Reviews

Yes, folks, here he is, Brian Yuzna, the one and only, bringing us another slice of pure first-class cinephiliac cheese. And oh how much we love it! I must admit that at first I was a bit disappointed to know that Yuzna decided to come back to Re-animator story - as I am more a fan of Yuzna recent works, like Faust: Love Of The Damned (yeah - loved it SO much!). But then again, with ironic title like that, I realized this could be very good. And it is good indeed - or I should rather say much, much better then I expected. The film takes place in prison and has a bit claustrophobic feel to it. There's a young prison doctor eager to help West continue with his research (He's also said to be one of the best students in the University, yet when the very first patient arrives he mysteriously fails to do anything remotely effective except yelling on top of his lungs at his nurse). There's a blond reporter looking for a story and ending up undergoing horrible transformations (That seems to be Yuzna's thing with blond heroines - to make them undergo horrible transformations...Fine by me ;-)) There's a sadistic warden named (bizarrely) Brando, who in the end gets what he deserves - and then some. There's even a mutant rat, as if it wasn't enough yet. Yuzna handles this fine mess confidently - there are enough neat tricks and nice touches to satisfy all the movie maniacs. The effects are really really nice - watch out for the detached human torso seeking revenge on West! All in all, Beyond Re-animator is pure pleasure - isn't this what we're looking for in movies, no?

It seemed to me, that PT Anderson decided to make a deliberate detour from creating sweeping emotional epics a-la Magnolia and try something else for a change. Strangely enough, in the end he came up with a very-Tom DiCillo film, turning Adam Sandler into John Turturro in the process. Mind you, that's not a problem with me at all, since I'm a great fan of Tom DiCillo's work and I also happen to consider John Turturro an excellent actor. Punch-Drunk Love is endearing in its small-scale excentrity, but still it feels more like an experiment on behalf of the writer-director, rather than a heartfelt project. Oh well, it doesn't matter all that much I guess, since I greatly enjoyed this film and was once again made certain of the fact that PT Anderson is an excellent director capable of many exciting things. Here's to his next project, friends

That is, Wim Wenders was surely kissed by an angel during the making of this film, since it is way beyond human powers to make films that produce as powerful an impact as Der Himmel uber Berlin does. This is something I truly believe and something I will stand on. There's no denying that Wim Wenders is a fantastic director, and many of his films are real masterpieces, like Im Lauf der Zeit (hope the remains of my Deutsch do not fail me here :-)) or Paris, Texas, but with Der Himmel... he accomplished something so ethereal and yet powerful, that it could certainly not be done by a puny human. Check Wenders' later films, if you disagree.....

Let me tell you something, boys & girls - I have seen this film for about eight or ten times, and I'm proud to state that I'm not going to stop at that. The Faculty is an excellent slice of pure unashamed cinephiliac pleasure, that's for sure! Robert Rodrigues, clearly a huge horror movie buff himself, works from a smart tongue in cheek script by Kevin Williamson, and with the help of inspired cast of actors both young & experienced he does a great job with the film. It's clear that everyone involved with this film had so much fun making it - and I see absolutely no reason why viewers should not have just as much fun watching it. My biggest thanks to Robert Rodrigues for making this film, and for everyone else who played in it, especially Robert Patrick, who was excellent as Coach Willis, and Clea DuVall, who's just perfect. My heart, however, goes to another person. Famke Janssen, I L-O-V-E You! You are absolutely and completely gorgeous!

As Stephen King fans should probably know, there are a lot of things in Stephen Kings books that make sense only where they are - that is, in Stephen King books. Translating them to film is usually a bad idea, as many filmmakers who had adapted King's books before probably figured out. But along comes Lawrence Kasdan, a talented and acclaimed veteran director, who, with the aid of a no less acclaimed screenwriter William Goldman, decides while writing a script for Dreamcathcer that it would be better to bring along all the trademark King's weird goings-on - and voila! We have a movie filled with telepathy, butt-ripping aliens, crazy military types keen on killing everyone, telephone-guns, indian symbols and even a lot of CGI thrown in for a good measure. Of course, it all fails - but oh how gloriously! I'll go as far as to state that Dreamcatcher is absolutely the best unintentional B-movie trashfest in years! It was totally amusing that such a bunch of undoubtedly talented people (Morgan Freeman, Tom Sizemore, Thomas Jane, besides aforementioned Kasdan & Goldman) were able to make this film without a single smirk - while the material is pure trash'n'cheese. That was the whole beauty of it, for me, at least - the level of money, work and talent that went into creating this film. I would like to personally thank all the people involved with Dreamcathcer - they made my year! Thank you, Lawrence Kasdan! Thank you, William Goldman! Thank you, Morgan Freeman - your eyebrows rocked! And most of all, thank you, Jason Lee - the bathroom scene involving Beaver and an alien worm under the toilet lid is pure classic!

It's rather sad to watch a talented filmmaker - which French director Olivier Assayaz without a doubt is - taking an original idea and then strangling it with his own hands. Demonlover starts out great - like a 70's spy film, only set in the world of adult Internet sites, which makes the film so much more exciting. And it looks very good, too - as if it takes place in some kind of futuristic sterile world full of bright but cold colours. But in the second half the movie takes a turn towards Lost Highway territory and in the end finds itself exactly where it headed - nowhere. Instead of giving us, viewers, a satisfying resolution of a conflict, the director drags us down the blind alley and shoots us - as well as his own film - in the back. Still, Demonlover has enough to offer to make it worth watching (like a terrific score by Sonic Youth) at least once. It's only the fact that it could be truly great instead of just worth watching, that bothers me

Sports have never been my cup of tea, and frankly I rarely understood the excitement of watching a bunch of guys chase a football across the field or discussing the results of another championship. But hey, these Hong-Kong masters led by Stephen Chow made soccer look fantastic even for me! I have to admit it - I've already seen this movie about six times, and I don't really think that I'd stop at that. Watching Shaolin Soccer I always think one thing - Hey, THIS is the way to use CGI in movies! Funny, exciting, inventive, lightning-paced - you should not miss this movie! Not in any way!

Listen close, my friends, as I'm telling you this, and bear in mind that this is coming to you from a man who's absolutely NOT into rap music - 8 Mile is very, VERY good. First, it's got great drive. Watching it, you can't help going with it the same way you can't resist nodding your head when you hear some thick & powerful beat coming from the speakers. The story of a young white rapper's struggles is gritty enough yet the filmmakers have enough taste to not push it too far & keep it firmly in believable territory. Yes, I should mention that both Kim Basinger & Brittany Murphy don't really have much to play, and as a result they look rather poorly - but that's understandable since the real star of the film is Eminem and his rapping skills. And Eminem delivers powerfully & thrillingly. He really has what it takes to be a film star - it's great to watch him even when he does nothing special, just riding a bus looking out of a window. The freestyle battles are just brilliant - it's impossible to take your eyes off the screen (though I really should mention that I could understand very little in what those guys were saying). Since I enjoyed it so much not being a rap fan, I have only one questions - how do fans of Eminem survive this film without dying of pleasure overload?

How often does it happen to you, that you feel the irresistible urge to watch the film again STRAIGHT after you've just finished watching it? Well, certainly not every day - I don't really remember when was the last time when it happenned to me. But Ninja Scroll is a prime example of such film - you'll want to see it again & again & again, and then maybe a couple of times more. It's absolutely fantastic, in every sense & aspect. The plot may seem a little too complex, but actually it is a relief to find a truly challenging film that requires all your attention in order to get its point across to you - especially in the age of no-brainer entertainment. The animation is superb, the characters are intriguing - and ah, the fight sequences.... This is the most smashing action film I've seen in years, all the fights are imaginative and breathtaking. Brilliant, just brilliant, what more can I say? Buy it, rent it, steal it, own it, and watch it, or your life will never be complete!

Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of Blade Numero Uno; but still I was very excited to hear that Guillermo del Toro, whose work I appreciate very, very much, was working on sequel. So, yeah, I had some expectations concerning Blade II, but even expecting some good time I didn't enjoy the film. Oh no - I was simply blown right through the roof of our local movie theater!!! It's clear that everyone involved in the project, from actors to FX masters to Del Toro himself set out to enjoy themselves & have some serious fun with this film - and they do, and marvelously so. Everything gets thrown in the mix - from mutant super-vampire breed feeding on both humans & usual vampires with equal thirst to elite vampire team (sort of Aliens-soldiers from parallel universe) trained to hunt Blade but forced to accept his leadership. It's fast, it's loud, it's bloody & violent - and, more importantly, imaginative & atmospheric. The CGI-enhanced fights sometimes seem a bit too caricature, but that's not a big problem, cos there's so much more to compensate for that - some scenes will have you on the edge of your seat, like the lengthy episode in the night club. All in all, a solid coctail of comic-book-action & bloody horror, with enough thrills to make its nearly-two-hour length seem fast & furious.

Spain - what a great country! It gave us Julio Medem, it gave us Alejandro Amenabar, and now there's Jaume Balaguero, the man who brought us Darkness, a horror film that's clever, fresh & intriguing. An american family (Iain Glen & Lena Olin) with a teenage daughter (Anna Paquin) & a little boy (Stepnah Enquist) moves into an old house somewhere in Spain, and soon enough find out that there's something wrong with it. There are ghosts of children, supposedly murdered in this very house, there's a strange man walking around the house watching it silently, the little boy is afraid of the dark & wakes up with bruises on his body & the father, who A) has a dark secret in his past, which is somehow connected to the house & B) is not very well in the mental department, starts going a little bit crazy. Sure, it all sounds corny enough, and every person who've seen films like The Sixth Sense, A Stir Of Echoes and The Shining can smile his way through the first half of the film thinking he's seen it all already. But Balaguero has more tricks up his sleeve then just a collection of genre cliches. In fact, he enjoys playing with these cliches, because later things turn not quite the way you were dead sure they would, and the final act has even more surprises in stock. The film is genuinly scary, especially in the second half when the tension just won't let up. The visuals are good - a couple of scenes are pretty likely to haunt you days, maybe even months after watching the film. The final verdict: definitely worth seeing, maybe even more than once. I haven't received that much pleasure from a horror film in quite a while

P.S. And please, people, stop comparing it to The Others, the two films have very little in common except for the set-up (children in a haunted house)

Oh yes my friends, this is a movie that could have been made only in one country on this beautiful planet - and that's exactly the country it WAS made in. Japanese filmmakers possess some really unique sensibilities and they can easily get away with things that could seem ridiculous when done by someone else - because they are not merely having fun, they mean it, man. See for yourself: this is a film that contains a very explicit scene of a girl's brain transplanted into a body of her evil mother (and WHAT a scene it is!) - and it isn't a first-class splatter-fest as you might think judging by this, but a psychological drama! Probably with a deep message...... I must admit that I'm not a true professional when it comes to Japanese movies en masse (that is to say that probably they are all like that...), but still this is a truly unique film that's definitely worth watching - of course, only if the sight of a skull getting opened by some bizzare heavy machinery and the brain getting dragged out is just your cup of tea....