D.Moore

The Terminator has become a kind of second Columbo – every time he comes back, you're a little less glad (in the case of the Terminator if you're a viewer, in the case of Columbo if you're a killer). This movie... it's off to a promising start. In fact, its opening scene was the best ever, because it surprised me and made me feel something, which I can't say about the rest of it. The whole weirdly unfolding story failed to make me feel like there was really something going on, that I should be worried about someone. I guess it's also because it's a repeat of what we've seen before, only this time the "new Sarah" isn't interesting at all, the "real Sarah" is mostly a decoy to the fans, and Arnold's terminator gets a terrible beating because by the time the finale comes, in which he finally finds himself, he's acting more like he's in an SNL sketch than the movie James Cameron supposedly had something to do with. The heroine sent from the future, played by Mackenzie Davis, is likeable and reminded me of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, except that although she points out several times that she is human, I didn't feel any humanity from her and she acted more like a machine. Then again, I hardly know what to write about her antagonist – except perhaps that the repeated shots of his reassembling head/body got old so quickly, as did almost all of the action scenes, which were great but boring. It's the same, maybe a little better than Terminator Genisys... but on the other hand, Genisys at least tried to do the unexpected sometimes (even if it was stupid afterwards).

I feel like I spent an evening in the company of Jiri Suchý, who looked back on his life with a twinkle in his eye, wit on his tongue, and a wise peace of mind, telling me everything I've read or heard about in person, and I listened to him without moving, interrupted only and at the most by laughter. It's a quite wonderful feeling.

It's fine, it's funny, it's well thought out so that the scenes not only build on each other, but also interfere with each other in various ways, and Jeff Dunham is just great. That said... Bubba J. is such a stupid character that I simply can’t give him all five stars.

I'm reviewing Nixon a few days after seeing it, and I think I'm doing the right thing because this is one of those films that distance can help. I enjoyed Oliver Stone's second "presidential film" from the start, I was incredibly intrigued by Anthony Hopkins' performance (his facial expressions, gestures, overall posture, it's all spot on, and yet I never would have guessed that he would play Nixon) and I enjoyed Oliver Stone – a director who switched styles as much as the camera operator until the whole thing looked almost documentary-like. I was a bit annoyed with Oliver Stone the screenwriter, though. That's when I occasionally asked myself if "it's a bit much", for example, during meetings of the evil Republican schemers who were only horns short of perfection, or the very first shot of the White House in the storm, under lightning, and to ominous music by John Williams until it looked exactly like the Springfield Republican Party Headquarters from The Simpsons. But this is where distance helped, as well as reflection on the overall tone of the film, which oddly enough is not exactly what you'd expect from Oliver Stone. In the end Nixon is not the embodiment of evil, but rather its convenient tool, which he willingly became. There are others pulling the strings here, and the pulling, the drunkenness with limitless power and the ability to do evil and yet be falsely convinced otherwise, is all very believably rendered. We get to see the transformation of Nixon in all its horror – from a simple young man who wanted more, more, more, to a president who could have no more, and it (almost) destroyed him. The final speech is very impressive because of all this, and I felt sorry for the main "hero" during it, I really did.____ P.S. I was very amused by the way Oliver Stone dealt with the assassination of John F. Kennedy – we don't see him in the film, but instead we just hear the familiar drum roll that begins the opening scene of Stone's JFK. It's as if he's saying, "You can find out all about it there." And you know what? If I had three hours to spare, I'd do it now.

A little slowing down after a packed first episode doesn't hurt, especially when it's really just a slowing down while the series continues to evolve. It builds directly on the first episode and once again comes up with some surprises that deepen the main heroine’s story while subtly revealing more about the world in which it takes place. Again, the storyline leads from the opening scene to the closing before the final credits, which is fine, but unlike the previous installment, this one doesn't feel like a standalone story. I liked the apartment search and the scene with Hooded Justice, but I was a little less happy with the raid on the rednecks (though I suppose that wasn't intended to be spectacular).

An incredible performance by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, who not only made Laurel and Hardy on stage, but 100% inhabited them as real people and real friends. What they perform reliably distracts the viewer from the not-so-revealing story (though I was very pleased that the film only addresses the decline of their careers) and is quite moving in the end. How beautiful it is.

This movie plays it safe and other than the characters being older, don't expect much variation. In a way it's a sympathetic approach, but it would have been even more sympathetic to me if I hadn't found the last film to be an altogether entertaining but also contradictory spectacle that I just couldn't miss. The second Zombieland is better perhaps only in that the vast majority of the most rewarding humor this time rests on the shoulders of Woody Harrelson, who is simply brilliant, and newcomer Zoey Deutch, who wraps everyone around her finger with her endearing portrayal of a less than bright girl. It's the other characters' clashes with her way of "thinking" that entertained me the most (along with the final credits). Not the mashing of the undead with combines and the tired,obligatory finale, nor the hackneyed romance with its predictable conclusion, and certainly not the whole part with Luke Wilson, which was a few completely tone-deaf minutes and a bore to watch.

I am very, very happily surprised. I really didn't expect such a damn black combination of cynical comedy, thriller, and satirical drama. It's so stunningly written, with characters I still don't really know what to think of, and with amazingly funny moments that probably wouldn't be funny at all in another movie. The directorial playfulness is one hundred and ten percent – still a surprising, thoughtful, but not pretentious guilty pleasure.

I don’tnormally do this, but Watchmen is going to be the exception – since the series seems to be made up of interwoven stories (and also to balance out the hating a bit), I'll be reviewing it episode by episode. This first one is... great. An alternate 2019, a generation after the events of Snyder's film (the raining squids remind you of the book), a US where it is not Ronald Reagan but a completely different actor who is president, fearsome anarchists in Rorschach masks. The whole world looks very promising and well thought out, although we don't actually learn much about it, but only discover it through various hints. I liked the story a lot – of course, when it starts with a huge KKK lynching, it then logically devotes itself to the theme of racism, and if anyone is surprised or outraged by that, they probably have some personal problem and don't need to watch. The rest of us were able to enjoy a perfectly pitched story with great promise for the future. I'm really interested to see what happens next because I have a lot of questions and I’m quite happy with it.

One of those movies that just keeps getting worse. The ending downright annoyed me, although I had a pretty good time in the first room and even liked the characters' believable panic sometime into the ice scene.