DaViD´82

I envy everyone who watched the regular seventh episode. I watched "only" the nostalgic, modified first... I mean, fourth episode. Fortunately, it was for the better. Abrams is a better filmmaker than Lucas and he was really lucky that George did not write dialogs. In addition, Boyega, BB-8 and especially Keira (although the creators claim that his name is Ridley) carry it better than the non-charismatic Hamill and Fischer, and even C-3PO, have ever done in their youth. Of course, this is not the case with Ford. He carried it last time and he carries it now too. It is true that the first half is better than the second, when it partially loses pace (unnecessary part with smugglers) and the scenes made solely to please fans every other second of the footage (at the expense of time when more could be clarified about the new mythology) and so kind fatefulness that looks so unnatural. The Prequel trilogy succeeded at least (or only) in presenting a living universe with thousands of races and interests. This is a step back. Again, we are purely in the wastelands, and the eventual destruction of a "kind of planet somewhere in space" has absolutely no effect on anything or anyone. Nevertheless, an undeniably decent filmmaking, which is pleasure to watch. Especially in moments when it is not afraid to step out of the shadow of the original trilogy and start casting its own shadow. There are only few such moments, sadly, but they are there and they are amazing. So hopefully it will work out in two years in the eighth episode, which will no longer be just a respectfully modified second... I mean, the fifth episode.

Rough, raw, brutal and uncompromising and yet based mainly on the characters. And what will disappoint you even more is the unstyled and rushed ending, which lacks a proper finale and which turns away from those characters. The ending is simply too brief and quick considering how slow was in the first three quarters.

No rainbow, no sunshine, harsh road movie about economic Muslim migrants from Central Africa and their purgatorial journey in search of a better (?) European life, where you get everything for free. It is clear from this that the director is more of a documentary filmmaker. So it seems very real and the central trio will face perhaps every aspect of the negative side of the path to (misfortune) happiness. Apart from the actors, the camera is captivating also, especially the desert parts where the camera does the justice of impressive austerity of the nature.

Fourteen ordinary people on an almost monthly escape across Great Britain versus a professional team of people hunters with surveillance equipment composed of former police officers and specialists (hunters of war criminals, members of anti-terrorist forces, IT specialists, etc.). It is made in the form of a reality show that can perfectly draw you into the action through What would you do and proceed in their place?. In terms of a reality show, this is concept is very simple but brilliant and at the same time so stimulating that it outshines even the obvious fact that "the script is made only to impress" and that sometimes (or all the time?) seems the television production was authorized to watch relatives' calls, CCTV footage, etc.). But it doesn't matter, it's not a competition. It is about getting acquainted with the background of what the state and security forces monitor, what authorization they have, how the mind of a fugitive works under pressure, how (un) conscious habits (do not) help us, what we are willing to put on the Internet about ourselves and so on rather than about a true reality show. This show is both educational and entertaining and has a sociological overlap. And if nothing else, the best moments work really great as an "escape thriller" that can easily keep up with classic movie of this genre, because the participants very quickly succumb to an atmosphere of utter paranoia, where no one and nothing can be trusted. As amusing and exciting as it is (and if you ever plan to be on the run, you will learn what to avoid), the concept could have been used even a slightly better. In any case, if there is a second season and if the creators manage to learn from the mistakes of the first one (it could have been a bit more dynamic and less settled), then it will be a real television masterpiece.

A stylish, confident, and well built hacker film, a descendant of Fight Club and a probable precursor of Mr. Robot.

As a film about Bobby Fischer, it works much better than a chess film, but the problem is that you can't separate these two things. In other words, in order to make an excellent movie about Bobby Fischer at the time of his greatest chess successes, the movie also has to work as a chess film to a certain extent. And this, unlike the Luzhin Defence, did not happen. Although you may be disappointed that out of so long and interesting Bobby Fischer's life story the movie focuses only on the period before and during the famous series with Spaskky to the sixth game, this is not the main issue. The main issue is the absence of tension and Zwick's failure to make everyone start to care about the chess. From the beginning, he ignores the game itself and offers only (semi) details of the pieces, so if you don't know what the breakthrough and ingeniousness of Ficher's strategies from Reykjavík 1972 is about, then you won't even find out watching this movie, not even remotely. You'll just have to do with the fact that it is simply "exceptional". The movie not only does not show some of the characters directly but it neither does help to explain them. Maguire did his job well, but considering how interesting his character was, his performance is not that interesting; especially when Schreiber’s performance is obviously much better (I do not mean on the chess board, but actually on the chess board too...). And he even has almost no room apart from the motionless sitting at the desk.

The plot clearly lacks any idea, as well as an interesting development and a point, and purely. In terms of a thriller, in the right hands (yes, Chan-wook Park is out) it would offer enough material to become a genre classic. But… But that's not the case, because it's completely ruined by over-the-top, silly and long action sequences packed with CGI (someone should pay for the snakes) with such a confusing and shaky camera that even epilepsy would get epilepsy fit after watching it. South Koreans like to make experiment with the seemingly incompatible things, and they often succeed. However, this is not the case, because it doesn't work neither as a dark freezing thriller nor as a silly over-the-top blockbuster action movie. Let alone working together as part of one movie.

Catastrophic movie made of two halves that are completely different in terms of quality. The first halve follows perhaps all possible genre rules and clichés, but in spite of that (or maybe because of that) it works absolutely perfectly. Largely it is due to the fact that it relies on the beauties of Geiranger, the movie is not afraid to show it. However, as soon as the tsunami hits, not only the picturesque tourist village is swept away into the ocean but also the so far quality and tension. Instead of bird's-eye view of fjords, an atmosphere of disturbing tension or some story lines with interesting characters, everything starts revolving around one flooded room and one "after apocalypse" that makes you stop believe it and it starts look like a playing on a disaster with a movie studio with some props. All characters except the central family are thrown overboard and the movie seems tense, forced and mediocre. Even so, there are a few scenes (literally; bus and panic) that wake you up, but otherwise you may way to often find yourself thinking about logical lapses (and there are plenty of those) and dealing with things that wouldn't even come to your mind if the movie had been catching.

A court drama (loosely inspired by the early life of the controversial President Roh Mu-hyun) par excellence about the "moral" struggle with the machinery of state power that can easily keep up with best movies in this genre. In other words, if it weren't for the unfortunate opening half hour, which is superfluous and it doesn't say anything about the characters that the rest of the film wouldn't say better anyway. On top of that, what is really annoying is "wannabe relaxed style" that is rather embarrassing than funny and does not fit the rest of the movie. However, once the class meeting becomes dramatic and serious, it is almost perfect; especially when it all resembles in many ways similar trials in our country (however the other way around).

What is a letdown for me is that "story-telling" line provides disproportionately more interesting characters (and also actors) than the "narrative" line where only shallow characters show up. And while Hemsworth carries the movies, at least because of his charisma, Walker doesn't. What is an even a bigger letdown is that it is often so obviously digital. There are not so many movies where it is so obvious that the actors are standing in front of a green screen in the studio, and all the rising waves and sea vermin are added subsequently. But even this can be done in such a way that you will not know it, but this is not the case. This is highlighted by the fact that, with a few exceptions, the camera zooms in on the actors’s faces and bodies in these scenes, which is rather unusual. Fortunately, there aren't that many these scenes, and as soon as it takes place in classic interiors and locations, it suddenly works much better. And why did I use a word letdown when talking about these two shortcomings? Because otherwise it's true classic (maybe too much though) manly old school maritime adventure movie about survival.