3DD!3

A lot of bang for your buck. An atmospheric movie about a pilgrimage during which a group of monks are taking a reliquary to the Pope in Rome to boost the numbers of knights in the Holy War. One of the monks happens to be Spiderman, accompanied by the Punisher as his Sherpa/bodyguard, but there’s more to him than meets the eye. Along the way, they encounter obstacles, get attacked by the natives and the bloodbath begins. Bernthal decapitates heathens with a wooden shield, people are disembowled alive, criminals have their hands chopped off. The ending is appropriately crushing and pointless. Films like this are like gold dust and deserve admiration. Judas!

The ending is like something out of a Mexican telenovela on a (good) trip. The Bad Boys are back for one last escapade, but surprisingly it seems like more of a toned-down version of the first one with emphasis placed on the story. The effective storyline around Mike is brimming with death. Smith really needed this role again, which might well restart his career. And Lawrence will never land a better role. The AMMO team is unexpectedly fine and the chemistry between the old and the new works unexpectedly well. Even the new directors know their stuff. They can’t yet compete with the big boss, but they have style. And Bay’s cameo was also good to see. P.S. Paola Nuñez is awesome.

This is just bad. It’s no great surprise that the screenplay is like an action version of a Mexican telenovela. But the fact that the action is terribly filmed is a great disappointment. Megaton buries everything in confusion and is excessively over-the-top. When you compare this to Morel’s action scenes, it brings tears to your eyes. Is it really too much to expect to see Neeson shooting and torturing people in a simple, yet meaningful story revolving around well-produced action scenes? P.S: It still bothers me that I don’t understand why Forest carries that chess piece around with him all the time…

Put this on a loop and this would make a great video for TV showrooms. Malick’s meditative essay about our corner of the universe is a feast for the eyes. The wonderful landscape shots are interrupted by video cross-sections of life that rather spoil meditation.

Stone is on great form. He’s even objective. He managed to present Snowden’s story well, with tension and dynamism. Levitt is excellent, the final glimpse of the real Snowden proves how well his transformation went. Information and freedom are more valuable that security.

Another brilliant season with a story line involving a good detective digging up the past (at last Maddie is put to good use). The case prepping with Chandler is refreshing and the search for J. Edgar on Haiti was also pleasing. His new partner at LAPD looks interesting and keeps his cool even when faced with severed heads. Bosch’s final elimination of the bad guys was particularly well done this time. I hope Coltrane comes back.

These modern remakes of classics should be forbidden. The cheap drawing and senseless plots just impair kids’ abilities to think. And the modern lessons are frightening. At least it used to be fun when they used to kill each other for no reason at all. I’m off to dust off some old video cassettes.

Fascinating. America accuses itself of crimes against humanity. This procedural dialogue-based movie with the dogged Driver has drive and an unexpected outcome (luckily with a closing title showing that justice will not be served in any case) even though it’s based on actual events. The Report is admirably convincing with raw flashbacks showing enhanced interrogation techniques in practice, which just serve to emphasize the message that, thanks to this film, we don’t have to read the 7,000-page torture report to find out. P.S: I liked the reference to Jack Bauer.

Brutal action, inimitable one-liners. Cop killers are a great topic, especially for Harry who tends to incline toward rather rough solutions to criminal cases. Holes in the head, exploding mail boxes, nudity too. A classic that still has something to say.

A powerful season where we at last someone gets their comeuppance. This time, regular police work is spiced up with an excellent storyline about a family and their problems with the Chinese. Bosch continues to prove to be a more than solid alternative to The Wire. Titus is king.