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Reviews
Inception (2010)
Eye candy with good wrapper, but not so tasty.
Visually stunning but with a little bit on the inside this movie will give you exactly the same experience as The Shutter Island - previous DiCaprio's work.
Tom Hardy & Cillian Murphy are the only actors who actually fit the movie. The rest of quite amazing line-up is all over the place and doesn't really suit their roles. Movie seems to focus on DiCaprio without even trying to give away any information about other characters.
Now to the art work: the dreams that were created suppose to be convincing to the subject but they didn't even look that real on the screen. Artificial acting with backgrounds looks really plastic and gives away the ending right in middle of the movie.
I would consider 2 hour 30 minutes is a big fail from editors and director for the amount you get from the flick. Christopher Nolan spent almost 10 years writing the screen play, but originality that he had in Memento is well overpowered by Hollywood glitter with no substance that new Batman movies are so full of.
Overall, watch it if you like eye-candy movies. I bet there would be plenty fans and a lot of talk but movie just doesn't cut it for me when you know what is going to happen and there is more than an hour to go until the end.
The Wolfman (2010)
Wrapping looks good, but candy is not that great.
The few thing that are good about this movie is casting and authentic stages of old London. Del Torro, Weaving and Hopkins are doing great job with Weaving who manages to steal most of the movie. The story is boring and after first 30 mins it goes down big time (seems like a trend in Hollywood, so you wont return your ticket). Character development is good cosidering A-class cast, although beast actions are questionable in many cases: at one point it kills hordes or people, later it struggles to kill one man. The final fight is pretty disappointing and finishes quicker than it starts. Computer Graphics is really bad. One second you can see character with wolf make up, next his paw is computer generated which kills all authenticy the movie pose to have. Do not recommend in cinemas or on your TV.
Mars (2004)
In the middle of nowhere...
Written and directed by young Anna Melikian, this movie has one huge disadvantage. Somewhere in the middle it is loosing it's mystique and charmed atmosphere and becomes just your average movie about human relationship. The end is seems to be taken from numerous movies about small towns in the middle of nowhere. However, the plot itself is not that bad and cinematographers also did make really good job, so if you have spare time and have nothing to do AT ALL, than it worth watching, however I would suggest something different. As for actors, they didn't impress me that much that I remembered anything in particular. It can be grade as average, but with original plot.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
They made it again...
It seems like Wes Anderson and Bill Murray created new genre which can be titled as "realistric movies", where you get everything from smart jokes to very tragic moments. And I'm not talking about director and main character. Whole crew did it so well, that while you are watching it, it becomes part of your life - actors (I was impressed by transformation of Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett and Willem Dafoe and really enjoyed Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum and Seu Jorge), cinematography, plot and crappy but computer graphics makes it so presentable to any kind of audience. Bill Murray seems to find his corner and continue to make progress there. This is the third movie of that kind after "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Lost in Translation". So if you did enjoy that movies, you'll like Life Aquatic.
Est - Ouest (1999)
Realistic, but consists of 2 parts...
This is excellent-quality movie from technical and historical part. I also liked the realism of situation in post-World War II Soviet Union. I'm suggesting to watch that strong drama everyone who is interesting in history or good storyline. What I didn't like is too much time skipping in the second part of the movie and too slow-on-action part one. It seems like there were two different directors, who tried to bring together one plot. Another disadvantage is accent of some of international actors when they are speaking Russian, however actors play really good and naturally. Overall, I did enjoy the movies, however I didn't suggest it to the people who just want to see action or comedy. This is serious drama and your mood must be the same.
Xi yang jing (2000)
Right movie for right mood.
This is good movie for historical drama mood. The movies is about the introduction of cinematograph to people who never saw unique from one point of view as it's tracking also the mixture of cultures, however many small things you've seen million of times (people are afraid of train on the screen). It's not boring, but it's not a masterpiece. It has good cinematography as well as interesting plot.
From historical point of view it is interesting to watch the mixing of Asian and European cultures, while cinematographic part of the movie involve a lot Chinese refinements. So, if you have time, grab the DVD, it won't disappoint you.