Isherwood

New Jersey at night, full of dark corners both in the streets and in relatively luxurious apartments, in a directorial visual fetish that you won’t easily forget. The camera work, filtering, and editing may remind you of Tony Scott at first, but Wayne Kramer gets even tougher after a few minutes and shows that you can do wonders with a $15 million budget and an R rating. Pleasantly uninhibited sex, furious shooting, and such a concentration of "fucks" that there was no room left for any other words. This doesn't prevent the director (who is also the screenwriter) from making some impressive breaks in the plot, meaning there is no shortage of tension and viewer interest. The lamentations over the ending are the misguided cries of those who are simply unable to accept that certain genre rules were broken (just between you and me) for once.

Even before Brad Bird signed on with Pixar, he made his highly distinctive project, which unfortunately did not reach a wider audience. The motifs of the 1950s, the arms race, the fear of the red nuclear threat, the first conquest of space, but also the period when every boy's bedside table had Superman adventure books are excellently tied to the simple scenario of a pathetic friendship between a 50-foot robot and a lonely boy. Bird has left none of this out, and the result is an absolutely stunning blend that is unlike anything seen in the children's animation genre. Perhaps that's why this film can be appreciated by adults rather than by children, who would certainly not like the ultra-militant ending. However, it is part of it, since nobody can resist the robot's charisma, which is directly soaked in Vin Diesel's "dubbing."

It's too bad that the filmmakers didn't keep the working title Sadomasochists From Beyond the Grave to distribute the film, as it's a much more eloquent description of what takes place in the film. There are incredible doses of splatter, and even though the ravages of time have bitten off a pretty solid slice, one can't help but smile deeply at the work of visual effects creator Bob Keen and especially director Clive Barker, who really doesn't spare any ideas and made the most of a simple script. Fortunately, the wooden actors were clearly outclassed by the "otherworldly" crew led by the demonic Pinhead, and whether it's the scene of Frank's resurrection or the close-up of the Cenobites' job description, everything is wrapped in a wonderfully eerie atmosphere, supported by Christopher Young's excellent score. "Beautiful" (maybe without the quotation marks).

A journey along the Trans-Siberian Railway is no mean feat even without concentrated evil traveling on the train with you. But when the duo of Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing face off against it, you know it's going to be a battle. A standard horror game of "who ate off my plate" is played out in the simple location of a train traveling through a vast wasteland with no one to help you, but it’s filmed with maximum impact. The monster is still scary even today, and even after a plot twist with one major destruction, the tension doesn't wane and the film remains an excellent spectacle. All the actors deserve the lion's share of the credit, the music is also impressive, and the red eyes of Evil clutch the viewer by the throat. Then, at the end, we get to see the black humor of Telly Savalas, who really enjoyed playing his vodka-soaked officer. The film is an unmissable page in the thick textbook of horror.

This very unconventional detective story (mistakenly called a horror) is based mainly on the strange mysterious atmosphere of a small British island ruled by pagan customs instead of Christianity. The confrontation between the bigoted policeman and the local natives, who acknowledge an ancient deity, escalates into an exquisite ending, where it is up to each viewer to decide whether they prefer the human sacrifice to the goddess of the earth or the words "The Lord is my shepherd." Edward Woodward excels in the lead role of the strongly religious detective, and like Christopher Lee opposite him, his charisma is evident in every frame. The powerful experience is further enhanced by the strange folk music and dance rituals, which surprisingly do not disturb (and yet this is no musical), but simply belong to the film like everything else. The last ritual gives unpleasant chills.

A celebration of values such as poverty, humility, and indomitable spirit. It’s a half-hour of almost dreamlike meditation on this animated work. With its unconventional form, it draws you into a compelling storyline that is not only the ultimate pro-humanist agitation but is also full of pacifist tendencies, coupled with a simple message about the need to preserve natural resources that are irreplaceable. When you tune in to the right mood this becomes the ultimate non-conformist experience.

If it wasn't for the absolutely empty final half hour, this would have been an absolute hit. The chilling atmosphere of the alien invasion, which takes place not in a spectacular style with flying saucers but in a relatively closed form of gradual parasitism, is filmed with such suggestiveness that the absence of "scares" and similar achievements is fully forgivable in director Phillip Kaufmann's film. The work of the team of special effects artists with somewhat overgrown pods is done to perfection, as is the musical accompaniment, strumming not only the musical instruments but also the viewer's tense nerves, which can expect no relief whatsoever. Nobody will be able to get the last shot out of their head.

The politics in Stone's films take some getting used to, though with this film the director is quite artful in keeping with the fact that he was making a story about a real person, even if the book is relatively sympathetic to his views. The small Vietnam section is technically amazing, and since most of the filmmakers head for the rainforest, its sand sequence is relatively original and all the more impressive for it. Nevertheless, the entire burden of the film rests on Tom Cruise's acting, which forced me to develop my own controversy about how someone who can play such a part par excellence can subsequently put himself down in all sorts of ways. The believably civil speech and the excellently handled parts (particularly the one in the veterans’ hospital is amazing) make Cruise a master actor in this film. It’s a bit unfortunate that Willem Dafoe’s space wasn’t utilized, as well as the momentary sentimentality, which, however, seems to be part of all this. It can be said that Stone has contributed a lot of interesting works to the issue of the Vietnam complex, which makes everyone think not only about how to treat retired soldiers.

In the flood of contemporary slasher films, this one is above average. It mainly benefits from the unpleasant atmosphere of the vast Australian outback, which eventually turns into the cramped environment of an old quarry, where a cruel hillbilly sets off an exceedingly harsh and detailed game of torture, which will leave the weaker folks reeling. It is unfortunate that the introduction was a bit unnecessarily long, which could have given way to the "more important" part. Yet my final impression is still one of utmost satisfaction, mixing a beatific smile at the idea that the genre is not dying with a somewhat uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. In my opinion, that’s the best result the Australians could have managed.

The first moment of the mistakenly acquired feeling of some novel "guilty pleasure" disappears the moment the creators come out with the paint and admit that they want to make a targeted parody. Unfortunately, the awkward parody consists of piling individual gags (which are not funny) on top of each other without any proper plot connection, meaning that the result is a desperately awkward attempt to be funny at all costs. This ensures that John De Bello, the director and screenwriter and the writer of the opening meddlesome song and God knows what else, puts himself in the rather unenviable position of a total bum who has no idea what filmmaking is and whose humor can also be successfully questioned. It’s unnecessary boredom, but it’s true that you don’t see this sort of thing very often.