Lima

The unbearable lightness of acting. I remember well Hopkins's exclusive interview with Reflex, where he said that "...acting is the easiest profession in the world...". So Sir Anthony cut yet another theatrical role, the likes of which he has portrayed hundreds of in his lifetime on stages, and he still won an Oscar for it, by the way. Yeah, acting is a beautiful profession, if you know how to do it.

The grey hair and wrinkles are increasing, but they look good on Liam and he certainly knows how to age gracefully. It's not the classic Neeson action vehicle that people were probably expecting, more like a human, sober story of an aging marine, spiced up with a bit of shooting in two scenes, and with some of the clichés I don't like so much (talking to the bad guy) coming in towards the end. A pretty pleasant two hours, but I’ll probably forget about it in a month.

Let's face it, Godzilla films across more than half a century have never been the pinnacle of intellectualism, but whether they were the work of Ishiro Honda, Jun Fukuda, or Takao Okawara, they were entertaining fairy tales, just overwrought and teetering on the edge of an awkwardness below which they never fell. But here the stupidity of the mythology is literally bursting through the door, everything revolving around those teenagers and that black guy who played it absolutely horrible (oops, didn't I just write something politically unacceptable?) was a torture to watch, so all that's left are the fights, which are surprisingly scarce, and all the highlights are revealed in the trailers. But to be fair, the fights between the ape, the lizard and the Mechagodzilla are excellent, lush, clearly delivered and hats off to Wingard for the way he directed them. Just a shame about the script, which was probably written by fanboys with wet teenage dreams.

Except for the fabulously overstuffed chapter where Steppenwolf's headquarters is attacked, this is the first Snyder film where I'm sort of willing to accept digital mess. It is tempting to make a screenshot of each frame and add text bubbles to the characters, this is a living comic book, like from Crew or BB Art. Thanks for that feeling at least, but I can't say I'm jumping in joy. What works on paper doesn't work in the film, the 4 hours of perceptual inferno and the fuckton of slow motion make you tired, so you are grateful for every subtle scene where two characters just talk, which are few and far between. I could have easily done without the pathetic epilogue and Leto's awkward Joker.

Unexpectedly, Vienna is a cool place for a Giallo murder mystery and it was nice to see that the area around Schönbrunn, its park and dark corners, still looks just as sexy after 50 years; too bad the ending wasn't just as sexy. Yeah, it's got suspense, it's got style, it's got atmosphere and the beautiful Edwige Fenech, but the final weak twist sent the whole experience down the drain. Such a muddled script is unworthy of Sergio Martino's skill.

A fragile, subtle social drama that resonated with me in a similar way as its indie brother The Florida Project did years ago, which I actually found more distinctive and more interesting. But even so, I had no problem empathising with Fren's nomadic fate and sometimes, in my late fifties, when everything at work pisses me off, I'd pick everything up and move to Kořenov in the Jizera Mountains, in the middle of beautiful nature :o) I really envied her unbridled freedom sometimes, and the nice people around her, you don’t get that in our country. Still, I have a nagging feeling that the Oscar buzz around this film is a testament to how poor last year was cinematically. In other times, in fatter years, Chloé Zhao would have collected awards only at Sundance, but now she can dream of golden baldies in her covid nightmare.

Poster tagline: TERROR AMOK! HUNGRY FOR THE FLESH OF THE WORLD!! TOWERING OVER JUNGLE AND CITY, CRAWLING, MULTIPLYING, DEVOURING!! Inoffensive average. In the late 1950s, there was a fashionable explosion of horror films with jelly monsters, for example The Blob, X the Unknown, The H-Man, and the Italians also had a go at it. Caltiki, the Immortal Monster is mainly the work of the legendary Mario Bava, who, unlike Freda, spent the vast majority of the time on set (3 weeks of shooting), provided the camera and did the effects. the optical wizardry at the beginning in particular looks nice, it gives the impression of Mexican realism with a pyramid and giant statues, and you don't even think that everything was made in the same Italian studios where the vast majority of swords and sandals films were shot. And as is well known, Bava had a flair for the visual, so much of the footage takes place at night and the play of lights and shadows looks unusually nice for a cheap B-movie. So does the main monster, which at the beginning I familiarly named "the stinking sock" because that's what it looks like and the characters treat it casually in a fishbowl without fear, but towards the end it gets better, it pulsates nicely, multiplies into several parts that grow back together, it crawls and the actress screams so beautifully : o) And what's definitely not missing is the light gore (a skull bitten off live, a hand burnt to the bone), which was typical for Italians. But just not to praise, at the end Bava gets torn off the chain and the tanks come on the scene spouting fire and everyone is quite aware of a slight sense of awkwardness as the proportions don't work, the villa model falls apart like a house of cards and sparks fly from the soldiers' "flamethrowers". But it doesn't matter, that's just the toll of the time of creation. What amused me, however, was that Fred and Bava were so afraid of the audience's "mocking" reception of the monster that they added the character of the psychotic killer Max to the script in order to target an adult audience. I don’t think it helped much :)

Now all that's left is for Bruce to visit Lukashenko, and the transformation will be complete.

Great! Beautifully straddling the line between reality and dreams, with a bit of occultism and Edwiga Fenech in top form. The girl just doesn't leave the screen for the entire film, and she delivers her psychosis with masterful refinement, coupled with an almost demanding physical performance. Dreamy imagery teeming with visual ideas, the mansion of the occultists with its scruffy members and their practices is beautifully disturbing, and here and there Martino comes up with a nice play of lights and colours, where red predominates and it's so beautifully rendered that even Argento would be envious. The gore is decent, which fits the mood of the film, although Fulci would probably have made it even bloodier. And you won't be able to get those evil eyes of Ivan Rassimov out of your head. PS: I'm like my friend p6qwre, the connoisseurs of the Italian Giallo and horror scene consider Fenech an icon and I have to put her at the top of the list. Not only because she is nice to look at, but she also knew how to act.

Of course, I'm glad it turned out the way it did .... but had it ended a few minutes earlier, I would’ve tipped my proverbial hat because a film with such big cynical balls would be remembered years from now. Blakeson just went soft, but it doesn’t matter, my idealistic little soul was relieved, so at least I send my kisses to Rosamund, those mischievously ironic pursed lips of hers at exactly the right moment, that eye play, it was an acting recital.