Reviews

Well, it has been some time since I went into cinema to watch a horror movie. That is telling a lot. I read some very good reviews, also the IMDb score has persuaded me to see this movie in an atmosphere, which I enjoyed some 25 years ago. Scary, screaming, big screen light, but dark at the same time. A big thing ! So the scenery is great. Autumn is my season, therefore I just loved the atmosphere, leaves dropping from trees, gray and brown colors are my favorite. Actors are great. Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor have done a great job. Vera with vintage patina is "a must love", Ron role can be put in parallel to his many roles successes like "The office space" or "Band of Brothers". The story telling in the movie is super, moderately slow, evolving and convincing. Viewer is expecting, expecting ... but not getting it at the end despite all the effort from all the key factors, actors, screenplays, special effect masters, director ... What is wrong then ? It made me feel like I saw all of these already. "Amityville horror" from the 70's with James Brolin looked similar. How about to add bit of "Chucky" from the 80's ? If you think something is missing to this soup, please add "The Exorcist" from the 70's, and a slice of "The Poltergeist" and what you get is "The Conjuring" from 2013. Nothing more to add... A perfect Deja-Vu !

This is a descent drama or thriller, which however did not "Touch" me that much, leaving me with a feeling to hardly wait for another week to see it. Not really. Of course each view is subjective, therefore I fully agree with other reviewers who liked the show, it has few very strong points. Personally I always want to live with the main character and be one with it for the 40 minutes I spent my life. And this is where this show fails at least a bit. So, to continue with the same approach and give you just few examples, which I hope are not spoilers. I would fight for my son with all the weapons possible. So if I would have show anger or aggression a bit, that should be no problem. From the very start social worker made me nervous, so did the main character who just watched it empty how he looses a fight for his son versus a non-experienced social worker representing a "system". For gods sake, his son is 10 year old, he is not a newborn ! They already spent a decade together of life, regardless how quality it was. The whole story started a while ago and a the script reveals its slowly, but I think it fails a bit with the persuading the audience. Second : my children have names, which are chosen (in most cases) by parents. And son of the main character therefore cannot be called "Buddy" throughout the series. Jake is a very nice name. Otherwise series concept is interesting and had a lot of potentials, but quite a lot of them were not used. Some episodes are very, very attractive, again the other were just like a pause or the "missing link" when script writers were cornered. All in all, a mediocre/fairly good show which will last until there will be something better. And I believe it will be shortly.

Germans are saying "mittendrin statt nur dabei sein", i.e. "being deep- in instead of only there nearby". Movie drags you in and somehow you do not want it stops, when movie is over, you want more. Or at least that you want by yourself to explore the same locations or feel same feelings the main character was having, when you will be next time in Paris. Even more, you want to experience it as soon as possible. Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, it is full of history, lost souls, sorrows, passions - this is hard to oppose. What could (even though a recognized filmmaker but comparing him to Paris quite small guy like Woody Allen) tell us more then what we already know ? Far from being a Woody Allen fan this movie drew my attention. Of course you cannot miss and avoid typical neurotic speeches and characteristic behavior of the main character, who actually impersonates Woody himself, namely Owen Wilson acts like being Woody and not Owen, the actor. Looking at my remarks or resents to this movie, this would be the first one. The second one is the huge differences in characters of the couple who wants to get married. Why they would marry if they are sooo different ? Paris supposed somehow to contribute to this by enlarging already giant gap among both, I also understand the point yet this is shown rather weak, it makes less sense. And last remark would be a "cruel" movie ending, I would call it relatively rude discontinuation of the path that Woody carefully and gently built throughout the movie. Thinking it twice this is not necessarily a bad thing yet it leaves you a bit bitter taste when leaving the cinema. I only decide to write few words when I liked the movie, so ...

Thumbs up for the movie, for the idea, for the acting and ... I am fully recommending it !

What is right and what is wrong ? Who was "good" and who was "bad" ? Is there a god ? Or devil ? Or no one ? Or both ? After seeing a movie you will not be able to find the answers to above questions for sure. According to medieval knowledge about diseases this scenario could have been possible. There are many lessons to learn in the movie corroborated with many sociological perspectives, however they remain untold clearly and could be interpreted in many ways, each of us has its own view. In a religious or a non-religious way. Acting is super, Tim McInnerny and Sean Bean are great, also the rest of the crew follows and keeps the audience convinced at all times. Atmoshpere is (I guess) reflecting our present perception of "medieval", no special effects were used for that besides interesting camera angles, but this will not be disappointing but rather encouraging. I highly recommend this movie, it has something ... special.

I dislike Leonardo in principle. Baby face look, too much public attention, girls like him ... however the older he gets, the more I like him, the more attention he gets from me. OK, who am I ? And further, going back watching his older movies they also seem way better then the first time I watched them with my younger eyes, like an escalation chart. He is some sort of my generation. Psychological simplified view related to movie "psycho" subject would be then - I am also getting older, so apparently somehow I hated myself when I was younger. This movie is excellent, superb atmosphere, times in 50's described just the way I expected them to be described 15 years before I was born ... in times, which are just 10 years after the WWII. Martin Scorcese made another masterpiece ! Ben Kingsley is not the guy you would typically trust (except for his role in Ghandi), neither Max von Sydow, a synonym for bad guy or at least a complex personality. However Scorcese managed to fool us with their exhaustive help. Just excellent. I am giving 9 of out 10, leaving some room for next Scorcese movie.

Saw 1, THE original "SAW" was definitely a masterpiece. Intelligent, smart, tricky, amazing atmosphere. Like pretty much all the continuation franchises first part is the best. Saw VI can be best described as NOT Saw. Franchise is dying especially due to extensive use of torture, sadism, disclosure of leading roles .... It has all the negative points that original "Saw" was not having. It is not intelligent, it is predictable, it is straightforward, it is way too "sadist" movie. Movies like this one (pure bloody nonsense) and Hostel could be categorized in special section, far from being horror. I suggest "S/M". To avoid just negative critics it has some good points like an attempt of description of real human nature and characters. Why someone lives and why the other one dies is purely in the hand of god - ups, the director. It really makes no sense. You can find a reasonable explanation of the choice, however you would have been able to find it also if the choice would be different. Otherwise it is technically correctly done movie with few goofs.

This movie does not give you a "normal" horror movie satisfaction. I there would be a special category besides "horror" named "boring-horror", this movie would be a in top 10. Dialogues are rare. If the actors would have been Nobe's, this movie could have easily been in top 10 most boring movies ever made, however Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are saving this movie from being a total disaster. If this is suppose to be a psychological analysis of either characters (not !), background and reasons (not !), ambient (not !) or the new approach in movie making (maybe) .... it failed completely. This is not horror, at least it did not work for me.