3DD!3

A great idea with a fantastic twist, yet a bit drawn out and the digital effects are blatant, which is a bit of a shame. Let's see how the original fares against it.

An excellent sci-fi adapted from an old French comic book with a rather dated plot. Lots of excellent individual scenes, but the very end went a bit wobbly during an otherwise excellently begun ending. Kang-ho Song excellent, Chris Evans tried, Tilda Swinton reaches the zenith of repulsiveness.

Cimino’s solid directing and Stone’s excellent screenplay that uncovers the goings-on behind the scenes of Chinatown. Lots of excellent ideas (wife, shootout on the bridge) and no pussyfooting. The rather slow tempo is a little annoying, it could have been a first-rate movie. This way it’s only a fine genre piece with the young (not yet too decadent) Mickey Rourke. The people in this country have no memory. Nobody remembers anything.

It’s pleasant to revisit a small miracle of the modern cinematography. Who would have guessed that there would be people waiting in line to see second-rate heroes and that Iron Man would mean the launch of a gigantic mechanism aimed at earning great sums of money and making viewers happy.

Hitchcock with french fries. The first half works outstandingly, but gradually the lapses begin mounting up and by the finale it’s turned into a 90s air disaster movies the likes of Executive Decision or Air Force One. But the beginning is atmospheric, actors great, Liam Neeson continues to build his hard guy aura. Collet-Serra is a good filmmaker, but nobody wants to give him a decent screenplay, so for now he’s made friends with guns and Neeson. We can at least be pleased about that.

A more than decent encore to the slaughter at Thermopylae. Less testosterone, more tactics, tricks and women. which makes the sequel much more diverse to watch. Eva Green steals the show, mainly because Stapleton simply doesn’t have the same charisma as Butler, and he knows it, and that’s why his character is craftier and, more than strength, he radiates intelligence. Xerxes, who initially was meant to be the mainstay of the movie, surprisingly appears somewhere toward the back, but Rodrigo still really enjoys his most famous role. A well-justified (what’s the word?) sidequel, that works even without the original 300.

A little bit too overcomplicated, definitely. But David O. Russell played with every little detail and chose great actors for the main roles. Bale is great in an untraditional (obese) role, but the fact that it’s good is thanks to the team work where everybody does they are meant to and the result speaks for itself. It’s not Oscar material, but it’s still a great fun without trying too much, jokes firing away throughout the whole movie. Incredible costumes.

A fine Statham movie that is rather slow to take off. But from the moment when a big black guy pins one of the motorcyclists to the wall with a hay fork, it suddenly picks up pace and doesn’t stop till the end. Franco is great and, for Jason, a little untraditional opponent who uses his wits rather than fighting.

An unbalanced retelling of another one of Welsh’s books suffers from an average director who loses the ground under his feet mainly in the second part of the movie, but at the same time was incredibly lucky in casting McAvoy in the role of Robb. A marvelous concert of acting that covers up almost all flaws. On top of that, the first half is just packed with great lines... This way to the staff recruitment center, dear Santa.

A drama about tightening a bolt till the nut sheers off. Bale is great as usual, but the real McCoy here is Woody Harrelson who really savors his rotten-to-the-core role. A young Affleck is still the same old repulsive loon, so he’s not missed much when he’s gone. Cooper easily manages a realistic atmosphere and you can almost smell the dirt of this industrial Hicksville. The story of vengeance is maybe overshadowed a little too much by the transformation of a good guy into a revengeful (yet flaccid and erring) “asshole". And that slowly disappearing working class of America mirrors our situation too. We all need money.