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Reviews
The Sleepers (2019)
Another great HBO Europe show
Actually, this is really good show for US audience. Set in gloomy 1989 Prague and surroundings, it gets you right into the world of secret services battling for their turf. Acting is great, as is the deliverance of the story, which is for me little bit over the top, and that is why I cannot give it 10. There are moments when you are pulled out of reality of the story by obvious. Yet... Really great job by everyone who worked on this series.
Vratné lahve (2007)
The Return Of The Kings
Vratné Lahve (written by Zdenek Sverák, directed by Jan Sverák) Father and son. Ten years ago they made film together, it became tremendously successful and won an Oscar. That was Kolya. After that they tried to tell the story of Czech RAF fighters during WW2, which was not so successful, mainly because of the historical, somewhat pathetic theme. Now they are back. After years and years of rewriting the script, son finally accepted his father's work and made it into film, which may be very well theirs best.
Main character Tkaloun (played by Zdenek Sverák) is an nervous, over-aged basic school teacher living with his slowly resigning wife and struggling to find a new way of life for himself after he leaves his teaching job. When he accepts new work in a supermarket as clerk responsible for storing empty glass bottles, he finds (and shows us) that it is never too late for being kind to other people and for life itself.
This film is very funny and moving - in a best way possible. It is also almost ultimately believable, as every scene and every bit of the dialog is taken from life. Audience in the theater started laughing shortly after the beginning and continued throughout the film till the final credits. Everyone was leaving the screening with a great smile on the face, filled with pleasant thoughts.
I don't know when it will hit the theaters abroad or in rest of Europe. But when it does, be sure not to miss it.
9/10
Incognito (1997)
Pleasant surprise
I just saw this piece on Czech TV. Although it was somewhat spoiled by translation, it caught my attention from the beginning till the finale. The cooperation of editing and screenplay is very good, it made me feel like watching some James Bond movies ... except this one was based on art, of course. I also loved the pace of this pleasantly surprising film, it flew with no significant faults. There are many films on TV in our country and majority of them are pure crap. Especially when you see them on midnight hour. This one was really pleasant and I am glad I spent my time with it.
7/10 Really watchable !
King Kong (2005)
How to kill an ending
It is hard to criticize such a great film, as King Kong reached the skies of modern film-making using CGI with superiority never seen before. Without a doubt what had Jackson done is breathtaking. From opening sequence (which is one of the best I've seen in last few years) through the entire movie (Skull Island plot events are in one word awesome) until they catch Kong and transport him to NYC. In this point I would give KK 10/10, leave the theater and worship Jackson forever. But then something happened ... and final half hour of this 190 minutes long film spoiled the moment. Being a graduated screenwriter I just can't tolerate structure holes like this in a film which is so huge. Just count with me - when the Kong is captured, we have a bunch of surviving characters, which are well developed and prepared for final conclusion. And what happens with almost all of them ? They disappear ! In the last scenes of the film we have Adrien Brody running mindlessly, Naomi Watts acting like overdosed junkie and Jack Black, whose character was the cause of it all, appearing maybe three times with horrid grin on his face and after all the city destructions saying the last dull sentence. So finale of KK is not the finale in the meaning "best scene of the film". It is only too long execution of giant ape. Best scenes are in the middle of this all - yes, in the Skull Island. And that disappointed me so much, that I can't give more then 8/10.
Batman Begins (2005)
Bat is back !
... and he's biting ! This film finally got me where I was supposed to be and where I wanted to get. Nolan saved the dark hero by revealing his psychological background. With no compromises he sets the way to direction in which we simply must forget all four "sequels" of this story. Even Burton can't match with Nolan's vision of fear-breaking, sad and lonely character. Why ? Well, maybe it is that Batman is really not a story for children.
Sceptic as always I was prepared to observe something what we usually call "weak moment" - it comes between half and three quarters of almost all Hollywood flicks and it can ruin your good feeling ultimately by inappropriate sentence or scene. (both Spidermans and both X-men had this "weak moment") Surprisingly in Batman Begins this moment didn't came. Instead of it I noticed upcoming humor and action, both perfectly implemented in the screenplay and greatly pointed in the end.
Cast does a great job, all of them. Christian Bale is great (he always is - in American Psycho he proved that he was born to play wicked freaks like Bateman and/or Batman), but the number one for me is Gary Oldman. After years and years spent playing various bad guys, he's the best and fairest cop I've ever seen on screen. Too weak to fight crime face to face, but too honest to run away. Perfect character.
Producers at WB, hurry up and book Mr. Nolan to make at least two sequels with Bale as Batman !
A must-see ! 9/10
War of the Worlds (2005)
Next failure of the greatest dreamer
First of all I would like to say that I was a great fan of Spielberg films. That's why I still call him the greatest dreamer, although not all of his work was my cup of tea. As time passed and I grew older I got more and more annoyed by the endings. Starting with Schindler, almost all the endings were so naive as written and directed by some old weeping lady passing her sixties. WOTW is unfortunately the same case. I am not a film critic, I am screenwriter, so usually I keep my right to remain silent. But not this time. WOTW was an insult to me, not only personally as to paying viewer, but also as an insult to all filmmakers. Welles wrote a magnificent book and no one was able to film it properly. Then Spielberg came - and made it a crap.
WOTW has some strong moments, like the burning train, or the landscape bleeding with red roots. But they just can't overweight the silly ones. That means NOT just the ending - main characters hugging each other after surviving extraterrestrial holocaust, watched by relatives which survived in Boston (why Boston remains almost untouched, anyway) can be bearable if the script is good. And it's NOT good. Koepp did a miserable job. For example - the scene with Tim Robbins is just badly written and the moment when Cruise slays him just seems that he did it just for his daughter. In the book main character just don't have any other chance to survive. Cruise has plenty of chances and when he is finally trapped, good soldier and good people around get together to save him. That's just stupid, not silly, STUPID.
To cut it short - not even great budget and great director can make great film from the great book. When I left the cinema with my friends we were glad that LOTR was made by Peter Jackson and not by Spielberg. With his approach the Tolkien Trilogy could be just like another Hook.
5/10 just because I liked his work ten years ago