O filmach

I guess that I’ll just get to the point: this is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. While watching it I couldn’t think of anything that bad… There is a lot of bad movies in the world but even the unforgettable Independence Day look better compared to this “piece of art” (not much better, just a little bit).

What we got here… The whole pack of huge robots shooting to everyone and everything, another huge pack of robots chasing some humans, humans chasing huge packs of robots… And that’s it – the story is not deeper than a puddle. But this is not the worse thing – story in the first part of this movie was also shallow but made some sense. Here logic have gone on a vacation – and is not getting back until the end of the movie. There are so many illogical events that it is hard to name them all. And the main plot is just so stupid (sorry for using that word, I think that it is still not very offensive comparing to my thoughts after watching the movie) that only people who have no requirements could enjoy it. If I was still 10 years old boy, I would probably love the movie because it is full of shining robots, amazing special effects and not-very-funny jokes.

The only thing that made me stay in the cinema until the end was the money i spend to see this movie…

The summarizing: worst movie of the year, huge blockbuster and financial success. Sometimes I wonder how this facts speak for our society. We want to see stupid things? We don’t like logical plots and interesting scripts? We like to see everything burning, exploding and flying around? Maybe. I know that I’m a little bit cruel here – but this movie fully deserved this.

Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen trailer

Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallen, 2009. Directed by: Michael Bay. Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro.

Volume: 10%

2009 2009, Megan Fox, Michael Bay, movie, science fiction, Shia LaBeouf, Transformers

Duplicity is a kind of spy movie, but not like James Bond or Jason Bourne series this is not about fighting the “bad guys” but about wars between corporations. Making it more simple: about money.

Ray Koval (Clive Owen) and Claire Stanwick (Julia Roberts) are the main characters of this movie. Their relationship is not clear, but will get clearer during the movie. This picture is simply based one of those secret revealing constructions that are great for close watch. There are so many secrets and so many hidden … that you fell confused from time to time, but luckily this movie is logical from the beginning to the end. Maybe not so interesting as it could be, but well played and well constructed. Maybe the fact that Clive Owen is not one of my favorites this movie got lower ratings from my point of view, but I can’t see anything really good in his acting skills. He is always so stiff and puffed up, and in almost every movie – angry. His only role that convinced me completely was playing Theo Faron in unforgettable Children Of Men.

So, we have here a lot of secrets, interesting plot, action and thrill. And even a little bit of humor. We got every single gradient to achieve great movie. But in my opinion this is not great movie, just fine and done properly production with few interesting actors and nice script. But something is missing here, that spark of magic. Nothing sophisticated.

Duplicity trailer

Duplicity, 2009. Directed by: Tony Gilroy. Starring: Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti.

Volume: 60%

2009 2009, Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, movie, movies, Paul Giamatti, Tom Wilkinson

1. The Surrogates.

Directed by: Jonathan Mostow

Starring: Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Rosamund Pike

A story of human beings transferred into artificial bodies for the comfort of living.

Surrogates trailer

Release date: 25 September 2009 (USA)

2. Moon

Directed by: Duncan Jones

Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey

The lonely astronaut on the Moon three weeks from the end of three years shift is thinking that he is losing his mind.

Moon trailer

Release date: 17 July 2009 (UK)

3. Inglourious Basterds

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, Til Schweiger

A story of a special American soldiers squad transferred to France occupied by Nazis during World War Two.

Inglourious Basterds trailer

Release date: 19 August 2009 (UK)

4. Avatar

Directed by: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi

Supposed to be a real artistic and visual breakthrough in history of movie making. Story about humans on alien planet entering bodies of alien race.

Avatar trailer

Release date: 18 December 2009 (USA)

2009 2009, Avatar, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, James Cameron, Moon, movie, movies, premiere, Quentin Tarantino, Sam Rockwell, Surrogates, Worthington

I see Watchmen as a movie that need to be compared to The Dark Knight. I know that in most cases that kind of comparison makes one movie looks better, but this is not my point. Just follow me for a second: The Dark Knight was a movie that was based on dark and realistic environment. Making this movie look the most realistic was director’s main idea. This way of expression was a good move. But it was just one of possible ways of making movie made on a comic hero base. Nolan chosen to adjust his hero to reality. That adjusting made Batman more complex, deeper and more real. Watchmen is a story based on different point of view. The director (Zack Snyder, known from 300) didn’t choose to adjust his heroes to reality – he adjusted the reality to costume superheroes. And he scored! He made a movie that is totally different from The Dark Knight, based on something else, with totally different point of view. But those two movies are in my opinion two best movies about masked superheroes in leather suits. So in Batman we watched how a man who’s life was destroyed become a hero. In Watchmen we observe how comic heroes arrived an when (just before Second World War). At first their costumes were just like in those old comic books – colorful and funny. In time they evolved and the world evolved with them. So we got here alternative history of 1985 where the Vietnam War was won by Americans (thanks to Dr. Manhattan (played by Billy Crudup) and and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Richard Nixon is still running presidency and nuclear war can happen in any time. On this basics we see some heroes struggle to fight for peace ad all cost. What makes this film a good one are the characters of Watchmen. None of them is simple and obvious – they have their secrets, dark sides and not everyone of them is that good.

What can also be said, the visual side of the movie is just amazing. Also the music is great and fits the film perfectly.

I must say that Zack Snyder bought me totally with his review of superhero history. He just made a great movie.

Watchmen trailer

Watchmen, 2009. Directed by Zack Snyder. Starring: Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Walter Kovacs, Malin Akerman, Patrick Wilson.

Volume: 90%

2009 2009, movie, movies, superheroes, watchmen, Zack Snyder

Second post, second movie and a sequel. Bad sequel of bad part one. Let’s be honest – restarting of one of the best comedy series in movie history was a risky move. But that could give huge money and respect from fans if it would be done just well (not brilliant – just well). But that task was supposingly to tough for the creators of both (new) Pink Panther movies. The first part was bad but not that bad. The second part is everything that should not be done with a movie. Director Harald Zwart (known from a movie Agent Cody Banks) made a terrible mistake. With such great actor team (Steve Martin, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Jeremy Irons) he did nothing to entertain anyone in age above 13 years and in the same time he used such means of expression that his movie should not be reated as PG.

The story is supposed to be interesting, and could be but those unfunny gags all around just spoiled all the fun. Inspector Closeau is just weak shadow of brilliand Peter Sellers creation. While watching this new version I could not put away an impression that this movie was supposed to be a family comedy. But with all those low rated jokes this could not really succeed…

The Pink Panther 2 trailer

The Pink Panther 2, 2009. Directed by: Harald Zwart. Starring: Steve Martin, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Jeremy Irons.

Volume: 20%

2009 Martin, movie, movies, Pink Panther

We will start with something not too bad, but also not that good. Terminator: Salvation was expected with many hopes, but also fears. First trailers were telling us that we will have to deal with tough story and realistic post-apocalyptic world. The movie surely is showing those things. Remainings of the humans are hiding from the machines and trying to fight them with everything they got. And here we got many great ideas including brilliant conception of resistance general headquarters (I won’t tell how does it look) and the look of motorcycle-like robots, or huge flying machines. But there are also some bad ideas. The headquater of John Connor’s (played by Christian Bale) team is in some kind of forest and protected by magnetic mines and lots of guns. But this base is supposed to stay invisible for the eyes of the machines. The machines can be easily summoned using some explosives (I agree that explosions are not natural effect of any kind) but when the surroundings of Connor’s heardquaters are turning into regular war-zone no machine is appearing nevertheless in nearby river there are lots of them. That is only one example of silliness and illogical events in the movie. And there is a lot of not being logical.

What is good about this film? Good acting. Not brilliant, but good. Bale does the same thing as always – he is stubborn, brave and yelling a lot. Sam Worthington (playing half machine, half man) is also doing a fine job.

The story is not very good, the conclusion not satisfying (again the motive with “bad guy must tell good guy everything about his evil plan, so the good guy will have a chance to stop him”). McG showed that he is not a good director. He had a legend to deal with and he was trying to do so instead of trying to do good movie. It is visible that he tried not to offend old fans and to interest some new. But movie isn’t even well edited. Scenes are not matching each other, sometimes it looks like someone just put something here or there randomly to fill empty spaces.

At the end the best thing: brilliant insertion of T-800 model with 101 Arnold Schwarzenegger face. That is one scene worth to remember. Isn’t sad that the best scene of the movie includes an actor that doesn’t play in that movie?

Terminator: Salvation trailer

Terminator: Salvation, 2009. Directed by McG. Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Bryce Dallas Howard.

Volume: 50%

2009 Bale, Salvation, Terminator, Worthington