lamps

An incredibly moronic piece of crap that applies often completely non-continuous bridges to connect scenes and timelines, utterly fails to functionally or stylistically connect the alternating character journeys (from fantasy horror to bloated adventure comedy, WTF?), and at a point where it should be building up without bullshit and at least visually entertaining the viewer, it locks itself in a room with one of the most useless characters ever played by an A-list actor. Even the otherwise likeable Cruise couldn't help here; something so dull, unimaginative and oddly edited is a disgrace to the thriving Universal of recent years.

I wasn’t very far to let myself get carried away to the highest rating. Train to Busan has everything a quality zombie survival flick should boast, and thanks to the inventive direction full of unorthodox ideas and a script that manages to treat even the through-and-through good guys in a completely uncompromising and surprising way, it has something extra at times. If it had been made in Hollywood by a filmmaker like Antoine Fuqua, it would have been a massive box office hit. In the closing twenty minutes I could barely breath. 85%

Every second of Dunkirk added one more page to my dream manual on how to create super-complex and flawless filmmaking, how to take a simple story and present it in a spectacular and unadorned way, how to squeeze the physical and mental maximum out of every scene thanks to perfectly matched sound, music and camera movements. Nolan is the visionary that Welles was in the 1940s, Kubrick in the 1960s and Spielberg in the 1970s. The ability to build atmosphere unobtrusively, relying on the actors' gazes and the audience's expectations, is absolutely fascinating and unprecedented. Rylance, Branagh, Murphy and Hardy couldn't have given more to their roles, and their eyes tingle more than the whole of Hacksaw Ridge's wartime turmoil; Hans Zimmer's genius is once again miles away from any of his other colleagues – there haven't been many more striking and flexible soundtracks in the history of cinema. One of the most beautiful cinematic experiences in at least a decade.

So, first things first. War for the Planet of the Apes is not the blockbuster of the decade I was hoping for thanks to the emotionally draining trailers and the enthusiastic foreign reviews, it has plenty of logical flaws and especially slow spots where, for example, Rise of the Planet of the Apes didn't have a single one. That said, this is an immensely refreshing and narratively unorthodox tentpole film by Hollywood standards, managing to both comprehensively conclude the overarching storyline regarding the character development of the leader Caesar, as well as bolt on a new series of events to his development, wrapped up in a grimly escalating and quite thoughtful cycle. The western-like first act, which stirs the vengeful appetites of the hitherto valiant Caesar, is absolutely fantastic in its contemplative atmosphere. In the rest, Reeves decently develops and concludes the internal (love vs hate) and external (apes vs humans) conflicts, delivering beautiful visuals and unconventional endings that don't affect the characters, but Mother Nature herself (which nicely underlines what it was about all along), but at the same time the narrative runs out of ammo in places and the prison break, for example, while not losing its fatalism, struggles with logic and believability. To praise the visual effects would be like taking nerds to an IT competition, so I will at least praise the tragicomic character of Bad Ape and the associated voice acting of Steven Zahn, and the casting of a little girl whose every look is worth a thousand words. A worthy conclusion to a great trilogy, although expectations were a bit higher after the deceptive trailers.

A case of a horror film being formally mature and satisfying in terms of violence and surprising deaths, but at the same time boring and dysfunctional as a whole. Good music, very good cinematography, and Alexandra Daddario with a cleavage, but a very silly dramatic backbone and suspense at its nadir. Pointless.

The movie's not stupid at all. On the contrary, I’d say that the genre disunity was largely deliberate, and for most of the runtime it corresponded quite well with the script's ironic and sharp commentary on the American military involvement in Afghanistan. I more or less agree with the ideas, yet I was often bothered by the extremes to which Michod goes within the confines of comedy – especially when it comes to the performances of Ben Kingsley as the imbecilic and backward Afghan president and, unfortunately, Brad Pitt, who, while you can see him breathing for the film, doesn't come across as a real person with his deliberately overacted creation, but rather as a stylized caricature. The last half-hour also relies on a very solid dramatic build-up, which is again toppled by a Hollywoodesque light-hearted conclusion. This had greater potential, though it can't be called a dud.

Thumbs up for the honest and patient building of the cramped paranoid atmosphere, thumbs very much down for the conclusion. If you're looking for a "cut off from the world with an unknown evil on your ass" kind of movie, and if you like Ron Perlman, you'll make it through without falling asleep; if you're expecting something like The Thing and even a shred of originality, you'll be disappointed. Everything looks nice and promising, but it leads to something that nobody cares about and nobody will ever remember, too bad. 55%

A slightly above average whodunit that badly wants to be psychologically sophisticated, but in the end, with all its drastic twists and turns, is as unbelievable as an angry Andrew Garfield. The actors are very good and convincing, the pace is pleasant, and the twists and turns themselves are surprising, but delivered rather poorly and blandly, which is mainly related to the emotional detachment of Marvans inspector Čadek, who serves as an informational intermediary between the fable and the storyline. The potential was certainly higher.

An exemplary game with the viewer, fortunately in the good sense of the word. The events around the slightly funny fish monster are merely the trigger for very clever and rightly black-humoured social criticism, which does not fight with purely horror and disturbing moments at all; on the contrary, it locks all motives into a precisely built and original framework. The logic is often flawed, and it must not be taken as seriously as it obviously wants to be, but the direction is simply excellent, methodically switching the perspectives of the four key players, often leaving little room for guessing what's in store in the next scene or shot, and manages to get a lot of quality genre juice out of even the bare minimum (whether through wit on the surface of the comedy or effective jump-scares and subjective viewpoints in the mutant horror scenes). After a long time, a nice Asian surprise, such convention-defying yet easy to grasp and entertaining stuff is hard to find in Hollywood.

A terrific romp that makes amazing fun of its own thematic universe and on top of that introduces the funniest Batman ever, who rants about everything, and his interaction with young Robin is perhaps the best "buddy" treat since The Last Boy Scout (which is all the more admirable since this one rides on child-friendly dialogue). The pace doesn't falter for a second, the action is more bloated and original than in any live-action DC crap (excluding Nolan, of course), and the cadence of the wisecracks is truly lethal at times, to the point where I wonder if little kids have any idea what a funny and complex parody they're watching. I don't know what kind of stimulants the writers sprinkled in their coffee while writing, but I want to try them too – I can't get in such good mood even after eight beers and with a young girl sitting on my lap. Amen. 85%