Reviews

That in fact is true. Vasha isn't Charles Bronson movie. Vasha is a story about brotherhood. About betraying. About vendetta. Vasha is not very good movie. At least it's not the movie I definitely would recommend everyone to see.

First I had quite high hopes on the movie. If you can say this. Anyway I was hoping decent action revenge thriller because the story first seemed quite intriguing and interesting. And all I got was disappointment. There were lot holes in the story and there weren't nothing that can compensate this. Acting was average. Even below average. Mart Müürisepp (Tom) overacted almost throughout the whole movie. Little bit too much smiles and silly faces. Only character that earned my sympathy was Tom's mother. But all the performances failed to bring out the tension between characters. Directing was quite OK. I think it all got stuck behind low budget. On the other hand, there is numerous very good movies out there done even lesser budget.

Now the big problem with the movie was, it tried to be serious. Meaningful. But it failed. Some clichéd narrated lines that tried to give forward some wiseness. This movie had worked better with bit more action and blood. And better dialog. I mean, Tom was meant to be wise- ass. I hoped the best lines and jokes coming from him. He wasn't smart- ass enough.

Strongest part of the movie was Rein Kotov's cinematography.

Overall, Vasha is below average film that tries to be more than it is.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Best line was by Artur: This is not Charles Bronson movie.

Bank Robbery is wannabe road movie that talks about friendship of an ex- convict and depressed teenager boy who is dreaming about robbing banks. It could have been a good movie but it turned out quite a mess. First, the director tried too hard to make the film look like it has some deeper meaning but was only full of stupid characters. Over the top acting from Hannes Kaljujärv (ex-convict Madis) that actually goes better while movie develops, nowhere unfortunately. One ridiculous scene is chasing another. All the characters were empty that it was hard to feel sympathy for them. Maybe except Madis because he was the only character that evolved. Henri Kuus' (teenage boy Hannes) performance was totally dull and become more and more annoying. (At one point I thought it was one of the worst performance I have ever seen) I believe that the creators of the movie wanted to show very broken boy from broken family who suffers from violence at home and at the school. Maybe the dull performance wasn't completely the fault of young actor. And what was the suicide attempt scene? 'I'm gonna kill myself if you won't let me to rob a bank!' I don't want to spoil the ending but I have to say it was ridiculous. Worst ending ever!

Bank Robbery is good example of movies that actually has some potential but bad directing can ruin everything.

3 out of 10

Marie. Bruce. Marie and Bruce. It's very interesting art-house film. It's so surreal. Both of the main characters are so annoying that they feel almost unsympathetic. The dialog is so random and unnatural. But I like it. As matter a fact, Marie and Bruce is one of my all time favorite film.

Marie and Bruce seem to have been in long marriage and they spend most of the days by nagging on each other and at the same time they both don't listen the other. It's kind of sadistic relationship. Like Marie says to Bruce: "Don't you get it, you're not even a living thing! It's easy to leave you because you're not real." It kind of works both ways. They are both zombies, totally numb. Marie mocks Bruce all the time but Bruce doesn't even react to those insults. Like he doesn't hear what Marie says. And every time Bruce starts conversation with Marie she just rolls her eyes and seems to be away like dreaming. Marie despises Bruce and at the same time she loves him. Like she says herself: "Bruce is like a god." Bruce on the other hand, doesn't feel any kind of sexual attraction against Marie. He tries to make a hit on a girl in a restaurant. He goes to the dirty hotel room just to watch the naked woman in a house across the street. He makes conversations with every woman on the party except Marie. Marie really enjoys mocking Bruce and she somehow enjoys the coldness of Bruce.

Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick were both adorable and their performances are very enjoyable.

Marie and Bruce is surreal love story between two tired people who are seriously tired from each other but they can't live without each other. I highly recommend this film but I have to warn, it's not easy peace to watch. There is lot of symbols and scenes that might not make any sense. Marie and Bruce is movie for a thinking person.

10 out of 10

Terrific car chase! The thing I like in older action films that they always have great car chase scenes. Cold Sweat isn't an exception. The exiting chase with the old red Commodore and the police bikes on the mountain roads was definitely a highlight of this film. Stunt driver struggled a lot to keep the car on the road. At some frames you could clearly see that the car went off but in next frame it entered the corner under the perfect angle again. And the chase was fun to watch and I believe it was fun to the crew also. Especially for the driver.

Though the rest of the movie wasn't much special, it was still fun to watch. It gives lot of unintentional laughs also. Although big name cast (legendary Charles Bronson who probably made push-ups before every scene, Liv Ullmann and James Mason, who was in this movie only because he was very good friend with Terence Young) the acting was average, but not the worst I have seen. The story was quite trivial: ex-soldier whose past catches him and sets his family into danger. And I loved that breathtaking landscapes of South-France were all the action took place.

Although this movie was definitely fun to watch and it wasn't boring a bit. If you are hard core Charles Bronson fan you should see this. But I think hard core Bronson fans already have.

4 out of 10

The Trench is an average film on its own genre. It's not too fancy and it's not too overwhelmingly bad. Probably the biggest fault of this movie was low budget. You will not see very good sets and brilliant battle scenes. Also it seems like they made the life in the trench a bit too comfortable. The only problems the soldiers had living in trenches was boredom not rats and lice. It was too clean. Of course what I know about that!

Acting was quite good overall. Daniel Craig was very good choice in the role of Sergeant Winter and probably saved the movie. He is truly good actor.

Overall, The Trench is very average war film made with small budget. Not the total waste of time. But you haven't lost anything special if you haven't seen it.

5 out of 10

Oh boy! Oh boy! On the cover of worn out VHS has a picture of Sandra Bullock and her name written on top. I think only reason they had chance to sell the movie in nineties, was because of Sandra Bullock's name. Bullock's fans don't have to disappoint. Sandra is only thing to watch in this movie and her performance is the only you can call acting. Rest of the movie… It's fun to watch in first fifteen minutes because it's bad but after that it's going worse. Much worse. Directing is awful. Acting is awful. Script is awful. Dialog is awful. Action is awful. Music is quite good actually. Typical score for eighties action movies. This movie is so bad that it goes close to anything Andy Sidaris has ever produced. It's so bad that there isn't proper word to describe this poor attempt to be a movie. But still, there was Sandra Bullock. And super cool (sarcasm) Jake LaMotta who tried to be Marlon Brando.

I think they can now bring the film out on DVD. It could be cool! And they should write on the cover: ACADEMY AWARD WINNER SANDRA BULLOCk IN HANGMEN

1 out of 10

I was enchanted by the very first air battle scene and then Kenji Kawai's peaceful and stunning score. It was something. And the music somehow made the film deeper maybe than it was.

The Sky Crawlers is a mixture of stories about war, love and self searching and living forever. The story is set somewhere in future where wars are not waged between countries but big enterprises. And the pilots are actually children who never grow up. And it's actually pretty intriguing. Almost like forced Peter Pans fighting each other (maybe not exactly the right comparison). Only difference between Peter Pan and kildren were that Peter didn't want to grow old the kildren didn't have to grow old because they supposed to die in the battle anyway. That kind of makes The Sky Crawlers a twisted tale of Peter Pan. There are many allegories in this film that I don't care about. It was visually stunning film.

The Sky Crawlers is somehow one of the most beautiful war movies (if you can call it a war movie) I have ever seen.

7,5 out of 10

All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the greatest anti-war movies of all time. Though it's quite outdated now (maybe not as much as every other message movies), it still has an impact. Made at the dawn of the sound film All Quiet contains pretty impressive battle scenes. The acting was maybe bit over the top in some scenes but even that didn't bother much. At the scene where boys are meeting their drill sergeant Himmelstoss first time, I started to wonder, did Stanley Kubrick get inspiration from All Quiet. I mean, Himmelstoss reminded WWI version of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman.

All Quiet on the Western Front must have one of the most powerful and heartbreaking endings. Scene with the outreached hand and butterfly is probably one of the most important scenes in film history ever.

All Quiet is one of those films that seem to go better with every viewing. At second time I enjoyed the film much more than the first.

Every film geek who respects himself should definitely see this early war film.

7,8 out of 10

Donnie Brasco is one of the last true old school style gangster films. I think it's more a gangster film than a cop drama. And it definitely has some kind of Godfather-Goodfellas aura. Tough mobsters making their everyday living. Only with this small exception that Donnie Brasco doesn't praise the violence and criminal lifestyle like The Godfather. All I knew about Donnie Brasco the movie that it was very acclaimed film with great cast from director I hadn't heard anything of. I can't say that Donnie Brasco is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen but it's definitely darn good movie.

And Donnie Brasco has everything that one darn good movie needs: great story and screenplay, good directing and absolutely terrific cast. As much as I enjoy everything Al Pacino does, I have to say that Lefty is his best performance alongside Don Corleone (The Godfather) and Vincent Hanna (Heat). There is some depth in his performance. A beaten and disappointed man after all those years serving the family with the commitment and still being a running dog. He was tough man seen a lot in his life and at the same time he was a bit naive.

Johnny Depp was enthralling as always. And his performance as Donnie/Joe definitely belongs into the list of his greatest.

Michael Madsen is always good to see in a good movie. Unfortunately, it seems like this was one of his last good performances in his career (last ones are in Kill Bill and Sin City).

Soundtrack is other thing I liked a lot. Original score that reminded bit Nino Rota's The Godfather score was mixed with the 70's disco. Very cool actually.

Donnie Brasco is film that I would recommend. It's smooth and thrilling and you don't realize where those two and half hours gone. And it probably stays as Mike Newell's best film.

8,4 out of 10.