Reviews

A truly mesmerizing attempt, back in 1973, to catch the fully emotionally world of a five year old child after watching Frankenstein she believes that this monster exists in a large abandoned house near their village and she finds It as a wounded fugitive soldier (from local civil war) arrives at this house. Beside this simply, wonderful story of how frightening is to be a child is the metaphor of a very specific political period in Spain where the village itself is an allegorical of an isolated country, the poisonous mushrooms the Franco dictatorship, Ana a whole nation in a dreamy nightmare. That was Erice's masterpiece (with the collaboration of Luis Cuadrado magical cinematography) with an exceptional performance from Ana Torrent. A very slow, graceful and unforgettable experience

Because everyone's aspirations (and audience's too) depends on what you say in your whole life (and movie career too). Mel, once upon a time (Gallipoli, The year of Living Dangerously) a great character actor, then a good but way above average the proper level director (Braveheart), now a disliked persona in Hollywood, a great pretender just because he can't establish in his personal life the meaning of his movie career (as an actor, director, producer): The priority of family! In this intense political, crime, family drama Mel's actions and purposes have to do with the family as always (protect his son in Ransom, protect his family in The Patriot, seeking revenge for her wife in Braveheart, seeking revenge for her daughter in Edge of Darkness)and he is very good (you can almost feel the pain of loss in his whole body and with every expression on his face), Winstone is exceptional - as always- and the entire movie in very interesting and well worth it.

A excellent portrait from Vasilis Georgiadis (who directed "Ta kokkina fanaria" and "To homa vaftike kokkino - Blood on the Land- both academy awards nominations for Best Foreign Language Film)of a very ambitious young man (Alekos) who tries to leave behind his poor life's misery and escape from his sad reality through illusions and lies. Also a memorable portrait of a city (Athens) back in the decade of 50's, neighborhoods with a court, character type neighbors (like the local lawyer here) willing to help everyone to meet his below average ambitions and needs. This movie is also an authentic Greek tragedy towards the end, what ever happened at the seventh day of creation? When God stopped creating, sit back and relax, to see his creations collapsed down. Very good performances from Fotiou & Tzortis, an excellent one from Starenios, an actor with a film career full of mean and evil roles of a traitor, killer etc. , here as the beloved father of Alekos, a performance near to perfection

In 1990 British author and screenwriter Philip Ridley gave us one of the best (in my opinion among with "The Spirit of the Beehive" and "Let the Right One In"), deeply sensational and very frightening portrait of childhood full of cruel youths, abused children (Ridley avoids to shock the audience, it's preferable to horrify it as the black car appears through sun illusions - special kudos to the magnificent cinematography by Dick Pope), desperate people (the father, the English lady etc.) in their widely shut worlds of loneliness and fear from their own "crimes" of the past who decide to drink gasoline and light the fire (!) or they've been transformed into vampires through 10 years old Seth's eyes. A poetic, Gothic tale about lust, death, human nature and urban life, disturbing for some, to be praised for others (like Lynch, Jondorowksy and me). Sometimes (at least) is almost a hell to be an angel in life...

If you don't know (or read any reviews) anything about this mockumendary you will find it surprisingly above average and chilling enough, with an interesting, nightmarish plot about sudden deaths and kidnapping from aliens in the state of Alaska and in the center of the myth a female doctor who tries to investigate what happened through hypnosis, a whole film supposed to be torn between rumors and documents, a film that succeed (more than 'Paranormal Activity' or 'The Blair Witch Project') just because it make us believe that these things might be true. Milla as doctor Abbey Tyler is badly miscast, an obvious failure, she can't even feel any anger or fear. A good popcorn entertainment for rainy, scary evenings

Roman Knows a few things about hidden truth or about chasing ghosts of the past to be sacrificed. And he is still an exceptional creator of a world full of covered secrets and mystic conspiracies. Here we have a ghost writer of "Memoirs" of the ex prime minister of England who tries to investigate the connection between the unexpected and mysterious death of a previous ghost writer and the rumors about a scandal with the ex prime minister involved about arresting Pakistan citizens and delivered to CIA to be tortured. But curiosity kills the cat (and writers too). There is also another ghost, the ex prime minister, a character looks strong but always a puppet, a victim of manipulation and secret conspiracies aside of his aspirations. Roman directed a great political thriller, one of the best of this kind (among with "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor" from the 70's I think...) with a chilling, outstanding and atmospheric music score from Alexandre Desplat, a clever twist of the plot near the final magnificent scene, McGregor is good (he reminds me the character of Polanski as an actor in "The Tenant" thirty five years earlier), Brosnan is very good and convincing (even though he deserved more screen time, he is a genius)and a pair of great performances from the ladies, Williams as his wife, and especially Cattrall (as his personal secretary and probably mistress, always by his side, with her mute and unspeakable tenderness and love), far away from heavy make-up and the caricature role in "Sex and the City". One safe contender early in Academy Awards race (at least for Polanski, Desplat and Cattrall), a closed bet for "The ten best films" list of this year

An emotionally journey in the South American villages of Brazil where Father Gabriel wants to bring Christianity to the natives and ex-slave hunter Mendoza to his mission in order to find peace for killing his brother. An inspiring, powerful movie about forgiveness, guilt, freedom of human will, redemption and most of all about love and how people are crucified for the protection of every human being. It is also a film with "torn in different thoughts" heroes, torn between learned duties (as a priest for Mendoza) and his past, a conflict between catholic ideals and love as the only spirit and feeling who will live after all (a great final scene , a sunny and silent day in the jungle). 6 Academy Awards Nominations (including Best picture, Director for Joffe, a remarkable original music score from Morricone,for the incredible editing in the battle scene for Jim Clark etc) ,one win for the outrageous cinematography (once again) by Chris Menges, and a pair of -should be AAN- great performances from Irons and De Niro. A masterpiece

A weird story about a former blues man, now a farmer, in his mid-life (his wife left him for his brother!) and his faith's crisis who find a young nymphomaniac girl, abandoned nearby his farm, beaten and almost dead, bring her at his home and keep her chained to control her and fight against her sexual appetite. Very convincing performance from Jackson as Lazarus (maybe his finest among with these in Pulp Fiction and A time to Kill) and an impressive and mature from Ricci as Rae, once an abused child, now a fully emotional and immoral nympho. The whole script looks like a dark fairy tale (with happy ending even though this couldn't help the movie to get any success in theaters) about hope, faith and blues of course (incredible scene where Lazarus plays his guitar in a rainy, full of thunders night and his his "personal" passport to find peace and faith hold tight his foot). Strange enough to find it great but overall an interesting experience

Why this film called "Clash of the Titans" even though it has nothing to do with the Titans of Greek Mythology (and the word Titans mentioned only once in the whole movie?) How much did they paid to have Neeson with a ridiculous "disco-ball" costume and his brutal voice as Zeus and Fiennes with his creeping face in the -supposed to be- evil role of Hades? Is Worthington an Avatar or he has already transformed to green-eye demi-God with clean face and marine hair-cut? This film is as bad as the original from Desmond Davis back in 1981 (to be honest the original looks very cheap these years and it has at least an interesting love story between Perseus and Adromeda). Here we have a group of brave and full of stupid courage men (not to mention the demon or something like that who support them) in their epic journey (they have scorpions as vehicles!) to kill snake-head Medusa and save the ancient city of Argos (and Andromeda too). The script lines (full of brave words) are laughable, the music score not even memorable, the costumes trashy, a whole movie , must to avoid. Only bright spots, Draco's figure mostly because he is more silent than the others, and a lovely performance from Pegasus

...means the reborn of the human nature! This is the last night on earth, the nature of the disaster will remain unknown (no mention about that through the whole film but who cares), people quietly prepare themselves for the end deciding with who or how they will spend their last six hours on earth! One is trying to come across the city to meet her lovely husband to commit suicide together, other attends a family meal and decides to spend the night all alone, another person has already write all over his house's walls which exactly sexual fantasy remains to do, this is a deeply emotional travel to human nature near the end, their fears, their abandoned values, their growth to something beyond their lonely life. Excellent performances by everyone (especially from Callum Keith-Rennie as always and Sandra Oh who both received deserved Genie Awards), a personal triumph for Don McKellar (director, writer and actor in the main character role as Patrick). One of the best Canadians films ever

Somewhere near Oregon , Wendy (on her way to Alaska to find a new job and the "promised land" she hope for), looses her only company in this travel , dog Lucy, when she's been arrested for stealing from a local market dog's food. Typical independent film which provide us the real, ugly, lonely and depressing side of American country, widely ignored and away from big city lights : Stray (as dogs) characters "suffering" from loneliness and dignity, almost broken relationships between isolated persons, a journey with no return to cope with Life. An outstanding performance from Michelle Williams (should be AAN, winner of Online Film Critics Society) with her "eyes-acting" of fear in the scene at the woods, her tragic despair at the farewell scene, a human desert searching for her friend, a silent pain standing on her feet wondering about the future. Reichardt's film (with the support from the Pope of Independent cinema, Todd Haynes, as the executive producer) remains a fresh version of Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy or Schatzberg's Scarecrow, a real gem and with no doubt one of ten best films of this year...

This amoral, blasphemous -wanna be- crime thriller could be a very interesting attempt to examine the thin, hedonic line between sex and death and how a group of idealistic youths become a gang of killers only to explore it. It could be also a fine horror comedy if only the full crew of this film won't take it very seriously in order to present us a modern crime drama. Instead of all these we have a teenage horror flop in every script line, in every person who involve in that. Without tension or climax to excite us, full of graphic sex scenes (like an amateur porn movie of high level), very laughable at times (the hero drinks a beer and this is the beginning of killings, drugs etc.), a pointless, predictable and annoying gore rubbish

The real story of the first ever colored diver in navy, his attempts to face the obstacles of his color, his strength to gain the respect and a personal fight against prejudice of the racist society in 50's. This movie is also very familiar to the military formula of other films in recent history (from "An Officer and a Gentleman" to the horrible "G.I. Jane") and has a very "powerful" Hollywood meaning about morality, honesty and the dreams that all come true only because of our will. Cuba is good (even though I disliked his character when he decided to cut his leg only to continue diving!), Theron has a limited screen appearance (and she doesn't match at all as Chief Sunday's wife) and of course De Niro (in a role seems to exist only for him) delivers a stellar performance as the southern trainer and master diver (maybe his last great performance till now)

This could be a good "who done it?" film with an interesting and clever story about an American student and an English professor who manage to solve the mystery of murders in Oxford society with the help of mathematics' symbols, puzzles and theories. But the lack of narrative style from Alex de la Iglesia (even though his long "traveling" shots without ending before the first murder are very interesting) and a plot full of mathematic explanations (even though are not so believable) damaged the film. Most of all we don't even have the proper character development, everyone there seems a caricature (especially the Russian student) and with not a good reason to exist (they are all suspects for the murders, that's the clue!) and most of the performances are "wooden" (Wood looks tiny in the central role without the ability to carry out the character) with the exception of Leona Watling (even though her character is irrelevant with the plot). Original music (Goya award) at least (from one of the greatest music composers, Roque Banos) holds the trill and tension to the end

Remake of a 1957 film (Delmer Daves directed, with an excellent performance from Van Heflin as the rancher and Civil War veteran). Here Mangold give us a real good entertainment without the ambition to make something epic or glamorous (imagine Gibson or Costner directed this one with their "wanna be De Mille style" to present us The Final Epic Tale of Old West!!). Great costumes designed from Arianne Phillips (especially those of Crowe and Foster), outstanding music score composed by Marco Beltrami (Academy Award nominee), a compelling plot, some riveting action scenes (especially the last one), and a pair of great performances from Russell Crowe as the amoral , famous outlaw Ben Wade and and Ben Foster as his loyal and psychopath buddy (he almost "steals" every scene with his great costume, his crazy face expression, he reminds me Richard Widmark in Garden of Evil or Warren Oates in The Wild Bunch)

A great disappointment from a unable(?) director to approach at least with humanity the feelings and characters of a simply story about a raped and brutally killed child, the way her family face this tragic loss, the way the child from a mid-area between heaven and earth await to find peace when her killer will be found. All the above sacrificed from Jackson only to present us a fantasy colored and peaceful world (very beautiful indeed). Father (as a character and Wahlberg too) ties hard to make us sympathize him, mother "disappeared" just like that in the middle of the story and we can't understand her reaction and decisions about that, grandma (and Sarandon too) is a caricature of herself (and a 70's grandma), the child runs and cries like saint, the rapist (even though Tucci-Academy Award nominee- tries hard but in a wrong way full of "monkish" face expressions) finds the Justice he deserves, everyone in the film has the "gift" or "instinct" to feel the dead girl and communicate with this mid-area, everyone except the director.

This supposed to be a tragic elegy about religion, timeless love and madness in the way (way above this film) "Oldboy" was Chan-wook Park's epic tale about revenge, sadness and for an eternity cursed heroes. We can say very easily that Park excels again, he is a genius treating the "vampirism" of the priest as a disease and directing a "stylish exercise" full of great images like paintings but I have to admit that the plot was a bit confused at times, I can' make any sense from what the characters said, the film goes too long trying to say everything, in conclusion Park seems like a stylish director but not a good narrator at all. OK-bin Kim as the ultimate vixen - siren of this bloody tale is very convincing.

Trying to forget that this film remains another version of an old "formula" (psycho " child" and a family in danger) and the stupidity of the main male character (even though it's obvious that something go wrong with this child from the beginning of the film), there is still a good effort from an unknown (to me) director with a nearly clever twist at the end and sub plots that focused on the characters and their reactions. An entertaining psychological (and horrible in a good way) thriller with an above-average believable performance from Farmiga as the adoptive mother (and very sexy too). P.S. I prefer the alternate ending

or what we once knew (the strict and simply code of old west and honor) and understood had already changed (civilization and industrial cities) and leave us as ancient monsters (or to be more specific, as imprisoned scorpions for the brutal crowd). A landmark film for the Old West with stunning cinematography from Lucien Ballard, a gore, amazing edited final scene from Lou Lombardo (as a dance sequence in slow motion) , an outstanding music score from Jerry Fielding, a honest and scary approach to the violent human nature. Brilliant performances from Holden, Borgnine, Ryan, O'Brien, Johnson and Oates (my favorite one, so silent...). Simply superb, Peckinpah finest and greatest moments...

From this suspicious beginning of the film (Teddy & Chuck standing on a ferry on the way to the island) to the chilling end ("which would be worse, to live as a monster or to die as a good man?") this film remains a totally stunning experience. A scary descent (similar with those in Kafka's stories) to the catacombs of memory, insanity and loneliness, a lot of haunting dream sequences, a complex story of pain & tenderness (for the main character) which reminds me Parker's Angel Heart. Most of all another great film from Marti (incredible open sequence, a very frightening ferry's approach to the island). Admire also the consequence of the performers to the characters (even though what is obvious about them collapse at the end), especially Ruffalo and Kingsley (a near safe-bet to the next Academy Awards). Marti still directed films for the audience (and not for the critics or film buffs) and deserves our applause

Once again the same familiar story about a man (writer here) who sell his soul to the devil in order to have his most desired ambition in life: success. Unfunny script (we should "go home and write better"), ridiculous lines in order to understand the "strong" "Christmanish" message (our only aspiration in life is to find love, respect and a good friendship) and a very long trial scene at the end where the agent Hopkins beat the devil (Jennifer Love Hewitt is no sexy or evil at all) for all the bad things she made to this unlikable character. Not bad efforts from the actors (Baldwin also as a director, Cattrall in a "Sex and the City" role again, Aykroyd with some funny lines in his limited role). P.S. Try also a not so popular film from Greece called "Alloimono stous neous", a brilliant adaptation of this myth (an old man give his soul to the devil to get back his youth)

A journey through an apocalyptic and silent land to find a safe place, maybe near the coast. A (unnamed) father (holding a gun with their last two bullets for themselves) and his eleven years old son into a depressing, nightmarish trip to find hope facing cannibalistic survivors, the luck of food, their doubt about the remain humanity. A film with episodic structure (one of the greatest this one with the old blind man - Robert Duvall - covered with ashes and sadness), expert all grey photography from Javier Aguirresarobe (worth an academy award nomination), great art directions from Chris Kennedy, a wise, silent performance from Mortensen as the father, a tribute from the adapted screenplay (Joe Penhall) to the Australian director John Hillcoat. Enough to keep the fire inside of us...

The return of Bigelow (from her last film in 2002) is as a great political thriller as a skillfully created (and acted), emotional character study of a team of bomb experts in Iraq (film shootings in locations of Jordan), their daily "face to death" activities disarming bombs, their concerns about the meaning of every war, their inability to rest peacefully when they return home as they can't understand any other world except this one they can handle. Intense and thrilling in every scene (what a great opening sequence!), the script (from Mark Boal) allows the characters to be judged from their actions, a star making performance from Oscar - nominated Jeremy Renner (also Anthony Mackie near to perfection, Bigelow, Boal and Renner all deserved Academy Awards, probably best film of this year

Set in North Africa British army camp this is an intense and powerful drama where the most sadistic punishment for prisoners is to climb a hill (which was made by the prisoners) at the heat of the day. A script (Ray Rigby won the prize for best screenplay at Cannes film festival) about the lust of power (the battle between two guards), racism, loyalty, heroism towards the cowards but most of all how it works a moral man made universe based on disturbing honesty and brutal actions. Special mention to the actors for their magnificent performances, especially to Andrews for his sadistic portrait as the guard, Davis as one of the prisoners and most off all to Connery (a short break from Bond role) in his finest performance. One more masterpiece in Lumet's long career (and full of them). Connery's screw at the end "Don't Do It!" give the usual bittersweet end of Lumet's films

An abandoned orphan who finds an over weighted woman to marry her and what ever happened when an "old flame" comes again to his life. First of all an unfunny film. A script based only to the incredible weight of his wife and how this affected hero's miserable life. Not even interesting or sympathetic character roles from the entire cast. Racist, misogynistic, , insulting, pointless and flat film . Murphy (way below average in every effort to make them laugh) is just horrible with his Afro - hairstyle and stereotypical as Rasputia (or something like that). Written by Murphy and his brother (?). A great failure at all