Reviews

With an astonishing performance from DiCaprio, Nolan delivers another true masterpiece. This is the most original movie idea of recent years. This fabulous film is a powerful ride through different layers of narration and significance that demands more views to fully absorb its storytelling experience.

This independent film is really worth watching. I catched it in a small film festival in Italy in the city of Siena. Good cinematography for a low budget indie film, great scores. Maybe, sometimes, the score is too much "Hans Zimmer like" but it overall add value to the story which, telling the truth, it is not so original. But it is the way the story is told. It starts rather slow. In the first 30 minutes of the film nothing seems to happen. Not to bad anyway, because the director get us close to the main character, Father Leonardo, an Italian missionary in the Philippines, and the shots are nice. The film builds nicely as it reach the mid part and from there it's a crescendo till the final dramatic scene which is really impressive, with "Sergio Leone style" close ups and pointed guns you hope won't fire. It is sad to know that in the Philippines children are exploited this way and that authorities don't do their best to make these things stop.

Really, I could not reach the end of this film and I let my son watch it. Did not want to waste precious time anymore. Life is short. But still I know the ending since I could still hear the audio. Well, first of all the photography is terrible, fluorescent, phosphorescent, it makes the whole faker than fake. Then the couple Clooney-O'Donnel. Terrible. Clooney doesn't make a good Batman at all. O'Donnel has no personality. Not even the Batgirl. Terrible. Fighting scenes very poor, bad scores, terrible VFX, what to say more? Please anyone, don't waste two hours of your time watching this movie. It's the worst Batman ever done. If you like Batman please watch the sequel directed by Christopher Nolan. Life is short.

I had the honor to watch the premiere of this beautiful film in Cannes. I am glad to see that there are still experienced directors that can make film like this one: relatively low budget, simple cinematography, a few but good actors, few locations but with a very good story telling. Stephane Brize' is able to tell his story in an entertaining way even if mainly using long uncut scenes and very simple camera setting. No shot and counter shot, none of the usual Hollywood techniques. The director take his time lingering to build tension and emotions.

Everything is based on the skills of the actors, with witty dialogues and situations that recalls the sitcom but with a dramatic treatment. It's an intelligent critic to the French society. Every young filmmaker should watch and learn from this film.

USC stands for United Sacred Crown, a criminal organization in Puglia, South Italy. This film talks about it. It is one of the very few films on the matter as I know, and certainly the one with the best cast. Several good points why you should see this film, but also some warnings: if you don't like wordy films don't watch it, because even though there is action, there's no much of it. The Broken Crown is more on the historical and psychological side. The story of the right hand man of the USC padrino who falls in love with a woman doctor is of course fictitious, but the historical reconstruction of USC genesis is true indeed. Film with a complicated plot needs a lot of attention to be understood. It's not a film you watch when you get home tired from work and want to enjoy, but if you miss something, the last part of the film, a very long flashback, helps you to understand it. I would have loved to enjoy a better know actor as the leading man even though Vittorio Boscolo isn't too bad for the role of Tano. I feel that in some part the film is a little bit too slow, I would have cut them. But probably the director chose not to do it cause they feature some somehow known German Actors. The overall editing is good as well as the acting. Very nice bad mafia faces in this film. Great the cinematography ! A good start for the indie director Ruben Maria Soriquez

I believe this is one of the most entertaining film of history. Everything is almost perfect: timing, situation, acting, humor, character. How not to laugh to death in the Hong Kong chase sequence? In this film Rowan Atkinson is just as great as he can be. There's now weak point in this film that catch your attention as the best action blockbusters can do, but with the plus that you laugh till death. This film is even better than the first Johnny English. The story is more spy-like and the plot is much better. The camera is superb in the chase scenes and this makes the movie even more funny. All the situation of major blockbusters are here, so it looks to me like an immense parody of those action movies that seem all the same with same story and predictable ending. Here the ending is super hilarious. Jhonny English once successfully ended his mission will have to meet (like in the first film) the Queen for his reward. But this time the Queen should really fear the encounter......

Throughout the documentary we understand how the showbiz works in Italy. The connection between showbiz and politics (Silvio Berlusconi), and how mad are Italian for success in the showbiz. There are shocking images of young girls which humiliate themselves to get little coverage from C rated broadcasting stations. There are former showgirl that have become ministers knowing nothing of politics. But, fortunately, there's also a part of youth (mostly immigrants) who still believes in good values, like the love for the family. This movie is a MUST SEE. In the movie also Bill Clinton forgiveness message to the nation for the scandals he was involved in. This make understand the seriousness of Americans comparing to Italians. Berlusconi has not the guts to say sorry for what he did. It is impressive how a talent agent like Lele Mora could have been in touch with head of state like Clinton, Gorbachev, etc..