of the little guy. In order to get a new medal, a French officer, ugly both inside and out, cold, selfish and arrogant, orders a senseless attack on some insignificant hill along the trenches in which he fully expects more than half of the soldiers to die. During the attack, soldiers fall back to trenches, yet he orders artillery to bomb its own side for not attacking enough, but the senseless request is declined. Later, he orders a court-martial for cowardice for three random soldiers who are later executed, despite being innocent. The men are shot but the officer is revealed to be what he is, ordering bombing of his soldiers, later on. All this based on a real incident in the French army in WWI, and the movie was banned in France for almost 20 years, and Switzerland, Germany and even Spain followed suit in order not to offend the French or military sensibilities. It is a potent condemnation of power and of human condition, a cynical yet realistic view into workings of not only the petty French psyche with its hypocrisies, but is applicable more generally to humans less obviously degen erate. Shot in black and white with some early glimpses into Kubrick cinematic methods and tricks of his later, more celebrated work.

This original movie turns every stereotype about Westerns on its head. While the filming and especially dubbing is not particularly polished, the movie is still one of the most original and pointed ever made in the genre. It follows a group of outlaws on the one side, who are in fact unjustly oppressed, and mute hero of the movie who is quick gunner due to superior gun and skill, and evil bounty-hunters and powers that be in which one exception - new goody sheriff, is a trace of vain hope that fails into ice pit midway. Apparently inspired by murders of Malcolm X, Che and some other lefties, this nihilistic piece shows why being on the side of nominal law is not always being on the side of justice, but often of corruption and even geno-cide, as illustrated by history of imperialism. Nice movie very realistic and nihilistic in its portrayal of the general human condition, no wishy washy fairytales here....

This nice movie is 75 minutes long but is quite nice. It shows a lynching mob and why it is wrong to jump to conclusions. Quite a decent piece of work, anticipating 12 angry men and Fonda's interest in playing a good guy. As it is based on some book, it uses a few contrived methods to get the message across, including a letter which supposedly is written by a lynched guy, but the text makes no sense in this context and is merely a device to get message across. Still, extra point for young and charismatic Anthony Quinn, who if he was not Mexican in real life too would surely overshadow Fonda as he certainly does in this piece of vintage moviemaking.

This Tarantino piece, a blend of much superior western "The Great Silence" and "The Thing" is perhaps not the best of Tarantino movies, but it is still fun to watch, especially if you watch it like a miniseries it was supposed to be. It imitates Sergio Corbucci, who is a longtime Tarantino influencer, in its nihilism and graphic depiction of violentia, but falls a bit short of the second greatest SW director. Tarantino tries to say something about contemporary America, built on random killings of natives through the ages, from so-called red skinned Indians, to the present day inhabitants of Middle East, and with profound divisions and hatreds deeply build into psyche of the failing empire. The first episode depicts two bounty hunters, likable black and white men, second of which has a despicable bandit prisoner while the first one (nod to Corbucci masterpiece) has lost his horse, and are later joined by future serif on way to his duty. Then in the subsequent episodes they are stuck in some wilderness cabin amid a snow storm and apparently someone (or more than one) is a collaborator of the witchy bandit on a way to her well deserved hanging. Not exactly "The Thing" level of paranoia, but the old Tarantino tries. Turns out paranoia was well placed, and in the outburst of shooting everyone dies in gruesome detail, whilst white guy and black guy, mortally wounded, below the despickable hung female bandit who did give one nice dance before she went straight to hell, are bleeding to death, similarly as in much more subtle ending to "The thing" they are left to freeze. A derivative, but not too shabby work if you have a couple of extra hours to spare.

Evil corporations more powerful than government, practically having own armies, deep corruption that tries to annihilate humanity, social satire in this hard sci-fi that does not take itself too seriously, all is there. Great movie, that works on many levels.

This movie predates films like The Matrix, Inception or some Black Mirror episodes of the second decade of 21st century, all of which owe much to it. It is a very innovative piece of sci-fi, with good story, humor and fun action sequences, it is a solid sci-fi classic, with well thought script layered with meaning, at the same time not taking itself very seriously. It has heavy yet subtle influence, which ups its score quite a bit.

While the twist is entirely predictable, the movie does not bring much new compared to some Black Mirror episodes. A bit like The Moon or Ex Machina, it is watchable, if drawn out, but fails to be too impressive. It does have unsettling and depressive atmosphere to it, but since it is ultimately a derivative work that brings little new in terms of ideas - or execution, or even the ambient and atmosphere, it falls a bit flat.

The premise is somewhat intriguing, and technically movie has its merits, but pretenison and snobbrery run deep in this nonesense piece. There are a few kills, around eight dead in total, one plus one at the start, one at the middle plus one serious bodily injury (that was supposed to be the most important kill, but fails almost as much as the pretpensions of the movie), and then two in the last third and three more in the end. Five are gun inflicted, but with ample blood splatters nevertheless, and glorious violentia with axes, knives and such bring death to one at the beginning, one is wounded in the middle and two killed at the very end. These are the high points of the movie. You will see stabs of anger, axes which dislodge still moving fingers, some stabs in the neck with spurting arterial juices amidst pools of blood overly abounding. The effects are good, gory but done on a high budget that 80s B-time slashers could not afford, and gratiuitous to boot. You can see the little Crony enjoys himself, as the various possessed individuals go stabby-stabby and smashy-pulpy twisting pole as teeth fly into the air and eyes bleed out under the mighty stab of the angry director. If that is not gratuitious enough, there is some seksi time sprinkled here and there for good amount of wannabe empty transgression. The victims are men, women and children for good measure whilst some are also possessed in order to bring the unstable possessor back into the line of duty. But the so called plot follows mostly one task, failed, and the main problem is that possessor can not make herself pull a trigger on her hosts, whilst having no trouble murdering in the most gruessome ways the others. This plus some light family drama, reminding us that even those soldiers that do similar stuff with CNN God on their side are humans but alas, PTSD. Something like that, this is not a deep movie so do not err giving it too much credit trying to make it more than it is, a neatly packed vehicle for the son of a great director to indulge his teen fantasies of gore and flesh and fleshy members of the elite he very pretpentiously both desipises and belongs to. Whilst his father might have had something meaningful to say, this movie does not, but the emptiness executed with some derivative style might sell for content in the age of woke-elitist despsciable critic circles. If only someone would twist a pole or two into their very stabbable bodies from time to time...

This is one smart movie. It terrifies not because of gore, but because of the deeper truth that it conveys. Boogeymen have power only if you believe in them. The movie works on many levels - as a parable about black and white relations, as a story of a women that goes psychotic and kills, the supernatural story is layered with symbolism. Where smug elites meet the downtrodden, Exorcist meets Silence of the Lambs with bits of Shining, a powerful, peerless cult piece that is compelling to watch from start to finish, artfully written, and impregnated with deeper horrors of biogted existence.