Necrotongue

The Coen brothers pulled off another great movie. True, I lowered my original rating by one star, but that was mostly because I'm getting spoiled these days and maybe I nitpick too much. Anyway, I did enjoy the film and I rank it among my favorite classics.

I'm giving the second season four stars in the end, even though I had a number of issues concerning each episode. The biggest problem was that the creators forgot about humor at times, and the plot was getting boring in places. I don't know what went wrong. Some episodes were good quality. I even enjoyed moments when humor was downplayed in favor of drama, I only had a problem with the episodes that had nothing to offer.

For the entire double episode, I decided to give four stars because the whole thing didn't bore me and I especially enjoyed the second part, but I was terribly annoyed by the illogical behavior of all the characters throughout the attack or kidnapping, or whatever it was. Only Richard Ayoade is missing and IT Crowd is complete. 4*.

I rank Carter as one of Stallone's weaker efforts. I can totally hear the director's instructions before shooting, "Keep that tough look, Sly. Mickey, don’t be afraid to show some emotion." I didn't really get the plot. The basic story line was clear, but everything around it was drowned in chaos. Who was supposed to be the bad guy? Michael Caine? Then why did he act so illogically? How did Mickey Rourke's character end up? Why was Carter's Las Vegas romance even part of the story? The biggest problem for me was that the creators were trying to pretend the story was deep. If they had focused more on making an action movie, it would have turned out much better.

I wasn’t able to enjoy the film as much as I did before. What I still liked was Michael Keaton's performance, but I was disappointed with the level of special effects. What annoyed me were the badly executed sand snakes. Had they been better, I would have kept my original rating, but I take it down to a 3*+.

I found the sequel (?) to the original film confusing. Nikita Mikhalkov, as a co-writer of the screenplay, would risk having his ankles broken if he had to defend the weird continuation of the story to Annie Wilkes. General Kotov was shot dead in 1936 (original information), in 1941 (new information), not shot at all (latest information). Don’t even get me started on his family. The war scenes sometimes felt like a parody (defecation, being hit by a flare, Ju 87 equipped with a bombshell, etc.). On the other hand, I have to appreciate the extremely realistic scene that showed what a typical man is willing to go through to persuade a woman to reveal her charms.

This film won me over years ago. What I enjoy most about it is the brutal contrast of the relaxed summer idyll with the harsh reality of Stalin's purges, the perfect atmosphere, and the three outstanding performances by Oleg Menshikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Nadezhda Mikhalkova. I've said many times how I feel about children in film, but Nadia gave a truly excellent performance as Nadia, albeit mightily supported by her daddy/co-actor/director/screenwriter.

The cast was literally crammed with so many big names that I was confused by this actually being an average romantic comedy, albeit a well-executed one. Catherine Zeta-Jones was very pleasing to my sensory functions, I was impressed by the acting talent of George Clooney's teeth, Billy Bob Thornton didn't stick around for too long, but it was worth it. I rate this a weak four stars.

Even twenty-seven years after it came out, the film hasn’t lost its charm for me. The filmmakers managed to create a perfectly gloomy atmosphere, which made it easy to escalate the suspense. I must say I didn’t find Buffalo Bill very interesting, but who cares anyway. Anthony Hopkins had the whole film to himself, and Hannibal Lecter belongs to one of the must-know characters for any movie fan. Plus, as the owner of Harris' eponymous novel, I appreciate the fact that the filmmakers didn't turn the book into complete nonsense, as is often the case with Stephen King’s work.

Season 2 of Fargo surprised me more than I'd expected. I thought I would sorely miss Lorne Malvo and Lester Nygaard from the first season, but the opposite was true. The creators went back in time, bringing daddy Lou, the tragicomic Blumquist couple, and terminator Ohanzee Dent, and launched a war between two mob families. As usual, they didn't forget to add great atmosphere, tension, brutal action and a whole series of situations in which characters died completely unnecessary deaths caused by sheer stupidity. The only problem I had was with the appearance of a UFO. On the other hand, I was absolutely thrilled by how the two seasons were linked. What a great series!