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Reviews
House M.D. (2004)
Great characters and no good guys
I must say, I started watching this TV-medical drama a year ago and with a great amount of skepticism. I mean... who on earth would put Hugh Laurie as a real Dr.? Come on! I remembered him as this empty-headed duke and soldier in the fantastic comedy series "The Black Adder" starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), Stephen Fry and with the great anarchists of the British comedy Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson (Bottom) in some episodes.
However I really couldn't believe what a great actor Laurie is. You cannot find many great actors this days... and even if it may sound a great risk, the choice of Hugh Laurie was a complete triumph.
Laurie succeeds in transforming himself(I guess that's what great actors can do) into this sadistic, all-knowing, irritating, pseudo-ironic frustrated cripple genius - doctor named Dr. House. And even if it looks like one of the most obnoxious main characters around, the script is capable of giving him a sweet-human like side. It is not often that we see him like this... but sometimes we do. And that is why his character is believable. And what's with that piano playing? That's right... Dr. House plays it, and he speaks even a little Chinese, reads Indian and he rides a great sport motorcycle.
But you never really can get a good insight into him until you get to the second season. And that's world class film-making and scriptwriting is. There is always a little puzzle added in each episode.
I guess the great thing about this series is that it is E.R., but it focuses more on twists in relationships between the co-workers, patients and doctors, than on "oh my god, what's going to happen next." This series is not so much about being spectacular, but it tries to find an answer to: who are we, humans, when faced with the brutality of illness and death.
And the mystery character Dr. House makes it all worthwhile.
I hope it lasts as many seasons as The Sopranos.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
A war movie which in fact is poetry
I usually watch and give credit to European movies and usually hate the Hollywood production. And I usually see a political statement in "Schindlers list" which is commonly quoted as "his best movie" and "the best movie about holocaust".
However... after seeing S.P.R. I must agree that this is, if probably not the "best movie ever made", the most "revolutionary war movie of all time".
The movie structure is like a poem. It shakes you in the beginning, it calms you in the middle and it destroys you in the end verses.
First of all... the first battle on Omaha beach... the moving camera... the embed-ed reporter like camera... following the soldiers to the beach... the explosions, arms, legs torn apart, the fear on soldiers faces... the numbness... the on-and-off going sound after the bombs go off... MAN! After seeing it for the first time... I went out of the movie theater... and went to see it again for the second time! There has never been a movie that glued me to the chair... and made me stare for 25 minutes in silence! Well, that was a... romantic experience and I give Spielberg credit for that.
The middle of the movie... is exactly the opposite of the first. It's not loud and disturbing... but silent and green. I must say it's the greenest grass I have seen in a war movie... the soldiers walk and walk and speak about stupid stuff... like they never went thru hell in the landing at Omaha beach. When I watched this middle section I almost felt good, but it felt very unnatural... and that's why after the assault on the MG-42 nest... I felt shaken again. The dying red cross soldier shot in the stomach... dying... in the arms of comrades... UFFF. Some disturbing images.
And of course... the last part... the total destruction, the panzer's rolling thru the streets, the sniper... the self-made sticky bombs... the ruble of houses, the fights one on one... wow. Some serious sequences...
I admired the photography, the clean pictures, however it is the moving camera that makes this movie revolutionary... I think no director is able to make again a credible war movie without the Spielberg's moving camera... and that's why I consider him a GENIUS. I haven't seen a war movie with static cameras after S.P.R came out.
I must say that this movie can be judged in many ways... you can always see a "shallow characterization" or even a demagogic view on the Jew-German combat in the house... of course. However... if I exclude my political view of this movie I would say that this is probably one of the best I have ever seen.
Only the Russian movie "Come and See" (orig. Idi i Smotri) made even a harder impact on my view on what war is. And that's why I consider Saving Private Ryan if not the best, then second best war movie ever made.
Last Days (2005)
This is not a movie - it's just crap. And a long one too!
It's absolutely awful to see this piece of "art film", and call it a movie. Yeah, of course... a movie is great when it's deep, when it has that "something" you cannot even express. Let's say Elephant was a work of art... but is a movie with probably not even a 1000 words of dialog in 90 minutes of film really a movie anyone would like to see? It could be a music video! This emptiness has nothing to do with showing how Kurt felt or how he lived a reclusive life inside his jailed mind. It's just the lack of ideas, and the lack of talent that is best represented in this... i don't even know how to call it. It's probably one of the worst movies ever made. And this is the word of someone who thought that 9 Songs was a great, poetic movie. I love European movies. But this is not an art film, and it's not a deep film. It's just pure garbage.
Lilja 4-ever (2002)
It rips your insides out
The movie is great because it has very little to do with human traffic, and a lot to do with - who are we - the so called human beings, and what is the relation between children and adults?
We sell 16-year-olds to old man for sex? We sell people who have nothing and make them sex toys, dolls, objects? As you will watch this movie and the dark fate that awaits Lilja... I guess you will be very depressed after-wards. You probably won't be able to sleep very well, as I couldn't.
Lilja (and Volodja also!) really penetrates in your subconsciousness as she's extremely good portrait-ed as an innocent child with it's full morality. The problem is that this child-morality is broken and sold by morally-depraved adults. And there's no one in this movie who really tries to save her from being broken and abused, as if we all were a part of this perverse system. As she cannot defend herself, as she cannot call for help, as she cannot run to anyone... the only exit is to become an angel...
A Swedish-Russian movie... which deserved 10 Oscars. But Americans don't like the truth as it is, and i guess I have to enter this movie in my top 10 of all time.
Bullet (1996)
Very good movie
I saw this movie in the beginning of 1998 for the very first time. It was on TV and I never heard it was in movie theaters, that's why it struck me - is that Mickey Rourke? He played this ex con... with a serious heroin problem and his paranoid brother... trying to get a new life, but somehow getting tired of not getting anywhere. The sinister, dark atmosphere only amplifies this spiral "not getting anywhere" except for the places where he has already been.
I must say it's a very good movie about life. I'm not surprised it was so underrated. Americans want energetic criminals who know what they are doing, who are invincible... or either succeed or get killed. Rourke however is a criminal... a criminal addicted to heroin with a demented brother... with no money, and no chance of getting out of it. Just like a life of a criminal really is.
I recommend this movie to European fans as it is very European, even though it was made in USA. Again - very good.
Der Totmacher (1995)
An Oscar for best actor
I really think that in this movie Gotz deserved an academy award. When you watch the movie you really think: "This guy is a fuc...g psychopath!" Especially when he talks about how he chopped a corpse and then laughs, like it was fun! He says that he made sausages out of it... And yet somehow... you see this man, who in reality is still a boy. He hasn't got a clear idea of what a crime is, or how he should feel about it. Creepy stuff and for this performance Gotz deserved an Oscar.
The mood is very creepy also. Like a true European film it focuses on feelings rather than special effects where you can see how arms and legs were chopped of. This is not a movie about the act of killing but a movie about the psyche of a mass murderer.
Somehow it's even better than the Silence of the lambs. :)
See it! It's a must!
V leru (1999)
A great movie about growing up.
V leru it's not a movie about Student life. It's about being lost. Being in a position where you cannot decide where to go. But you will have to, sooner or later.
Dizzy is a man about 28 years old. Maybe 30. He has a girlfriend, but he hasn't got a job, he's not willing to get a degree, although he's not stupid, as he knows that some f......k volcano in the middle of nowhere is called Popocatepetle.
He' trapped in between choosing something (getting a job, getting married), but he's not convinced that this is something he really wants.
So he drinks with his fellow friends and follows football and wanders around - doing nothing. Then a freshman comes in his students room. 18-year old, who comes from some Trbovlje village. He looks naive and he's trying to become an electrician.
However the young roommate also has a girlfriend. A pregnant one! And this makes Dizzy, who is 30 think about what he wants to do with his life. So the story is about growing up. About taking responsibility and building something - a family, which gives a man, who feels lost, the sense of it's own worth.
9 Songs (2004)
Porn? Only if u are single.
People told me this was actually a porn movie. A movie with no plot. A movie with 9 concert songs and sex.
They could never be more wrong. This is a movie of Love with a capital L. Of course... it has full front nudity, penetration, blow job... and so on and on and on. But this movie is poetry. Full and simple poetry. For all the people who ever loved or found a soul mate. There's nothing pornographic xcept for the view. For the angles. For the picture. But the movie is about Love. A movie about a man and a woman who feel each other.
A great movie experiment. But hardly people can understand the depth of this movie, as this is a movie of a poet, rather than a director.
Predator 2 (1990)
Perhaps even greater than Predator 1
Well, Predator 2 is an excellent example of how a real action should look like. Lot's of blood... heads torn out of victims bodies... guns, murders... u name it! The movie has it's own flow... and it really made me feel the carnivorous part of the Predator... However... a fair warrior who hunts for sport.
The megalomaniac intro of the movie... is perhaps one of the best intros in action movies EVER! A vote of 5,5 is not to be taken seriously.
This is a classic action movie - it has a solid storyline and suspense and of course... some special effects. However special effects are not the most important part of the movie... like nowadays... where it seems that the stories ar actual special FX.