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Gone Girl (2014)
Human psyche borehole
First of all - I absolutely love this movie. However I don't view it as a thriller as much as a deep psychological drama dealing with a wide range of issues faced in ANY human relationship. It's just dressed as a "mystery/thriller" which in its own way is a master pun as well.
I have heard many of my friends dismissing this movie as a little above average mystery thriller evaluating it along the lines of slow and predictable, yet usually entertaining. I think this is a huge misconception of this work of art, the thriller/mystery thing is just the outer layer, there are many more layers underneath in each and every scene and I'm very surprised people miss it. We are reminded about it at the very beginning by the first scene. The movie deals with the 3 simple questions posed at the opening scene. It actually is trying to unspool the brains of the main couple and get to the bottom of human relationships, not necessarily a marriage.
If you try and watch the movie through this prism, which is I think what the creators intended, you'll find a deep, thought provoking probe into the peculiar and intertwined web of little human actions of which human relations are made.
I don't want to go into any details here but I think everything (and I mean everything from camera angles through cats to the colors) has it's own purpose and meaning along the above mentioned lines.
Yes, human relationships, marriage, friendship, fleeting love affairs are in fact thrillers because we are always a mystery to each other. And that's what this movie is about.
p.s. and the workmanship is awesome - directing, music, acting ... everything fits, one of the rare cases where deep substance is met with perfect form.
The Book of Eli (2010)
Christian propaganda
I think this movie is a shameless Christian propaganda. It has Vatican written all over it, or maybe some US Christian organisation paid for it. Unfortunately - or actually rather - thank God the authors did a very poor job wrapping the message. They ripped of a western theme - lonely cowboy doing good deeds on his journey to the west. He meets evil in the form of bad sheriff of a poor town. There's a fight, final shootout and peaceful ending. All spiced up with post-apocalyptic stage set - which I suspect is supposed to add volume to the leitmotiv of the movie. And of course it had a side effect as well ... very simple and cheap CGI (which was eye striking the whole movie). There's no sense in finding holes or say little errors in the story - there's no real story. If you go to your closest church on Sunday you'll most probably get the same story. I think some of the acting wasn't very bad but as the directing was quite poor it didn't show. All in all - terrible faith propaganda bordering zealotry with poor craftsmanship.
Okresní prebor - Poslední zápas Pepika Hnátka (2012)
Top of Czech comedy
Czech comedy after 1989 got into a trap of losing themes. Suddenly the movie makers and mostly screenwriters couldn't find a platform on which they could make fun of ourselves. One of the few exceptions was for a long time the movie Dedictvi and now Okresni prebor is in my opinion the second one. It found the ground on which it can stand a mirror and gently in a hilariously funny way show us who we are. Without mocking us! Prusinovsky (writer/director) obviously knows the environment of village football club and very skilfully and accurately depicted the scene. All the characters are very believable in their ordinariness and we can rely to them. The movie paints them with poetic colors and brings us laughs through ordinary situations which we know from our lives yet when we see them on the screen we can laugh heartily as knowing observers.
I don't know whether people from other countries can appreciate this movie but I guess that's a characteristic of all good Czech comedies (they're very specific). I think it's not necessary to know the series that preceded the movie but in my opinion the viewer will have more from the movie when he'll know the series. On the other hand it can also be vice versa.
I definitely recommend this movie to everyone and I personally rank it among such classics as Dedictvi a Vesnicko ma strediskova. It has the same poetry and approach to Czech nature.
Venkovský ucitel (2008)
Excellent movie
So I've just seen the movie and am really amazed. Slama has done it again. I am Czech and I must admit that I am very displeased with Czech cinematography of the last decade. Czech producers and directors make the same rubbish over and over again. I focus only on Slama as in my opinion he is the only exception. He proved himself to be the best we have now.
I absolutely loved his previous movie Stesti and I had very high anticipation concerning his new one - Venkovsky ucitel - The Country Teacher. And my expectations were fulfilled.
The movie is in some way similar to the previous one, not only in the choice of actors but also in the structure. The movie is pure drama around one man, but in fact there are three main characters and minor ones. Slama is very good in building the scenes and describing the characters. He introduces the key ones, shows us the surroundings and than he starts to develop the story he wants. He cultivates the characters and plays with the theme of the picture.
I don't want to go into details about the story. Watch for yourself, it 's very strong and very touching.
Throughout the whole movie I was amazed (again) by Slama's very subtle but in a way strong directing. Also the cinematography is perfect. All the actors did a great job and I haven't seen such good performances for a long time (certainly not in Czech movies).
All in all I was very impressed by the story, acting and directing. As far as I am concerned - Slama is still on the top.
If nevertheless should I say something negative I would have probably one thing - in the first half, maybe third, of the movie the editing seemed to me somehow "discontinuous". Like some cuts were a little bit too rash. But it was just my little feeling.
I definitely recommend this movie. Very good and deep drama and top- notch movie making.
The Getaway (1994)
Waste of time.
Nowhere near the original. It's quite accurate copy bringing nothing new to the story. But the directing is very poor. Basinger is weak - without good directing. Baldwin is simply just a second league compared to McQueen. I watched it just out of curiosity, being a huge fan of Peckinpah's masterpiece, and I got what I thought. Almost a B movie with second rate acting and directing. I wasn't even disappointed, I just don't know what they were trying to do. This remake doesn't try to play with the original material, it's not a tribute and indeed it lacks some really good actor of its era.
It reminds me of a bad xerox copy of wonderful photograph.
This is a complete waste of your time. Save yourself 2 hours or watch the original (again:)))
Ultraviolet (2006)
Wonderful movie
I don't know why everybody rates this movie so low. It is so much fun and lot's of visual parade. I must admit I'm a huge fan of Milla but anyway the movie blew me with it's interesting scenes.
The story is quite clear all the way but I was caught in watching how the movie will deal with the story. Also it's full of small details that complete the image of nice and amazing futuristic sci-fi.
Also the music was very fitting.
Kurt Wimmer is minimalistic in fighting scenes and that's what this movie is about. Don't look for drama, don't look for space odyssey, this movie is almost like Equilibrium without padding between the fights.
Underworld: Evolution (2006)
Terrible shock
I just saw the movie and am shocked. So lame I couldn't believe it. I was amazed by the first movie, I loved the plot, characters and action scenes. The sequel didn't come even close to it. The plot is terrible, raising up every man to a superior being, predictable hunt for an unseen beast (as if they wanted to raise expectations), stupid and simple dialogues, short and unimpressive action scenes and all this cocktail was topped up with a worthless love scene. The movie is not consistent at all, it jumps between history lessons action scenes and moving the characters. Kate and Scot are quite nice duo though, but their characters lack development. A few times I thought that this could be just deleted scenes from the first movie.
And finally the end (I couldn't wait to get to it) - very short, the two mighty brothers taken down in a way my little sister could do it herself. No challenge, no thrill, it remained of a bar-fight rather than vampire/lykan fight.
Definitely a big disappointing, I give it 4 just because I like Kate, there were 2 or 3 good shots and Tony Curran was a very nice villain.
Absolute Power (1997)
Disappointment
Initially I must say I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, both as an actor and as a director. I love and admire his unforced and natural style of both acting and directing.
I just now have watched this movie and am really disappointed. In one sentence - in my opinion - Clint didn't put his heart to this movie. No wonder, the plot is very weak, predictable and very, very artificial. I didn't believe a single moment in the movie. Also the screenplay contains only simple sentences what makes the characters quite flat. This is projected to the acting which is not really good. I haven't noticed one actor that would really try to do his best. All of the main actors can perform much better. But again this script wouldn't allow them. And finally I get to the directing jog - again quite poor. Clint definitely didn't push the actors and somewhat let them float through the scenes on a medium level.
Summary - for a huge fan of Clint big disappointment. Average thriller with predictable and synthetic plot.
Stestí (2005)
Film-making in its best
Definitely one of the best films I have ever seen. Slama has worked on this project for a long time and the result is really outstanding. The characters are very real and the depiction of life in terrible conditions is very faithful. Slama also carefully chose the actors and the choice was excellent. Also his work with actors is very natural and therefore the acting in the movie is unforced and smooth. This movie really got under my skin. Very clever, perfect workmanship and strong theme. I left the cinema and couldn't stop thinking about it. This is exactly the movie that starts up your mind and raises a lot of questions. But despite it's mostly sad movie it doesn't leave the sad feeling in you. After all it is optimistic, in the end it celebrates life and my opinion is that it raises the happy things in life.
I recommend this movie to everyone.
Good luck :)
'Ctyri vrazdy stací, drahousku' (1971)
One of the best Czech comedies ever made
I personally think that along with "Limonadovy Joe" and "Dedictvi" this movie is on the top of all Czech comedies. It's one of the rare movies where excellent director collaborated with excellent crew and they all worked with ingenious script. Also all the "comix drawings" by Kaja Saudek are nothing but astonishing. The idea of "advertisement cuts" is very bright and on every place very smart. Every word, every line and every gesture in this movie is simply perfectly on time, and I personally find almost every line very funny.
If there was one scene I would cut out, that would be the one where Sabrina is fighting Kathy in the shower.
I can not but highly recommend this movie to everyone. It's smart, funny and above all it's genuine and perfect work of art !