Change Your Image
catalin_din_nord
Reviews
Stefan Luchian (1981)
Symbolistic, stylish movie about the Romanian painter, Stefan Luchian
Ion Caramitru, who later became the Minister of Culture in Romania, plays the lead role of the painter, Stefan Luchian.
Stefan Luchian lives at the beginning of the 20th century and suffers from a disease that will eventually paralyze him. He is unable to pursue love and focuses all his strength, his power on painting. He also ignores the vile and corrupt society that surrounds him.
Personally I like to call this movie "Impressions from Luchian's Life". The movie doesn't bring up a documentary approach, and we can see some modern approaches (for 1981) to modern cinematography. Time passes quickly, seasons go by in a flash and sometimes suddenly stops at key, symbolistic moments. The painter sees life, death, poverty, revolution and brings life to his paintings.
Battlestar Galactica: Hero (2006)
A figure from Admiral Adama's past comes back to haunt him.
I have to say, once again, that this show is probably one of the best on TV right now. As usual, the story is fantastic.
The "Hero", Bulldog, a POW, somehow manages to get away from a Cylon Basestar aboard a Raider, like Starbuck did before. Everybody is stunned by his flashy appearance with two Cylon raiders on his tail, and seem to forget this move might belong to the Cylons who, like always, have a plan.
Bulldog fits in the big picture that is Adama's past and we get to see the Admiral on his previous command, aboard the Battlestar Walkyrie, doing a black-ops mission close to the Cylon neutral zone. Bulldog gets shot down by unknown contacts in Cylon territory and Adama is forced to leave him behind. Here's a question for you: is Adama responsible for the war?
Battlestar Galactica: A Measure of Salvation (2006)
The Cylons are forced to abandon their own, in order to save their species.
Like most episodes of Gallactica this season, I just have to say it's brilliant! The thing that haunts me is what happened to former president Baltar, which is one of my favorite characters. As we know, he left New Caprica with the Cylons and was accommodated on a Basestar, and the Cylons are thinking about reasons to keep him alive.
One of these reasons is that he is human and can go where cylons can't, like infested Battlestars, which is the main plot tag-line of this episode. The plot, as usual is brilliant and brings up, among other things serious human issues, like genocide. Here's a question for you: is the extinction of the Cylon race genocide?
The O.C.: The Avengers (2006)
A darker look into The O.C.
Well, I saw the first episode, and I wasn't too fond of it. First of all, I'm going to start with the promo for the 4th season. The main tag line was something like "The O.C. is hot". Hot? Is that what the screenwriters and promoters of the show could only come up with? I mean, Marrisa died, Ryan is a human mess, Summer is probably insane, Seth is... Seth, what do you do with these facts, if you're a screenwriter ? I'm going to tell you what they did! (without spoilers).
Well, it's a fact: the new OC is darker (not "hot", that's just silly), with Marissa's death and all. That's good, but the guys who thought of this have a weird vision of this "dark" stuff. The constant care the screenwriters have is to make the lives of the characters hell, and that basically means they don't know what they did right in the first two seasons, when their ratings were high. They took the ordinary facts out (going out, having fun, going to Tijuana on vacation and getting OD) that I loved so much and put in a complex tag line.
But the screenwriters weren't up to the job. The previous seasons were predictable, easier to make, but they were fun... a guilty pleasure for me. But now they really have to grow up, like the characters did and start to make the show somewhat original, less predictable.
Now, I'd like to see a torn Ryan, not one who gets beaten for kicks. A selfish little ***** called Caitlin who "steps on corpses" for the "Queen of Newport" title, not one who hangs out with 9th graders. A torn Summer, not a suddenly Eco-friendly-kind-of-hippie one. A sobbing Cohen family, not the same happy bunch. A darker, vengeful Julie Cooper. It's just plain silly seeing her redecorating after her daughter died.
And I gave it a five because I loved the previous seasons. I'm very disappointed and I hope they do something about it. If the ratings go further down, the show is going to get canceled.
Silent Hill (2006)
Screen adaptation of the Silent Hill VG
I'm the kind of person who watches movies with an opened mind. But I cannot agree with gore for the love of gore, or killing main characters for fun in original ways, like burning them alive. The setting is pretty interesting at first and the backgrounds, filled with falling ash look great, but that's where the good things stop.
You start seeing things go wrong with this movie right from the beginning. One of those things is that it's highly predictable - you kinda' know the trip to Silent Hill is a one-way ticket to hell, you realize the cop is there for a reason. And the zombie-fighting is useless really, the main characters can't be touched by anonymous zombies, only by "level bosses". However predictable, the story manages to bring some interesting twists by the end of the movie, but too little, too late. It's still a "zombie roller-coaster ride".
Explozia (1973)
Inspired from a real event, doesn't relate to the "Poseidon Adventure".
The movie is inspired by a accident that happened in the 1970 near Galati, Romania. A team of firefighters is sent to an abandoned, burning ship, only to find out the ship is loaded with 80000 bags of fertilizer, which explodes at 300 degrees Celsius, making the ship a giant bomb that threatens to take out the whole city of Galati.
The prefect and the mayor desperately try to find a solution to the problem, and bring to their aid a chemist that tries to find a solution. On the ship, the fire grows stronger and stronger and the firefighters get the help of one particular firefighter, "nea' Gica", a skilled oil well firefighter that happens to be the godfather in a wedding that takes place on the shore of the Danube river.
It's not a flick, as others suggested, it doesn't relate to "The Poseidon Adventure", and the acting is done by some of the best Romanian actors, like Gheorghe Dinica, Toma Caragiu, Mircea Diaconu or Florin Piersic. Unfortunately, like all Romanian movies the sound is mono and rather poor, but hey! It's done in 1973.