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micic033
Reviews
Rane (1998)
Cheesy and hysterical chasing in circles of pathetic kid criminals
This is a movie that portrays the specific turbulent times in Serbia between two wars, one fought in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other one, more devastating for this country, on Kosovo. In particular, this story is about two boys caught in vacuum of harsh reality and world of fantasy, where most of their generation wanted to have money in quicker ways, trough crime and fast life. This sounds like an intriguing plot.
However, the downside of this movie is that this is a typical film of director Srdjan Dragojevic, where he creates some kind, of ,,make-up'' reality and even to a certain extent, compels the viewer to admiration of these tragic figures who have marked an inglorious period in the history of this unfortunate country. As a citizen of Belgrade, I think the film shows shallow picture of that crime world and humor is crude. Most certainly Serbian cinematography has a lot of better examples of those kind of movies.
For a better understanding of those times, I recommend the documentary film called: ,,See you in the obituary'' or ,,Vidimo se u čitulji'' on Serbian. There you won't find cheesy phrases and moments which abound Dragojevic's movie.
Hardcore (1979)
Furious and powerful final scene as biggest quality
This movie starts very slowly, as it portrays sleepy town in mid-west of USA in the first part of the movie. Everything goes slow by its order in this small city and the community is conservative and a bit innocent, unaware of ,,evels'' in outer world. So, what essentially makes the main theme of this movie is the struggle of unspoiled innocence and influences from unknown world in minds of two main characters in movie - father and his daughter.
As he (Jake Van Dorn) travels to big San Francisco to find his rebellious daughter, he discovers a hole new world of perversity, depravities and for him, unknown field of underground pornography. Unwillingly, he goes in the middle of the heat, descending, in hope to find out something more about the xxx tape with his kiddo. Everything is hopeless, until he gets to know a prostitute and slimy detective who connect him with people who shot the mentioned movie. On the end, normally, there comes the powerful finale with stubborn Jake confronting ,,the world behind curtain''.
In the most part of the movie, the story is going slow and in some moments lethargic. But, this kind of tempo goes in favor to already mentioned furious and interesting unfolding at the end.
Who likes simple stories with characters struggling inside, he will probably be satisfied with this underrated drama/thriller.
Sveto mesto (1990)
Gogol would be proud of it!
I was very surprised to see the quality and effectiveness of this 1990. horror movie from Serbia. This is a genuine showcase of how the horror movie should be made. It has a strong story and character development, solid and in some times lustrous acting, creepy atmosphere and music, through all the movie (thanks to brilliant music score of Serbian late keyboardist Laza Ristovski).
The greatest thing about this movie is that there is no innocent person in this story (probably, likewise in real life). Everyone has his own dark secret... evil inside, that needs to be revealed. The same case is with the main character, too... Who is a priest BTW.
The main horror scenes are incredibly creepy and give you shivers in a spine. There is no blood, no torturing (besides mind torturing), no dismemberment of bodies... but, believe me, for a true horror fan, it will make a lasting impression.
There are more very good Serbian horrors like this one to be seen. For curious worldwide horror fans I recommend - Leptirica, Variola Vera and Davitelj protiv davitelja. They are lucid and interesting... Well, at least on a Serbian way.
I do recommend another older Russian version of this movie, too. It's called Viy, like the Gogol's novel. It has its own qualities, on a different way from the Serbian version.
On the end, for Serbia, this is remarkable horror movie!
Srpski film (2010)
The greatest Serbian horror flick ever!?!... For who?
I've seen the movie and I'm actually a big fan of horrors but I really missed the point of this movie. If the point of this movie was only to shock, that's OK, but where's the plot?... Where is the character study? When I talk about quality of this piece of work, I can only say that the authors could have learned something more from previous Serbian horrors like Variola Vera, Sveto Mesto, Leptirica etc., instead of making simply a vain collage of already seen famous shocking scenes from The Grim Reaper, Hostel... And that's about everything that you'll see in this horror flick. As for the film, plot story is a bit tinny. Character study is a complete slight over and the acting is merely average (with an exception of Sergej Trifunovic), which is quite typical for Serbian films in past decade. Picture and music is actually the only thing for authors to be proud of. The last thing about this movie that I particularly dislike is stereotypes and generalization. I ask authors - Isn't it enough that hole world wants to see Serbs as savages and bad guys?... or you need to ,,improve'' that picture even more? That what you see in this movie on the end is not Serbia, that's someone's own frustration. On the end, I can only say that I was very curious to see this movie and expected a masterpiece of trill and suspense, but what I've seen, that's only another shock-therapy full of misery and pathos, like in other our contemporary films... In other words, a lousy excuse for movie!