DaViD´82

Starsky & Hutch by Shane Black. What's not to love? Perhaps only the disparity between the silly buddy comedy storyline loaded with one-liners (I haven't laughed so loud in the movie theater for a long time) and the regular gritty crime storyline, which is clearly only a makeweight, but for a long time is much more refined than it turned out to be eventually and in the final scene it is clearly too slow. In other words, both in terms of the story in a style like"nothing is going on" and in terms of comedy, it´s absolutely flawless. And I look forward to a sequel, the two of them get together in terms of mutual chemistry so unusually and in a unique way (after all, see for yourself. It would be terribly unfortunate not to give them proper space. However, the best movie in this department is still Zootropolis.

It would have made more sens if the movie only had lasted three hours rather than to have two movies with a footage of almost four and a half hours. It has the potential, the excellent characterization of the characters as well, the sad melancholic atmosphere is well portrayed too but the footage simply fragmented everything and thus ruined the whole thing. The beginning (first hour) is well-paced but it later fades until it almost disappears and gets stuck in many death end sequences, when the movie is only treading water. And it's a pity, because the original obviously provided a strong and inspiring theme (the author has only published one book, Whisper, so far, but it would be a mistake to miss the fairy-tale Brave Story. He is basically a Japanese version of Lord of the Flies. The schoolchildren do not end up on a deserted island this time, but otherwise the whole thing is based on the same allegorical overlap, when the society is reflected the children and it is spooky. Young people take justice into their own hands and investigate the death of a classmate through a court trial, during which everything from bullying, hypocrisy, prejudice or class differences to hypocrisy, envy, cowardice, their own ambitions at the expense of others, etc. comes to light. The movie revolves around the main storyline so much than one 90-minute boring feature-film is hidden in these two very long movies and this is not helpful. Not even remotely. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

Specifics of international humanitarian aid or an absurd road-drama about the daily routine of humanitarian workers in the Balkans and their Don Quixote struggle with both officially bureaucratic windmills and common sense in a movie that masterfully and functionally balances on the edge of a serious portrayal, unforced honest emotions "reflection on society" and black cynical humor which ambulance crews take advantage of. Maybe it could have been a little bit two shorter, especially the detour sequence.

Netflix's first European huge project, which has the impressive genius loci Marseille at its disposal and is not afraid to use it properly. But sadly it follows well-known pattern of predictability, so you will see everything you would expect from quality TV, such as corruption plotting from, stabbing knives in each other’s back, comprehensive approach across all social strata. However, if it doesn't just tick off the mandatory check boxes which you know well from elsewhere and it starts to be a little more by original. It is kind of a mix of overseas, Boss, Suburry and Franck previous political series. There is not much to complain about. Perhaps only a constant and almost ridiculous "increasing stakes" through wannabe dramatic eclipses/transitions with a really tense musical undertone and silly slow scenes. The cast of the main roles is a great match (led, of course, by the Gargantuan style Depardieu). Performance of a few supporting characters is rather average. In any case, a decent and exceptional movie with a slower opening, the biggest problem of which is that considering this genre department they could have done much better job. And especially in France there have been made some really good series in recent years, so the quality bar is set higher. But what deserves a special mention (and overrides the quality of the series as such) is insanely stylish theme song.

Three long-term problems of the Marvel movies (if we do not count the uniform unisex kind of movies that Disney regularly produces) is the absence of proper respect for real respected bad guys with clear motivation, who do not only stare aggressively, depersonalized generic interchangeable CGI action and no consequences, impacts or personal sacrifices of the characters. It has always been the case that Marvel movies are better at squabble rather than at blockbuster action. The director brothers did try to change it in the Winter Soldier, and I must compliment them on trying to do the same in this movie too. They were successful in two cases (a scam in the form of the need for a bad guy, no matter how much potential this one has, and amazing action based on stunts) but terribly failed in one, because the unwillingness of Marvel movies to make main heroes any sacrifices has always been obvious but in this movie it is even more obvious in a silly way. In any case, this time the director's duo deserves more praise, because to handle so many characters in a way so that all their intentions are clear and understandable, that new players are properly introduced and do not act as useless as the fifth wheel, that the tension is tangible (unfortunately only in the final) and despite the escalation (although it is more required by the script than the movie itself) and the ambivalence of opinions of both parties, it kept the style of minor exaggeration and on top of all that, all the characters do their job and have enough space. Obviously, even much more experienced movie makers often fail in this department. On the contrary, they did not handle the footage well. It is not lengthy, but it has more sequences with very slow pace than would be appropriate. Other flaws include the epileptic camera in action scenes, and that the whole trifling dispute is more like a pub brawl of a few individuals than a war, let alone a civil war.

Gallows humor. Literally. As can be expected from McDonagh, his return to the stage is adorned with refined verbal skirmish, a graduating dense atmosphere of fate events, excellent characterization of characters and black humor that make you laugh a lot. The only complaint is that this time he largely (but not completely) gave up his characteristically distinctive mix of chilling black humor going hand in hand with dramatic seriousness, where incorrect humor serves as a reflection and not "only" as a source of amusement. As a result, this is not only a funny but one time performance loaded with one-liners. So, it belongs to his weaker performances like Behanding in Spokane. But it certainly lags behind the masterpieces that have made him "Shakespeare of Tarantino poetics", that is for sure.

Latin American Czech show Bachelors but this time cynical. None of the short stories lack a basic idea (if nothing else), but without exception, everyone here more or less lacks more elaboration of the introductory "cynical teaser", it does not hit the right note, it lacks gradation and punchline. Szifron has good ideas, but someone else should have written it for him in the form of a script. This is a waste of good potential, which still works mainly thanks to the duo of segments "Auto squabble" and "gritty bash".

It suffers from so many problems that it will surprise you. A lot of short padding scenes fill many of the episodes, dialogs from time to time become annoying boring word-for-word dialogs and theatrical gestures, many unnatural and forced metaphors are way over the edge of quality TV, obvious cheap ignoble scene are like from a completely different series (and surprisingly they handle the central sado-masochist relationship exceptionally well), Lewis will annoy you with his ridiculous effort to have "like a New York" accent and a there were certainly much more things I could mention. But all of this becomes irrelevant the moment it settles and focuses on the main point that is, a cheating game in the psychological, legal, financial and personal level of a pair of alpha dogs (basenji vs. pit bull terrier) from opposite sides of the Wall Street barricade, where the boundaries between who is the cat and who is the mouse, who yin and who yang are completely erased. And fortunately, such moments still prevail, moreover, it restores its reputation with excellent final episodes. As expected, Lewis is rather a sparring partner of Giamatti, but he makes it up it with his specific, hard-to-define charisma, on which his character of a "kind billionaire who is loved by everyone but there is something odd about him" that determines if he fails or not. Paradoxically, the biggest snag of the whole series are the partners of the central duo. Åkerman is clearly only a makeweight, and screenwriters artificially put her at the center of events at all costs to create the impression that she has a more fundamental role. Maggie is much better in this respect. Her role is the unacknowledged main heroine of the entire series, a multi-layered and stimulating character forming a connecting bridge and bringing tension between the central duo. But she manages her role hardly well, and at the same time the whole series would only benefit from her better performance. So, as much as it did not reach its "paper potential" in many ways, when it is already starts to reach it, you will get into it and you will be excited to watch the new season. However, the second and third seasons made big progress and learnt on their mistakes, that is for sure. Caricatures of the characters, the uselessness of the wives, episodes serving as a padding or extremely forced and unnatural ways how to make two characters meet in one room literally disappeared overnight. Everyone follows their line and pretty much step by step progresses inevitably and approaches to an open conflict with each other. It aims straight at the core of individuals who want (and most importantly need) to win at any cost. Even at the cost of (self) destroying everything and everyone around you. The fourth series fixed the biggest flaw of the last series and relied much more on the scenes where the central duo is together. Unfortunately, their story lines each go their own way, so it doesn't even seem to be story lines from the same series. In addition, Chuck's is too similar to the one in the previous series, and Bobby always makes something up on the spot, has many padding scenes and laughs at supporting characters. The beginning of the season is appalling, but the final third saves a lot, although it will only take a detour back to the point where the series was at the beginning of the third series.| S1: 3/5 | S2: 4/5 | S3: 4/5 | S4: 3/5 |

It is still true that le Carré originals have been extremely lucky to have successful adaptations for several decades. And the Night Manager is no exception, although thanks to changes in it, there are not many elements left that make le Carré le Carré. Which, of course, is no big deal, because the local attractive changes within the chosen stylization of this adaptation work and are not intended to please the majority viewer. In contrast to the original, there is a cold depersonalization. The main protagonist is a inconspicuous and average person which has hidden strength. It is focused on the procedural side of things and the edges of the ambivalence of the parties involved are made softer. In this respect it is made more like in a showy Bond movie style, however it is intimate conversational. However, as already mentioned, it is not a bad thing, because it works here. That is for sure. What worked out perfectly was that the plot fits perfectly into the plot to the current situation. The cast could hardly have been better and the tension and pace were definitely not lacking. Simply an excellent genre movie, against which it is hardly possible to have more fundamental objections. Perhaps only the fact we can be unhappy about is that the original is "only" an excellent genre work and nothing more.

Vaughn's style is so noticeable that one is surprised that only produced the movie. The main achievement of the authors is that they were able to withstand the comedic level without making jokes at the expense of Eddie and at the same time did not start regretting him. On the contrary, they sincerely supported him and you will support him too. And what about the fact that it is only a feel-good one time movie, even if it is so successful and functional in all respects. And it is also a stylish feel-good one time movie, which in addition to the playful soundtrack referring to Cool Runnings bring a lot of emotions.