Movie reviews

밀정 (THE AGE OF SHADOWS)

Watchable. One to watch carefully from the beginning in order to get a full grasp of the story which may be additionally difficult for Westerners to who all Asian faces tend to look alike and some appear in disguises too. It's also not clearly indicated which language is spoken when and in practical terms when I focused on distingusihing Japanese from Korean I would lose the contents of the exchange. The music, with truly spatial sounds, forms a gripping background to the otherwise dull-coloured movie. Acted in style - watching the relationships develop is as involving as the historical double agents storyline. The last hour contains two heavily brutal scenes. I loved the music over the credits. Best to wait for a DVD - technically it'll be still excellent and additionally will let you fast reverse to recatch details.

SPARK: A SPACE TALE

Watchable. Dubbed by stars in the original, in Polish by nobodies. Heavily drawing on "Star Wars", "The Lion King", "Robin Hood", "King Arthur", "Kung Fu Panda" and Chinese mythology it lacks originality. Can be enjoyed for cute bugs. One human character speaks with a brilliant Russian accent (at least in the Polish dubbing).

THE NUT JOB 2: NUTTY BY NATURE

Recommended. The best cartoon since "Sing" - for children and adults alike. This time I enjoyed the Polish dubbing like hardly ever as the excellent dialogues got a brilliant translation, probably even better than the original, e.g. Mr. Feng becomes Myszu. Lots of cuteness and gags as well as hilarious lines, e.g.: "Use your female charm!" "I've used it up already." or "But they stock eco whew!" (I'm translating from Polish.) With adult undertones such as corruption, child obesity, cruelty to animals and, last but not least, developers threatening urban green areas. It ends with a mid-credit with Jackie Chan dubbing Mr. Feng in the original.

KRÓLEWICZ OLCH (THE ERLPRINCE)

Watchable. I didn't take to it at first but I shortly realised it was more of an art project than a movie and stopped analysing. I just revelled in the pictures and sounds and these are quite special. Towards the end there's a special effect of a video breaking up which was like nothing I had seen before. Annoyingly, in spite of language consultants listed in the credits, English was incorrect at times and mostly unnatural and even Polish contained one mistake. All the more, it's best not to analyse.

Seen courtesy of Cinema City.

GIFTED

Watchable. A simple moral tale saying that mathematically gifted people need love too. Good courtroom parts and the aftermath.

HAPPY OLO

Watchable. A crowdfunded documentary looking amateurish. Lame beginning and ending from a child's viewpoint and awful folk/disco polo-like songs. But Aleksander Doba is so funny and genuine it's worth seeing for him. He tells about practicalities like the toilet when you're kayaking for more than 3 months across the Atlantic or ocean salt (5 times as much as in the Baltic Sea) giving him all-body rash, but also how he couldn't send a text message and his position signals got mistaken for a rescue call and how he got repeatedly hit by fish flying at 90 kph. You get to see the specially constructed kayak too.

TULIP FEVER

Watchable. Very involving although quite far-fetched. Lots of famous actors: Dane DeHaan - looking like young DiCaprio in the role of a painter just like Leo in "Titanic", Cara Delevingne, Christoph Waltz, Zach Galifianiakis, Judi Dench, Alicia Vikander - getting naked again, seems her type of roles.


NIGHT FILM MARATHON

As I had seen "Annabelle", "The Conjuring" and "The Conjuring 2" before, this time I saw only:

ANNABELLE: CREATION

Recommended. Scary as hell. In many tried and tested Hollywood ways. Fits neatly into the whole series. The post-credit implies the next movie will explain the demonic nun from a Romanian Abbey.

Just as one of the characters uttered: "We shouldn't be in here", one viewer quickly ran out. A hilarious experience only a cinema can provide.


THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD

Watchable. Really entertaining. Of course the plot is totally implausible and the dialogues full of vulgar language but when you've got two characters grudging each other and having to work together you're bound to enjoy the banter. Great airviews of London, Manchester, Amsterdam, The Hague and Dutch landscape. Bulgaria appears to stockpile baddies for co-productions. The black guy is to go to prison but has planned his walking free already. The white guy has hooked up with his sweetheart and is getting his AAA status back. A sequel seems likely. A deleted scene makes a post-credit.

RAID DINGUE (R.A.I.D. SPECIAL UNIT)

Watchable. A comedy about a clumsy cop who wants to join elite special forces makes for plenty of gags some of which made me burst into laughter. The plot's predictable but entertaining.

SNATCHED

Watchable. An adventure comedy with Amy Schumer so it's occasionally funny, e.g.: "They want young beautiful females. So you two are safe." or when they want to jump off a truck top and it drives away, but mostly silly and sometimes gross. Predictable. The music's fine. The movie's full of action. Oahu imitates Ecuador and Columbia.

Seen courtesy of Cinema City.
 
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

Watchable. For the first hour or so it's a regular war picture with apes and humans fighting one another to martial music. It develops into a cliche of an orphaned child. It's only when they reach the labour camp that the story becomes moving, gripping and a new science fiction idea is introduced when the sadistic commander explains his motives. The idyllic ending looks like from a Bible movie. As Caesar leaves a son and there's a little girl with a name bestowed on her by an ape I'm expecting yet another sequel.

Seen courtesy of Cinema City.

FUN MOM DINNER

Watchable. Not funny. A "Bad Moms" copycat without the flair. With significant contents of kids and their physiology. Makes you totally happy you're single and childless. You just get to see how both parenting and relationships suck. The music's quite good.