Marigold

Films like The Dark Half best unmask what is special about Stephen King. He is able to make decent reading from a fairly banal horror story, which has the gift of dragging the reader into the plot. But when an average director takes over the same story and tells it in a average way... surprisingly, we have only an average story without magic, that's all. Stephen King needs an exceptional filmmaker to tell his stories (see Kubrick, Darabont), otherwise they will remain nothing but shadows of his work.

The idea is interesting, some of the acting performances really please (especially the choleric Čepka is easy to remember), but I do not particularly like the musical comedy genre and this film will not change that, although it is largely a parody. A few musical numbers are definitely worth the fun, the gags are quite successful, but the "80s Barrandov atmosphere just doesn't sit well with me. However, this is a genre standard, and those who like films with singing and dancing plus a pinch of normalization retro will like Blockbuster. It's not crap or the figment of a madman, but in fact a pretty intelligent film...

An incredible patchwork that butchers in a shameful way the magic of a cartoon series. The title song raised my blood pressure, and it just got worse from there. Unfortunately, this is what directorial senility looks like - a story hastily slapped together, lousy dialogues, bland characters, a completely sterile concept... It's only because of some of the gags and decent adult actors that it's more or less watchable. The only thing that can be said about the child actors is that Jára Cimrman, as the inventor of the living wood, would be a mess from this. I have no idea if the film has succeeded for children, maybe I just don't have a naïve enough perspective to appreciate it... It's certainly not good, that I guarantee.

Very decent fun. To say that Sly's role as a mountain leader fits is pointless. It's not exactly a game of deep psychology, but his muscles stand out when climbing rocks, so it's an ideal role. The story is so schematic that it does not make your head spin and the viewer can enjoy the comforting action. The environment does a lot – although nothing too revolutionary happens in the film, the environment of the mountain giants is impressive. Moreover, the creators managed to create a villain so unbelievably negative (the Stalin paraphrase is really the pinnacle!), so the viewer looks forward to the necessary moment when John Lithgow deservedly goes to the highest mountain, from which there is no turning back. Cliffhanger is a very decent action routine, which gets an extra star for the mountains. A climber would weep, while a spectator longing for easy entertainment applauds curtly.

Billy the Kid and his crew are back, and they're not going to shoot like they did in the first film. The main blame is the genderless and overly long screenplay, which contains only a few thrilling passages. Everything is thus kept afloat by good acting (especially the nice guy Kiefer Sutherland and the killer with the face of a child Emilio Estevez). Viggo Mortensen's bark is also worth mentioning. Otherwise, however, the Western action average – shootouts do not stick, and the black humor works only sporadically. Yet the story of a group of desperate men escaping the law can be watched without yawning. Out of love for the first Young Guns, I give it three sheriff's stars.

Excellent work. If only because Leonardo DiCaprio, peeled to the bone from his star manners, puts on a fantastic performance. But also because it is a powerful story, where the grateful subject of homosexuality does not serve as a shocking exclamation point, but only as one of the motives in the riveting story of two great poetic personalities. Despite the depth and fullness of the fabric, Total Eclipse does not lose clarity, persuasiveness, or naturalness. An excellent film that may not widely open the poetry of Verlain and Rimbaud in any way, but still says something about it... yet it is above all a riveting drama of two human destinies. It's just a shame about the final sequences, the densification of which I can't come to enjoy...

This is a very decently filmed "survival" film with a big ugly toothy animal in the lead role. I like the perspective with which the creators make fools of the genre clichés, I like the effects, and I like the dense atmosphere... Although I have no excessive sympathy for this kind of film, Harlin has made something that can reliably entertain and frighten me, although the first viewing is hard to beat...

Yes, iron logic: the first Predator with Arnie made a fortune, so let's go and make number two. The problem is that it lacks everything that made the first one a cult film – imaginative direction, tension, atmosphere, a touchingly bad actor that adds a hallmark perspective to everything. Glover gives the impression that instead of in a classic gritty detective story, he instead accidentally found himself in a story in a strange action sci-fi that is at times inexplicable (the king Willie scene is truly unique). A strange hybrid was created with an overly high-quality actor in the foreground and an overly poor-quality script in the background that may amuse, but in no way can it revive that unrepeatable sense of hunted game in a treacherous environment... The city may be a virgin forest in a sense, but what has been tried once works only halfway and is sometimes embarrassingly naïve and shallow.

This Czech road film does not do much for me, although it is a very interesting film with decent actors and a good atmosphere. But apart from the notorious opening song and the feeling of driving "from nowhere to nowhere", there was nothing left in me, except perhaps a kind of reverberation of summer comfort and a few strange Pastrňák catchphrases. A good film that I'm not going to watch again...

First of all, the film's title says "inspired by Homer's Iliad, for which I forgive it a great deal. It has almost nothing to do with Homer's masterpiece, unless I count the partially beaten story. Petersen's film is an attempt to look behind the myth by "reviving" the first event. They are not gods, they are not heroes outside of time and space, there is only a great human story of passion, love, betrayal, war and heroism. There are positive and negative heroes (hector is positive, while surprisingly the conquering Agamemnon negative), but there are also heroes between good and evil (Paris and Achilles). There are plenty of layers to play out this compelling and riveting story, but there's only one layer in which the creators actually do it – the layer of Hollywood spectacle. Troy is nothing more. It lacks pure emotion without calculus, it lacks real charm and monumentality (the tricks suck when there is nothing "behind" them). Petersen does exactly what he famously did in the dream factory: creates a good craftsmanship product. The battle scenes are excellent in large units and details (the Achilles vs. Hector battle is flawless), but his direction is lacking in the empathy and imagination with which The Boat or The NeverEnding Story still shine today. Nothing more than technical skill. This skill is subdued by Horner's shameful soundtrack without any excitement, distinctive melody or a drop of energy. On the other hand, he is helped by the brilliant Pitt-Banna duo. Pitt played his role with admirable conviction, and if there is one thing that could survive this single-use candy, it is Achilles, a hero on the edge of boundless arrogance and fragile vulnerability. The other faces? Bloom is traditionally terrible and now also unsympathetic. O'Toole is kind of awkward, but at key moments persuasive, Bean is drowned in a miserable and touting screenplay, etc. The end of the film is such cruel smut that the knife in my pocket opened. Inspired by Illias and endless stupidity. Homer’s Denyen besieged Troy for ten years, Petersen's extras are done with it after 14 days. Homer’s masterpiece lasted thousands of years, Petersen's opus won't survive this season. I'm sorry, but he owns it. --- marginalia: the jokes with Aeneas and Achilles' heel are really good. It is probably pointless to mention that this version does not work in the complex of Greek myths and illogically denies many of them (Agamemnon is a shining example of this, as is the oracle Laocoön)...