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Reviews
Secretul lui Zorillo (2022)
Dacia victor!
Saw the movie on the opening night with some friends, and we liked it.
The action is set in ancient occupied Dacia ( actual Romania), in the post roman wars times, and depicts the adventures and struggles of three commoners who are in the search for some meaning and glory in their life, using all the means to trick both local and imperial authority, and being half-wits, but sly, luck seems to shine upon them occasionally.
The action may be set in ancient times, but the theme is not out of date, and i saw the movie as a satire filled with comedy on the actual romanian society in particular, and society in general.
The score was inspired, as was the casting department. I enjoyed the camera work and direction in particular.
Highly recommended!
The Last Duel (2021)
Hard to watch
I had some doubts about this movie because of the main actors, i couldnt see them fit the roles of middle age knights, especially Affleck, who is a modest actor anyway, but knowing that Ridley Scott was on the helm of the production i thought that he may pull the job. I expected an epic adventure such as Gladiator or Kingdom of Heaven, instead received a bad soap opera in three acts, as if one long boring depiction of the magical rape story would not be enough. Getting trough the third act and managing to see it till the end was a victory of my will against my reason.
Maybe those producers should stick to documentaries, because this is cinema, and it was invented for entertainment, not glorification of different silly movements that sporadically take place every once in o while, more often in the past years, and are spread through all the media in order to divert people attention from what is happening behind the curtains. This is brainwashing at its finest.
The message of the movie is inexistent , i dont even think they knew what they were doing, and why all the effort was put in to sell such a lame story.
I rate it a 4/10 because of Matt Damon and the main actress. The rest of the cast was plain dull, Driver was the same jedi teenage idol misunderstood antagonist, and Affleck was Affleck as always. The rest of the cast is so vaguely portrayed , that they are barely noticeable. The dialog hasn't got the wits and flavor of the age depicted.
Bad movie.
V for Vendetta (2005)
It all starts with a pandemic...
I saw it back in 2007 and the impression was positive, just a good dystopian movie, well made, well played, a little alarmist and filled with witty dialog and symbolism.
Fast forward to 2021 the movie becomes a reality in progress and it makes me wonder weather the creators were merely visionaries, or part of the elites that use misinformation and fear as a tool to shape the world into an open prison. While i cannot answer that question, the fact remains that what we see in this movie , we will get to live real soon, without the hero or rebellion of the masses, of course.
The Green Knight (2021)
Avant garde in stupidity
Hollyweird has outdone itself with this gem. I had a feeling after watching the trailer that this movie would blow my mind. I just didnt know in wich way. I found out after 30 minutes of watching it. Is very hard to understand how professional movie makers can dive in head first into a script made of bricks. I dont know the original story, but now i want to read it, just to understand what exactly the movie was suggesting, because what i have seen tells no story, hasn't got any heart or backbone. All stories need a beginning, an intrigue, an action, a culmination and an ending. This one only has a beginning, and a weak one, and thats about it. It leaves open spaces for interpretation, but only a mental instituted person could resonate with whatever grand vision the writer had and intended to charm millions of people for two full hours with.
My opinion is we should read more books, because nowadays movies are trash.
Idiocracy (2006)
Greatest drama ever filmed, disguised as a comedy.
2006: the idea seemed to be far fetched, puerile , even silly.
2021 : already the movie is outdated, the people depicted in the mockumentary seem to thrive in a decaying world for a long time already, and the level of degradation of human society keeps developing on ascending spiral to whatever threshold of stupidity God might have set for us.
Already seen the movie several times as a reminder of what the world used to be like 30 years ago, when we still lived in a decent world, where family, tradition, moral standards still meant something, when most humans knew and accepted their social status and role in the world, and how fast we are heading to what the movie title suggests.
The movie is very funny and entertaining ,i almost cried with laughter the first time i saw it, but beneath the comedy lies a tragedy of epic proportions : it is happening right now...
No wonder the movie didn't get the attention it deserves. It is pointing fingers at us all, and nobody likes to be called an idiot.
Long Shot (2019)
Couldn't finish it
There are only two logical explanations why we, the audience are beeing fed this kind of mindless, illogical, not funny, grotesque ,pathetic nonsense.
The first explanation is that the world is on a fast forward downwards spiral into what could be depicted as a decaying society in wich our leading figures resemble the caricatures that this movie tries to portray. I know that most politicians are just muppets, but at least they try to keep some apparency. The people who wrote and produced this mess had no clue of what they were doing or what they wanted to achieve. It's vulgarity after vulgarity without any story to tell, the jokes were stupid, as were the characters who had no charisma or chemistry, the music was misplaced, the writing was childish.
The second explanation is that this kind of mindless "entertainment" ( and lately most of entertainment is resembles this atrocity of a movie) is deliberately fabricated and released into the world with the purpose of destroying whatever beauty the human soul still bears. I tried to watch it till the bitter end, but my conscience said "enough, no more", as i started to feel ashamed of myself of watching almost half of this idiocy.
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
The ending ruined everything
Way too much development for a story that could have easily been told in a short movie. The movie is unoriginal to say at least, its main purpose is to confuse and stun the audience with an array of tricks, just to mislead us from the otherwise simple conclusion that came to my mind after the very first scene at the subway. But i thought the movie had to have a more meaningful layer other than a nightmare that the protagonist experiences before death.
Anyway, the writer does a good job making an epic plunge into human subconscious when faced with a brutal derail from the comfort zone and the director successfully creates a dark and twisted world.
The movie had the potential to be special, and it was until the main plot unfolded in the last minute.
JCVD (2008)
Nice to see the real JC
Maybe to give the best possible rate is too much, but leaving aside that a i am fan of 80s and 90s movies and action stars, particularly JCVD, this movie is simply put beautiful. The concept of taking the hard action star from the virtual world of cinematography, and placing him in the real world,making him human and vulnerable is the main idea of the movie. I always felt that JC could act ,that he was just typecasted, however he did only partially act in this movie , he was blending the real Van Damme with the alter ego from the script, showing to the whole world a part of his soul, who he really is, a gentle and simple human being with high aspirations and real emotions.
The atmosphere of the movie is very well balanced, keeping a menacing tone within the limits of a drama movie, the cast is well chosen , not the usual villain type, but as it would actually be in a real life situation.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
And the razzie award goes to...
To be cynical about the efforts put by a team of people that have struggled to create something is not my premise , but this movie was truly, mildly put, bad. Nothing makes sense in the script, which had to be automatically generated by a computer of some kind, as i can not see a human mind come up with such a lame and unoriginal story, the casting was all wrong, the acting was at most decent, the action was not plausible or engaging. I dont even know where to begin pointing out what went wrong with this movie, because it was bad from the start till the end. Almost every scene seems to be missing something , and that something is common sense.
Enough of the movie, because there is no movie, just a subliminal idea that hides behind the rolling images. This whole mess was actually created with one purpose: to promote vaccines. The monsters are the virus, and the vaccine is the saviour. Enjoy!
The Gentlemen (2019)
Took Guy 20 years, but he's back
Guy is one of the directors on my short list who doesn't require any review reading prior to playing the movie. The Gentlemen is better than everything else he directed, except for Snatch. Its funny, smart, well paced and filled with witty and well build characters. The director takes good care of the audience and slips a few twists along the way and also leaves an opening for a sequel.
Predator (1987)
Where is the drama/romance?
There is no such thing here, this is a movie for boys and men. The best ever made. Every scene is a work of art, not Michelangelo art , but McTiernan/Schwarzenegger art, the first bringing the jungle alive and keeping us glued to the seat with his heart -pumping, nail-biting , brilliant directing, and the latter completing the set with his well known, already iconic macho one liners , flexing of his muscles, dodging bullets, being the only credible and capable actor of going toe to toe with a formidable adversary and leading his fellow actor-soldiers, because they are very believable as soldiers, into what i consider to be the most amazing action-sci-fi-horror that has ever been made. The slow dance of Arnie and the predator ( Kevin Peter Hall deserves his name mentioned for his menacing performance) still gives me the chills, even after watching this movie for many times.
If you're a guy, and still haven't seen this movie, then you should take a break of what you are doing right now, invite your pals over ,light up some cuban cigars, fill some glasses of whiskey and push play.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Not perfect, but really stands out
This movie does deserve a good review based on
few reasons. It is much better crafted than most of the movies that are being fed to the general audience these days (this is the reason why i keep watching over and over older movies instead of new ones; it seems that current producers and writers don't have any good stories to tell anymore). The message may have been presented before, but the package is more colorful, is has humour, decent action ,the story is simple but engaging. The characters are very likable, believable and quite memorable. This is what a good movie should be about : providing the beholder with a good time and good memories. This is exactly what this movie manages to do.
Veni, Vidi, Fugi: I came, I saw, I fled (2016)
Something different...in a good way
Let me start by saying that i am an avid movie consumer. Romanian movies do not particularly interest me, since i saw plenty, and some of them do not carry the vibe that i look for. So i didn't bring along too many expectations or a good mood when i came across this movie. I was glad to be wrong.
Without giving away the plot, i can say the movie was very well crafted, making the best use of the set, since it was a low budget. It never dragged out , on the contrary, i found myself wanting more by the time the end credits started rolling.
The actors, although little known, with the exception of Maia Morgenstern, who is an icon of romanian theatre and cinematography, were spot on and did a very good job.
It is however the script and direction that deserve the praise and encouragement for future developments.
If you're a fan of good movies, that have a story to tell, you should see this little hidden gem.