Movie reviews

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Watchable. Two hotties: Reese Witherspoon and Pico Alexander in the main roles, Candice Bergen as her mother, lots of wit, beautiful cinematography, an involving story full of endearing characters and just one thing wrong. It starts funny when the 27-year-old realises his sleepover was with a 40 who's a mum of two. The difference in lifestyles cleverly shows the generation gap. The gap quickly closes through the two parties being supportive to each other. What rings wrong in the film is that she gives up on the blooming relationship with the younger guy and blames his age on letting her down while in fact it was her ex of her age who was the disappointment. The movie portrays the new generation as much warmer and more reliable than the older one. In spite of that she decides to stay alone. Hard to believe a woman created such a sexist ending.

SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN

Watchable. Plenty of funny exchanges, e.g. parents finding porn in their 12-year-old son's belongings: "Do you want to go off the rails?" "Not yet." Decent Bollywood music. But really, devoting a whole movie to the fiance's soft problem?! India clearly lacks elementary sexual education. At least now I know why Indians don't know foreplay. The culture which doesn't care about women's satisfaction has produced the movie because men happen not to get satisfaction either.

Seen courtesy of Cinema City.

TO STAY ALIVE: A METHOD

Watchable. Do you really want the old wreck of a man, drug addict and bum Iggy Pop to tell you how to live? According to him suffering enobles and you should find a structure through which you can express your suffering. I understand the latter can prevent getting sectioned but the need to dwell on suffering hasn't done him or other protagonists of the documentary any good as all off them struggle with mental issues. Another of his lines: "The question where to lead your life will never present itself. You will live where you can." is also questionable and shows only that he doesn't feel the master of his fate. The notion that on a rainy day you can slip into the exit lane of a mental illness sounds true in the context. So does the girl protagonist's statement that no revolution is possible since once people secure themselves a steady job they prefer to maintain the status quo.



NIGHT FILM MARATHON - THE NIGHT OF HORROR BY KING

I skipped "It" as I had never seen a horror at Imax so I decided to see it there.

DREAMCATCHER

Partly watchable. I started watching it in one screen and then I took advantage of different start times to skip part of the nonsense and just catch the ending in another screen. "Jackass" meets "Aliens" and "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

THE SHINING

Watchable. I once couldn't stand it on TV but on the big screen it was surprisingly good. Jack Nicholson's best role ever as he transforms from a friendly, chatty guy into a deranged psycho. The main frame of the horror storyline is pretty standard but with the addition of mysteries: Is he insane or haunted? What do the pig nursery rhyme and a man dressed up as a pig at the 20s costume ball mean? What is the caretaker's identity? Very well shot too. It's the masterful enactment of the script that makes the movie unforgettable.

Updating on 15th Oct.: Having just read about Manson's murders, now I think that was a major inspiration for Stephen King and the movie makers a few years later - his gang would leave "pigs" notes on the walls in the houses they raided.


Alexander Doba, the protagonist of "Happy Olo" visited Warsaw to promote the movie and the book. I asked some questions at the meeting and in return I heard fascinating stories about how he got robbed of all his valuables on the Amazon or his encounters with sharks. First a shark would bang the bottom of his kayak so he would hit it on the head but at the second encounter when the traveller saw a shark he recognised "upon the big black eyes" it was a she so he caressed her on the tail! The book, "Doba na oceanie", has been written for children but the contents are so informative an adult can read it with interest too.

AMERICAN ASSASSIN

Watchable. An American secret agent who's skilled at combat and doesn't take orders. Predictable and full of nonsense but you can't stop watching. Fight scenes make sense at times, they're a notch higher than in most movies. The Varsovian bit about the Cardinal's visit caught the essence of living in Poland.

BORG MCENROE

Watchable. Luckily I don't watch tennis so I had no clue of the score of the famous 1980 match which let me feel some tension in spite of a retrospection put right in the middle of the scene. The whole movie is like that: it jumps to and fro in time and appears to reflect on the two players' psychology though with no depth. One thing I liked was that the actors were made look the spitting images of the originals.

IT AT IMAX VS. DOLBY ATMOS

Watchable. Horror for children. Clowns with spiky teeth, the walking dead, a paedophile father, a possessive mother, a deformed woman and school bullies, of which only the adolescent thugs were a little bit scary. The realistic layer composed of different sorts of abuse and the conquer-your-fears subtexts were OK. However, the most frightening moment is at the end when you read all this nonsense "was chapter one". Visually rubbish, in the Dolby Atmos version the sound makes it scary at times. No mid- or post-credit scenes.

The Dolby Atmos sound is crystal clear and after that ordinary Dolby Stereo seems like mono. Imax was louder but Dolby Atmos clearer - in fact I heard several sounds I hadn't caught at Imax.

The breakthrough sound system requires movies to be recorded in it. Two new productions coming out in Atmos are: "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" - here, too, the sound of the trailer is much more spacious and clearer than at Imax - and "Blade Runner 2049"- here neither the visuals nor the sound made impression on me but I'm still curious of the whole movie.

KURACJUSZ JESTEM

Watchable. Fat old people trying to hook up in a sanatorium are revolting but funny. A bit pathetic that such people are real. It's a documentary.

MARIE-FRANCINE

Watchable. Another French satire this year. This time a woman betrayed by her husband with a younger one moves into her parents'. She loses her scientist job too and sets up an e-cigarette shop. Her ineptitude at selling is amusing, she gets so wound up she has to relax lighting up a traditional one. The whole thing is warmhearted and typically French, e.g. parents barging in when she's having a tete-a-tete with her boyfriend - both in their forties.

NIEZWYCIĘŻENI (THE UNCONQUERED)

Watchable. A short animation propaganda of the prowess of Poles in combat. Good music. May be pretty fine on a bigger, real cinema screen, as each frame is hand-painted, or in an interactive form since further explanations are required.