Zero Dark Thirty

The unreservedly enthusiastic overseas reviews didn't lie, it's a blast. What’s impressive is that the slickest films in A-list Hollywood today are being made by a woman. And I'd like to hear what 'Klaus's Rasputin', the insane Chancellor Hájek, would say about this film, given his popular opinion (one of the many pearls this alien entity has spat) that Osama Bin Laden was a fabrication. It could be fun… (27/01/2013)

I understand that getting Osama was mostly due to lengthy bureaucracy combined with refreshing waterboarding, but the first hour of this film is the pure essence of boredom. It only begins to pick up after the attack on the base in Afghanistan, only to culminate in the final bit of action, which is something so precisely and coldly filmed that the director's craft is bewildering; anyway, we won't know for a few years whether this film came too soon or too late. 3 ½. (22/01/2013)

I have a minor issue with Kathryn Bigelow in this movie; in comparison to the genius Hurt Locker, it’s the complete oppositemovie-wise. While The Hurt Locker was pure action with barely any story, Zero Dark Thirty is mostly a story that completely overshadows everything else. It attempts to be such a precisely told Bin Ladin operation that it sometimes forgets that it’s a movie and not a book. That’s exactly why the movie is 157 minutes long and why there’s a couple of moments that were incredibly boring to me. If it weren’t for the last half an hour, I’d be pretty pissed. Luckily, Jessica Chastain was keeping everything on such a strong level that I couldn’t close my eyes throughout the movie; it’d simply be too much of a shame. (06/09/2014)

"The ultra-professional result may be easier to respect than enjoy," said Peter Debruge in his review for “Variety” and I couldn’t agree more. The process that lead to the discovery of the hideout of Osama bin Laden and his killing is very well portrayed, with Jessica Chastain as a “tough” agent, cold and emotionless. It must have been the only way to film this story so shortly after the events, without turning it into dumb propaganda or, on the contrary, a silly anti-American conspiracy. Thumbs up, for sure, but did I enjoy it? No. It’s still a three-hour long borefest in the desert rather than a gripping war movie. (06/01/2013)

In the same spirit as The Hurt Locker. When possible, it is impersonal, cold, and always absolutely precise; while in crucial moments it is deadly to the point that my teeth almost chatter. I wanted to deliberately undermine Kathryn Bigelow in my review for the fact that, with its running time, documentary storytelling style, and barely glimpsed characters, it remains constantly unappealing to the average viewer. But it simply can't be done. Faced with the perfect Mark Strong and a six-star finale, there is nothing left but to salute the quiet and unnoticed ZD30. (24/02/2013)