D.Moore

A bit better than last time, mainly thanks to great villains. Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris are like Bonnie and Clyde, only crazier, their escape is one of the best comic book movie scenes in recent memory in my opinion, and while I often grumble about unnecessarily long movies, this time a few extra dozen minutes would have been easily tolerable, if it had been devoted mostly to them. Otherwise, Andy Serkis didn't bring anything new to the director's chair, but he did a good job. Marco Beltrami composed unfortunately similarly bland music as Ludwig Göransson before him, and Tom Hardy, the good actor, once again seemed to forget that he can act, and once again he goofs off (although, admittedly, a little less than four years ago).

A fine, but not groundbreaking crime drama with a great Lino Ventura, already the way we like him. The film is (perhaps surprisingly) quite action-packed and its plot is not entirely predictable, which made me happy. Only the script could have played more with the secret service, who sent the protagonist into action again against his will.

A great idea and fun from beginning to end. That is, until the first ending, because the second, unnecessarily drawn out, was really redundant. Vince Vaughn and Kathryn Newton are perfect in both roles, and I really liked the script, which simultaneously crashed and exploited all sorts of horror clichés. It's likeable, bloody, colourful, sexy and funny. Sometimes, that’s all I need.

I don’t know, after all those raving reviews, one would expect almost a new Dr. Strangelove. And yet it's such a simple satirical comedy with predictable one-note humour. It’s a shame. Most of all, Don’t Look Up! reminded me of Death to 2020 if someone unwise had made an almost two-hour film out of it.

The somewhat misleading trailers, Matthew Vaughn's reputation, and especially what he did in the first two films, set the stage for another frantic action flick, just set a hundred years earlier. But there was a surprise in the cinema – a very pleasant one for me. Apparently, Vaughn decided that the story of the birth of the Kingsman Agency would be just as much the birth of his unmistakable directorial style, and that's a million dollar idea. This makes The King's Man a surprisingly subdued film for a good while, one that cares about the characters, and when it comes to action, it's good but deliberately keeps a low profile. Vaughn seems to be discovering that frantic style himself with each passing scene, while the heroes unravel a giant conspiracy in a story full of twists and turns (including a truly shocking one) and gather typical Kingsman attributes to become the King's Men in the final three-quarters of an hour. Vaughn got unleashed, started slowing down shots, put the camera on wings and swords, fiddled with shots (my favourite is the duel of silhouettes against the backdrop of the movie screen with the turmoil of war) and simply kept giving the audience what they were waiting for. For some the wait will be long, but others will be royally entertained.

I’m as satisfied as I was in 2015 with Jurassic World. Once again, it was a fantastic follow-up to a film that everyone loves, introducing brand new characters, not just relying on nostalgia, entertaining for two hours old-timers and newcomers alike, having people in the cinema smiling from ear to ear. I really wasn’t expecting Afterlife to be so good, it’s such a joy. I was pleasantly surprised that the film doesn't have a main male character, but a heroine (Finn Wolfhard sorry, Mckenna Grace really rules here), and such a great heroine at that. But actually all the characters are funny, never awkward, and Jason Reitman cares as much about them as he does about the special effects, which beautifully combine the digital and the practical and, like everything else, are a joy to behold. If you are not moved by the opening, you will be moved by the ending. I would really love another sequel to fully close the circle.

A naive ghost comedy, without any horror and only mildly funny, but interesting for me because it's actually a classic "summer" movie for teenagers who went to the cinema in the evening for fun and didn’t care if the program is crap. If they didn't enjoy the movie, they'd entertain themselves. It's not hard to imagine what it was like in such a cinema full of horny girls and boys in the late 1950s, when The Headless Ghost was showing, and after the interval as the second part of the Horrors of the Black Museum double bill, which isn't on Netflix yet but looks similarly worthwhile :)

An initially likeable bomber has to overcome a series of obstacles, layered one on top of the other in a Coen-like fashion, for his latest caper. Of course, there are some dead bodies and a lot of misunderstandings on the way to the fatal explosion, and this pitch-black comedy is one of the best surprises waiting for me on Netflix this year, thanks to all that and Alastair Sim.

Will Ferrell is actually playing Clark Griswold, and the film is at its best in those moments when he's manfully swaggering and we know that a terrible catastrophe is on the horizon, we just have no idea what exactly. In this respect, Daddy’s Home will not only make you laugh, but also surprise you. It's just a pity that at the end we get those hackneyed clichés about family values, however much the writers try not to take them seriously.

A smart, entertaining, daring, surprising film that, like Nolan's Tenet, is begging for a second viewing, a more thorough examination, and therefore more audience enjoyment. And I'm happy to oblige because Matrix: Ressurections is not a redundant film at all, but more than an amazing conclusion to a great trilogy. On the one hand, it mocks the audience, on the other, it gives them exactly what they want (even if they didn’t know it). Lana Wachowski teamed up again with David Mitchell, who I think is an absolutely brilliant multi-genre writer, to write the screenplay, and the result is such a joy to watch, not just because of the production design, but because of everything that happens in the film. From the cast, apart from the amazing Keanu Reeves (no, he's not playing John Wick, although he looks it, he's just Neo) and Carrie-Anne Moss, I would like to highlight Jessica Henwick.