Finally decided to catch up on this show, avoided it for many years due to the sheer amount of seasons and episodes to watch, but seems like I am in a perfect place in my life now to give it a shot.
First impression? It's okay - it has all of the 2000s show tropes for good or bad. Leads are likable, but their moms death scene laughable. Somewhat compelling backdrop story about "Woman in White", however the way the boys resolve it seemed slightly rushed (I assume due to this being a pilot and limited run time for an episode). Also, a lot of plot exposition is thrown at the viewer in a very short period of time, not that it ever gets confusing, but it just feels like word bombardment - especially when brother meet for the first time on screen. The sense of dread, mystery and tension are all present and are realised quite well so definitely kudos for that.
All in all not a bad start but nothing special so far - reminds me a bit of series called Grimm.
So far, the best episode of the first series, this was a great watch.
Full of suspense, intrigue and mystery this is exactly what I expected from Supernatural. After the first episode, I was slightly disappointed (but only slightly), this episode, however, proved me wrong in many aspects.
Fell in love with Amy Acker's role here.
It's definitely picking up pace, that's for sure. Much better to watch than the first episode, with quite interesting story for the episode where boys are hunting a creature called Wendigo.
Great to see Callum Keith Rennie aka Lew Ashby, as this experienced hunter that's full of himself, very rooted in reality.
Enjoyable watch, nothing more, nothing less. Main arch slowly developing into something bigger.
The first episode of three is solely focused on Rwanda. For the most part, it's relatively unengaging - it threads the same path as many animal documentaries before it, showing off hyenas hunting zebras, a family of gorillas, and then a family of chimpanzees. You've seen it before.
It's all fine, but there is no substance in terms of interesting facts or stories, and each segment just doesn't last very long.
I would rather have less variety but more in-depth narration than huge variety and not more than 3 minutes dedicated to a segment.
It starts becoming interesting, literally 10 minutes before it ends, with good shots of a long-legged shoebill (it looks like something taken out of prehistoric world, beautiful bird). It then changes a segment again to show a kingfisher, with essentially the best shot of the episode.
It also offers some insight into Akagera National Park (not very informative but some decent shots captured) & Lake Kivu (a little more informative, just very short segment again).
Funnier than most of sub-par Polish comedies from late 00s "To nie tak jak myślisz kotku" is a comedy about intertwined lives, situational clumsiness and emotional awkwardness.
It's nothing special, but a relatively pleasant watch. Frycz, Figura and Borusiński are on pretty good form here.
An exceptionally boring movie. It's a bad action film and even worse comedy (unless I am really not getting French humour).
Michel Muller made me uncomfortable most of the time and Jean Reno plays this weird parody of his character from "Leon".
What a waste of time.
After their venture in the first movie, everything seems to be going pretty well for H & K. That's until they get thrown into Guantanamo Bay.
Whereas the first movie is purely a buddy movie with comedy based on their pot fuelled quest to reach White Castle burger joint, this one takes much more darker humour turn with most of the riffs being on post 9/11 America and its state. It's still really funny in places almost to a satirical level, but there are also flat jokes present.
Both the first movie and this one are my ultimate feel-good movies however, and I can't really rate them lower than that. They're funny, they're light, and they're a great reminder of times long gone, especially when it comes to such risky and borderline jokes on the silver screen. Good luck these days with trying to pull similar things off.
Buddy comedy that's actually pretty funny. Chemistry between Harold and Kumar is top notch - can't imagine these jokes getting through censorship nowadays. Comedy gold most of the time and Neil Patrick Harris on MDMA.
One of my ultimate feel-good movies.
What a surprise. Matthew Vaughn proved what he is really capable of with this movie. While I am not familiar with the source material at all, my unfamiliarity didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of "Kick-Ass".
While action set pieces certainly take the forefront, "Kick-Ass" has a great amount of emotional and genuinely sad scenes, all very well balanced to fit in with the action.
Main character is interesting, with his motivations and changes he's going through really well laid out - it's Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage's amazing performance) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace-Moretz so confidently good) that really steal the show here. Her relationship is what fuels the story, and the chemistry between them is top notch.
Strobe scene doesn't get enough recognition I think, but it shows perfectly the extent fathers are willing to go for, to make sure their daughters are safe.
"Take cover child... now switch to Kryptoniiiiite!" Nic Cage screams in agony, while being burned alive, tied to a chair... what a powerful moment and great piece of acting from him.
Comedy is also mostly on point. It's a great movie, through and through. Good job, MV.
Fast & Furious #0. Feels almost like a prototype.
On a serious note - this is an enjoyable action flick from the 00s with spot on casting and decent story (not particularly smart, but lack of brains here never really gets in the way of good fun).
A lot of chemistry between characters, Nic Cage is being Nic Cage, Robert Duvall is here, Will Patton is also here both as convincing as ever. Angelina is here too, as beautiful as ever... Delroy Lindo plays the role of a detective wonderfully, never missing the beat.
It's the epitome of 00s movie comfort food. It's enjoyable, it's entertaining and gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling every time Angelina Jolie is on screen.
Interesting take on the idea of sex, where main character played very well by Belen Fabra uses it as a vehicle to get to know herself more.
Christian Molina directs masterfully but the overall story is pretty run-of-the-mill.
It has its moments but never really manages to tickle in a way for instance Lars von Trier was able to, with his Nymphomaniac movies.
It's still fairly good though, so if you enjoy stories about the world's oldest profession, it's worth giving it a shot.
I tend to come back to "Rezerwat" regularly. It is such a well shot and well written piece of Polish cinema, that it's a pleasure to watch.
You can almost feel the dirty alleyways of Praga district, smell cigarette smoke and feel for some of these characters living there. Because deep down you know that there are people like that, full of histories hidden behind their bad decisions and poor existence.
Marciń Kwaśny is fantastic here, but to be fair the whole cast performs above average. "Rezerwat" is gritty in places but also warm. It's full of desperation but also full of hope. And I love how main character's camera acts as a catalyst for various plot points.
Must watch for every enthusiast of Polish cinema.
Angelina Jolie takes off her lingerie briefs to cover CCTV cam and then proceeds to engineer a bazooka from parts of an office chair and a fire extinguisher. That's how ridiculous action set pieces are in this movie.
Salt is trying to be a serious spy movie but action set pieces such as the one mentioned above are creating a constant dissonance with some of the more serious undertones (such as the submarine drowning scene, where AJ watches someone very close to her die a torturous death).
Daniel Olbrychski is awesome and has earned this movie an additional half-star from me.
Oh, and the extended cut ending should be in the movie and be the "canon" one. It has so much more flavour and personality to it. Don't know why they went for the milder one...
This was much more fun than it had any right to be. The clue here lies in two words: action comedy. Yes, it's unrealistic and ludicrous in places but I can't believe how much fun it was.
John Malkovich is really enjoying himself here, and Bruce's car exit scene is a fucking winner - big ups to all crew involved in its creation.
M-L Parker is so unbelievably hot... I think I have an obsession.
It has a few good and funny scenes (mostly due to T. Sapryk comical craftsmanship) but generally it's a wreck of a movie, with ideas all over the place. It feels like being written by several people, just a mash-up of scenes and characters without a lot of cohesion.
Buczkowski is acceptable in it, to be fair he does his usual here which is serviceable, but its Sapryk and Orzechowski that really make this bad movie a slightly better piece.
The whole criminal caper premise is fairly engaging but ridiculously predictable and what's worse - the payoff at the end is disappointing (almost non-existent to be fair).
Not really a huge waste of time, I had a few laughs (french language lesson from Buczkowski is top tier typical Polish comedy of that era) but all in all I could have spent this time doing or watching something much better. Oh, and Wiśniewski's acting is atrocious.
Most of the good scenes are freely available on YouTube, and that's where you should watch them. Don't waste your time with the rest.
Continuing my AT-J filmography I ended up watching Morgan. And oh boy is it a disappointing movie...
Entirety feels like verging on the edge of being a b-class thriller, when it comes to execution. Fight scenes are so badly montaged that all you see are a constant and very frequent cuts, so most of the time you can't even tell who's throwing a punch. Actors are doing their job nicely, especially Anya Taylor-Joy and Paul Giamatti, rest of the cast is also very good. What spoiled it for me was a predictable plot twist and just really weak and lazy ending in my opinion.
Sorry Luke, but you should stick to directing commercials.
This was an incredibly intense 90 minutes, not something I entirely expected. It's such a well made movie.
From the way plot develops, to the interactions between the characters A Quiet Place puts you at the edge of your seat literally from the get go and it has a perfect length too, wrapping up the story in an hour and a half.
Really surprised by John Krasinski directing skills; loved that a lot is left to the viewer (regarding the backstory, creatures origin etc. all we see is some newspaper clippings) and was amazed how consistent and true to itself this movie is.
Almost a perfect experience for me, that's exactly what I am looking for in this genre. It would be full five stars if it wasn't for John Krasinski telling his daughter how he loves her, considering the circumstances, in the most cringe-inducing way possible. Apart from that scene the rest is as solid as his trap-fishing skills.
Jason Reitman takes a relatively grounded, simple story about relatively normal people and makes it a compelling and engrossing viewing.
Cleverly written, dialogues are superb and on-screen chemistry between George Clooney (he is MAGNETIC) and Vera Farmiga is top notch. Anna Kendrick annoying but cute, Sam Elliot does what he does best and the supporting cast works brilliantly too.
Just a clever, sad and hopeful little story, that took me by surprise.
After 4-month hiatus between the first episode, second one aired on a cold February day in 1995.
And it does not disappoint. Completely different to the first one, it's fantastic to see so many interesting small story archs and developments crammed into 22 minutes runtime. It's awesome.
We have Spencer Smythie and his wheelchair bound son Alistair, working for Norman Osborn and trying to capture Spider-Man using their tech savviness and their robotic spiders creations.
Behind the scenes of this main story arch we learn that Norman Osborn works in fact for the Kingpin (nice to see him introduced so soon in this series).
Alistair, Spencer's son not so happy that dad is working for Osborn, neither is dad but his motivation is crystal clear here - new wheelchair for his son will be the ultimate reward for capturing Spider-Man.
The main fight takes place during a charity event hosted by J. Jonah Jameson, that's financially backed by Felicia Hardy (also great to see her introduced here). Spider-Man manages to take the fight out of the city however and to the factory/lab where both Spencer and Alistair are operating.
This is where the first death of the series occurs and it sets-up next episode fantastically, with a strong undertones of revenge driven hatred from Alistair towards Spidey.
If first season will manage to maintain this pace and storytelling then I am in for a treat.
Strong and solid first episode to what's shaping up as a very interesting series based on The 1619 Project book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nikole Hannah-Jones (also the creator of this show).
The first episode introduces a topic of democracy so deeply rooted in freedom, ironically for black people a virtue they always had to fight for (and still do to a certain extent). An eye opener on a current state of American democracy, especially for someone who lives in Europe, the amount of laws and rules introduced very recently to actually make it harder to vote is shocking, as much as De Sanctis' fraud vote shenanigans.
It's directed well, very competently paced - good amount of historical facts and footage on American democracy mixed with current opinions and just hard to believe situations (like the one where a group of black people (some disabled) have blatantly denied their right to cast ballots due to an alleged admin mistake.
Great conversation with a member and one of the leaders of SNCC, emotional and true to the core.
Also, fantastic conversation with two political scientists which really puts in perspective the current state of democracy in America. Sadly too short, I'd love to hear more from these two gentlemen.
It is a solid 7 - I feel like there are other crucial topics that have been omitted that could have contributed to this episode's theme, but Nikole chooses to focus and delve more on her family history - which is understandable and gives more of a human touch to the narrative - it's just not very beneficial to the topic of democracy in general.
I am feeling a little bit guilty about giving the first episode a 6 (fair score) because I absolutely loved this show as a kid but taking all into account 6 is, well... fair. It's not the best start to a series, I assume it was produced as a pilot of some sorts, given the four-month break between this and the second episode. It just tries to convey a lot of information in its twenty minute runtime slot and because of that it does feel like an infodump in places.
The antagonist here isn't the most exciting and being a Spidey fan you already know where this is going - Curt Connors, neogenics, becoming a lizard... Eddie Brock (voiced by Hank Azaria) and Felicia Whitmore get their introductions too.
It is serviceable. It's fine. Every show has to start somewhere, and this is how this marvel of a show started.
I am currently going through a boxset of six Al Pacino movies and this is the 2nd one I've watched, previous one being Scarface. I should have gone the other way round, because coming to this after Scarface is like drinking a good whiskey first, and then having a glass of bad apple juice. The drop in production quality and direction is huge.
This movie is not something I envisaged it to be. Plot is based on a real-life story of Brandon Lang - NFL player who ends up having a cruel injury, which essentially eliminates him from the game for good, doesn't matter how hard he tries to get back on the field, someone or something slams the door shut. He decides to use his unparelled knowledge of the professional football game to get back to the top, by plying his skills in the lucrative sports betting industry. His talent is eventually spotted by Walter Abrams (Al Pacino), the owner of the extravagant sports network. He sees Brandon as somewhat a successor & starts mentoring him. And then there's Rene Russo who plays Walter Abrams' wife as she tries really hard to protect him from detrimental lifestyle.
Premise is fine, there is a lot of potential here, especially having Al and Matthew as a lead cast - but D.J. Caruso takes you in all sorts of directions and pulls you apart piece by piece, so by the time the movie ends you have no clue what it is that you've just watched. The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it doesn't know what it wants to be, so it ends up being multiple things at once, which completely doesn't work here. There's absolutely no chemistry or dynamic between the main leads, a rather crucial element in a movie where plot is fuelled by their relationship.
The idea to observe both Brandon's and Walter's transformation into emotionally different human beings by the end of the movie was good, but execution was lacking - things are happening virtually at the snap of director's fingers - there is no build-up, no convincing story archs. Same goes for the ending, just bland. As much as I adore Rene Russo, she was miscast here - it's not really a role that suits her forte & thanks to misguided direction her character ends up just being boring and stereotypical.
Whilst betting other people's money means big rewards, there are also big risks which brings me to a story arch with character called Novian (played wonderfully by Armand Assante). Walter, using Brandon's reputation that certainly precedes him at this stage in the movie, manages to convince Novian to bet big money. Biggest in the history of Walter's sports network. However every winning streak comes to an end, and unlucky for Brandon and Walter, that's when they start losing. It's only a matter of time before bad people start knocking on their door. Or is it? It's such an underplayed story arch, it ends before it even has a chance to properly develop - Novian finds Brandon, tells him something about how he visited his mom, punches him, points a gun at him and then literally pisses all over him. That's it - you never see the guy again, he's not even mentioned in the rest of the movie, it's like it never happened.
There are plenty moments like this in "Two for the Money". That's why it was such a disappointing watch for me. Hoping for portions of at least good acting & some on-screen chemistry, all I got was undercooked performances from Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo completely missing the cues and a few underdeveloped story archs. Good things? Armand Assante for sure, Jeremy Piven enjoying himself and some golden quotes to remember. Here's one:
"You're a lemon. There is something inherently defective in you, and me, and all of us. We're all lemons. We look like everyone else, but what makes us different is our defect.”
This directorial debut from T. Sean Shannon is unfortunately, a dull affair.
Telling a story of a 16-year old boy with an early male pattern baldness, it brushes against very important topics such as what it means to be a lot different than your peers and how much kids struggle with acceptation but it never gets too heavy - its balancing act is done rather well. It tries to tell a wise message, unfortunately the message it carries gets lost in movie's over-reliance on one, dull baldness joke.
It is funny in places but not enough to be a good comedy. It is warm enough to just about be a decent family movie for a Sunday afternoon, with solid Cuba Cooding Jr playing the janitor. Although even for a Sunday afternoon family time, I would rather consider other, better titles.
It is an okay straight-to-DVD action flick with JCVD. Not the best he's done, but also not the worst.
Taking up a job with the border patrol, he's almost straight away up against the odds, fighting a losing battle with smugglers, that are in fact rogue special forces led by Stephen Lord & Scott Adkins.
Generally fine, with some good brawls throughout but nothing outstanding. Scott Adkins is convincing.
Filmed entirely in Bulgaria, which is evident in some cheap production shots.
As a bonus JCVD carries a pet rabbit with him, almost everywhere he goes. So yeah... don't fuck with the rabbit.
Dito Montiel - author of an autobiographical book that this movie is based on also directs in his full-screen directorial debut. His direction is evident in every frame. The care with which he portrays his story is humbling, care that wouldn't have existed if "A Guide..." was to be directed by someone else. Rough neighbourhood of Queens, N.Y. with its Italian culture is so raw that it's a genuine pleasure to watch. Usually I am not a great fan of narrative jumps - here story jumps frequently between 2005 & flashbacks from 1986 - but the way they are done didn't seem to bother me at all.
It is a strong picture with heavy topics being put to the forefront - one of them being a resentment towards father. Pure emotions are pouring out from the senior cast - every confrontation between characters played by Robert Downey Jr & Chazz Palminteri caused goosebumps on my arm, that's how electric both of them are - great, great performances. Dianne Wiest also at the top of her game as Dito's mother. Young cast contributes well to the whole - Shia LaBeouf in particular as young Dito.
It is a shame that this movie is not being talked about very often - it should be, because it delivers on every front. Powerhouse performances from the cast, clear and strong direction from Dito Montiel makes this a powerful and compulsory viewing to everyone who loves a good but heavy story.
It is one of those hidden gem titles. I recommend you give it a go. Even if it's only for Robert & Chazz on-screen dynamic - that warrants a great viewing on its own.
This is how you butcher a perfectly good book story.
I like Doug Liman's movies - I thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Indentity, Swingers & Edge of Tomorrow. Jumper, on the other hand is the worst movie I've seen so far, that was directed by Mr Liman. Ended up being very disappointing. It is a very mediocre Young Adult flick at most. And it could have been much more than that.
The whole cast really struggles to hold this thing together, it's really boring in places - the premise is great, but that's only due to the source material being great. Hayden Christensen never really acts, he just pulls 3 or 4 different impressions throughout the whole movie, adjusting accordingly to a scene that plays out. Rachel Bilson really underperforms here, which was rather sad to watch & the only positive I can come up with is Jamie Bell and his portrayal of Griffin (who's not even in the original book... that tells a lot about this picture). Sam L Jackson does his usual... he can be enjoyable even when playing in the daftest of movies.
Generally, a rather disappointing experience from a director I appreciate. I guess that's what script rewrites and filming in 20 cities & 14 countries does to your movie. It's all over the place.
It's far from being a perfect Hong Kong action movie, but it is certainly a solid entry. It's unintentionally funny in places and thanks to Stanley Tong direction moments that were supposed to be humorous are as stale as a week-old bread.
Both Aaron Kwok and Norika Fujiwara are performing well, Mark Dacascos is hypnotizing and Coolio drops one liners all over the place - it is funny to watch him on screen, playing this gangster persona, but really struggling to fit in the crime reality of Hong Kong - constantly making you feel like he's out of place.
The action scenes are of an essence here, and let me tell you - they are extraordinarily choreographed. They feel dangerous, they look dangerous and spectacular - which is what you want to see in this genre - it was a pleasure to watch.
If you can get through the stale jokes and sometimes confusing direction from Mr. Magoo director Stanley Tong, this movie is certainly worth pursuing, purely for the action moments and Coolio one liners. It was a surprisingly enjoyable endeavour.
