D.Moore

I don't like awkward (!) clowns and films without plot that are unnecessarily long. But I like the Czech music of the sixties (and what came after), so I enjoyed watching the, admittedly, at times terribly confused range made up of songs of all kinds, some of the Semafor aces, I liked listening to the energetic music recorded by the Vlachs and Krautgartners, and I also enjoyed the members of the ABC ballet... And that was about it. Zdeněk Podskalský was obviously preparing for a film called Sedm žen Alfonse Karáska, which, thanks to a more complete story and mainly thanks to the main character, turned out better.

A suspenseful, imaginative, blackly funny and above all timeless film. The film is also very well shot, scored and acted - when the "Frankenstein" Vlastimil Brodský disappears from the scene, the great Martin Růžek takes the reins, and we also have František Filipovský (who looks a bit like Lenin), the beautiful Jana Brejchová, Jaroslav Marván on the side of the law and Nina Popelíková or Karel Effa on the other. Quite a nice film to watch. I wouldn't be surprised if the 30 years younger action movie Face/Off copied the main idea from this film.

An irresistibly dry bureaucratic absurdity with the magical poetics of Ypsilonka, which strongly reminded me of Gilliam's Brazil. Seriously, if the plot of Brazil played out in Austria-Hungary, it would certainly look something like this. The great pair of Jiří Císler and Bronislav Poloczek play an official power play against the helpless Ladislav Freja, murderers Jiří Wimmer and Petr Popelka are constantly getting involved, as well as Jana Synková, whose husband left to get the paper and never returned.

What to highlight first? The actors with the excellent duo of Stanley Baker and Michael Caine in the lead? John Barry's flawless music? The amazing cinematography and (on DVD) the digitally restored, new-looking image? Breathtaking battle scenes, which make you catch your breath, and from which adrenaline literally oozes, especially in the moments when the overwhelmed British deploy the tactic of line shooting a few meters away from the breached wall? A script that makes every character (except the pastor) sympathetic, and shows the Zulus not just as brutal apes coming down from trees, but also as remarkable strategists? Well... There's a lot. The film lasts two and a quarter hours and I wasn't bored for even a second. Strong stuff, this.

This is actually a prequel to my beloved Zulu. Cy Endfield, the director of the original great film, sat down at his typewriter this time and decided to show us who fought who, how, with whom and against whom in the Battle of Isandhlwana, the one whose aftermath we see at the beginning of Zulu. Douglas Hickox took over the direction, and the cast is truly stellar. There were many more extras this time around and in fact much more of everything... So what the hell went wrong? Mr. Endfield will forgive me, but it's his script that's at fault. He took care to fill the story with as many real characters as possible, but he forgot to describe them, to characterize them, to bring them closer to us. So by the time the battle that the viewer has been anticipating since the opening credits begins, a little over seventy minutes have passed, during which an awfully large number of people are talking to each other, who have the faces of Burt Lancaster, Peter O'Toole, Nigel Davenport, Bob Hoskins, and if it weren't for the fact that they are played by these greats, we would have no idea who they are. The film soon becomes uncontrolled chaos (not unlike that battle), and any viewer who keeps track of when the army split into parts, where any of its parts are, and who the Zulus are attacking has my admiration. Yes, when the sought-after and, I must say, well-filmed skirmish (which, of course, is nothing like the aforementioned 1964 film) begins, it's all gone... But that's not what a good film is. I don't even want to mention how the English are portrayed as heroic and the Greeks and the blacks as the worst kind of scum.__P.S. Elmer Bernstein has not matched John Barry with a single note.__P.P.S. Zulu is unbeatable, in case anyone doubts it.

I liked Zvony pana Mlácena, four years younger, better, but to be honest I'm not sure if the two films should be compared, because apart from the plot each is almost completely different. In any case, in this slightly chilling performance, Luděk Kopřiva took the role of the psychiatric chief much more moderately and therefore better than in Podskalský's regular comedy, in which he also played.

A good adaptation of Hašek's short story, spoiled by small things, such as Josef Laufer as one of the street singers, and it's really obvious that he's holding a violin for the first time in his life (while Josef Zíma is really ticking with the accordion) or Luděk Kopřiva and his crazy final performance. Otherwise, Zvony pana Mlácena was a great success and it is worth seeing especially because of the excellent cast.

An excellent short, definitely not one of those that would seem unnecessarily long after a few minutes. Neill Blomkamp combines Alien with The Thing, invents an extremely original monster and casts a beautifully terrified Dakota Fanning. I would like it as a feature film.

For the persistent effort with which the film constantly tried to convince me that it wasn't completely stupid, I might even give it a star… But everything was so stupid!