Malarkey

Paul Dano stepped on a path to be a director and as his debut he presented a small, intimate movie that emanates family tragedy and personal confession. It wasn’t bad but I was more interested in the Montana visuals which looked epic in some shots including the moments when the son watches the forest burn. That was also the most powerful scene in the whole movie. I pitied the nature more that the relationship between Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal itself. Sadly the movie was about a family falling apart and not about the nature. Nevertheless Carey and Jake weren’t bad therefore the movie deserves the 3 stars rating. An interesting independent American movie that however doesn’t stand out from other movies of this kind.

Ocean’s 8 is not that different from Ocean’s Eleven. Same number of famous actresses, I had the same neutral feeling about each of them, only Cate Blanchett looked at least a bit like a femme fatale and Helena Bonham Carter didn’t disappoint with her standard avant-garde style. Otherwise the movie was full of characters without emotions. And there was a plan whose probability to succeed was 1 to a billion. Moreover, same things keep happening over and over again so the ending is full of “shocking” moments which prove how Sandra Bullock had this genius robbery of the millennium all thought out. Same old, same old over and over again. The interesting thing is that I do like the individual actresses but I had quite a hard time to get to like any one of them in this movie. I don’t know if it is a trademark of this type of movies but it was the same with Ocean’s Eleven.

Romania, routine action scenes and Dolph Lundgren. What else is new. The interesting thing is that in this movie he looks like he’s about to die and a just few years later he plays a macho in The Expendables. The Defender is nevertheless quite a failure. An exemplary B rated action movie with nothing good to offer. Besides Dolph, the cast consist of approximately 3 black actors and a lot of Romanians. The whole movie is set in a single hotel and there is shooting all the time. The action scenes however come across as kind of ridiculous which only makes you sad. Dolph is just shooting all the time without any thought or aim. It lacks any logic. If all of the latest JCVD movies were B rated movies they were at least good B rated movies. This, if it even is a B rated movie, is the worst of the worst.  It is a good thing that Dolph was able to pull himself together afterwards.

I’m rating this series after I’ve seen both seasons and I have to say that Happy Valley isn’t a series with some kind of concrete concept but rather something that makes you appreciate the locations of Halifax town situated in the north of England. It is a god-forgotten town where nothing ever happens. In this town we meet a few nutjobs, a murder or two and one experienced lady who is quite good looking with a foul mouth on her. I liked it. During those 12 episodes I felt like I was standing in one of their living rooms. Moreover, this series had a story line which, according to me, was secondary. What was primary was the gloomy atmosphere with stark but still green nature which looked just like Scotland or Ireland.

An American independent classics with Ben Kingsley delivering a top acting performance. His character, a crazy psychiatrist Squires, was the only thing that I enjoyed about this movie. Luke was against the system but in combination with the drugs and rap music his character wasn’t in any way exceptional. By which I mean we have seen similar characters so many times already. I really wouldn’t like to have a chat with him. On the other hand, the character portrayed by Ben was incredible. To meet him in real life would be an experience which you will never forget. Quite a good one-time thing.

I’m starting to get the feeling that American cinematography is independent only if it is totally eccentric. The Unicorn is quite like other similar American pieces but on top of that brings a lot of new ideas with good dialogues and with two characters that at first seem to be unbelievably annoyed but gradually start to show off. This is especially true for Lucy Hale whom I think was quite a good fit for her role. For one and half hour running time it was a nice chill out piece. And if you desire a threesome and people around you don’t understand it then you should add a star to the rating. The thoughts of those two main characters will be more relatable to you than you would imagine.

For the whole time I was watching this crazy movie I was wondering what it would be like if the main character was played by, for example, Steven Segal instead of Gerard Butler. And you know what? I might have liked it more. With this cast London Has Fallen isatotal crazy trip which actors like Butler, Freeman or Eckhart don’t deserve. The director is devastating London, nothing makes sense, there is shooting everywhere. And you don’t want that in an action movie with this kind of actors.

One of the many Czech comedies whose premise is not too smart. Quite the opposite. When I think about it the premise is actually stupid. And again it was sponsored by the Television Nova that likes those types of comedies. Probably it is made for their viewers for whom something like this is enough. But it is evident that theactors are good; it just needs to work on the plot more. Jaroslav Plesl’s, Anna Polívková’s or Ester Geislerová’s performances were quite good. There was an incredible number of stupid moments in this movie and the cherry on top was the ending. Without it I might have rated this movie with 3 stars for making me laugh a few times. The whole movie had a pleasant country feel where I didn’t even mind the product placement beginning with the Únětice Brewery.

The Central Europe is riding on the wave of self-criticism and the main, gratifying topic is WWII. After the Habermann’s Mill, 7 days of Sin shows us how the Czechs behaved towards everyone with German nationality without considering if they were for or against the Nazis. Evidently it was a sad period of history but I am quite glad that both of these movies were created. But the filmmaking craftsmanship in the Habermann’s Mill is a lot better. 7 days of Sin, on the other hand, has better actors. Vica Kerekes and Ondřej Vetchý are great in this movie. It is with the screenplay and production where I see the problem. Where Mr. Herz was able to make a small scene at the train station so memorable that I remember it till this day, the train station scene in 7 days of Sin was very confusing. The beginning of the movie is great. It starts with introducing the premise from which it is more or less apparent what will happen in this movie. Somewhere around the middle of the movie I began to get bored because the main characters were just going to and fro from point A to point B and there was no story development. And at the end of the movie it even started to be illogical. Especially the character portrayed by Schmitzer was like from some really cheap novel. I have to say that it is enough for the 3 stars rating but such a topic deserves a 5-star movie I would never forget.

The beginning of the movie is like a fulfilled dream of every fantasy lover. A beautiful opening scene, emotional music, picturesque landscape shots and even more beautiful animated sequences. The introduction to this fantasy world in the spiritofthe Viking mythology was exceptional. But after a while the movie turned into an overly emotional romance like from the Twilight only with a dragon instead of a vampire. The movie ends up as a quite decent movie. Then it becomes an intimate film with only two characters where the Russian actor is constantly shirtless to show his six-pack and the Russian actress is constantly captured from such angles that show her most attractive features including her graceful legs. The whole movie is megalomaniac in a traditionally Russian way and the only thing that was interesting to me was the visual aspect and great shots of the nature. I appreciate this Russian attempt to produce a fantasy movie but if they want to shoot an intimate fantasy they should cut on the hubris.