Lima

The 3rd worst movie according to IMDb ratings. I was looking forward to some proper guilty-pleasure until I saw the name of the director. I've known that Claudio Fragasso is an unbelievable shit-factory since his previous massive crap After Death. Here I got a similar "quality" experience: very bad (as I hoped), but also very boring (as I expected from Fragasso, unfortunately). About the plot, I think this should be enough: the family of the main child protagonist goes on a trip to the city of Nilbog, which is located in the territory of a mysterious queen and her trolls. The queen turns her victims into plants and then into a kind of green slime, which her trolls (apparently child actors with incredibly bad costumes) eat with gusto. The clever boy finds out and, with the help of his grandfather's revelations, tries to protect his family and defeat the queen. The whole film is mostly green slime, which is vomited (sometimes the boy, the queen and by the end the trolls), enjoyed in a gourmet fashion (the trolls again), or drips from a body (and is subsequently consumed) during the metamorphosis of one of the victims. Another interesting scene is when the queen makes out with a tourist in a caravan. During their fit of passion, they are eating corn when they are suddenly showered with popcorn from somewhere on the ceiling (probably the artistic intention of the director or something). Yes, the previous may sound promising, but I warn everyone, it's so boringly presented that you're guaranteed not to be entertained. All the most interesting moments of the whole film could be edited into a five-minute trailer, otherwise it's boring, shoddy and amateurish. But as unbelievable as it sounds, I've seen worse crap.

Although Brodsky's character's behaviour sometimes goes to the point of recklessness towards those closest to him, most of the time I was rooting for him because of his healthy approach to old age, free of any lamentations over death certificates and constant complaining about illnesses of all kinds with his peers. This film is a really nice epitaph to Mr. Brodsky. It has been my pleasure, Sir, all my life so far.

While the game is brimming with a sweetly dark atmosphere and a dense presence of monsters of all kinds, the film adaptation is an incredibly dull affair, devoid of atmosphere and even the monsters were surprisingly bland. Here, not even The Rock's charisma could improve the resulting poor impression. Carmack, when you meet Bartkowiak, smack him for me too.

I can see quite a solid shower here, is this another case of herd mentalilty, so common here on FilmBooster? I hadn't read the reviews here beforehand (which in my experience is often not a bad thing), so I was able to enjoy this film quite unprejudiced. And what did I get? An easily digestible, slightly above average adventure story, with a solid production design, one nicely handled battle (I could feel the dust under my fingernails), and a charismatic Djimon Hounsoune (my favorite). Perhaps only the overly melodramatic last fifteen minutes weren't quite right for my taste.

Tom DiCillo must be a terribly nice guy. His films are a concentrated mixture of pleasant feelings, love for his profession, sincerity and witty life observations. This story is full of that, too. As a man who's been in the film industry for a while and knows his way around it, and through an endless spiral of absurd and very funny situations, he takes the piss out of a bunch of people trying to make their own indie film, all while paying tribute to them, especially in the character of director Nick (played with infectious enthusiasm by the flawless Steve Buscemi), for their passion and dedication to the cause. At the same time, as an astute observer, DiCillo's portrayal of the blonde movie star Chad Palomino (could he really be Brad Pitt's alter-ego?) parodies the prima donna mannerisms of Hollywood stars and their arrogance, and the scene with the dream sequence and the midget struck me as an allusion to David Lynch. I've grown so fond of Buscemi's character Nick that I wish with all my heart that his dream of winning the award for "Best Movie Ever Made by a Human Being." to become a reality. But just dreaming, living your "life of infatuation" isn't bad either :)

For those who are into Hollywood B-movies from the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction of the 1950s (like me), this is a must. I believe I would have a lot to talk to Burton about, at least about all the inspirations from the greatest classics that this film is literally riddled with.

I like Sydney Pollack. His pleasantly restrained direction, without quick cuts and wannabe cool shots (hello Tony Scott), lets the skill of the actors shine through (hello Clint Eastwood), but here he had a weaker moment. For a thriller it lacks suspense, as a political drama it's unconvincing and too slippery on the surface, and the melodramatic level is brought down by the chemistry between the two main protagonists, which has the sparkle of a burnt down Christmas light. The result is an unclear bit of tedium with one big logical lapse at the end. Still, a certain three stars, I quite like these old-fashioned thrillers, without fancy frills.

Leaving aside the obvious fact that the processes of flow change and cooling that Emmerich describes in this film are long-term and span many decades (OK, exaggeration, I'll take it), the rest of the story is the essence of everything that is wrong with contemporary Hollywood: the tired clichés, the boring to tedious predictability of everything that happens on screen, the shoddy psychology of the cookie-cutter characters on the level of a literary attempts of a ten-year-old. The result is an unhealthy toying with the intelligence and tolerance of the normally thinking viewer. EMMERICH, GET OUT!!!! PS: To rate a film with a few stars just because it has great visual effects seems misguided to me. Nowadays, good special effects are par for the course, not an exception.

I have mixed feelings. I have my thoughts about the case of Karolína Chudá, a student at the University of Economics, and her purpose in life, filled with constant visits to supermarkets, her almost morbid addiction to fashion trends, and her undisguised disappointment that Dara Rollins has the same pants as herself, and I did have some fun at her expense, but I can hardly mock her obsession with her looks, unless it exceeds the norm, which I don't think is the case here, although the author tries to convince me otherwise. As Karolina presented the inventory of her bathroom with ten kinds of expensive body lotions, and all kinds of shampoos, soaps, bath foams and conditioners, I felt like I was walking with Alice in Wonderland from the position of a man with only one kind of soap and one kind of shampoo (as long as it foams and cleanses), but I guess it's hard to talk about some sort of submission to advertising manipulation here. Simply caring about one's appearance and being a woman, this fits together and applies from a hen at the Dolní Měcholupy train station to the British Queen. And the wannabe alarming headlines about how much is spent on cosmetics in the Czech Republic seem to be devoid of any value. The story of 15-year-old Zuzana, who aspires to a career as a model, also left me with mixed feelings. The moment during the interview, when the head of the casting agency convinces the skinny Zuzana to lose a but more weight, was chilling. It was almost unhealthy to see the figures of those girls who could be strumming their ribs, and it was here where Erika Hníková could have worked a bit harder to get closer to the feelings of potential anorexics. But Zuzana's life story is absolutely trouble-free, she ends up successful and it's hard to get rid of the impression that she can be an encouragement for other skinny girls and a confirmation of their "correct" actions in their attempt to lose some extra weight. Bizarre, and also conflicting, is the story of Eva, a sheet metal turner at Škoda, who has undergone two very expensive breast surgeries, and is now about to have a third, because of a 2 mm larger areola around her nipple. Interesting, but not really indicative of anything, because the author is showing too much of an extreme that is not indicative of the vast majority of today's women, or so I hope. And so the only story where the author hits the nail on the head is the fate of Magda, a woman who unnecessarily spent lots of money on slimming products, including a fraudulent "slimming" CD. I believe there are many women who saw themselves reflected in that story, and perhaps some of them were taken by it, and learnt by the beautifully cathartic point of Magda's efforts, her final "discovery" that the best and most effective thing to do is to move and not eat. Despite all my reservations, the undeniable fact is that Erika Hníková has made a documentary that, despite its unevenness, will not leave anyone indifferent.

Yeah, it's masterfully shot and does have an impressive atmosphere and great actors, but you just can't close your eyes to the ideological morass that pervades the whole film. If I had to choose which side I would take, the side of the armed defenders of the communist cage or the side of the cross-border smugglers of people who want to live in freedom and a decent society, I would choose the latter.