D.Moore

I was looking forward to a good war film, and I got something even better. Dunkirk is, above all, a very cunning war film, told in a style that makes an already thrilling story even more thrilling and from start to finish a very tense spectacle. It's ambitious and impressive, yet not as unnecessarily self-important as, say, Interstellar. Also, the sparing runtime befits the film. The melancholy mood in the style of The Thin Red Line mingles here with impressions of A Bridge Too Far, each episode has meaning and the viewer is delighted when the splinters of that little-big drama gradually come together one by one. After some time, I really liked the almost continuously playing and very non-traditional music by Hans Zimmer.

What I liked the most was the classic moment when Watson is convinced he knows what’s going on, but he doesn’t.

These urgent cases, where everything is at stake and Holmes has to solve things not so much on the go as on the fly, are my favourite. The funeral scene is one that even Hitchcock would be ashamed of.

I'm struck by how many people complain that there is “not enough war" in War for the Planet of the Apes. I, on the other hand, am glad there isn’t. The war scenes that are there are enough for me - they are so suggestive and gritty that I most definitely didn't need more. I am so pleased that the unimaginably cutting-edge effects serve mainly to create 100% believable characters and we can follow their story - especially Caesar's. A story that shows us one of the most heroic film characters of all time (I mean that, deadly serious), deals with humanity and inhumanity, skillfully develops the ideas of the 2011 film (who would have expected it back then?) and gets closer and closer to the 1968 film. I don't have a single reservation about the directing and its atmospheric scenes, I didn't really expect so much emotion from start to finish, in terms of acting it’s top notch (the Colonel and Nova are the only interesting humans, and that is the way it should be) and most importantly, it's still interesting and engaging and epic, though at the same time intimate. And that Michael Giacchino music!

From the sympathetic protagonist to one of Marvel's finest protagonists to Giacchino's music, almost ubiquitous but unobtrusive humor and one very mildly unexpected twist... Everything is done right here. I'm not gonna blame Spider-Man for targeting a younger audience when Peter Parker is a teen this time. On the contrary, it is an advantage, because from his age stems the great desire of a boy to be big, to belong somewhere and to be useful, which drives it all forward. The latest addition to this comic book family is, in short, a lively spectacle that does not hold things back with things we've already seen (Spider-Man's origin and so on), but tells something new nicely, clearly and with ease.

A quite decent monkey revolution may be taking place (with a few scenes at the level of the current trilogy), but it's too short and ambiguous for my taste. Everything happens so fast and the viewer has a problem with who to actually cheer for (if anyone) and what to think about it all... As if even the creators themselves don't know. Caesar is more Hitler than Spartacus, plus the film contradicts the idea of the original Planet of the Apes, in which man destroyed everything himself and only then the monkeys took over.

A better sequel to the original film than Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, especially since this has some at least slightly original ideas and (at least at first glance) doesn't just benefit from something that someone else did right the first time. Admittedly, in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, it is as if two films come together - a dissolute visit to the monkey-nauts in our world and a later dramatic hunt for them, but it didn't seem to me that the two stories contradicted each other much. Instead, one flowed smoothly into the other.

It’s messy, but thankfully has its good moments. Charlton Heston is useless here, and I'm not surprised he didn't want to reprise the role. Zira and Cornelius are also useless, the atomic bomb-worshiping sect is funny and Leonard Rosenman is unfortunately not Jerry Goldsmith, although he tries to be at times.

All the while, one watches the seemingly forgettable story, which, of course, distinguishes from similar melodramas mainly through beautifully written and acted characters (all of them!)... And then comes the end, strong and courageous and righteous, and it is simply clear that The Heiress is a 100% gem. In addition, it will also put ideas into people’s heads, because you will ask yourself if the whole thing could have turned out differently and whether you would have done the same or not. And I like that.

The Hound of the Baskervilles has it tough being an adaptation of the case of a famous detective that has been done many times. And for those who film it, it’s even worse, because they have to deal with the awkward wait for Sherlock and with the fact that almost everyone knows what and how happened and will happen, and yet they still shouldn't be bored. It worked out well this time. Waiting for Sherlock shortens his monologues, which sound in Watson's head, and there is (mostly) no boredom given the rather decently mysterious atmosphere. Still, Brett's Holmes has better and even much better cases in his repertoire.