Movie reviews

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

Watchable. The only cinema in Warsaw with Dolby Atmos played the movie in the system for a short time and only at some of the scheduled hours. So I ended up with the standard 5.1 sound - sounding flat - which is a shame, because there's lots of music and sound effects. Great music extends over the credits. The whole thing is very good entertainment with just two shortcomings: firstly, all women are either sex objects or evil psychopaths, secondly, grinding people for burgers is too brutal for an otherwise light fun. Gays are treated more gently - Elton John, acting as himself, is one of the good ones. The flick starts with a gadget overload but after a while you get a proper plot. An ingenious one. I was at first apprehensive about introducing Statesman but that's actually the biggest fun. Cultural stereotypes put a smile on my face that didn't disappear till well after the movie. English Savile Row gentlemen and American whiskey swiggling entrepreneurs fight hand in hand and Channing Tatum even dons a suit and a bowler hat at some point. Apart from some laughs, e.g. when a retirement resort is facing imminent demolition, one of the elderly guys remarks: "the first proper shit I've had in 3 weeks", the movie questions our attitude to drugs: is it better to get rid of the problem letting all users die or to save and treat them all? Part 3 is surely coming. I can't wait.

At least I saw the film in the comfort of my local Cinema City.

WARSAW FILM FESTIVAL ART OF EDITING OPEN WORKSHOPS

Editor Milenia Fiedler and director Urszula Antoniak demonstrated in how one scene can be cut in many ways to differing effects. They also shed some light on why films, especially Polish ones, often have clearly audible background sounds and hard to hear dialogues. It turns out they are sometimes screened when not all loudspeakers function properly so e.g. only the back ones, behind the screen work while the dialogues should come from the side ones which happen to be switched off. Also, sometimes in postproduction the dialogues don't get cleaned properly when they the staff are rushed to complete the process in 3 months.

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS IN CONCERT

It took place at Warsaw Torwar - quite stuffy so I was lucky to sit a bit separated from the smelly crowd of children. Even though most of the attendees were in their 20s, the minority of kids created the most noise, dirt and smells.

When the viewers were still gathering in the concert venue, some trivia were screened in English. Apparently, with 50 Oscar nominations, John Williams is the most often nominated person alive. He started off as a studio pianist working for the greats like: Mancini, Newman and Bernstein. Director Mike Newell rightly noticed that John Williams' music always gives a story gravitas. Someone from the sound team perceived John Williams as a guy who would come up with 6 or 8 notes that people remember forever. The composer himself never reads the script in order not to have visual preconceptions. He normally works on the ready film material. "Harry Potter" was different because a trailer was released for which he needed to compose a score without seeing the movie. That's how "Hedwig's Theme" was created.

Recommended. 15 years after the original release of the movie and 19 years after I read the book I could truly marvel at the genius of the story - in turns: gripping, heart-wrenching, funny, thrilling, with twists and turns and fairy-tale music.

SLUMBER

Watchable. A very standard horror. About nightmares so everyone can immediately put themselves in the shoes, or bedroom slippers, of the protagonists. Neither scary nor ingenious but once you start to follow the story you can't stop. Ridiculously, the suggested solution to the problem of nightmares, is refraining from sleeping. The beginning resembles "Mama", bits from the middle are like in "Paranormal Activity", scenes with a blender (from a whole lot of films starting from "Gremlins" in the 80s) are there too, as well as elements of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and even "Flatliners". A sequel is likely. Unfortunately.

THOR: RAGNAROK

I saw just the first 15 minuts in order to check whether the number of sound and visual effects awards seeing it in Dolby Atmos or Imax respectively. I think it does. Both. I'm just not a fan of the series so I'm only going to see and hear it twice. So I skipped the 5.1 2D regular size version.