D.Moore

The wait for the final match was too long, often ridiculous rather than funny, and it also featured a rather large role for the unbelievably insufferable Kevin Hart. But that duel, together with the two scenes that came after it, was actually worth it.

"If you don't like me, turn me off." A very interesting and thoroughly engaging probe into the depths of (far from only) a presenter's soul. The film doesn't surpass its top-notch opening half hour, but Oliver Stone is great and Eric Bogosian is excellent in his role in such a way that you don't really notice.

A great opening, then a decent atmosphere, which is gradually diluted in the over-complication and stupid actions of the characters, and then a decent ending. Gemma Arterton's performance didn't impress me at all. Looking at her I constantly felt I was just watching a pretty British actress playing a kidnapped girl, and I was much more impressed with Eddie Marsan. Three and a bit.

A great film that has everything, i.e., huge crowd scenes (the funeral of Marcus Aurelius), perfectly magnanimous sets (the replica of Rome, which was made in Madrid, will make many a jaw drop today), thrilling action (the chariot chase filmed in the style of a car chase, the final man-to-man duel), Tiomkin's magnificent music, and to top it all off, perfect actors and their admittedly theatrical but all the more impressive monologues and dialogues. Alec Guinness' encounter with death is memorable, as is Christopher Plummer's ferocious and erratic Commodus, but the best scene, in my opinion, is James "Timonides" Mason negotiating in the barbarians' lair. I didn't even breathe during that scene.

Another irresistible mix of comedy, satire and romance from Woody Allen. This time with music by Prokofiev. I was thrilled by the scene in which the commander lectures the soldiers that if the Russians kill more French, they win, and conversely if the French kill more Russians, then they will win. When Allen's character responded to this speech with the perfectly natural question "They're gonna win what?", I knew I was going to love this movie. And there was still about an hour to go!

Expository and well-cast boredom with a few bright moments, the brightest of which was probably Petr Nárožný's small role. Otherwise, I could only shake my head in amazement, because the plot was unusually strange and the logic of who went where and why, who followed, who came back and what happened to them afterwards, left me wondering.

Stick, Stick, Start Beating! is not one of those fairy tales that I look forward to every year and that I would really seek out, but I usually watch it anyway and it surprises me every time with how cute it is through and through... and kind... Playing with the Devil is even better, but it doesn't have the perfect watchman played by Josef Hlinomaz.

Goldsmith's soundtrack to Under Fire is one of my all-time favorites, I know it by heart, and I was very curious about the film it was written for. I was therefore quite surprised how long it took after the opening credits for the music to start playing at all... Maybe half an hour, maybe more. Until then, the plot unfolded very slowly, at length, and not much of interest happened. But then the heroes got to the town of Leon, Goldsmith finally started winning, the film picked up momentum, and the atmosphere thickened and thickened. The ending was chilling and I would say quite realistic and with an idea that is unfortunately still relevant. There are simply no real heroes. And if you think so, you can bet there would be plenty of other people who would convince you otherwise.

"The gracious lady died in a fire, and we don't do mythology here!" So I finally saw I'll Give My Wife in Marriage and I'm honestly excited about the movie. Vlasta Burian never leaves the screen, the plot is very cute and all the interchangeable situations are well thought out to the smallest detail (the constant passing of Professor Ducánek and Director Merhaut is unmistakable) - simply a great comedy. Burian in a slightly unusual but irresistibly distracted position, plus the most stellar ensemble possible, including the most beautiful of the beautiful, Zita Kabátová. Pure 100% satisfaction.

I think the more you like planes with a lower case "p", the more you will like Planes. At least I did. I guess I'm just not an animation expert to say that Planes looks worse than the first Cars, and I guess I can just rise (literally) above the fact that the story is not original (I like how a lot of people complained exactly about this regarding Cars and suddenly forgot about it or something)... Thanks to that child in my head, I can still have fun, I can still admire dozens of ideas, jokes and gags (don't tell me they're not there!), I can still keep my fingers crossed for the main character, even though I know how everything will turn out. But is it the same as in many other films, from comics and westerns to action movies - or does the so-called unimaginative nature of these films not bother anyone? As far as the technical aspects are concerned, I was extremely impressed with Planes. The aerial scenes look great, the action scenes are extremely dynamic and any film can envy them, and there's an excellent score by Mark Mancina... The dubbing wasn't particularly stellar, but John Cleese was a delight, as was the sexy female voice of the Indian plane. The whole passage in India with the sacred tractors and flocks of gliders was probably the most magical. Four pure stars.