prohibited-name-2256 Reviews

Frontline: The Choice 2016 (2016) Season 35, Episode 2

Tabloid journalism

[3/10 · 16 January 2017]

Lately, I've watched a wonderful World War 2 documentary from Frontline, so when I saw their U.S. elections episode, I was hoping that I could learn a thing or two this time as well. Nothing further from the truth.

Since the beginning, the tone is set: Donald Trump is the spoiled lucky kid with bad influences all around him, while Clinton is a passionate idealistic girl we are to feel sympathy for. Her childhood is also painted in dark colors, but while in Trump's case he soaks the evilness from his surrounding to become the man that ultimately runs for president, Hillary stands against the negative influences to become a better person. In both cases, zero evidence is given to support these claims and the fact that they use same arguments to glorify one candidate and vilify another already betrays what's to follow.

The movie is in color, but it feels so black and white - common factors are introduced to help us compare the candidates, and in each single one Hillary is the good girl, while Trump is the bad guy. For example, this "documentary" went so bonkers that they attached Martin Luther King as her role model, only to follow it up with Trump's role model... a ruthless lawyer that has taught him horrible things.

Most, if not all, guests follow that same theme too. Interestingly, everyone is a telepathic expert on Donald Trump. Without a shred of evidence, they state with 100% confidence what had which influences on Trump. He has been going to a church, which they paint as a bastion of ruthless capitalism, therefore he must have been soaking it with his eyes wide open, which must have defined him as a bad person. Obama laughed at Trump publicly? Trump is so evil that the only reason he is part of the race is because he is a bloodthirsty vengeful person. Should Americans vote for such a monster? People behind the movie try to make the decision for you, but make no mistake: you will learn nothing from it.

You can find here one of the main ingredients of why Trump has won the election: because Hillary fanboys produce this kind of one-sided venomous rhetoric that turn everything into a tabloid horror drama, which can go so far that even a person such as Trump starts to look like the good guy next to her. As such, the picture is the unfortunate extension of Clinton's horrible campaign's core points.

Aftermath (2012)

Terrible movie that goes more fiction than history.

[2/10 · 14 May 2016]

On its own, and to people unfamiliar with Jedwabne's past, this might seem like a decent movie. But once you get to know what really happened and then watch the movie, you're only left with bewilderment, or disgust.

While in the movie the whole village (and all of its ancestors) have dirt on their hands and desperately try to shut down the inconvenient truth from coming out, in reality the excavations in Jedwabne were stopped by the Jews. As more and more proof came out clearly proving that Germans orchestrated that bestial crime, interest in continuing the search was substituted with demands to stop it, basing it on not wanting to further profanate the dead bodies. And it came from those same Jewish organizations that pushed hard for excavating. The truth turned out to be less spicy than people thought - if we can even sum up like that such a tragedy.

The film made quite a storm in Poland, and for good reason. Anti-Polish movies that show us in the worst possible light are getting financed easily from public money while the ones that try to be as faithful to the real history and patriotic movies in general are regularly denied funding. For Polish people, aided by our own government, to produce a movie that blatantly lies about history to put us in the worst possible light while claiming to do the opposite (supposedly coming to terms with dark past) sounds like a cruel joke, but that's our reality and people grow more conscious and angered with it every year.

If you want to watch it as a non-factual movie for its story and are not interested in historical realism, it's probably worth it, it's decent. Still, a movie that not only addressed history, but a highly sensitive and painful subject, must be judged by how close it sticks to what we really know about the topic. After all, people treat movies that refer to history as a source of information about the world that we live in. So when such drastic deviation is being made, even if it would be an Oscar-worthy material (which it's far from), its core is still rotten and that has to reflect on rating. As a fictional movie, 6.5/10. With "historical lesson" included, 2/10.

Chappie (2015)

Such a misunderstood movie!

[8/10 · 28 June 2015]

I haven't written a review for IMDb for quite a while, but when I saw the nonsense some people come up with in their Chappie's reviews, I just had to!

First of all, it is a Pixar kind of story with slightly older audience in mind as there is violence in moderate doses in it. With that frame of mind, expectations have to be adjusted. After all, you don't expect a complex romance in a horror movie for example, right? And yet people write all kinds of crap about how unrealistic this movie is!

The story is very straightforward and somewhat naive, as is all the techy stuff, but this is how it's supposed to be! In the end, it's a very warm simple story with a surprising depth and emotion for what it is - and this is the best thing about the movie. Analyzing tech details and robot psychology in this kind of movie is like expecting fish in Finding Nemo to follow the exact habits real fish do and complain whenever you see discrepancies!

Die Antwoord duo lacks acting skills, true, but they more than make up for it with the unique personality that they bring to the table. Very memorable characters. And again, there's so much self-parody light humor with all the "gangsta" stuff, yet people pick up on it thinking that it's serious by intent and therefore pathetic. Good lord.

Don't get fooled by people who pretend to be critics yet even have no idea what tool to pick for the job. Original, lightweight and fun is what this movie is!

Enter the Void (2009)

Visually challenging, yet disappointing

[5/10 · 10 March 2011]

Only few movies in the history of cinema were able to provide surreal, spiritual and complex themes without falling short somewhere during the delivery. "Enter the Void" is no exception to this rule.

First few minutes are astounding, with DMT trip painted with so much imagination! Computer graphics guys here really showed what they can do. Sadly, after this short episode they got lazy. After that, spectator truly enters the void, both graphical and on basis of merit.

The story, in summary, is about a 20-something American male, living in Tokyo, who experiences an accident, after which his supposed consciousness travels through both near future following that accident, and his very troubled past. There's mention about "Tibetan Book of the Dead" (a very old book with instructions on how to deal with oneself after death and before supposed reincarnation). After that mention, the movie tries to bring that description into reality. However, it makes an awful attempt at that, and only delivers gibberish.

The book in itself could be a masterful script for a movie like this, but it's so simplified and profane (just like any reincarnation supporter's beliefs)... I can also hardly imagine many people who have read the book to be able to watch the full movie.

"Enter the Void" shoots at deep metaphysical experience, but instead focuses on pain, emotionally devastating stories, and lots of pointless sex scenes. Not that I have anything against sex scenes, but if I want to see it, I'll watch some porn movie, where girls are my type, and the camera isn't flying around bed like a drunken butterfly with no clue as to what to do next, and the accompanying ever-present blur.

Visuals are very simple and usually give viewer more of a discomfort, than satisfying experience. Not that it wasn't the point, but they're done without any imagination, or artistic touch. Everything switches endlessly from one scene to another all the time, almost like an ordinary movie really, just with different shots and "travel sequences". Hence again: not much imagination used.

The end is absurd, trivial, and absolutely predictable. It's sad because the potential is there, story is very solid in a few moments, delivery can be mind-blowing, but as a whole "Enter the Void" has just too many gaps to ignore, and the final "solution" is like a bad joke.

Mr. Nobody (2009)

Great promises gone wrong

[5/10 · 8 February 2011]

Since this movie got so many positive reviews, I decided to write about it to give potential viewers both sides of the story.

Mr. Nobody is one of those movies with main plot transcending reality. If you've seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or Butterfly Effect, you'll find yourself on similar territory with this one. Without spoiling too much, main character (Jared Leto) tries to regain his lost memory through hypnosis, which uncovers a lot. The only problem is: he re-experiences more than one linear life.

Sounds promising? Unfortunately, people responsible for this movie fail to squeeze any serious quality out of this potential. Jared Leto plays very well all the time, and the movie is shot with interesting style. First problem lies in the script. It just doesn't make much sense. For example: we are introduced to Superstring Theory, which doesn't have any relation to the movie, which is explained like a methhead would explain it after being sober for 36 hours. Throughout the entire movie, we are shown various little science facts and theories, all making no sense in the contexts, and making impression like a late night 2 hours google search put into movie to add to the overall "credibility".

There's a great love story in the movie, which resembles Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and really improves the experience, but unfortunately it's just one of many plots. Half of the movie it grows on the viewer, and promises a very unique experience. The other half it fails, fails and fails to deliver again, until a very unsatisfactory finish.

If it would have been more organized in structure, instead of random lazy scene by scene mash up ultimately leading nowhere, it could have been so much more. Still, many people find it entertaining, so it might be worth checking for yourself ;)

The Man from Earth (2007)

big disappointment (see the movie first then read this)

[3/10 · 7 October 2008]

You got to give some credit to the script, as the concept is very original and it could have been a great movie, but there are so many holes in The Man from Earth that it's very hard to ignore. This is why I'm so surprised, considering all the 10s and 9s and all the wonderful reviews here.

First of all, the concept is great but the script is sooooo naive. We get to hear incredible story from the main character, which at first keeps the expectations very high, but with time we see more and more of a lack of attention to detail. I could accept Buddha and Jesus story, although it's not easy, but Columbus and Van Gogh? The man had to have one heck of a talent when it comes to finding the most important people in the history of mankind, not to mention how charming he must've been to find a way to get near them. It would be nice to see at least some shadow of that charm, but instead we see an introspective shy man with a character of a person that just spent 30 years with his mom in the mountains. Smart men get smarter with time, so I'd expect a little bit more overall level of comfort, harmony and positive attitude from someone who was enlightened by Buddha and changed the mentality of mankind forever as Jesus due to his extraordinary teachings.

The actor really didn't put much to his role, or maybe he just doesn't have the skills, but during the movie he failed many times to express his emotions with style. Character is shallow and boring. But his girlfriend is worse.

As for a girl finding out that her boyfriend is 14.000 years old, she acts like it was nothing. Either the character is addicted to heroine (which would explain her non-acting during most of the movie), or the actress is a) friend of producer/director, or b) not much of an actress.

The old doctor mr. Smarty and all just lost his wife day ago, yet comes to a social meeting like he just had the best sex of his life and has to spread that joy around. It takes a lunatic who claims that he's Jesus to remind him (in a very twisted and we-just-couldn't-think-of-anything-better way) that the guy's wife died recently.

Add to this the "I'm your father/grandfather (don't remember) and I know your dog's name" and you have an amazingly disappointing finish line. It really doesn't take much to create a better way to show people that he really is THE MAN. They say in the movie that Jesus and Buddha must be turning in their graves if they know what people have transformed their teachings into. Well if they really existed and they have graves, I hope nobody dares to throw into them iPods with this movie on hard disk, because they would spin 3 times the previous speed! I could go on and on with this, and I realize how many people will hate me because this comment, as this movie seems to have a lot of fans, but it's been a long time since I have seen a movie which tries to be so deep and moving, and which at the same time is so shallow and unsatisfying. 3 for the concept, 0 for the rest.

True Romance (1993)

cinema at its best

[10/10 · 6 May 2007]

There are movies with incredible cast and crew which turn out to leave a lot to be desired (Departed is a great example), but if you think True Romance might be one of them, you're going to miss a classic! Tony Scott was responsible for putting it all together, and he did incredible job. The script was written by Tarantino, and you can feel his unmistakable charisma in dialogs. Definitely one of his best scripts, as there are moments so touching you'll have to cry, so funny you'll laugh your ass off, and guess what? Some violence too. It's hard to find a movie with more great actors in one place than in True Romance. What's more surprising, ALL of them do terrific job! Both Slater and lovely Patricia Arquette are at their top, and Christopher Walken created one of the most classy mobster characters ever. Fuelled by Tarantino script and inspired by his incredible performance, Vincenzo is a guy sure to remember :) This is an absolute classic, so don't wonder anymore, go watch it :)

The God Who Wasn't There (2005)

worse than I expected

[5/10 · 13 February 2006]

Brian Flemming's intentions are ruining this movie. He tries to convince us that Jesus didn't exist and Christianity makes no sense. I am non-believer, so it's not a problem for me, except one thing: that he (Brian, not Jesus ;) ) doesn't deliver interesting points in his monologue and the interviews.

He could find so many facts ie. about history of Church, which is rotten to the bone. He could make at least 10 more interviews, because there's not enough of them in my opinion. He could do a lot more...

While watching the movie, one can easily feel Flemming must have had sad experiences connected to Christianity, and now he tries to fight back! This can't do any good here.

Brian probably didn't study journalism, as he can't squeeze the juice out of people in his dialogues. That school director interview is the best proof of that.

The rest is not that bad (computer edition is great for a movie with no budget), but the content is mediocre.

Robots (2005)

no surprises

[5/10 · 12 June 2005]

I was hoping I'd see something which would stand up to masterpieces such as "Finding Nemo" for example, but this one is no surprise. Computer graphics are nice (they do fit well to today standards, but don't go any higher than that). Story is very simple and totally predictable. You've seen it so many times. There's a balance kept between serious, emotional approach and funny stuff. Unfortunately it doesn't matter much, because both these elements are screwed. Characters are flat, not much of an interesting ones, so authors can't let you get deep into them; their feelings, their acts, because they're more like elements of computer graphics than real robots with feelings (however funny it might sound). The "jokes" part is also screwed. The red robot is just a pure imitation of the one from "Treasure Planet". "Robots" is filled with humorous approach, but it also doesn't matter much, because it mostly is not funny. The mass-jokes are simple and prove lack of humor and imagination lying in the script. This might be a good movie to watch with your children, but again don't expect it to make you laugh much or be touched by the deep story, because you probably won't. It's just another movie, that's all.

xXx: State of the Union (2005)

no surprise after XXX part one

[2/10 · 10 June 2005]

I don't know what Samuel L. Jackson and Willem Dafoe are doing in this movie. Wait a minute, I know! Large sum of money! Samuel anyway is doing a lot of crap lately. Ice Cube? I can understand it, although Fridays weren't that bad. At least he didn't pretend to be a super adrenaline-fueled action blasting devastating sexy war machine like no other. This is a tendency between rappers that is seriously damaging pop American cinema (which is damaged by many other things by the way). You've seen part one and are expecting anything better? The presence of Jackson and Dafoe might be a rescue team, right? I got a bad news for you, they don't make it even a tiny little bit less crappy. It's just way too doomed. Let's face a few facts about the reality, as is seen by this movie. You can watch it and really make some constructive conclusions. They are of course 100% your everyday reality compatible. It's very easy to avoid missiles with a tank. Tanks are very mobile, you know? Guards in prison, police and all kinds of special forces are very compassionate and polite. They wouldn't dare to shoot if they got a gun. Rather they'd just let it hang on them and try to make physical contact with you (not by hitting you of course, that's plain rude!). Just a hand on the arm to let you know they're here to support you by being beaten quickly and effectively with one or two elbow strikes. But when they shoot, they take all of the best snipers to shoot as close to you as they can without hurting you. For example Darius is on an important mission and they respect it! If you're hiding from the police, it's best to pick up the most stylish car. Police man seeing you would then for sure say to his comrade: "hey, he looks like the guy police in all states is looking for, but in that car? they'd be dumb to do something like this, naaaaah, they sure are not the guys we're looking for". The president of the United States is always a very righteous man, who would do anything that is necessary for citizens of this beautiful country to be satisfied with wonderful opportunities he's giving them. All men of action do everything for the flag, because dying for someone else's personal (mainly financial) interest is what God made us for. Also, if you want to become new president of USA without a vote, there's a shortcut for that: just kill the current one, that's all! There is a lot more! Do you want to see it in XXX2: State of the Union? You better don't!

Symetria (2003)

masterpiece

[10/10 · 9 June 2005]

First of all I'd recommend to not allow Canadude's review to make an influence on your decision about buying/renting/downloading "Symetria" or not. The artistic quality of this movie is very very high. I didn't see this "pretending" in even one single scene. All the acts are amazingly good (especially for polish cinema as it stands today), especially that of the main actor, which had some really hard role to play. It really gets you in. When you watch this movie, you're in polish jail, no doubt about it! I've got some friends who have been/are in jail, and they say that except few tiny little mistakes, you want to get the picture of polish jail, watch it. The change of attitude Lukasz shows toward that oldest guy from the cell can be easily understood and is also real. That's jail reality - you keep it with the tough, you're considered tough. You keep with guys who (for this or other reason) don't deserve respect in that reality - what can you expect then? So it was his decision to make and although it can be questionable, he did what was necessary to make his survival easier. That's what any guy with balls would do in such situation. To our pleasure Detmer makes acting of the script psychologically compatible there also, by showing that this is a hard thing to do, yet he's building his strenght, so he does it. If you haven't seen the movie, yet you read this review knowing that it contains spoiler, I can tell you one thing only: get it!

Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

amazingly unconventional

[8/10 · 7 June 2005]

Japan is a crazy country. Their workaholism is affecting western culture all the time. Coming to Tokyo first time, one can get lost not only in translation, hehe, but mostly in all these technological gadgets that leave you with only three questions: "what the hell is this for?", "what the hell is that for?", and "how the hell does it work?". On one side, coming to Japan, one might see something very rare today: amazing technology next to tradition, remains of culture hundreds and thousands years old. But on the other, Japanese does seem to have a lot of fear about all that technology. Won't that materialistic, technological approach kill emotional and spiritual aspects of human existence? There has been made a lot of movies asking that question, projecting hypothetical versions of future based on what Japan looks like today. See Ghost in the Shell for example. Yeah, alright, but what does Tetsuo have to do with all that crap? Everything. This Tsukamoto piece of art is a manifestation of great great fear of cold and soulless technology. Main character is a guy who has rather serious problem: one day he notices that metal parts are slowly beginning to reveal themselves from under his skin. Why, and what does it mean? Where will it lead to? You'll see. What I can say is that you don't need to live in Japan to enjoy this movie. The atmosphere is amazingly unconventional, and can be compared only to other industrial/anti-industrial masterpieces of Japanese cinema. The movie is black and white only all the time. Camera work is incredible, it builds intense paranoid atmosphere. If you've seen other Shinya's movies, you know what you can expect. The way the story is told, with all these cut-and-paste elements... oh God :D If you've already seen some totally psyched-out movies like this one, you might get a laugh sometimes, otherwise I guarantee you'll be strongly shocked, because as I said before: you probably haven't seen anything like this before, so watch your back, you have been warned ;) Budget used to make this movie may be equal to something like two cokes and a hamburger, but, as we can see, some don't waste even that small amount of money. There are movies made with a little help of millions of dollars which are not even worth a cent. On the other side, there are gems like this, where you can't notice signs of low-budget, because it doesn't harm this movie even in one moment. I can't think of one thing I'd change in this movie. Highly recommended, this one is a blast!

PS. If you're willing to get some other Tsukamoto movies, avoid Hiruko the Goblin.

Samaritan Girl (2004)

a powerful one

[8/10 · 7 June 2005]

This is the only Kim's movie I've seen up to this day, but after "Samaria" I know I got to dig! The story's told in a very subtle, delicate way. The movie transforms itself slowly with time, which makes it more entertaining. The script is solid and the acting is good (these young girls sure can play!), which combined gives what every movie fan probably wants to see, although you got to be in the specific mood for this one. It's not a comedy, it's not an action flick. Kim gives us fragment of three people's existence, which leaves viewer with subtle and melancholic after-effects. If you're into that kind of stuff, you should sure as hell get it.

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

one of the worst movies of 2004

[3/10 · 1 March 2005]

What can we expect from a guy who's been doing crap lately just to earn more money (which he unfortunately spends on making more crap, we're doomed!)? Well, a crap, honestly. And a big one it is! Both "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero" were masterpieces for the eye. Landscapes so beautifully colored, all elements in the background fitting perfectly in every little detail. Great artistic senses were involved in making both of those movies. Unfortunately all the rest lacked so much it almost made me puke. Exactly the same situation we got here with "House of Flying Daggers".

First of all the acting is a stone of sorrow six feet under ;) I didn't see a single good acting scene in whole two hours. All of them are unconvincing, trying to make it the easiest way. There are no intensive emotions at all. No chemistry between actors. Three days and they fall in love. There must be so much happening in their hearts and with their brains, that it took them just that much. No way! They act like an old couple bored of themselves after 40 years, being aware that it just won't work from about 20. And don't get me wrong. I'm not bored because it's to sensitive and subtle. Japanese cinema is sensitive and subtle. These bores here just pretend to be. The screenplay, that's a whole new story! Give them all the Japanese best actors onto this and it will still be a big disappointment. The dialogs are as plastic as the acting. So unrealistic! No different at all from crazy jumps and hits (the game almost at the beginning of the movie is a pure absurd). It is supposed to be a fantasy tale, so theoretically it shouldn't bother me, except for the fact that it's placed in concrete time and place in history. But dialogs and acting are so lame, so pure, almost out of scale, before it even starts, and, on the opposite side, all these special effects are a perfect example of how does way too much look like. Both these failures together create a chaotic monster, a big blob of I-don't-know-what. It's all done the American way: no real actors, no real screenplay, let's cover it with huge amount of money. But all of the flying, kicking, jumping, dodging and doing crazy tricks with weapons and stuff can't cover the fact that this is a total crap! I don't understand why so many people here are completely positive about "House of Flying Daggers". Naive.

Dead or Alive (1999)

pure waste of time

[5/10 · 25 February 2005]

I decided to watch this movie because some other comments here suggested it's a masterpiece, but this one shows no real values in general. I love Japanese cinema. Crime related productions of Kitano and Ishii are among my favorite movies. I was hoping to see something easily comparable to both those great artists, but I got seriously disappointed. The movie starts with adrenaline-stimulating 10 minutes action sequence leaving you with no understanding of what just happened. Time draws characters included, but it all looks like caricature. We got two main characters: the main good guy and the main bad guy. Let's take the second one. It's a proof no one should hire again casting guy that must've thought "man, this one's good. he must play it!". All the time he tries to look serious, but it's a dead end. He acts like a child looking at his mommy with hate in his eyes in a "give me my toy back, you ugly ugly!" way. So desperately trying to be serious, but you'll probably laugh. The plot is simple, story's boring. The way action is told and special effects remind me more of a Korean movie than a Japanese one (which is another flaw in my opinion). It means, for example, that this is more of a high-budget stuff, but it fails anyway. Kitano and Ishi are two great examples of how a simple scene without a music, sound, and with minimal movement, can be so much more deep and moving, than tons of this pointless crap. The end of this movie is so dumb and ridiculous that it will leave you with a feeling that someone has made it as a joke (which is funny only to that someone). It says very loudly "look how much time you've just wasted". It has a few good scenes, one or two very strong, but that's all. I don't recommend it, unless you have a lot of free time and nothing to do with it.

Fireworks (1997)

Outstanding movie!

[10/10 · 6 February 2005]

This is Takeshi Kitano at his best! The story is amazing and amazingly told, although some people may dislike it because of a few seriously violent scenes (no surprise to Kitano fans). Joe Hisaishi has made a great score here, which also comes as no surprise (both great score and cooperation with Kitano). This is not your ordinary movie. Those watching American super productions only sure will not understand it at all, as there are many long, silent scenes, not only without music, but sometimes without sound, you know, Kitano style ;) but hell, who cares about them anyway. This is the best movie Kitano has ever made, in my opinion. Some very deep emotional values out there. A piece of art!