MrHlad

It's a good movie, but I won't pretend I didn't expect more. In the most tense moments, debutant Dan Trachtenberg can't be as gritty and intense as he should, and in the middle section he fails to pinch the atmosphere the way, say, John Carpenter did in The Thing. There are occasional dead moments, and by the fifth time you're figuring out what's out there, or which of the characters is a nutcase, it starts to get tedious. Never, thankfully, so that boredom sets in, and thanks to John Goodman's impecable performance and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who can do confident damsels in distress like few others, it's still a fun ride where you'll enjoy the twists and surprises. I just think it should have been made by someone who's done some movies before and knows that maintaining a suspenseful atmosphere when there are three people and four rooms on the screen doesn't quite work on its own and needs a little help.

A more intimate and independent version of Lost in Translation. But no worse. Morgan Freeman clearly enjoys his role immensely, Paz Vega is as talented as she is beautiful, and the short running time makes the whole thing move along nicely. For some, however, the upbeat mood may be too much.

Quite suspenseful and a bit different than the usual thrillers mainly because it focuses on a pair of killers, not cops. Karel Roden is cool, Edward Burns is a prude, and all in all I found this to be a relaxing above average film.

1917 will be talked about as the war film that was shot in one take. Which it isn't, but we all know that, and I don't feel like anyone should mind. However, it would be a big mistake to just look at it as a technically perfect film where Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins fool around with the camera. The latter is, of course, amazing; 1917 looks like a computer game, with the camera managing to pan around the characters during dialogue, crawling along with them across the battlefield with cameraman looking for the craziest but still functional angles from which to capture everything. But the main star here is still Mendes as the narrator, who manages to get under the skin of both the characters and the audience in that "one shot". Initially, cold and distant, and like one of the soldiers, he treats the whole mission as just an order to be carried out, hoping to survive. Gradually, however, he begins to acknowledge the importance of the mission and very powerful and emotional scenes subtly, but eventually very intensely, surface. And for example the whole passage in the burning village or the very end are incredibly powerful moments. The film doesn't just look great. It's great throughout.

Sandra Bullock can't act, the script isn't worth much either, but the film has something that just doesn't allow me to condemn it absolutely. That something is my all-time favorite Steve Buscemi. It's simply because of him that I can't give it one star.

An incredibly stupid script in which all the members of the army behave like morons. Fortunately, the director saves what he can. But it could have been MUCH better.

A retro Christmas comedy about the fact that in life there are more important things than a dream phone and a console under the Christmas tree. The likeable cast and a nice atmosphere mostly disguise the fact that there wasn't much money for 8-bit Christmas, but halfway through, it starts to pick up. Unfortunately, the final change of pace and actually genre is quite dysfunctional and at best, it seems strange. But you can spend an evening with this retro affair and it won’t offend adults or kids.

Damn good and damn rough. As a crime drama, 8MM ventures into less explored waters and it's very, very good. Heavy depression to the end. Not for the faint of heart.

One of the best "dumb" comedies. And even though it's dumb and stupid, it's also very funny. You just have to be ashamed that you think it's funny, and I'm not ashamed.

Definitely not a legal drama, but there have been many better things made in this genre. Despite the decent script and quality performances, I was bored quite often. It was kind of slow...