Kaka

Hands down one of the worst films (in every aspect) I have ever seen. Glaring technical and dramaturgical incompleteness, holes in the script, insane actors, a plot about nothing. Watching this nonsense for 125 minutes was literally a superhuman task. A completely twisted film without a hint of tension, visual aesthetics, or proper mythology. Teen romance that turns into an eternal battle between werewolves and vampires. Rubbish and doesn't even come close to a one-star rating.

The new Bourne is much more restrained and much less action-packed than I expected. The plus is that they managed to quite sophisticatedly integrate the plot of the new film into the older trilogy, so this "standalone" installment doesn't feel intrusive or contrived, especially considering that the story of Bourne and Cross is essentially unfolding in the same time period. The action is good, although there are far fewer hand-to-hand combat scenes, and overall the direction is much more subdued and minimalistic. The subplot about experiments on people (pills, etc.) is solid. The main character's motivation is good and Rachel Weisz’s performance is excellent. It's clear that Gilroy went smartly around it, he didn't want to pump the audience with even more sophisticated action, more pumped-up music, and faster pace. But to wrap the viewer around his finger with unexpected plot twists that sometimes shock with their force (the interrogation at Weisz's house) and sometimes pleasantly and reliably stick to the established tracks (chases, stunts). What bothered me the most was the complete absence of an ending and a clear indication that if Legacy is at least somewhat commercially successful, there will be a reset of the series.

Nicely shot, with a typical video-clip style, overexposed and relatively entertaining. But at its core, it is a very flat film. I would expect more action, less romance, but it was exactly the opposite. Chris Pine and Tom Hardy are great likeable characters, and Reese Witherspoon is not bad either. The chemistry between them works great, so, apart from a few digital mistakes and boring scenes, I had a pretty good time, knowing that it is a predictable and essentially undemanding nonsense.

I was expecting a much bigger disaster. In many aspects, I liked the new Total Recall more than the original. I'm not counting the “inflation difference” of the years, meaning that now, you can get much more sophisticated visual effects than before with high budgets. Overall, the film is surprisingly watchable. In terms of action scenes, Len Wiseman is getting better, more inventive, and more gripping with every film. There are moments in Total Recall where I couldn't even breathe, and that hasn't happened to me in a long time. Kate Beckinsale is excellent as a terminator, Colin Farrell is good, and the production design is fantastic. Some say it’s a rip-off of Minority Report and Blade Runner, but there aren't many other options for depicting the future realistically, or at least somewhat believable. Occasional inspiration, in my opinion, doesn't hurt, and if the audience picked on every little thing like this, soon every movie would be a disaster just because it starts, as I've seen the beginning of a movie many times, etc. With proper sound and good visuals, this film is worth seeing multiple times – even the slightly flawed screenplay encourages it. Just never have a steel tunnel through the Earth's core again, please.

Quite a lot of value for 30 million dollars. Excellent action sequences (with a few exceptions), brilliantly shot aerial combat. Unfortunately, the the story is firstly predictable and boring, secondly flat, without any stronger emotional catharsis (how many films have we seen where a foreigner finds their love from a completely different nationality in a city?). There’re no raw deaths like in Saving Private Ryan, nor the fierceness and urgency of Black Hawk Down. Moreover, seeing a turbo-prop fighter destroying a 150-meter armored cruiser with a regular machine gun was a bit too much for me. The film shows enthusiasm, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough.

Clint Eastwood's direction is, in my opinion, too old-fashioned and extremely slow. The ambient sound and minimalist set design are fine and bearable, but in my view, there was no place for directorial conservatism this time. The story of J. Edgar Hoover should have been gripping and controversial. What the director didn't achieve, he tries to make up for with one of the best performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, currently, one of the best and most complex actors in Hollywood. It's definitely not a complete disaster, and they chose very good material, but the execution is somewhere on the average and significantly lags behind in entertainment value and digestibility. On the other hand, it is sufficiently dramatic and very unconventional in terms of costumes and cold visual aesthetics.

An absolute classic, something that cannot be said about many films made in the 1990s, but Rodriguez did a fantastic job with this over-the-top piece. Tarantino's legendary humor, Salma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas with a guitar are just fragments of an unforgettable, often grotesque Mexican mosaic full of humor, exaggeration, and bloody action. It's simple, visually unappealing and cheap, yet attractive (Salma+Banderas), with fiery pace. A cool one-off.

Unbelievable carnage that surpasses most of what has been filmed so far. Where most directors shy away from pushing the envelope and move the camera or cut the shot, Evans keeps it in the frame with maximum detail in every scene. Very bloody, very brutal, and incredibly explosive in terms of choreography and audiovisual aspects. Is it possible to shoot something like this on such a pitiful budget? Americans (and everyone else) should take note, this is how pure action is filmed. The plot is irrelevant.

The reflection of today's scented times. In 1999, we received the action-packed The Matrix, which set the course for the next few years, and now we have Twilight as part of a modern romantic experience. It's not sophisticated or epic, it just cleverly maneuvers in the field of what young audiences want: attractive visuals, music, the looks of the protagonists, a simple plot without unnecessary fuss, sincerity, and the relative awareness of the main characters, all set in an alluring and still not completely exhausted vampire mythology. A phenomenon that may lose its shine in a few years, but today it sets the direction in many aspects. We can only blame ourselves for it.

Kurt Russell surprises in the role of a psychologically well-managed coach. Excellent work with motivation, realistically sounding young men, maturely and experienced (without pathos), well-edited games. Fortunately, the budget is also absent, and the grainy image and ordinary sets that excellently reflect the 80s only help in the end. A discreet but very accomplished piece within the genre.