Nouvelles critiques - TOP utilisateurs·trices

Nowadays, good visual effects are more of a standard, not extraordinary as they were in the 90s, so the initial fascination is no longer there. Twister didn’t have many iconic shots (the flying cow), and when you remember it today, it feels “overdone”, so this film won't impress or surprise you with anything. And neither is the clichéd plot that brings nothing new and where you guess every scene ahead of time. The only saving grace is the central cast, who have a nice chemistry, although I have to say that I'm starting to get tired of Glen Powell's "wannabe sex appeal", and I've only seen him in three films so far. Maybe in his case it wouldn't hurt to try something different.

It doesn't reach the quality of the original Narcos, but it certainly won't bring shame to this franchise. It's still got plenty of gems and moments that are exemplarily staged, and as a series production, Narcos and Narcos: Mexico made a dent in the world and deservedly became cult-classics.

Tereza Ramba has been delivering leading roles at the same decent level for the entire last decade, and her portrayal of an alcoholic comes as no surprise, not deviating from her usual performance. The real surprise, however, is the very weak script, especially in the second half, which, besides capturing the main story, couldn't resist the path of cautionary popularization, which in this form is entirely unnecessary in a fictional film. As a result, the film lacks sufficient space to address related themes, which become just insufficient fragments—the abortion of the second child, the main character's father's addiction, her second relationship after rehab... At the beginning, we follow a classic risky situation—a young couple moves into a multi-generational household, and while she is on maternity leave with her mother-in-law, he commutes a long distance to work. This is a complete cliché, rehashed many times, unfortunately played out here into a meaningless variation of similar series. And at the moment when things start to get serious, the state of peak addiction lasts only a very short time... and we're already rushing towards a happy ending. If this is what one of the best Czech films of the year is supposed to look like, then it's going to be another funeral.

A static spiritual fresco that would perhaps benefit from being without sound for the viewer to enjoy the beautifully photographed locations undisturbed. Actually, once the story of the little Dalai Lama begins to unfold, it's a turn-off. The interest in the characters is level 0, the scenes with Mao Zedong look like one big parody and some of the art inserts don't make much logical sense and are not important to the overall narrative. Scorsese was better in gangster movies. He's floundering here and not catching the right tone.

I finally made it through the second season, but it just didn’t hit the same. The biggest change is the shift in animation studios — from Daume to asread. — and you can definitely tell. The animation style is different — not necessarily better or worse, just more colorful and maybe a bit more detailed, but overall, it just feels different. I still can't decide if I like it more or less compared to the first season. Asread. initially tried to keep some of the quirky animation techniques from the original, like the odd cuts and camera angles, but they didn’t really pull it off, so they gradually dropped those attempts. The humor didn’t land as well for me this time either. While the show tried, I found myself laughing a lot less — sometimes only once per episode, and occasionally not at all. The quality of the episodes varied, with the best ones coming towards the end, especially the resolution of the Fuyuki storyline, and the final episode itself was pretty solid. The main characters remained mostly the same, but some of the side characters felt pushed to the background, and I was particularly disappointed with how Hosaka’s character was handled. The music, however, was a highlight once again. Both the opening and closing themes were great, and the background music was well-chosen and enjoyable — it really stood out. But even the good soundtrack couldn’t save my overall impression of the season, and I ended up dropping my rating from a solid 4 stars to a strong 3. Despite that, I’m still planning to dive into the next season — hopefully, it won’t take me another month to get through it. 6.2/10.

Terminator Zero isn’t a total disaster—it doesn't disgrace the Terminator universe, but it didn’t blow me away either. The action scenes were solid, and there’s plenty of blood to go around. However, there’s also a lot of philosophical pondering about whether humanity deserves to be saved — some of it works, but other times it feels empty and clichéd within the sci-fi genre. The characters were hit or miss for me; some were likable, but others, like Kenta, were downright annoying most of the time. Even Malcolm, who decides to fight fire with fire, wouldn't have convinced me if I were in Kokoro’s shoes. The story was decent enough, with a clear beginning and end, though a lot of the twists were pretty easy to predict. (Potential SPOILERS) For example, the identity of Misaki becomes obvious after a certain scene in a store, and you can figure out Eiko’s true nature just by seeing her friend reappear after some time. (END OF SPOILER). The creators leave such blatant clues that the big reveals don’t really surprise you. The ending was fine—it leaves room for a sequel but also ties up most loose ends, so it works either way. The animation was decent, though they did rely on CGI a bit (thankfully, not Skynet or any other AI). The one thing that bothered me was the weird purple or light green outlines around some characters, but otherwise, the scenes were well-detailed and the movements looked good when things got intense. The music did its job and fit the tone well. Overall, it’s an okay watch — nothing groundbreaking, but also nothing offensive. If they decide to continue the story, I wouldn’t mind checking it out. 6/10.

Bad luck, banknotes everywhere... The Saint Peter’s slide gag, where stairs turn into a slide, is good, but the chaos in the haunted house doesn't salvage the impression left by the sticky banking scene. It’s not quite like getting hit in the head with cabbage, but Buster could do better.

The film version is a little bit better, but the series has enough room to be narratively robust and scripted to a tee, though it doesn't always get the balance of characters and the pulse right. It's also an unpleasant finding that what initially looks like a prequel to the feature film goes its own way in subsequent seasons, gradually losing continuity with the film. Even so, it's a beautifully atmospheric, pulsating mafia series with superbly acted main characters, European minimalism and is great fun most of the time.

Bromance in a mafia disguise. The third season is already tired, thematically weaker and slight overwrought in general. Suburra would have been much more decent and coherent having only two season, as the third one is unnecessary and doesn't bring anything new or interesting. Plus, the ending tries to target big emotions but it stumbles halfway through.

The tough outlaw Ladislav Potměšil and his newly of-age driver, who keeps running away from reformatories, are always one step ahead of the incompetent justice system. Investigators regularly meet under the image of Husák, but the result is only a few disrupted homosexual and heterosexual encounters, and as part of uncollegial cockblocking, even one in the attempt phase. Many scenes do take place in complete darkness, but it is clear to everyone that the violent recidivist will not recognize the beauty of Denmark, and the pair of detectives, Rudolf Jelínek and Jiří Kodet, don't even break a sweat (the latter in that little jacket probably looked like he moonlighted selling coupons). The very last shot left the time-and-space-oriented viewer with a question: Did the look from one of the characters mean that she could only find good for herself in the east? I rather think she was starting to realize that she was in deep trouble.

Apple has once again pulled out the stops and delivers an excellent crime drama driven by courtroom procedure and it's a blast! Jake Gyllenhaal, as a lawyer, is accused of murdering his colleague/lover and his colleague Peter Sarsgaard is hell bent on his neck. The first half of the series is a bit slower, but once we move into the courtroom, it's quite a ride. I haven't seen such a tense court atmosphere with perfect performances and great verbal shootouts in a long time (Anatomy of a Fall could learn something), and the final two episodes are great, there is twist after twist and the final one, well, that one blew me away. Gyllenhaal's speech in the finale is downright awesome, and there was no shortage of emotions either. The second season will be a different cast and a different case I suppose?? 8/10.

While the international acclaim and impressive trailers promised the event of the year and a film with a cult status in the style of Se7en and The Silence of the Lambs, the result is different and it shows in the final rating, which isn't around 80%. I for one have to say that I haven't enjoyed a crime film like Longlegs in a long time. There's more or less everything I love about the genre, the horror label is only there because of the satanic overtones and the supernatural, otherwise it's a proper crime thriller, with an increasingly better Maika Monroe on the hunt for a serial killer who is murdering families. Nicolas Cage doesn't appear until halfway through the film, but his devilishly creepy performance deserves praise. The atmosphere is suffocating and unpleasant, the audio-visuals are perfect (the sounds were very creepy), the acting is top notch, there were some nasty shots, though we don't get to see outright gore. I'm also happy with the ending, it gives the crime genre a completely fresh and original touch. I almost didn't breathe for most of the film despite the slower pace (I also praise the well written dialogues!). Good film. 8/10.

A Slovak gangster caper that would make even Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro sit on their asses, have a shot of whiskey and light a cigar! By our standards, it is a very good thing in the European style and it can compete with the Poles, the French and the Spaniards, I enjoyed the whole thing immensely. In my opinion the film suffers most from the fact that it is only half of the story, we have to wait until January for the big finale, and that is why I’m not giving it a full score, but otherwise great satisfaction. The atmosphere is intense and uncompromising! Milan Ondrik with his Pablo Escobar look is just perfect, the soundtrack and the technical side of the film are also amazing, the whole film paces perfectly and I didn't find any dead spots; there was sex, violence and murders, everything that a proper gangster flick should have. There could have been more violence, but I'll bite through it, because this 90s mafia Opus Magnum hit my taste exactly. 8.5/10.

Overcast, with occasional Samara... Unpleasant Oregon weather, a few scenes where carpets and floors had to be dried out, one missed "Beware of Digital Wildlife" sign, a small role for Sissy Spacek, still haunted by water since The River with Gibson, and a predictable finale in a well with climbing holds. It's worth noting that the screenwriter tossed the director of the Japanese original into the well, but he didn't climb out... Samara and her phenomenon are already decaying; in The Ring 3, the small, pale Igor Chmela would be the only scary thing left.

So, I just finished watching Dragon Raja, and honestly, I'm not entirely sure I grasped everything. What exactly is Dragon Raja? Imagine Hogwarts, but in a world that coexists with our own. Here, students learn to fight dragons using both magic and advanced technology. So, is it fantasy or sci-fi? It leans more towards fantasy, but seeing a bizarre training battle that looks like something out of CoD in the backdrop of a majestic castle is kind of weird. We have a protagonist who's more of an average loser who suddenly discovers he's the chosen one. Apparently, a strange powerful creature, supposedly his brother (damn you, Naruto), resides within him. This creature seems to be playing the role of Mephistopheles out of boredom (damn you, Faust). There's a ton of dragon lore thrown at us in a pretty disorganized fashion. I also got lost in the system of "dragon voice" magic (damn you, Skyrim) and its mix with modern tech. The only clear thing is that Lu Mingfei wants to be the red-haired sexy girl's lackey — I've met many guys who'd want to be just that (damn you, simps). The whole show is a mess, but at least the animation was decent, and the music was okay. Even though the themes and plot were all over the place, nothing really annoyed me, probably because I had to focus so hard on understanding what was happening. The moments when the show tried to be funny but failed didn't help much either… 3.5/10.

Eric and Shelly were in love, but then they were murdered. But Eric gets a chance to come back from the dead to take revenge on those who took everything from him. And a little bit of the audience, too. The remake of The Crow is a visually inoffensive, if a little cheesy, film with decent bloody action at the end. Unfortunately, it also comes with extremely unlikeable characters, a dysfunctional romantic storyline and an atmosphere teetering on the edge of ridiculousness. A misstep, and Rupert Sanders clearly has no understanding of the strength of the comic book source material and Alex Proyas' thirty year old film.

Kryštof Hádek as the Ingenious Droneman Don Quixote de la Bickle and Jiří Mádl as Skymaster Twerp in a film by Petr Zelenka and his friends: Who’s the Bigger Dick Here? It's an interesting portrayal of how the sense of justice is now often perceived as something that ties its owner to naivety, helplessness, and effectively stupidity. However, to make it more believable, the characters shouldn't be mere caricatures, and the whole thing shouldn't give the impression that the USS Abraham Lincoln is maneuvering in the small Czech pond. I'll leave Mádl's further cretinous variation of spoken expression without comment; the creators wanted it that way, but next time, I’d kindly ask for subtitles for him, just like for Russian and English.

There's no denying Longlegs' awesome atmosphere and very impressive individuality, but I actually have more problems with the final film than I feared. Overall, it's kind of off-kilter, so it doesn't have the flow of a traditional horror-thriller film, but it's also literal, more or less predictable, and without any major surprises, so it doesn't even move within the confines of full-on psycho oddity. I found the whole investigative line of inquiry unsatisfying and futile, with Osgood Perkins basically faking a detective procedural with the birth dates and murders, the cryptic letters; it all sounds and looks cool, but what really came out of it and what was the point? I strongly missed those moments here, where the investigator figures something out and the film is able to explain how those findings move closer to the killer. Here, in contrast, the shifts in the investigation just "happen", or the titular Longlegs sends the protagonist a clue... Nicolas Cage is excellent, excellent, until suddenly he stops being excellent (about the time he starts "singing"), then his performance becomes rather distracting. I'm very hesitant to rate it between 3 and 4 stars, I've already clicked a couple of times. I guess the second screening, which won't be burdened by expectations (which were high now), will have to crack it definitively.

A passable forty-five-minute documentary unjustifiably stretched to feature length. After all, it is a "sequel" to the fate of the family from Our Planet. You won't learn much about Sumatran orangutans, even if you don't know much about them. Apart from some impressive drone footage from the forest canopy, you won't see anything "never seen before". By essentially not getting down on the ground, there isn't a lot of footage of the orangutan’s daily routine, and there should be here, but that was pretty much covered already by the original episode. It's eighty minutes of looking at close-ups of faces of these great apes chewing food, with a Wikipedia reading to go with it. A standard quality nature documentary for the whole family; nothing more and nothing less.

This delirious look at the menagerie that is human civilisation through the magnificently chaotic lens of Terry Gilliam takes us through the disillusionment of not just the hangover that came with the 1970s. It is permeated by a timeless mix of admiring sympathy for all lunatics and wonderful prototypes, but also by an acknowledgement of the atrociousness of even the most brilliant individuals, who are supposedly elevated to a higher plane by God-given talent or perceptiveness. Fear and Loathing intoxicatingly reflects the generally repulsive world of values, experiences and illusions that humanity has created for itself and for which the hedonistic boil called Las Vegas is not the obverse, but merely a caricature. In this vomit-inducing flashback, the protagonists of Easy Rider appear as their own killers, who sought nirvana and freedom, but because of their own inherent human baseness, they ultimately remain the same monsters and oafs as the bumpkins, weasels, derelicts and bible thumpers who comprises the whole of humanity. Only they can more spectacularly live out their downhill slide into the snare of primitivism and more floridly verbalise it. Most of Gilliam’s films contain the duality of cheerful humanism and misanthropic depression, but Fear and Loathing remains his most controversial and most magnificent work not only in the intensity of the blending of these opposites. Each of its public screenings, always attended by various kinds of people, all of whom see themselves in an unflattering light on the screen, is a 4DX reality check, where some are simply entertained, some indignantly shake their heads and others realise with horror that each of us is just another lunatic in the kingdom of lunatics.