POMO

Voices from Beyond is not a typical Fulci horror movie. Instead, it is a mysterious soap opera with a crime plot. And the little boy being stabbed in the stomach with a large kitchen knife is there just to remind us who is behind this movie. Voices from Beyond works great as a mysterious soap opera, as the scenes portraying discussions of the ghost of a father and his beloved daughter on the lake shore are pleasantly poetic and the actors are well cast in their roles. Regarding the plot (within the soap opera genre) everything fits together, including the point, which I didn't expect and pleasantly surprised me. If I were a lady in her fifties, I would even shout out, “My gosh! That’s terrible!”

Matthew Perry is not that amazing an actor, but the role he plays in Numb is a perfect fit for him. And I think that if a truly amazing actor had been cast in this role, it would give the film another dimension. Still, Numb is a pleasant, clever movie whose greatest asset is the likability of Lynn Collins and (finally AMAZING) chemistry between her and Perry’s character. A better three stars.

Kevin Costner as the charismatic mentor sufficiently surpassing the newbie Ashton Kutcher. Eighty percent of the running time takes place in a training camp and serves up only routine scenes depicting the mentor getting closer to his pupil, the pupil with a chick and some friendly backslapping. When the heroes finally get outside, there comes a forced ending that seeks to give depth and meaning to the whole thing. That is a pity. Even so, thanks to the lead acting duo, The Guardian remains a nice leisure-time movie and a much less of a screw-up than Men of Honor.

The days of heroes in the Seagal mould are gone. Today’s tough guys are managers in ties played by character actors who avenge their families. Director James Wan knows how to work with actors, has talent for dynamics and creating a rough, almost furious atmosphere with a rock-n-roll music background and sometimes cleverly toys with spectacularly long shots (the parking lot). Because of all this, it is a pity that his visually impressive work is spoiled by occasional stupid and illogical moments. Not even all the hard work the director puts into the psychological and emotional moments (intimate conversations with the protagonist’s wife and son) can smooth it out. The result is “just” enjoyable and interesting, while keeping the audience curious about where the director will go next time. He can certainly do better, but he finds it difficult to find the right balance between his directing approach and the screenplay that worked out so well in Saw.

The Other Boleyn Girl is enjoyable, fast and not boring, but the attribute “historical film with an all-star cast” is invalid. Rather, it is another (alongside Elizabeth: The Golden Age) modern period farce that jumps from one event to the next just to accelerate the pace and only secondarily focuses on the story and its characters. Justin Chadwick presents intrigues, love, betrayal, and manipulation in the manner of Cruel Intentions rather than a serious period drama. The Other Boleyn Girl looks like a serious movie and is really impressive only in those few moments when Ana Torrent (Queen Catherine) is in front of the camera.

What would work well as a crazy Rodriguez-style grindhouse comedy-splatter flick is presented as a deadly serious horror movie. Ed Wood’s films are “great” because of the way they are filmed and what happens in them – his filmmaking ineptitude together with his infinite naivety is so great that it enchants and hypnotizes. Outpost is fairly passably filmed, in some places it is even a thrilling B-movie, but at the same time its story is the epitome of childishness and naivety. And that is a deadly combination. The most frightening thing about it is the fact that some viewers might take it seriously.

Eagle Eye is a fast-paced high-tech thriller, but it fails to bring anything distinctive to the table. The only thing that makes it attractive is Shia LaBeouf’s participation and the “Executive Producer Steven Spielberg” label. Tony Scott, active in the same genre, has his own directing style and his high-tech thrillers are original and audio-visually creative. D.J. Caruso produces only routine works that are neither great nor terrible. And for me, that is not enough for a two-hour action movie without a deeper look into psychology of the characters.

A spectacularly shot and edited concert film replete with the colorfulness of the wall of light complemented with 3D graphic interludes taken from it, supporting Bono’s lyrics and the character of the music. What’s amazing is that you get so close to them that the resulting impression is ten times more powerful than standing in an arena in a sweaty mass and seeing only their silhouettes. And it’s not just the filmmaking that makes U2 3D great, but also the truly great atmosphere of this Brazilian concert. The only thing I find slightly regrettable is that there’s no room in the cinema to give in to the euphoria with a cheering audience. A tear came to my eye when “Pride” started.

The idea and atmosphere are interesting, but The Quiet Earth is a half-baked sci-fi flick in terms of its story. And the characters behave very strangely in places. Geoff Murphy is an engaging post-apocalyptic director, but he’s a terrible psychologist. The popcorn flick I Am Legend isn’t much deeper or smarter, but it’s at least more entertaining and doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t.

Dario Argento is a filmmaker whose lapses in logic could – given the genre – always be forgiven. What happens in this film, however, boggles the mind. Add in the truly retarded dialogue, the drowsy, obviously bored Max von Sydow reciting silly monologues without understanding them, the occasional inappropriate humor and finally the tacky splatter murders using worse effects than in Italian B-movies from the 1980s. If it weren’t for the great opening scene in the train, a few effective long shots and two good jump scares, it would have merited one star.