DaViD´82

Certainly worse than A Bittersweet Life, but I wouldn’t take that as a flaw. The only thing that bothered me about the film (and this is just my problem) was Detective Jang's "fits", which drove me crazy as a viewer in an unbelievable way. Unfortunately, that ruined the film for me.

An episode that combines a brilliantly simple idea with perfect execution. In the limited space of one piano, Tom and Jerry have one of their best "chases".

Episodes of Family Guy never relied on a story (unlike for instance The Simpsons, Futurama and South Park), but on immediate comedy primarily involving visual gags and a murderous frequency of pop-culture references. So here we have a story vacuum stretched out to a feature-length movie. This means that in places we see forced attempts at humor from the creators, and they don’t always work. Not that there aren’t great gags here - there are, but they are mostly variations on scenes already seen in the TV series, and that just isn’t good enough. To add to things, the Griffin family is rather sidelined and the whole story revolves around Stewie which, surprisingly, isn’t a positive, because he doesn’t have very much at all in common with the “mother killer" from the series (which is in fact due to the “story" here). In essence, this is a completely pointless affair that does nothing to enrich the Family Guy world.

A picture that contains perhaps all the clichés you could possibly imagine. However, thanks to the excellent directing, the wonderful music and the great actors, this is an outstanding viewing experience. What makes this different from other movies of a similar type is that this has the type of “soul" that possibly only the South Koreans know how to imprint into a movie. In a word, this is simply beautiful.

A nod to the legacy of the noir crime films of 1970s French cinema in a twenty-first century guise.

Simply put, Clerks is so much better, more real and funnier than other wannabe art films about life that one can't help but love it immensely; even with the hindsight of a few years and Smith's later work.

Huo Yuanjia with his undeniably rich life story and teachings offer massive potential not just for filmmakers. So it is fairly surprising that the Chinese “wasted" all this potential in such a cliché-full and western-style movie, relying primarily on action scenes. Some of the fights are unarguably ingenious and hard-hitting (like really), but overall nothing miraculous occurs here (and things aren’t helped at all by the bothersome alternation of slow-motion and fast-motion sequences). However, without the fights this would have been simply a massive and rather boring stream of clichés - so thank god for the fight scenes. The only thing that catches the imagination here is the untraditional final duel between two honorable adversaries who hold each other in mutual respect - this is probably the only part of the movie that you would expect to see in a picture about the “founder of modern Wu Shu". Jet Li tries very hard in his role and, while in physical terms his performance is excellent, it seems that dramatical acting really isn’t his strong point.

Greengrass applies the successful recipe from Bloody Sunday here as well (especially his trademark immersion technique, making you one of the passengers) - and again it works out exceedingly well. Almost everything here follows the same pattern and yet it’s so very different. The first 75 minutes are dedicated to reconstructing the chaos surrounding the first plane crashes, and then during the final quarter hour absolutely drains you emotionally onboard United 93. Again, where possible, he uses real characters "as themselves". Once again he revels in unobtrusive yet impressive music, in maximum detail using hand held cameras, and totally apolitically. Impressive, although as a movie it is difficult to evaluate, but the experience is truly powerful. ♫ OST score: 4/5

January 1992, a long line in front of the Lucerna movie theater in Prague, a ten-year-old me holding an ice cream, my dad, and finally the first Indy movie I had the opportunity to see on the big screen and not on a shabby VHS tape. As a whole, the movie is weaker by a Sphinx’s hair’s breadth or by one step taken by a breastfed pre-toddler than Raiders in terms of action, story, and the sidelining of Indy's friends (and enemies), but I realized this only after the umpteenth viewing. But all these trivial "problems" are erased by the other Jones. And thus for the third time Junior is at the peak of his powers and fully equipped. Simply love at first sight for a movie that did the impossible and exceeded my immense expectations. Respect.

I still remember that fateful day when my and Indy’s paths first crossed. It took place when I was less than seven years old at summer camp. It was a rainy afternoon and there were no outdoor activities. So that the teachers could have some peace, they put on a video for the horde of children. But unfortunately they had nothing animated at hand (causing a wave of tangible disappointment among us little kids) and thus we had no choice but to watch something from a well-worn cassette. At first, some movie started, but they soon stopped it (the biggest mystery of my life to this day; what movie was that?). They fast-forwarded the cassette to half way. Then some strange movie with a gentleman in a cowboy hat started. To make it stranger, it was dubbed by a single adult who was difficult to understand. At first I was terribly disappointed, but then the ball boulder rolled out, the main theme tune sounded, and... And nothing was ever the same again. I met the love of my life (I’m sure my wife will forgive me). This cinematic experience has been surpassed in my eyes just by one movie; and no, it wasn’t Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The day after the screening, the weather was beautiful, but while we were whistling the main melody, we forced the teachers to show us the second movie. The reactions to the soup scene were... But that's another story.