DaViD´82

The short that kicked off the whole Saw madness. It seems like a demo version of the “regular" Saw. A bit scruffy, but that is expected in a short and so the idea and the atmosphere are more important than technical aspects and acting performances. And this very same scene appeared almost unchanged in the feature-length version and there all aspects of it had been tidied up. Simply Jigsaw and his first survival game.

Rightly a cult picture with a powerful atmosphere, several perfect scenes that will remain in your mind for long after and three flawless acting performances. The filming is very low-key, but at the same time so raw to the point of being unbearable. Depression in its purest, “unembellished" movie form. Henry is definitely not a “feelgood" movie and you will carry its mood away with you after the movie ends... and that’s good.

Compared to the American remake, this British version is slightly more restrained and has great assets in the form of Martin Freeman and a toned-down Ricky Gervais. However, I found the rest of the cast better in the US version. The humor is surprisingly in a similar vein in both versions, but the American relies more on gags, especially later on in the series. Which is probably due to the greater number of episodes. But both versions work pretty well.

It’s no great surprise that the Master didn’t really like this movie. Although it seems that there isn’t much to fault here. It is marvelously filmed, as always, in terms of acting, this is certainly high above average and, not just the story, but also the original dream sequence by Dali is captivating. What brings Spellbound down a few pegs is the rather surprising screenplay. Unfortunately, the final denouement is pretty obvious right from the very beginning. This predictability might not have mattered at all, if the movie weren’t a few dozen minutes longer than it should have been. Of course, this is no great disappointment, but nor is this an above average Hitchcock. This is rather mediocre in terms of his filmography, but it is still a quality work in comparison with other contemporary productions; for instance the one-year younger case of plagiarism in the shape of Shock with Vincent Price.

A family fairytale that lacks any hint of inner "magic". The kids are so unlikeable it hurts, the witches are incredibly over the top and it's all so annoying. The only really good thing in Hocus Pocus is the soundtrack, and that  is not enough for a kids film.

Everything is connected. The problem with Syriana lies not in the topic, nor in the actors, nor in it the fact that it is so uninteresting. And definitely not in the fact that Stephen Gaghan demands from his viewers a certain amount of knowledge and desire to get right inside this movie. The only, unfortunately fundamental, problem with Syriana is that it doesn’t seem like a movie. Gaghan couldn’t define his priorities and tries to put everything into this. Which is very damaging for the movie, because despite how outstanding some of the storylines are, others are simply boring. On the other hand, these rather mixed feelings about the movie are made up for by the perfect ending. As a screenwriter, Stephen Gaghan has a lot to say, but as a director he doesn’t (yet) know how to present things like a regular movie experience with all the trimmings.

What takes others ten minutes of film to put across, Tony Scott can do in five minutes flat. Agent Orange or a rather untraditional romance in the subway, wrapped in a “Domino" style robe. This is on the very edge of orientation. I wouldn’t be at all surprised it this turned out to have more editing than the vast majority of regular feature-length movies. An offering by Tony Scott that proves that he a complete madman. However, he is a very talented and likeable madman.

Quite near the beginning there is a perfectly directed scene that whets your appetite and... and then nothing. 16 Blocks is a solid, old-school crime movie, but don’t expect anything more of it than a variation on what we have already seen a hundred times before. You would be needlessly disappointed, which would be a shame because this picture certainly has slightly above-average qualities.

Although this isn’t completely up to Kachyňa’s normal standard, it is still much better than most other Czech productions. The TV-standard production design doesn’t matter, nor does the fact that Lubor Tokoš finds no support in the other actors. What matters a real lot is the screenplay which is simply collage of random scenes. An attempt to make an untraditional road movie which, despite not working completely, is definitely a respectable farewell from Mister Director to his career and life.

Dave McKean is a genius and a phenomenal artist with a very idiosyncratic style. Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to when his job is director. Visually, Mirrormask is unarguably an original work, but the limited budget is all too obvious and prevented McKean from letting loose his creative spirit. It’s not that he hasn’t got ideas, but without being able to rely either on the actors or the screenplay, written together with the big man Neil Gaiman, he hasn’t got many options open to him. The result is therefore a glut of more or less good scenes which occasionally lack atmosphere, but together do not form a consistent whole that is interesting, let alone something that would suck you into this fantasy movie.