Reviews (3,562)
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)
A fine sequel to one of my favourite Tim Burton films (the favourites are completely different though). The logic was already haphazard then and it's not much better this time around, but who could be mad when Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is such irresistible mayhem, genuinely entertaining and made with love for all things dead and undead.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
The film wanted to collect plus points mainly with references to Alien and Aliens and at first it succeeds, but the references soon got boring, the actors turned out to be completely uninteresting in the vast majority and one stupid situation after another started happening (the temperature in the corridor, the acid in weightlessness), until Alien: Romulus completely annoyed me. In the results, it's a spectacle almost on the level of Aliens vs. Predator that doesn’t bring anything new, in fact it probably didn't even try to. And that's a great shame. Ridley Scott's (imaginative!) Prometheus is somewhere else, and in fact so is Shane Black's The Predator.
Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024)
The fourth time didn't work so well. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are still an excellent duo, and they are opposed by a pretty decent villain, but what good is that when the plot revolves as much if not more around them as it does around completely uninteresting (old) new characters who don't have much to say. The film was worth seeing in the cinema mainly for the frantic action, which can probably turn into quite a mess at home on TV.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) (series)
An excellent series that I'm getting to late, but I'm enjoying it all the more. A spy thriller atmosphere, great action and to my surprise a great script, which especially in the last two episodes is overflowing with well-written and acted dialogue and monologues that nobody would expect from Marvel. Apart from the two leads, I really liked John Walker's character and his development. If we see him again in the future, I won't be mad at all.
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
Marvel's salvation doesn't quite happen, in fact, neither does a proper sequel the kind the two previous great films deserve. The threequel, in my opinion, is largely a cynical marketing ploy (yes, I know movies are made to get people to go see them, but they don't have to stick out like that), the plot of which is summed up by its title; it is, after all, nothing more than an opportunity to see Deadpool and Wolverine go on a rampage. Don't expect a surprising plot, and unfortunately, don't expect the well-written story that the first Deadpool had, and oddly enough, don't expect such imaginative action sequences or naturally occurring humour either. There's either too much or not enough of everything in Deadpool & Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman certainly had a good time and gave it their all, or what did work worked mainly because of them, as Shawn Levy didn't help much and the other actors and actresses are negligible and entertain mainly with their return to their roles and not by doing anything entertaining. Otherwise, though, I'll long be haunted by things like the agonizingly long monologues of the TVA boss, the soon-to-be-ridiculed slow-motion posing before the action, the whole mess that someone decided to call a story... If the film is a success, I'll be happy for the people behind it, but I certainly can't call it that.
Fly Me to the Moon (2024)
I'm a bit squeamish about space movies showing/appearing to show astronauts boarding a rocket at the last minute, or that there's still a lot that can be accomplished just before the countdown begins (to avoid spoilers, I won't write more), and I don't think these things need to be even in a romantic comedy. But Take Me to the Moon is also the kind of film that doesn't take itself entirely seriously and that you'll be happy to forgive a lot, though not everything. Like Channing Tatum, who didn't quite fit the role. The film hinges on Scarlett Johansson, and if she wasn't convincing, all further efforts would have been in vain. Fortunately, she gives a great comedic performance. The script is funny, the period atmosphere supported by Daniel Pemberton's music is magically nostalgic, the whole thing has the flavour and aroma of romantic comedies of times past, when the leading couple would have been played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. So if you say the hackneyed "they don't make movies like that anymore" about Take Me to the Moon, it'll be true this time.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
A great sequel to the original film, in fact the best of them all. I especially like that they chose not to adapt Foley and the plot to the present day, so there's no artificial intelligence or hackers, no drones flying around, and no one watching anyone via satellite. It's a bona fide action crime comedy that gave me pretty much everything I expected from it, and managed to involve the new characters in the plot better than, say, Bad Boys: Ride or Die.
Beverly Hills Cop III (1994)
The amusement park is a bit too much (and better not talk about the futuristic weapons) and Flint is certainly not a full replacement for Taggart, but Eddie Murphy still managed to pull the film off. All in all, I don't find Beverly Hills Cop II much worse than Tony Scott's second, which actually surprised me, and pleasantly so.
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)
The better the direction, the worse the script. Especially the effort to send Axel, Taggart and Rosewood into situations that worked last time was quite hammy. On the one hand, it seemed they wanted the Beverly Hills Cop II to be more of a crime drama than the first, but they also wanted it to be more comedic... Yet they didn't quite find that rare balance that I liked before.
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, and I certainly didn't remember it being this good. Eddie Murphy's loquaciousness and some of the gunfights aside, Beverly Hills Cop is exceptional mostly because of the characters and how they gradually grow closer. Of course, that's to be expected, but it's still a joy to see how, thanks to Foley's vivaciousness, all those initially uptight cops slowly melt away and start to have fun until they're downright enjoying themselves by the end.