Reviews

Call me crazy, call me whatever, but I simply didn't get the movie. I think I know the reason why. After seeing 1000s of rip-offs and the motives inside this movie explored to the death in countless movies since the 70s, the initial hand-kissing scene looks pretty trite. Or the making an offer you can't refuse? Puhleeze!

The movie is quite slow. I know it is all about the atmosphere, but it really is nothing special. Neither does the mumbling of Marlon Brando convey any special significance to me. Yes, he is remorseful for being a powerful leader of a criminal empire and assigning this fate to his son. Boo hoo hoo. If you don't become a crook you don't have these kinds of problems. And yes, we all get it. The aggressive son is doomed to be killed in retaliation, the ineffectual son is doomed to remain in the shadows and the resourceful son is destined to take over the "family business". He simply kills off his adversaries without it ever being made clear how he outsmarted them or why no one ever came for him in a similar fashion. He actually turns into quite a ruthless son-of-a-...

But there is something more fundamental about why the movie isn't "doing anything" for me. The entire notion of "honor" and "chivalry" among criminals. It's completely fake. Now that America is mostly out of the grip of such people (not so in my own country I'm afraid, but still far from Chicago of the 20s) glorifying them is easy. The truth however is quite different. Criminals usually talk of honor, but their actions are based on much baser things. And they always have an excuse for why they ended up being crooks. Don't get suckered into believing movies like these convey any truth.

Rating 5/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

It is weird to be writing the first review for a movie. But it is a must for this movie to have a review. It is urgent because the topic of this movie is nothing short of the biggest controversy in Balkan politics and Balkan history. The co-called Kosovo myth, a reconstruction of events regarding the battle of Kosovo in the conscience of the Serbian people that to a certain degree differs from the historic version, has been used and abused by Serb and foreign politicians alike.

On one hand, the legendary sacrifice of Kosovo and the unswerving refusal to accept any foreign army on Serbian land has been used by generations of Serbian politicians (not just the most recent ones) to plunge the Serbian people into unwinnable wars out of which the Serbs always emerged with horrific casualties (most blatantly during WWII). On the other hand, in the most recent such war, the anti-Serb political elements in the world have used the Kosovo myth to demonize and discredit the Serbian nation, by equating it with a campaign of conquest and making it the sole explanation of why these conflicts (carefully nurtured during the communist era) happened in the first place.

In this movie, the Kosovo myth is shown in all its glory unclouded by its subsequent abuse. The concept is simple. What is a king to do when a far more powerful army, and that of a completely different faith, comes crashing in? Does one accept the given offer to bow down to the mighty Turkish army or does one fight at all costs? Being that the Christian faith embodies not bowing down to tyranny, defending ones beliefs to death and quite simply doing what is right rather than what is convenient, the Serbian king makes the same choice that Jesus once made.

An earthly kingdom, based on wordly considerations such as power, money, force is always of finite duration (just ask the Romans), but a heavenly kingdom is for all times. In other words, the might=right equation, quite explicit for medieval times and even nowadays still lingering, is turned upside down. Even at the cost of defeat, Serbs reject these wordly values and fight to the death. In other words, they put their money where their mouth is. The Serbian gleeful self-sacrifice is as puzzling to modern day Europe as the initial Christian sacrifice was to Romans. The legacy of Kosovo is evident today and has been experienced by every Serb generation for the last 200 years.

The movie "Boj na Kosovo" overflows with beautiful poetic dialog and words of wisdom. It is imperative to find a version with good translation. The palette of characters is quite varied. We see all the archetypes: the stoic and unswerving king, the cowardly political opportunist and betrayer, the hesitant dukes, the heroic knight who knows what must be done the following night, the young priest yearning for understanding from his elder, the knowledgeable surgeon who through lack of appreciation of his skill has no choice but to defect to the other side, the young wife grieving over her soon-to-be-dead husband in battle, the peasantry who is simply between rulers, the hapless dying sultan who did not expect that day of battle to be his last, the gleeful Turkish soldier/convert of Serbian origin, and last but not least the conniving younger brother murdering the weak older brother to inherit the throne. In each interaction one sees sparks as different viewpoints collide with each other.

The pacing in the movie is very nicely done. The tension before the battle slowly builds, very much in the fashion of High Noon. As characters and their resolves are solidified many conflicts are inevitably bound to happen. The dinner scene before the battle exudes solemnity and violent conflict within each individual as well as the climactic verbal showdown between the accusing traitor and the accused hero. As the hero says, the following day is when it becomes apparent for all time who is who.

The movie does have a few minor weaknesses. The battle scenes do leave something to be desired. And the movie can't help but become a little bit melodramatic towards the very end. But the movie nevertheless stands as one of the great jewels in the legacy of Serbian cinema. For many reasons and on many levels.

Rating 9/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

Sins the movie commits: pretentiousness, being boring, blatant and detrimental overuse of computer graphics, using Jar-Jar at all, using Jar-Jar for the sole purpose of heading the intergalactic council and institute a state of emergency (what the... ????????), creating the most miserable love couple in all movie history, lack of credible and interesting villains, lack of coherent story.

To sum up, everywhere the movie can go wrong it does. The Yoda sword fight scene is the ONE place where the movie acquires entertainment value. There is of course the scene in the colosseum, but that is somewhat of an overkill, being that the aliens in the original Star Wars were never meant to be so nightmare inducing. The security subplot in the beginning is simply wretched. Most of the film is planet hopping and marveling for 5 minutes the computer graphics for that given planet.

Anakin's character is particularly laughable. No wonder only a mother would love such a character. He is a pretentious and spoiled little scumbag. I expected SOME transformation into the evil Darth Vader from a decent person (that would have added to the movie this thing known as DEPTH!), not THIS. And his love affair with the princess is hilarious. It is hilarious to see Natalie Portman try to find plausible acting ways in which she can swoon and be moved by words which would instantly repulse any normal female. She of course fails miserably, not that the miserable lack of chemistry and the absolutely pathetic lines are all her fault, quite the contrary. And you know, if I was female, I would think twice about staying in a relationship with a guy that has just described killing innocent women and children. What a gradual transformation of Anakin into an evil Darth Vader.

A stinker of magnificent proportions!

Rating 2/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

I have seen many cartoon movies and I remember a time when these movies had a semblance of depth and I owe my fondest childhood memories to the Disney classics, so if anyone thinks the following words come from a person who doesn't watch or love cartoons they are greatly mistaken. That being said I have also seen some not-so-well done or simply naive cartoons which obviously hint at only being enjoyable to young children. But I have never NEVER in my life seen such a big hunk of cheese as Spirit.

It's a film that relentlessly goes over the top in the following respects: fake and slimy political correctness; absolute implausibility; cheezy, VERY cheezy song numerals, occurring in relentless numbers. I don't think a movie has EVER induced more groans out of me. Painful to watch, this movie goes over the top to a degree which is simply wrong and inhuman.

Yes, the young horse freely rides the plains. Everywhere he goes the music follows him. He is captured and of course struggles in his relentless fight for freedom. He stumbles upon a captured Indian and (guess what!) they become friends. When captured again, being a smart horse that he is, he singlehandedly (singlehoofedly?) sabotages an entire railway production. He makes poignant speeches in his head (since he can't talk) every five seconds. In the end, he makes a daring leap across a cliff to escape capture (will he succeed? oh my!). Suffices to say, a painful, unwatchable movie. A big piece of (to use kiddie-friendly language) poo. A groan fest.

Of course, I am sure that all the Indians will feel compensated for all their suffering having seen this movie. It is easier to make such movies than make those methods of the past truly be a thing of the past.

Rating 1/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

This stinker rightly deserves to be in the bottom of the barrel. I have given a rating of 1 only to five movies ever (even Clone Wars doesn't get this honor), movies so repulsively bad your very will to live deteriorates (shallow blockbusters usually get away with at least a 3 or 4). This movie is a 1 if there ever was one.

Let's get a few things straight. Barring that I haven't seen too many movies from the good ole 30's, 40's and 50's, this movie is the most sexist movie I have ever seen. If American males had any "equipment" they wouldn't have anything to do with any women that liked this movie, period! I don't even want to talk about guys who LIKED this movie. The basic premise is that men are incapable and should be treated like dirt, women are powerful and should do whatever the heck they want, norms of human decency aside, and that this is (supposed to be) cute and funny. Blah!

Worst of all, the movie is just painfully dull. It is definitely not a guy flick, it is not even a chick flick (by its content it would definitely be a retarded 2-year-old flick). It is not a movie for anyone. Nothing of any significance happens in the movie. Pure boredom.

The premise of the movie is simple, to understate it. A hapless scriptwriter struggles to come up with inspiration for a script. Being that he lives in a fairytale, he is talked into hiring a muse. Except, as one tentatively suspects, this muse is more spoiled than one-year-old milk and has expensive tastes, to put it mildly. So the confused and insecure scriptwriter wastes his life savings so that the muse can reside in a luxurious hotel and be properly stocked with crystal and caviar. The muse doesn't really do anything for him; her presence is supposed to inspire him. And just when you think this is segueway into the meat of the story it turns out that the movie never really moves anywhere from that point.

Yeah, one more thing, the muse spreads the "virus" into the head of the writers wife and she gets the idea of emancipating herself from her husband by opening her baking factory (mwahahahaha!). Naturally, she is an instant hit. Oh, but the guy does somehow write his scenario in the end. This movie makes about as much sense as someone's invasion of Iraq.

Cheers.

Rating 1/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

The one thing that really makes this movie stand apart from all other movies is not the gratuitous violence, nor the philosophical issues it raises, not even the dialog. We've seen all that before in one movie or another, though perhaps not as powerfully combined as in this movie. The one thing that REALLY makes this movie stand is how much fun it is to watch it. EVERY SECOND of the movie is incredibly entertaining. Every of the several story lines is captivating, novel, unusual, and, quite simply, interesting. How can I ever watch conventional blockbusters after this movie?

Some of the great precious things for me in this movie: the watch-in-rectum story, a disgruntled suburban asking his good old friend Jules who has just brought a dead body into his garage whether there was a "dead n***er storage" sign in front of his garage, the foot massage discussion, the thought of what will happen to Zed, Wolf's knack for solving every possible problem, the Quarter Pounder discussion (by the way, its true; you CAN buy beer in movie theaters AND in Mc Donalds in Europe) and of course the initial shootout. Watching the soon-to-be-dead guy tremble in fear as Jules skillfully leads the discussion ("breaking his concentration" at times) is so much fun.

There is a lot to be said also about the style of the movie. The dialog is of course legendary, and every line in the movie is infused with significance. While all characters really do seem like they are out of a comic book they all exude style. This makes their every action, as I said before, fascinating.

The movie is quite violent. Even though the violence is stylized, it is depicted with scary realism and its full consequences, unlike action movie violence. When a guy's head gets blown off, we see it in all its glory, including our main heroes trying to "pick up the pieces" for the next hour or so. This is perhaps also one of the few movies that had the audacity to show a male-on-male rape and afterward the victim, having gotten the upper hand over the assailants, seething in anger and desire to extract unimaginable revenge, despite his calmness. Unlike in action movies, everyone is scared ****less when their lives are at stake, even though a sharp line is still drawn between the main characters of the movie and "cannon-fodder". This is also one of the few movies the "n" word is used so often, most of the times with just the right energy to have a hilarious effect. Quentin, in my opinion, rightly says in an interview that every time a word is given such a power, one should shout it out from the rooftops until the power goes away.

Anyway, here's to Quentin remaining a prolific director for a long time in the future!

By the way, if he ever decides to make a Big Kahuna franchise, he would be a millionaire. Those burgers looked real tasty!

Rating 10/10

Scale: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK, 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre, 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

From the moment the narrator slobbers on Bob's tits I just knew there was going to be something very special about this movie. This movie quite simply embodies everything that a movie is supposed to be. A 2h roller coaster ride of thoughts and emotions. It can quite rightly be regarded as the first movie of the 21st century. To put it simply: This movie is the most intense thing I have ever seen.

The idea of the movie seems simple, and if you watch the commercials it will re soundly have the appearance of a conventional film. An ordinary and, more importantly, nameless guy (who narrates the entire film) meets a non-conformist and quite insane Tyler Durden.

"Now let me tell you something about Tyler". He does night jobs. He works as a waiter at galla dinners and pees in the soup, subsequently suing the catering companies. He works as a projector and splices short, but definitely noticeable, porno clips into children's movies. Last but definitely not least, he scrounges the dumpsters at liposuction clinics for bags of fat, makes soap out of it, and "sells [the rich ladies] their own fat asses back for a profit". Out of this soap, he also makes explosives.

After having his house blown away for at that point undetermined reasons, the narrator turns to Tyler for a place to stay, which turns out to be one of those wrecks even poverty-stricken squatters would stay away from and in the middle of nowhere.

Little by little, Tyler lures the narrator into his ways and makes him question his entire reality. By defining himself through his job and what he buys, he has lost touch with his inner self and his true emotions of loneliness and helplessness. Tyler's solution is to stop trying to control things, to hold on to things one does not need, to be perfect. Tyler's answer is to "let the chips fly". To do things just for the heck of it, including experiencing pain. Only when one can loose everything one does not need is one free to go after what truly matters.

The entire progression of just how far one can go is evident in the movie. Tyler first cajoles the narrator into having a fight with him with the following words: "I've never been in a fight either. There is no one watching. Come on, how much can you truly know about yourself if you've never been into a fight". This duking out turns out to be a pleasurable experience and becomes a regular event. Before you know it, other guys join the fray and the ultimate release in the form of senselessly beating another man and in turn being beaten is institutionalized in the form of "Fight Club", lead by Tyler and the narrator.

Evidently this movie reeks of testosterone and raw, violent male energy and the movie is unapologetic in this respect to the very end. In some ways "Fight Club" is about rediscovering ones masculinity, a force quite vilified and suppressed in recent decades. Converts to "Fight Club" include former members of the "Remaining Men Together", a club of testicular cancer sufferers, mostly abandoned by their wives now having children with other men, who before "Fight Club" knew of nothing better than to cry on each others shoulders (literally) and pathetically embrace each other. Hilariously, one of the key characters and ex-members of this group, played by Meatloaf, is aptly equipped with huge titties.

That "Fight Club" transforms everyone in it is evident, especially on the narrator, who is no longer content to tolerate the cr** one routinely gets served with in wage-slaving office jobs. He ultimately blackmails his boss into giving him "a job never to tell anyone" about the dirty dealings in the company. To seal the deal, the narrator starts "fighting" himself and is so violently battered by the time security arrives that his boss has no chance but to comply.

In any case, the number of "Fight Club" members grows. And they all start listening to what Tyler has to say. Tyler's influence on this large band of people from all walks of life slowly grows and culminates in the so-called "Project Mayhem". Rather than being freed, they end up being made instruments of Tyler's will. The narrator is of course mostly kept out of the loop and must find out what is going on before its too late!

And then something unexpected happens. And the REAL fun starts!

Suffices to say that Fight Club packs more story and ideas than ten times what most movies do. The ideas truly resonated with me. The energy of the movie is at a fever pitch. The violence is gritty and its underlying purposelessness makes it that much more intense. Tyler's charm and charisma are awe-inspiring. Truly all the actors do a superb job.

In terms of visually conveying all the ideas, Fight Club is unparalleled. Since the entire movie is narrated, we experience wild and sometimes outrageous cuts between different scenes and time frames. More so, we are treated with astounding visuals, close-ups, slow motion scenes, featuring in one case an explosion happening in slow motion. In line with the "splicing of porno movies into children's films", many interesting "splices" occur through out the movie itself. The effects are given a gritty 90s-00s feel. Yet they are there only to consistently prop up the story and elevate it to a new high. In short, in terms of visual innovation and effects this is probably the most innovative movie since Annie Hall.

What can I say, this movie will undoubtedly be talked about for centuries to come and be the mark of a "very strange time" in the life of humanity.

10/10

SCALE:

positive opinion of a movie: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK

neutral opinion of a movie: 6 Adequate, 5 Fair, 4 Mediocre

negative opinion of a movie: 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE

Right when I began watching the movie, since the very moment that picture in the opening credits started disappearing and the initial kill, I wondered is this just one of those gimmick movies or will they actually follow through with this idea till the end.

I say this because, without a doubt, the idea of a movie played entirely in reverse (as opposed to flashbacks or other narrative non-linear-story-telling devices) is quite bold and unconventional, at least before other movies such as Irreversible started copying Memento. That this reverse storytelling serves a purpose to actually for the most part enter the world of our character is even more worthy of compliment. Instead of knowing the past we know the future, which is of little use as the future itself has to be redefined each time we go further into the past. The fact the movie comes up with fresh ways of challenging our perceptions of the future is another plus for it. The film-noir atmosphere is another plus. Guy Pearce's acting and conveying the emotions of an eternally heartbroken and disoriented person is yet another plus. Finally, an ending which completely and profoundly reverses all expectations, not only of all preceding events (in the future) but also of what these movies are genrewise supposed to be like, quite simply settles it for me. This movie is more than worthy of a 10.

Memento is another one of those superb and almost perfect movies which is a joy to watch over and over again and continually ponder not just its plot but also the philosophical and emotional issues it raises.

Rating 10/10

Scale:

Positive opinion of a movie: 10 MASTERPIECE, 9 Excellent, 8 Good, 7 OK

Neutral opinion of a movie: 6 Adequate, 5 Average, 4 Mediocre

Negative opinion of a movie: 3 Poor, 2 Bad, 1 HORRIBLE